It's all about the little things

Subway sign

I am sure you have been seeing personalized subway signs floating around for quite awhile now. Well, I decided that it would be a cool idea to take all of the places that Stoph and I have lived since we met, and create a cool piece of art with it. 

I collected the street names, with some help from Wens and Stoph (I came up with some ridiculous reason why I needed to know the street name of the house that his mom lived in when we met).

Frank's a fan.

Greensboro is where we first made out:) Sheddon and Stefi Trail are college for me. Gooroomon Ponds and Stawell are Australia for me (thanks Wens). Pheasant Run is my first solo apartment. Credit Rise is where Stoph was during college, Australia and my first apartment. Milkwood is our very first house together and Constance is where we are now. That is over 13 years worth of homes if you can believe it!!

I collected the names and asked a friend of mine, who happens to be an amazing graphic designer, to produce the layout. I then had a printer print the file, Stoph made the frame (yes, he helped produce his own Christmas present), and then we both did the epoxy resin.

You can see here that we ended up with quite a few bubbles even though this wasn't my first time at the rodeo. But working with resin is always unpredictable, what can I say.

Overall I am so happy with the outcome and it feels great to actually get some art up onto our very bare walls. 

Stoph, here is to all of the great years, and to adding more names to the list. Maybe not for another couple of years though:)

As I mentioned before, even though we just finished up a huge renovation, we are already dreaming of our next project - the Den. This will be a much smaller under taking than the main floor was, thank goodness. We need to tackle:

1. flooring

2. fireplace

3. open storage shelving

4. main hallway that connects with the den

5. furniture (we are still using Stoph's parents hand me downs in there)

We are slated to start this until this October but we all know how time flies. Can't wait!

all images from my pinterest account

You have waited long enough!

Here is the finished product.

Above and below is the view you have when you walk through the front door.

Below is the view from sitting on the couch.

A close up of the waterfall feature for the island. The quartz material goes to the floor on each side of the island and those cabinets open up for extra storage.

I love how the IKEA cabinets turned out. I am very glad we didn't spend the money to go custom. I don't even think we would know the difference.

Below is a good shot of the covered fridge which Stoph made on his own. We hired someone to install the cabinets but Stoph was the one who figured out how to build the custom cover. He is a keeper:)

The backsplash matches our front entry tile.

Do you think our walls look a little bare? Artwork is next on our to do list.

It feels amazing to be living and enjoying this space (now that we know how to work the new appliances). 

I'm not going to lie, even though Stoph was exhausted from all of the work, we are already secretly plotting the next project:) 

Sarah Richardson look alike

Is this not the funniest thing you have ever seen??

My staff framed this photo and gave it to me on my birthday last week. If you know anything about Sarah Richardson the famous Canadian Designer, you will know that this is a promotion for her new show. And the good looking fellow to the right is Tommy, her right hand gay man.

I honestly laughed for 5 minutes straight when they presented it to me.

Makes me want to lose 30 pounds and buy Stoph an extra tight white dress shirt and some black rimmed glasses:)

Luv my staff!!!!

Counter tops

These are just cell phone pictures but it gives a good idea of how it is all coming together.

I absolutely love that Pheobe is in almost every renovation picture I post. You'd think she was trying to get credit for all of Stoph's hard work or something:)

Cabinets

I realized when I looked back on what I blogged about the reno and what I didn't, I realized I had forgotten to post the cabinetry. Kind of important right?

I was actually out of town in Chicago for business when the cabinets were being installed but Stoph did an excellent job managing the crew from Stillwater designs. They specialize in installing IKEA cabinetry and they did a great job.

Stoph sent me play by play cell phone pictures every day which was great. Getting the cabinetry was the piece of the puzzle that made the biggest difference for me in feeling that we might finally finnish this thing one of these days:)

The counter top is in and Stoph is installing the appliances this week. We are nearing to the end.

It feels good.

Windows

I can't say enough about Fieldstone Windows. They did a fantastic job installing our two main floor windows.

This is what they looked like before:

Scott and Ken worked a full 12 hour day in the pouring rain!

Who knew window installation was that involved??

And this is what they look like now:

Stoph still has to trim them out, but other than that, we are good to go. Feels nice to finally be able to see out into the backyard again. There is so much light in the main floor now. Love it!

Faucets

Which one would you choose?

The Floors

So the reno is moving along nicely. I think the item that made the biggest impact was the floors. We decided to go with hardwood through out, much to Stoph's dismay. He was not a fan of the hardwood in the kitchen area but my thought is, it is open concept and I couldn't really see a natural break in the space to lay tile. Plus, I wanted hardwood through out:)

 

The colours are off through out the photos (via my cell) but the bottom photos display the truest colour. The end result is a gorgeous natural North American walnut. I love them! From now on though, they are going to be covered up while the rest of the work is being done. Too bad:)

Windows

So far, the windows are the only expense we didn't do a great job at budgeting for. Who knew they cost so much??

The only reason we need to replace the kitchen window is because it is too low to the ground and will interfere with the lower cabinets and the counter top. To fix that, we have ordered a shorter window from Fieldstone Windows. We got their name from Aubrey and Lindsay's blog. They were more than happy, and a testimonial goes a long way in my book.

 

 

 

Stoph and Kev took some time on the weekend to rip out the old window, make a frame, and board it up in preparation for our new window which is coming at the end of November.

Have I mentioned that we are a little bit over the renovation:)