Metrie moulding upgrades lead to kitchen upgrades

We have recently decided to buy a pick up truck, its a country thing so I am told...its time.... when we were in discussing financing the man we were speaking with said we had only been in our new home 8 months...and I thought wait...what...? its been 8 months already...holy cow how can that be...the first 5 months were a little rough and cold and full of drama but I did not think we were really into 8 months...I've been taking life one day at a time....I have been in slow motion as far as reno's go...compared to my usual speed, ganted I am living a much busier life now.

Part of my delays are because we have had to get permission to change some of the elements since they are protected with heritage by-laws...and other issues that have slowed down some design improvements would be decision making...I want to do them once as far as design elements....

I have come to a realization recently that all the bloggers I know or follow....well when we are looking for a new home we look for homes with potential...we clearly desire fixer uppers...a place to transform and to make our own...what is a diy blogger without a home to make pretty...I wonder if we move more often than regualr people..???.when the home is done where is the thrill...it is some what of an addiction...I have seen a rise in some bloggers getting summer homes, cottages or rental properties...what fun....like Rambling Renovators &Young House Love 

To most our house would have looked perfect upon buying... it had a new kitchen and modern bathrooms but to us it was lacking a lot of much needed style and character...I mean don't get me wrong it has a lot of character...original pine floors and wainscoting ,beautiful lights, but it needed that designer touch that I could give it.

 With an open concept home everything intersects so although I started with the entry I also needed to tackle the wainscoting at the same time throughout the whole main floor....a big big job...its that trickle down effect of home renovations.

Oh the old lovely pine paint grade v-groove wainscoting...it had a sponge grained faux finish that was applied a long long time ago to fake the look of a wood more luxurious than simple pine...it was stripped before we got here but it was in rough rough shape after being stripped...we could see that a trim piece below the chair rail was missing and the baseboards were just flat stock pine...not what we would want to see in a building of the 1800's...so we hoped to paint the wood out a creamy white to help us with two issues we saw...to disguise the damage caused by being stripped and to allow us to easily bring in new appropriate trim and baseboards...when we are done you might wonder if it was all original...thats the goal.

         I am so thrilled to be working with Metrie on this mammoth project, a restoration/ home                                                                         improvement project.
After looking through the options for baseboards I was most drawn to the French curves line...the simple lines and soft curves of the scene II paired beautifully with our existing trim throughout but did not overwhelm what was already here...we went with the 7 1/4" size which felt like the perfect proportion, I chose poplar as poplar is a beautiful wood for painting, although poplar can also be stained very successfully....in the past I have opted for MDF when adding trim that is to be painted but since we have all original wood it only made sense to go with wood in this case.

                                                    (French curves scene II line from Metrie...)

 It was a little scary to start painting over this wood but now that I have most of it painted it was definitely the right decision...I am using kilz primer and lots and lots of white paint...looks like three coats if not more will be needed. Oh I almost forgot all the DAP I used to refine the v-groove, its feeling so much cleaner but still lots of character.

 The house is an utter mess, windows are coming out, the window casings have needed scraping and sanding and lots of priming, its a good thing we have a variety of ladders...I'm getting tired of the messes already...lets hurry this along.

 I decided to get the bulk of the painting done before adding the trim, but wow it sure is the icing on the cake...it looks like it should have been there all along. I used the french curves scene II poplar panel mould here to accentuate the chair rail and to conceal unsightly gaps.

 So as you could tell by the first photo the kitchen changes that I wasn't going to start kind of got started...one day I had a couple of hours to kill and decided to see if I could easily remove the island top so I could sand it to re stain it and fix some really bad gaps that became food traps. Well to my delight the unfinished bottom was just the look I was after that rough sawn texture was dreamy....so I removed some old gum and smoothed out the surface and filled all the gaps and stained it with a multitude of minwax stains...I believe I used special walnut, black, classic grey and weathered oak to get this one of a kind weathered look, a few coats of satin poly and it was perfect within two days.

That set off a chain of events...next was the grout, I love contrasting grout so I got a grey grout pen from SamaN and in a short while I had this nice soft grey grout...love it.

well with the nice new island top I couldn't put off starting work on the island facade...I added a v-groove in a ship lap style and painted it huronia by Para...in melamine...and although I was hesitant because of the old melamine oil paints that left cabinets looking dreadful I was pleasantly surprised....it was the most amazing paint, so pigmented and thick, it was a dream...so much so I opted for melamine for our final coats for our trim work in simply white.

 I don't know if I have mentioned it before but I am not exactly in love with those big gothic shaped windows above our kitchen...after much debate I lost the fight to remove or cover them...so one night I got tired of looking at that one and I climbed way up and started to prime it...honestly I hate heights and 10 feet in the air is so scary to me...but once its done its done....immediately it was obviously the right move and I don't hate it anymore...

down to the floors...yet another trickle down issue that needs to be resolved...we need to sand the floors before installing the baseboards....oh man...fun times...these floors are tricky...we think  we are going with white washed...but we will still have to see what happens in the end I suppose...I just worry the white will be too much white...scary...I'll figure it out.

                                        So that is where we stand...things are moving along...
I have to finish the painting, then adding the trim and more painting, the sanding of the floors and installing more tile in the entry and and I took down some cabinets in the kitchen and I luckily sourced more of the white tile I love on the back splash and I am having some custom brackets made for our open shelves...lots and lots to do...
                                               its really starting to feel like home...finally.