In August of last year, within two hours after leaving our closing on our apartment with keys in hand, I created a walk-through video tour of our apartment [view last years video here]. I wanted to document our apartment before we made a single change as a way to look back and remember where we started.
Fast forward about 15 months, and as we begin to get very serious about the renovation of our kitchen and prepare to turn our now comfortable home into a chaotic hell for several months, I thought it would be the ideal time to do another video walk-through to not only update you my reader, but to also document how far we have come and how much we have left to do. So this past weekend, I did another single take walk-through video, I hope you enjoy…
As for our long term plans for the apartment?… Perhaps a recap of what we have and have not done is in order. Most of the spaces are planned to be done in two or more phases over the next couple of years. Some are past phase one, others we have yet to touch. Below is a room by room breakdown.
Entry Gallery: We completed phase one of our entry gallery this past summer (Part I and Part II) transforming it from a dark and frumpy hallway to an even darker but dramatically stunning passage way from our front door into our home. Phase two will involve adding new base moldings, chair rails, and installing Anaglypta along the lower wall area to create a wainscoting like feel.
Living Room: Along with the entry gallery, the Living room has seen a dramatic change since the days of when we had iron burglar bars over the windows. We took the very bold move of painting the ceiling black (Part I) in an already semi dark space (balanced by bright white on the walls) and installed a show stopper of a chandelier (Part II) I snagged on eBay for a very good price. That said, this is only phase one. Phase two will involve adding crown molding, base moldings, and detailed wall moldings in an effort to return the space back to what it may have been like when it was built. I am not able to do a true restoration for many reasons, but I will be adding detail which is completely appropriate to the time in which it was built.
Center Hall: The center hall was the first room we completed last spring. (Part I and Part II) I guess it isn’t really a room, but at 5’ 6” x 6’ 6”, it is rather spacious for just being a passage way between four rooms, and with the plaster ceiling detailing, it makes quite a statement by itself. For the time being, I can say that this space is done with no new plans for improvements in the works… But I am sure that will change soon enough.
Bedroom: The bedroom is not much different than when we moved in. We have set it up as a bedroom and there is a semblance of normalcy if you can look past all the boxes. Our plans are to add wall moldings, and paint. I painted the window frame thinking we were going to go with charcoal gray, and have since changed my plans and expect to be going with Farrow & Ball, Drawing Room Blue. But that is next year at the earliest.
Bathroom: It is our hope to one day completely gut and rebuild the bathroom, rearranging the fixtures to better suit our needs (getting rid of the tub and creating a large walk in shower), but that is at least five, perhaps ten years down the road. In the meantime, I plan to work with the utilitarian black and white tile color scheme and paint the upper walls, perhaps add a tin ceiling, and replace the sink vanity with something better.
Kitchen: There is no room in our home which has generated more thought (obsession) as to what we are going to do with it. There have been multiple plans made, and changed, made again, and changed again. I wrote several posts about our dream kitchen and our plans to come as close as we can this past summer (Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV), and of course things have since changed again (and again). Finally, we really and truly are at a point (seriously) where we are happy with the decisions we have made and will be placing orders for materials in the next few weeks with an expected start date in late January. [UPDATE: Revised final plans posted in new series The Final Kitchen Plans]. It is my hope to step up the frequency of posts as we work through our renovation and share our joys as well as unforeseen sorrows (which inevitably will happen). In order to save money, I will be doing much of the work myself, which means taking time off of work in one week chunks spread over a few months. I have been saving PTO for this very thing for a while. Also by doing the work myself, we are going to be able to afford a nicer end result than if we had to hire it out.
That sums things up… We have arrived at a very important decision (regarding the kitchen floor) and will be super excited to post about it within the week. One last thing… Please feel free to leave comments or share this post on your Facebook page. I love hearing from my readers and finding out your thoughts.
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