washroom ceiling

before and after: i know it doesnt LOOK much different at first glance, but it really IS!

this summer several of our neighbors were busily renovating their own houses, so we had some luck with some salvaged materials to use on our own projects.

i was able to salvage lots of a neighbors old wood ceiling planks to re-use in our washroom behind the kitchen. 

so we removed our washroom ceiling. not only because its SO ugly (yes, you could tell it was cheap plastic) but also because if it ever catches fire, apparently it "rains" molten plastic on you. yikes!

i salvaged the boards, sanded, cut and painted them first,

then ph helped me install it. we chose a simple wood trim
as a nice finishing touch

this stuff was in several rooms of our gorgeous old house, so we promptly removed them all and are living with the bare rafters until some proper ceilings appear. and in the process, taking the opportunity to better insulate as well. and that back washroom needed it.... last winter it really felt like an outhouse! hopefully this winter is a bit better.

side note: currently this room behind the kitchen is where we bathe, but the rest of the bathroom is upstairs between 2 bedrooms. our big bathroom remodel upstairs will allow us to remove this crappy, tiny shower stall out of the washroom and eventually install a proper washout sink in its place.

...like so.

all finished with my dutch class & exams now.. and can now devote my full attention to transforming our house.

i had daydreams about how i could make this blog so cool, setting it up room by room to show before, progress and after pictures. but reality is, i have to keep focused on the actual project itself, and let the documentation of it come as a by-product.

for the moment, i have most of our ongoing house project photos posted here.

by far the most urgent thing to tackle first will be "the bathroom situation" this may be far away the biggest part of the renovation we do to this house.


when we moved in, the half-bath upstairs (consisting only of toilet and sink) had a 50 cm wide door directly from the bedroom, not wide enough for my husband to pass through without turning sideways, and adding insult to injury there was NO DOOR on it. um.. "hello kids, can you please leave mama alone for a few minutes? ah, thankyou, buh bye."

inside the dubious upstairs half-bath... not shown are the grinding toilet
just to the right of the non-door, and lowered ceiling

the 50cm wide non-door to the upstairs half-bath. to the right, in the hallway is the
other bedroom door that forces you to walk through a closet to enter the tiniest
bedroom in the house.

not to mention the fact that in order to avoid doing REAL plumbing, the previous owner elected instead to install what's called a "grinding toilet".. meaning the sh*t really DOES hit the fan(!) with every flush, and makes 2 consecutive horrific grinding sounds that resonate throughout the neighborhood.

ripping out this "water closet" to opent he bathroom up to its proper entry on the hallway will be A PLEASURE!

stay tuned!

one year in

august marked one year in our new house. now i feel like we're finally just getting started on the renovation.

we have finally removed all the horrible plastic ceiling panels, and we even managed to get the small downstairs washroom ceiling re-done. several neighbors on our street are having their 3rd floor built up, so the dumpsters have been full of lovely salvage! and i LOVE the fact that its all coming out of houses just like mine, built in the same year, etc...

in thinking to myself how might i best unfold this wonderous story of restoring our house, i think i will organize it room-by-room, to best see the process unfolding. this may look like chaos ~~~{but its all part of my master plaaaans!}~~~hahahahaha~

kitchen doing quite well

changed the lights out, took down the god-awful pink ruffle, after several tries finally landed on a nice color for the accent wall and bought a bright orange vintage stove.

planning

scale drawing. note: there is a third floor, but i didnt draw it cuz i ran out of room on the page, but besides that its just one big room with a stairwell leading up into it.

i've recently scored a CUTE dutch-made vintage modern sofa in good condition.. mentally picturing it in the front room, maybe with some anthropologie wallpaper... post to come.

kitchen & dining

we havent even moved in yet, and i cant stop thinking about the dining room and kitchen. i am a big fan of farmhouse kitchens and huge stoves. i love this one, especilly the stove and hoosier cabinet,

(sorry, i cant remember where i pulled this image from, if you recognize it please let me know, id love to give the proper credit where its due!)


... but our new kitchen is impossibly small!

our kitchen, looking towards the dining room


the "business end" of our kitchen, currently equipped with 2 pint-size refrigerators, a countertop stove and a microwave/toaster oven. clearly a design challenge the former occupants couldnt solve!



i'd love to see if one like this could fit into the existing nook (and put a handsome refrigerator in the dining room, but we'll have to chat about the fridge options later, mkay?) to alleviate some of the cramped feelings of such a small and poorly organized kitchen:
(image from goodtimestove.com)


but if the nook is too small, and i HAVE to put a stove in front of the window, i might go for something with sexier lines, ooh la la! isnt she a looker?:
(image from noreast1.com)


since my kitchen is so small, i'll definitely be using the adjacent dining room to enlarge the usable area. im *all about* a huge table between my fireplace and future large sideboard buffet & refrigerator wall. can you just see it?

i love this example, from lolmo.com:

a great starting point

the greek goddess hestia, goddess of home and hearth. image from wikipedia.


we just entered into agreement to buy our house, and my mind is racing! to say ive been obsessive about the house hunt is an understatement. we've just moved to utrecht, the netherlands, and are now not only trying to learn dutch, but buying our first home. the house we're buying has all these wonderful preserved period details. built in 1910, it has stained glass and pocket doors, and these marvelous little art nouveau placards in the entryway, too. today im showing the downstairs only.. you gotta start somewhere. i cant wait to move in.

entry hall


standing in the parlor, looking through to the dining room and kitchen


the dining room, and fireplace.

i guess its worth mentioning at this point that traditionally the dutch use the front room (what im calling that parlor) as a dining room, and the big central room between is called the living room, but i think the table and kitchen are the rightful epicenter of the home. so im putting it there.

kitchen cabinets, facing dining and parlor



i love the well preserved history in this house, i also love rustic and modern and ecclectic artsy stuffs.. so we'll see how it can all work together in this framework.

thinking about a big heavy natural wood dining table as an anchor for the hearth of the house, and reading up about the greek goddess hestia. ~bb