Category Interior Design

My biggest project for the spring is upgrading all of the major kitchen appliances. Almost all of the existing appliances were from 2013 when I bought the house, and so they were coming up for replacement anyway. My goal was to move into the Sub Zero / Wolf / Cove family, and so that’s what I did. I have a french door Sub Zero refrigerator ordered, along with a Wolf induction range and a Cove dishwasher. Originally I wanted to get a Wolf LP gas range, but my sales rep successfully convinced me to go with an induction range instead. It’s easier to clean, and doesn’t have the same drawbacks as electric.

I also decided to keep my existing Kitchenaid double oven and replace my Samsung microwave with a matching Kitchenaid microwave. That will leave me with a Sub Zero family refrigerator, range, and dishwasher, along with a Kitchenaid family double oven and microwave. In the future, I may upgrade the oven and microwave but given the life left in the Kitchenaid it was hard to justify throwing away an extra $10k on a new oven.

The only challenge I encountered with ordering the appliances involved the refrigerator. While the others would be available within 3-4 months, I was told that the wait time for the refrigerator would be approximately 15 months. That was hard to stomach for a $14k appliance, so I decided to explore other options. Sub Zero restricts their dealers to a 150 mile delivery radius, so I couldn’t look at larger markets like New York City or Los Angeles. I could, however, look at the northern suburbs of Chicago. I was able to find an Illinois dealer that was literally 149 miles from my house that had a delivery slot available for April!

With that in mind, I put in an order and then ordered the other appliances from my local dealer.

The very last step prior to installation was to source trim that matched my existing cabinetry. I was able to bring a piece of cabinetry left over from the last kitchen remodel and match the wood and stain at Menards, and have an order in for several pieces of trim that will cover the gap at the top of the molding when the new, much taller refrigerator is installed and the cabinets above the current refrigerator are removed:

Everything is currently slated to be delivered in April and May, so it will be exciting to see the transformed kitchen take shape!

When I originally worked with my interior designer on the master bedroom, one item that I neglected to finish was upgrading the old ceiling fan to something that better fit the design style. I finally got around to that recently, and installed a new wifi-enabled smart ceiling fan that really nicely integrates with Amazon Alexa, and also looks excellent. Wiring the fan was an adventure, since I had to first wire in the wifi transceiver.

Once the wiring was done, I installed the rest of the fan.

Once the fan was connected to Alexa, along with the table lamps on either side of the bed, the look of the bedroom was transformed!

It’s been awhile since my last post… Once fall hit, I took a short break from home projects after all of the pool craziness from last summer. However, since the new year I’ve been busy. One small project involved a pair of TV upgrades with very different circumstances. First, I finally ordered a four seasons TV for the hot tub area and installed it, along with an outdoor sound bar.

It has excellent picture quality and sound, and has made winter mornings watching English football a lot of fun!

When buying that TV from Best Buy, I noticed how cheap 85 inch TV’s have become, and I got the itch to upgrade the main living room TV.

The previous TV had been in a TV hutch, which looked nice but limited the TV in size to around 55 inches. For the new TV, we wanted to go with a TV console that had a built in fireplace insert, and was more minimalist than the previous hutch. My wife found this option, which fits with the rest of our furniture in the living room really nicely:

Once the furniture was selected and ordered, I installed the TV. It took two people to hang it, which was a first for me with a modern flatscreen TV. The sheer size of it makes it pretty impossible for one person to manage. Once on the wall, it dominated the living room space in a good way.

After hiding the wires, it looks really clean even with the old console in place.

After installing the two new TVs, there were a few cleanup tasks to perform. First, I moved the previous living room TV up to the master bedroom.

I also did some work to fix the broken TV lift in the three season room, converting it from a motorized lift (which had been nothing but trouble despite multiple replaced units) to a manual lift with a latch to hold the lifted TV in place.

All of these minor upgrades have had a pretty dramatic impact on the house’s TV landscape!

