Master Bedroom Progress

When we moved in i knew i wanted our bedroom painted and organised first. That way it could serve as an oasis from the mess and clutter of the renovations in the rest of the house. With that in mind i imagined a palette of blues and whites, with some colour pops of course, to create a calm relaxing space. We've made some progress over the past few weeks including painting the ceiling white (not off white like the walls), a bold blue accent wall, new white shag pile rug and addition of a couple of craigslist / local second hand store finds. There was a lot of deliberation on the wall colour but we're really happy with the result. It makes the room bigger and is such a nice departure from white walls everywhere else.

Still to do - artwork on the walls, headboard for our bed, blinds & curtains.

Blue wall (Sherwin Williams 'Denim') looking a little sparse. I need to get some of our art framed and hung.

Great little low drawer was a craigslist find & the green lamp we picked up at a local second hand store.

View from my bed in the mornings. The trees are starting to get their leaves. Spring in here!

Kitchen Planning

The biggest project in our house and at the top of my 'must have' list is our kitchen renovation. We've spent the past couple of months getting quotes and exploring the options. The big idea was that the wall between the kitchen and dining room would come down opening up the space.

The wall to the right where the fridge stands will be demolished opening the kitchen up to the dining and living rooms.

The IKEA kitchen option has always been on the table and when their 20% off sale started it was looking even more appealing. Here is our design using the IKEA planning software.

Plan view 

New peninsula bench with an overhang for breakfast bar

Sink and cooking stay roughly in their current location. Wall oven is removed and we'll install a slide in range. I'm also thinking open shelves to both side of the range hood.

Full height pantry! Plus a little nook for the vitamix and toaster etc.

For the cabinet fronts i'm liking the combination of Sofielund walnut grey cabinet fronts and the Abstrakt high gloss white.

We also got a quote from a company based in California called Semihandmade who make custom sequenced wood doors for Ikea cabinet frames. So clean and modern!

Let me know what you think!

Now for some wall demolition.

The Virginia Architect - August 1962

The house featured in this Architectural magazine in 1962 as an example of modest mid-century family home design. Another artifact preserved by the original owner.

Photographs of the original architectural house model. From a time before sketch-up and 3DMax. 

Keeping Records

Original blueprints

I have a feeling the original owners of our house were very interesting characters. There's not many people who have the original house plans, materials list as well as a detailed list of every piece of work that has ever been done to the house. We do...thanks to the meticulous record keeping of the original owners. I find this kind of stuff really interesting so i thought i'd share.

Original contract sum - $19,000!

The Landscape plan drawn 15 years after the house was built. Most of the trees and shrubs are still there.

Our garden in the snow a couple of weeks ago.

Front path with river rock rain-garden on the left. Our lace leaf Japanese maple (front left) is yet to bud.

Come on spring!!!

Original Details

Our house was very well cared for by its original owners which has meant that many of the original fixtures and details have survived (in varied condition) for us all to enjoy today. Here is a few of them:

Nutone audio system including built in record player, intercom and speaker. We need to find someone to get this working!

Intercom system in every room

including the outdoor patio!

The 'blue bathroom' vanity

Shell detail light fitting

The 'pink bathroom'

A 1970's decorator addition, bamboo kitchen wallpaper.

The Nutone appliances continue with the range hood

The various light fittings through out the house

Front door 

Starburst door bell. Similar styles available at http://www.rejuvenation.com/

Entryway glass

Teal green/blue carpet. 

Retro Renovation feature

I was spending my lunch break reading through a few DIY and house blogs yesterday and you can imagine my surprise when i stumbled across an image that was mistakenly my front entry! Looks like someone found the real estate listing and submitted the photos to retro renovation and they've featured it as part of their 'Time Capsule Homes' series.

Link: Mid-Century Modern brick time capsule house

Check out the comments section at the end of the article. Lots of love for this place. Also lots of people saying we have to keep and preserve everything! They obviously haven't lived in a house with 50 year old carpet. Pretty from afar but oh the dust! The curtains were literally held together by dust and disintegrated when we tried to clean them! I'm all for preserving the character and architectural integrity of the home but some things have just gotta change.

So check it out if you like. This is a fun blog that features all things retro.

We're Home Owners!

This week we purchased our first home and moved right in! It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom mid-century modern gem.

View from the street. The front yard is a Japanese garden. A little hard to tell in the winter.

Architect designed and built in 1962 it was occupied by its original owners, the Dunning's until they passed away last year. They did an amazing job of maintaining the house and we found it in almost mint vintage condition with most of the original fixtures and finishes in place. After viewing around 50 other houses in our search this was truly a breath of fresh air. Great floorplan, big windows and natural light, clean lines, no dodgy DIY additions by previous owners and all in a quiet, pretty neighbourhood.

 Our Realtor opening the front door for our first viewing.

After a snow storm.

Back porch off the Lounge Room

I knew as soon as we arrived on our first visit i knew that this was my kind of house. Actually, i could tell when i saw it online and my husband knew i was excited and came back from a work trip to Maryland to see it. Luckily he loved the place as much as i did. We could immediately envision some renovations that would make it home for us and i'm really looking forward to getting started :)

Front entry with original room divider complete with faux plants.

 The Lounge room brick fireplace,huge windows and built in original Nutone sound system and speakers.

Dining room light fixture. Amazing.

The blue green textured carpet that's in living and dining rooms and corridor. Beautiful hall pendant lights.

Master Bedroom. There is a wall length concealed fluro lighting panel along the back wall.

 Ensuite bathroom in all it's pink glory.

 Kitchen

More updates when we've unpacked a little :)