THE B&B is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!

We are finally open for business...

Accomodations include free room and board, private bathroom, private TV and bar area including a lovely warm fireplace, Wii with a full compliment of games, and (hopefully someday) a pool table. Free shuttle to and from the Denver International Airport and excellent travel advice to the world renown Colorado high country just 90 minutes away.

Reservation are currently being accepted for spring and summer 2010. First come, first served.

Perhaps I should show you how this area of the house looked a few months ago.

Exhibits A, B and C...

Here's my latest project...
This picture taken on the day we moved in... October 2nd.

This picture taken yesterday before the project began. We had the bathroom painted a cream color (same color as livingroom) a few days after we moved in. I knew I wanted to do something creative in there and finally got around to taking the time to paint.

Here is the finished project.... blue on the bottom, cream on the top with a painted chocolate brown stripe across the walls. I found those great row boat prints at HomeGoods (I love that store) and used them as the template to match.

Fireplace... upstairs....

It's just the bare-bones now...
The top part will be the tv and the bottom will be the fireplace.
There will be cabinets with doors on the bottom of the sides and the top arched parts will be decorative nooks which match the other architectural details in the house. The fireplace will have a stone surround...
Can't wait!!

More.... I know, I know....

So... I know, we need to stop but we both really want to get it done, get it done right and then relax and enjoy it. And since we already have framers here, we already have drywallers here, we already have trimmers and painters here...

We demolished the "entertainment center" in our family room today. This is upstairs by the kitchen. We really wanted a fireplace and a nice tv too. So....

Before:

After:


The contractors will be back at it this week and I'll post the final after picture when it's all done. It's going to be really nice!!

We are still enjoying ourselves -- we're going on a day trip to Winter Park tomorrow to ski again!!

No rest for the weary.... or crazy!

We figured that we might as well get the basement done too. I know, it's crazy but we figured let's get everything we want done as soon as humanly possible then we can relax and enjoy it.(we promise...) Work started Monday and will continue for 6 weeks. Today they started framing!!

The Pool Room -- Lance wants a pool table















The TV room -- Lance wants a big tv

Lance's office -- Lance wants his own space

The guest room -- Beth wants COMPANY!!!

Decorating the nooks

So, here are the stairs finally decorated a little... the contemporary style of this house is hard for me because I'm more used to east coast styles. These two nooks are at the top of the stairs and needed at least something in them. What do you think?

Ta da..... !!!!!!!!!

Just so you can get the full effect....

Before and After photos of our stairs....

Still need to decorate a little and finish up a little painting/staining/clear-coating but we are absolutely delighted with the changes!

oh yeah.... that's what I'm talking about!!

We are getting closer...

So, the workers are done and gone. My job now is to get it all cleaned up and then get to the finish work. I have to paint the wall where the drywall was disrupted (the white you see on the wall is the primer coat so I'm already started with that one part of the job), I have to stain and varnish the end caps and railing, I have to paint the trim white and then put a second coat of white on the balusters. Then the carpet will be reinstalled on Friday.

We are happy with how it looks -- I think it's a million times better than before and once everything in done, I think it's going to look really sharp!

Tuesday's progress

The end caps are mostly built. Top of the stairs post is in... They are here again and working hard to finish today! Then tomorrow I get to get to work and start the cleaning, painting and lacquering.... So today I'm going to get out and do a little shopping since tomorrow and Friday are "work" days for me.

Finished for today....

So, did you ever want to know how they make a railing for a curved stair? Here's how... The pieces are thin and they glue them together (they call it bending the rail). Here you see 30 vices for the right side and about 12 for the left side. They bolt pieces right angle pieces of metal to the stairs and then bend the rail to match the curve.

Today, they put in all the support pieces and cleaned up the drywall that had to get cut down. They also installed the trim on the outside edge of the stairs

So tonight, we have no railing... yikes! The kids and Sadie are not going up there without an adult. We should get the railing up tomorrow and the balusters by Wednesday. I'm ever hopeful.

Here we go.... YEAH!!

The guys got here at 8am... the stairs are taking shape but now they are dangerous!! No railing -- I hope no one falls. It's going to take two days to get the railing in place.

2 1/2 hours later...

Well, the demo is more done... not all the way done yet as we want to try to keep the kids and dog (and us) as safe as we can for as long as we can. It would be a long fall if someone lost their balance at the top of the stairs. We already like the new look better and the posts you see are just the 2x4s that were in the wall. Wait until the white balusters are up!

In this photo, it is not snowing in the house. The white stuff you see is drywall dust lit by the camera's flash...



Ok, done for the night. We've left the posts up and tomorrow, we'll have to cut them off.

2:15pm -- Time to pick up the kids...

Looking good and making some serious progress... :)

Stairs Demolition!!!!

So, when we bought this house, my main complaint was the stairs. They are not my style at all. I like the more classic look with a railing and balusters. So, despite the fact that we won't get any of this back if we ever sell the house, we decided that it was not fun to live with one big glaring thing that bothers us.
So, the workers are coming on Monday to start the construction. To save money, we agreed to do the demolition and will paint the finished product.
I wanted to document the change since I really think it's going to be a big one so here we go....

This is the stairs from the front door. As Lance said, they kinda look like a water slide.


This is the view from the top of the stairs to the living room and front foyer.

This is the view from the living room.

So I'm working today on the demo...

Here's how far I've gotten so far..
Step #1: Pull up the carpet.

Step #2: Start smashing out the drywall!!

Almost finished...

The guys are gone and the granite looks great -- now the hard work starts... Cleaning up after it all and getting everything back into the right spot. The gas guy is here now... connecting the gas cooktop and our old gas grill. This kitchen is coming along really well... I'm excited for finally having something close to being done!!

I love me some Uba Tuba!!

New Counters...

The kitchen transformation begins...
See what can be accomplished in 12 hours... The new granite counters come on Tuesday!


This photo was taken just before 11am this morning...


These photos were taken just after 11pm this evening...

Finally...some furniture (and some more snow)

Well, I would guess we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground this morning but that's not what I'm blogging about. :)

We went on a MARATHON furniture buying trip yesterday -- from noon until six. I did all the research first over these past few weeks... checking out the store, our options, etc. And finally we have purchased almost everything. We still need to find a bed. Our credit card is sore today but we knew it was coming and are prepared!! All furniture will be here this coming week except the family room couches which will be here December 1st. Now I get to decorate with rugs and pictures, etc. I'm very excited!


This is our living room sofas... Yes, they are yellow and they are a really pretty color. I wanted some color in the room because the walls are khaki. The dining room is really deep burgundy so the yellow will look great with it nearby.



This is our new kitchen table. It's a square counter height table. Our kitchen table from VA is rectangular and just does not fit in the space so we plan to move it downstairs as a card table for the rec room/man cave.


We bought the sofa and the loveseat in this taupe color for our family room. The walls are light cream and we have some accent pillows to tie in the green from the kitchen. This is the set that is not coming until the 1st of December.


This is our new dining room set. We wanted something really rustic -- not formal but large enough to see everyone who comes to visit us!!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered.

We own the house -- we signed on the dotted line early this morning and spent the better part of the day sitting on the ground (no chairs yet) and waiting for contractors to come give us bids. We got our new washer and dryer which is a good thing after 12 days on the road. We cleared out most of our stuff from the hotel so we can make a quick getaway tomorrow morning in order to meet the moving van at 9am at the house. I'm sure it's going to be crazy but at least we'll be in the house and can then unpack in our own time.
We're very happy to be close to finishing this long journey! It will be nine months to the day on Sunday that Lance took the severance and left Mythic. What a crazy ride!!