As part of my ongoing quest to build display and storage for my sports card collection, I purchased a vintage card catalog from the library at Iowa Wesleyan University. It turned out to be a fun day trip to drive to Mount Pleasant, with stops in Dubuque, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids to check out bars, restaurants, and local card shops.

Once I got there, I thankfully had help to load the extremely heavy card catalog into the trailer, but also to load all of the individual drawers separately.

Once I made it back to Wisconsin, I unloaded the card catalog and moved it into the guest house. I had to remove the metal legs to reduce the height, and then I added a new wood veneer on the sides to cover over some scratches and other damage that it had taken over the years. It fits the space really well, and the drawers are the perfect size for sports cards!

Here are a few more photos of my overall card storage and display areas, split between the card catalog plus other shelves in the guest house, and part of the library:

During the pandemic, I got back into a hobby I’d really enjoyed as a kid, collecting sports cards. The hobby has changed a lot since then, with much higher prices for cards and many more high end autographed and memorabilia cards to chase. I wanted to make a space to display the cards, and the library seemed like a natural fit. Here are some initial photos of what will likely evolve into a much larger project as my collection expands.

One of the main uses I’d envisioned for the new three season room was watching sports with all of the windows open, so we could have fresh air and the feeling of being outside will being shielded from the sun and the rain. The challenge to this is that all of the walls for fully windowed, and I didn’t want to block any views with a TV (at least when not in use). My solution was to install a motorized TV mount, that would lift the TV out of a cabinet when needed, while allowing it to sit below the window frames when not in use.

After the TV and the motorized mount were installed, I had to figure out a cabinet setup. I ended up buying a bookcase from Wayfair that was the right size, with the intention of modifying it to fit my needs. I first assembled the bookcase frame, leaving out the shelves and the back. By leaving out the back, the TV could still be used while in its lowered position, which is great if you just want to have it on in the background while people are hanging out in the room.

This just left the question of how to allow the TV to lift up out of the cabinet. Instead of going with a complicated hinge system, I decided to simply cut the top of the shelf, and then anchor the back of the shelf into the wall to make up for the lost structural integrity.

After some additional work to conceal cables and wire all of the accessories in neatly, the end result worked really well!

My wife and I have used the new setup a lot in the past few weeks, especially as fall weather arrives. The cats are big fans of relaxing with us while watching TV too.

After a short delay, the remaining finishing touches have been put on the three season room. The baseboard trim is done, as are the window and door casings. The last little bit of siding work is done, and the gutters and downspouts are in place along with the remaining fascia boards. With this final polish, the project is done, and I’m very proud of how it turned out!

In addition to the three season room itself, the grill and patio furniture are also in place.

There are a few remaining ancillary tasks to take care of (installing the hot tub and TVs, for example), but for now we’re enjoying spending time in the three season room and on the deck, as are the cats.

Now that the main construction is done, I’ve been able to reclaim the guest house garage for the truck and the Range Rover, and I’ve also been able to fully whip the lawn into shape.

Here’s to a great rest of the summer!

While the deck and three season room project isn’t completely done, it’s definitely getting close. Over the past couple of weeks, the three season room has turned into an actual building, complete with windows, doors, siding, and a (mostly) done interior.

While the interior still needs trim, window casings, and some other minor touches, having the shiplap painted and the furniture plus other decor in place makes it feel like a pretty complete room.

I’ve also got the railing done, and the deck furniture set up.

We had a party last weekend, and our guests were able to use the space and enjoy it. The cats have also really enjoyed sitting out there and looking out the windows.

In August, I’ll wrap up the project with the new hot tub, new TV’s, the remaining trim work, and the outdoor kitchen. It will be a lot of fun to see the vision I had for this project during the winter fully realized!

The theater rug and risers for the back row finally came after a couple of months of waiting, so I was able to get this project fully done. The risers make a dramatic difference in the viewing experience from the rear row of seats, and the rug brightens up the room and pairs well with the dark floors and walls.

Last March (right before the start of the pandemic), my designer had a photographer professionally shoot the rooms that had been redesigned up to that point. A month or two ago, the photographer came back to shoot the progress that had occurred since then. As before, the results were pretty spectacular!