Archives January 2020

This winter and spring, I’m turning my attention to new design projects at the Verona house. First, I’m working with my designer to redesign the guest bedroom, upstairs hallway, and lower level living room. I already installed new flooring on the lower level that matches the hand scraped hickory of the main level, but in a life proof vinyl that is fully waterproof. Here are some of the furniture and decor designs that we’re working on for the lower level:

And here are some of the furniture and decor designs that we’re working on for the guest bedroom:

After those designs are done, I’ll begin ordering furniture and lighting, and get ready to repaint the rooms (along with the fireplace brick and mantle). Everything should come together over the next couple of months, after which I’ll move on to my wife’s office and the master bedroom.

Over the past few days, I purged, cleaned, and reorganized the storage room in my basement. It wasn’t in overly bad shape before, but there was a lot of stuff in there that hadn’t been touched in years that needed to go.

After getting rid of four full truckloads of stuff and thoroughly vacuuming the room, it was a night and day difference!

The last step in the kitchen remodel was the tile backsplash. I replaced the old pseudo Tuscan style tile with a textured white subway tile that looks incredible. The first step was to remove the old backsplash (which turned out to be two layers of tiles overlapping each other), and to cut and set the tiles.

After that, I went with a grey grout to contrast with the white tiles. The end result completed the look of the kitchen. With the new counters, paint, tile, floors, and stainless steel sink it feels like an entirely new kitchen, even though the cabinets are the same!

After finally getting back from an awesome holiday vacation in Vegas, Palm Springs, Anaheim, and LA, it was time to finish the countertop install.

Now that the cabinets were level, the installers came back. They used a counter joining tool that pressure sealed the two pieces together with glue in between.

After the glue set, the counters were good to go!

The next day, I reconnected all of the plumbing and installed new fixtures, along with a new garbage disposal.

After that was complete, it was time to move onto the new tile backsplash.