Fireplace done- for now

We will eventually put up a mantle, and likely adjust the stain color a little darker and redder. But for now, we are crossing the fireplace off the list. We love the colors in the slate tiles.

Finishing Up

As of 10:00 AM, this Saturday morning, we are officially done with our house renovation. The tour of homes is this weekend, and has been a good motivator to finish up all the little projects. There's still some things the house needs, but I think we've run out of steam for a while.

We tiled and grouted the fireplace, and tonight Richard is working on a wood trim:

I ironed 1100 sqft of curtains- my grandma would be so proud!

We painted the final 5 doors, and this hallway cabinet, and put on new door knobs and pulls: We stained the banister, and painted the trim and door frames downstairs:
We put up some flower baskets and did a little landscaping (which will look good in a few years once everything grows!):Here's the view right now from the dining room- the cherry blossoms are beautiful!

Pics from the Pro

Here you will find Erik's pictures of the dining room and kitchen- currently the first two on this page:

http://jenerikimages.zenfolio.com/p998292405

He put together several images to get the correct exposure for the outside view, inside lighting, and to remove reflections from the appliances- very impressive.

I'm ready for my closeup

Powell had some professional pictures taken of our kitchen for promotional purposes. It was fun to watch them stage the kitchen and to see the photographer, Erik Lubbock, at work. It took over two hours for two shots. This is the view from my camera, not Erik's.

Corvallis Tour of Homes

Our house has been selected to be one of the six in the Assistance League of Corvallis's 2009 Tour of Homes. The theme this year is remodeled homes, and we are the example of a 1970's home. It will be on Saturday, May 2nd. More information will be available here:

http://www.alcorvallis.org/hometour2009.html

Family room

I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of the family room. We still need to tile the fireplace- I am thinking slate tiles- and Richard is going to build a surround. We also need to replace the TV stand- the This End Up hutch has been good to us, but I think its time to move it downstairs. Eventually a throw rug would be nice- Owen is loud and the lack of fabric makes this room deafening. The bottom picture is the home's original fireplace (dolled up for Christmas, '06).

First Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year, and got to put our new kitchen to the test. We learned that convection ovens cook turkeys very very fast. Everything turned out great and we enjoyed sharing the meal with my dad and my sister's family on our new dining room table.

Richard keeps working on the house- he painted and replaced the hallway closet doors and is working on Owen's door. Owen helped him replace the front light. My dad is helping paint and prepare the nursery- we'll be needing that in about 4 weeks. The fireplace insert has been installed and the last step there is for us to tile the surround... maybe a project for 2009. In the meantime, we've been enjoying warm fires at night.