Archives September 2019

The first round of furniture arrived today from Dwellings via White Glove Delivery out of Fort Atkinson, and it looks awesome! The major item was the sitting room couch, along with the accompanying nesting end tables.

The side console table for the sitting room also arrived, which looks great with the lamp and vase my designer picked out.

They pair very nicely together, and will look even better once the wingback chairs, art, and window treatments for that room arrive.

In addition to all the furniture and decor, I have my painter coming back to paint the brick around the fireplace (the same color as the lighter walls in the sitting room) and the shelves on either side of the fireplace (the same color as the accent wall in the sitting room). That will really complete the look of that room!

Now that the flooring is in and all of the major furniture items have been ordered (the first of which should be arriving later this week!), the focus has shifted to more art and decor items, along with lighting and window treatments. Here are some recent selections and ideas:

I’m also looking into replacing the ceiling fans in the sitting room and sunroom. Here are a couple of options I’m looking at:

There are still a couple of months left to go with the remodel, and many things left to select, but it definitely feels like the eventual end is in sight!

After a week of hard work, the flooring install is done. After the first day of laying floor, the second day saw the completion of the raised subfloor and underlayering, as well as more floor planks.

Yesterday, the project was completed. All the remaining floor planks were installed, along with all the original baseboards, trim, transitions, and quarter rounds.

I also unpacked the rugs and other decor items for the remodel, which are slowing starting to come in the mail.

After all of the packaging and other garbage from the flooring install was cleaned up, I put the house back together. Virtually all of the furniture items and decor I put back will be replaced over the next few months, but even with the old stuff still there the house looks striking with the new floors!

Today, the first of the flooring went in! First, they had to lay plywood so that the flooring would be at the right height relative to the door jams.

After that, they laid down padding and then the wood itself.

It’s going to look incredible when it’s done!

Throughout the summer, I’ve continued to make more progress working with my designer, as well as the furniture team at Dwellings and the flooring team at Nonn’s. Much of the furniture and decor has already been ordered and is in the process of being made, and should start to show up once the flooring is done. By the end of the year, the main level of the Verona house should be parade quality!

Here are some of our recent selections:

As I get closer to being done with the flooring replacement on the main level of the Verona house, my next flooring project is coming into focus. I’m planning on replacing the living room and landing area carpet in the basement with life-proof vinyl, which is engineered to match the wood look of the hardwood going in upstairs but is waterproof to deal with any future seepage that may happen in future springs.

I’m going to leave the existing carpet in the library and bar in place, since it’s in great condition and it would be an unbelievable pain to move all of those bookcases and shelves (and the many tons of books and bottles currently on them) to replace the flooring. I’m also leaving the existing wood in place in the theater, and the existing tile in the wine cellar, and the existing vinyl in the bathroom. This makes it a pretty easily manageable project, that will probably have a budget in the realm of $3,000 (as opposed to $15,000 for the flooring upstairs). I have a measurement scheduled for next week, and am hoping to have the project done before Christmas.

Over the past two days, the flooring installers have been hard at work ripping out all of the old carpeting and hardwood from the main level of the house before they can start installing the new flooring. First, they setup a workshop in the garage where all of the new flooring had been.

After that, they got to work ripping out the carpet and hauling it away, which took the full duration of the first day.

As part of that process, they removed all the baseboards and saved them for later, since they’ll be going back on (albeit with new quarter rounds that match the new hardwood).

We also had to purchase a ton of plywood that will be used to level the floors so that all of the new wood is on the same level, since before the old hardwood and the carpet were a quarter of an inch apart.

Today, they removed all of the old hardwood, so tomorrow they can start installing new wood! It should be a radical difference by the time everything is done.

Last week, I had to get everything ready in the house for the new floors. This meant emptying shelves of their contents, taking down decorations and other breakable things, and moving as much furniture out of the way as possible.

I also got a storage unit near the house, and had movers help me move some of the couches and other large items that will ultimately be replaced into the storage unit, which buys me time to figure out what to do with them. Several of them ended up in the basement, replacing older, more worn out items that then went to the storage unit.

Finally, I had to carry in all of the new wood so it could have at least 72 hours in the house to acclimate to the temperature and humidity before being installed. Four pallets later, the garage was clear and I’d gotten a good workout in! I also finally got my fourth parking spot back in the garage, so once the floor installation is done I can move the Mercedes back in from the guest house.