Our Gallery Wall

It's finally up!  The idea's been there for a while, but the process has been long.  It's really not that hard to do, but the process of selecting pictures and getting cheap frames takes time.  In fact, we've had the pictures framed for over a month now, but when Kel realized on which wall and at which height I wanted them, he said "how 'bout later".  Well, later's finally here!  This wall will be our ongoing project, adding pictures as time goes on.

Tweaks to Our Foyer

I've been wanting to do more to our foyer and ideas have been flying around for a while.  And by more, I mean adding more accents and not just the initial much needed transformation.  Originally when we first bought the house, I wanted to put up some stone veneer on the big wall that spans to the basement.  I've always liked the idea of having exposed bricks/stones in the home, but that idea was crossed out after Kel had to remove the bottom part of the wall because the wall was actually sitting on untreated wood in soil all these years.  (You can imagine the rotting and mysterious bugs at the bottom without my help.) 

Another idea I had was getting a giant iron clock (like 2.5-3.5 feet?), the type with the roman numerals and hang that up on the wall.  However, after talking to a couple of friends, I've decided against it as it might be too distracting, and just taking away from the bubbles chandelier.

Sooo.. what I've been working on with my friend over at http://www.wallperfection.ca/ is getting a few trees up in the foyer!  I sent him my idea back in December and we've been going through revisions of how Kel and I wanted it to look.  The trees aren't actually on the big wall, but the side wall next to the windows and they came out perfectly!  Check this out, it's got a different feel when the chandelier's on...

 And when it's off at night...

I'm really liking the effect it's got!  We were originally thinking of getting 2-3 birds as well, some sitting on the branch, 1 midflight.  But now, we're thinking about adding 2 bunnies at the bottom.. :)  Maybe a brown one and a white one? What do you think?

Our Foyer Transformation

I've been meaning to write this for a while, but we've been quite busy the past month hosting a series of mini housewarming parties starting with a pizza dinner for Kel's coworkers, to a potluck dinner party with our friends, then a dinner party with his relatives, and finally an early Christmas potluck for my coworkers.  One advantage to all this: our fridge has been jammed packed with leftovers week after week!  On with the post...

This is what our foyer looked like when we first acquired the house.  The fake white brick tiles on the walls; the gross brown carpet in the entranceway (seriously, who uses permanent carpet in the entrance?!); the ugly brown metal door with the mail slot; metal railing that was way too low for me to feel safe; oh, and they had a ceiling fan light fixture!  <-- And yes, we ripped it all out!

And here.. the long awaited for after pictures!  Wait for it... wait... :)

Our new door, with the frost pane and iron wrought.

The sexy new glass railing Kel put in.  He stained the banisters, and put in new treads for the steps, too!

Our new configuration in the foyer.  Isn't that curvy side table and stool cute?  We thought they look really cartoony. :)

Oh, and here's my bubble chandelier!  (How could BubBLeS not have a bubble chandelier? :)

AND.... altogether!

The Last Mile (for our railings!)

For the last while now, whenever anyone asked us, "How's the house? What are you working on now?", our reply has been "the staircase railings..."  It's gotten to the point where we're starting to get "Still?" Well, it'll soon be something else, because we're on the last mile!  The truth of the matter is, Kel had to look for a woodshop that does railings, buy the posts, stain & varnish them, work out the technicalities of installing them, etc etc.  So why do I say we're on the last mile now?  Because the glass panels we ordered came in today and they're in!  We spent the latter part of tonight attaching all the bubbles to our foyer chandelier.  (We've bought the light for more than half a year now, and it's been sitting in the basement waiting for this day.)  The only thing left now, is for Kel to finish the top railing and install it.  Can't wait!

Hardwood explosion

Over the last couple of days, we've been quite busy at the house!  Kel's finished laying down hardwood for not just the master ensuite, but also the office, living, dining, and hallway!  All that's left now are the linen and coat closets.  Erica and her dad's been here for the last few days, too.  They've been helping out with the detailing.  Her dad's been framing doors around the house as well as hanging doors.  And of course, Erica's been plastering and sanding all the nicks Kel's been making in the process. :)  Kel's also ripped out the nasty green carpet that was in the foyer and his dad's tiled it.  Kel is actually grouting the foyer tiles as I type.  (No, we don't actually have Internet at the house yet, but our neighbour, "Joe" does and his connection is not protected. :)

Below, you can see the temporary rails Kel's put in for our staircase.  He had to rip out the old ones to lay the hardwood and the new ones can't be installed until the new hardwood's down.

I wasn't going to post any pictures of our floors yet because their current condition simply doesn't do it justice!  We've laid out all the hardwood planks on the floor to size to speed up the installation process.  It's like the hardwood's exploded all over our living-dining room!

And here's Kelly, grouting our foyer tiles at 11:52pm!