Archives November 2019

As the remodel of the main floor draw to a close, I ordered the final light fixture for the dining room. I got a better deal by going to a brick and mortar Lamps Plus store in Dallas and ordering it using my designer’s industry code. It will be an awesome upgrade over the existing chandelier that fits with the entryway and kitchen light fixtures.

I also took delivery of the cocktail table for the sun room, which was the last item I had on order from Dwellings. I still need to pull the trigger on ordering the new dinette set and dining room chairs, but I’m waiting to do that until some other aspects of the kitchen remodel are finalized. Along with that, I assembled and placed new barstools at the kitchen island, which replaced the old, more traditional chairs.

Lastly, I’ve been adding the final decor touches, with a lot of faux plants and pottery, which fit with the craftsman / upscale rustic style of the house.

Next up is all of the window treatments, which will be installed the week before Thanksgiving!

Aside from my two houses, the other construction project I’ve been involved with has been a new corporate headquarters for my company. For the last 9 years we’ve been headquartered at the Verex Plaza building in Madison. We’re getting ready to move to the new Spark Building, and are building out new offices. Here are some in progress photos, about a month away from move in:

The floor plans of the new offices give a little bit better sense of how everything will be laid out:

As the offices are completed, I’ll post more photos. It will be a beautiful space, with a lot of natural light and a modern interior.

While the remodeling of the main house is still ongoing, I also have been working on the other floors of the house. One major item was redoing the basement flooring with lifeproof vinyl, which is fully waterproof while looking and feeling like the hand-scraped hickory wood floors upstairs. This replaced carpet that had been damaged from seepage flooding. The first step was to move all of the furniture out of the way and to rip out the old carpet.

After that, we started making progress on installing the flooring:

Once the flooring and quarter rounds were in, all that was left was moving the furniture back. In early 2020, the redesign of the basement will start in earnest and I’ll repaint the walls and start replacing the furniture. For now, the old furniture looks good with the new flooring!

After coming back from London, I almost immediately took delivery of a ton of new furniture from Dwellings. The first step was moving all of the old furniture to the storage unit, which I’ve now started to give away. It’s been fun to see a lot of the old furniture going to good homes, both to my friends and to a couple of strangers in need.

The furniture delivered included the new sectional couch and end tables for the living room, the wingback chairs for the sitting room, and four swivel chairs for the sun room.

All of the furniture looks incredible and changes the feel of the house for the better. Each room has a purpose and a different layout now, and makes the house even better for entertaining. Finally, a couple of days later all of the new art was delivered, which ties the rooms together and really complements the colors and textures of the furniture.

I’m still waiting on a cocktail table for the sun room and need to order new dining room chairs and a new dinette set for the kitchen, amongst other smaller decor items. That said, the remodel is already looking incredible and has totally transformed the house.

While waiting for the new furniture to be delivered, I installed a variety of new light fixtures and ceiling fans on the main level of the house. Previously, the house had original ceiling fans that were tacky gold and laminate wood in the sitting room and white in the sun room. The new fans have dark wood blades that compliment the colors and wood of the floors and furniture added with the remodel.

I also replaced the contractor grade lighting in the entryway and the somewhat generic lighting in the dining room with much more interesting fixtures that add character to the house and really change the look for people first coming through the front door.

I still need to replace the dining room lights, but this was a solid first step to improving all of the house’s ceiling light fixtures.