Christmas at Edgewood: The Renovation continues

Finally, a long overdue update on the progress of our old house renovation! A lot has been accomplished since my last post. I would say we are 90% complete with the interior renovations.  I haven't posted in some time because this project was massive. I previously told you I took over the general contractor role and once we completed all sub-contracted work we stepped in to do all of the painting!  This while both of us maintained our full-time jobs.  I must give mega kudos to my girls for all their help in this process.  If it weren't for their help Steve and I would probably be locked away by now! They say building a house is tough but that is nothing compared to renovating a 140 year old 4500 square foot house. Especially if your renovation plans include restoring this home to 2017 amenities.

Here is the house as a single story as it sat on the Red River in the late 1800's. The second story was added in the early 1900's following a 6 month relocation to the present site just a mile away. The Victorian style transformed into the colonial design that was all the rage in 1920. Here is Edgewood after a light snowfall in Louisiana.

In September, we were able to move into the home and finish our work on site.  We have two rooms left to complete inside, the Parlor and Sun Porch. At this time we are performing finishing touches to all the other living spaces and furnishing the rooms to our design style. We slowed down a bit to enjoy the holidays and some of our long, hard work!

Today I'm going to begin sharing a room by room review of the transformation. Yes, it is a transformation. Not one space has been untouched.  We practically rebuilt this house. Everything is new except for the shell and even some of it was replaced!

So let's look at the kitchen..........

So this is where we started. Pay close attention to the sink. You will see it again!

We relocated the back door. Shifted the double window over the sink to the back wall, relocated the kitchen doorway into the hall, and opened up the closed off breakfast area with built-in china cabinet to create an open-concept with the new family room. We were also able to configure the space around the elevator shaft to make way for a nice sized walk-in pantry.

Here we are after the demo was complete and framing had started. This was also followed by all new electrical & plumbing, new insulation (self-installed) and drywall.

Framing for new pantry on the left

Check out the wide plank cypress shiplap and colorful wallpaper we found under the old drywall.

We removed all of the wood back to studs cleaned out all the old dirty insulation and readied for drywall.

I forgot to mention we had to remove the old peeling linoleum, put down new subfloors, and match up the existing real wood oak flooring. We had to install ceiling support beams for the walls we removed and so we decided to add additional beams for aesthetic appeal. We installed new bead-board ceilings over the old ones as they had developed some instability after so many years. Custom cabinets were installed, Trim Carpenters installed all new stepped crown molding in keeping with the era of the home. Finally we were ready to begin the daunting task of painting. Every door facing and existing window trim and door had to be scraped, sanded and stripped almost bare of its multiple layers of paint. It was truly a family effort.

Steve, having experience painting old cars with a spray gun was able to paint all of our cabinetry. We chose Benjamin Moore White Dove for our kitchen cabinets and trim. We stained the beams dark walnut. The wall color is BM Edgecomb Gray, a nice neutral taupe. The kitchen island is featured in Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray. We selected Cambria Quartz countertops and a unique Byzantine Arabesque tile for the backsplash in a soft pale blue-green tone. I admit this was a bold move but I couldn't resist. Make note now of the refinished farmhouse sink. It's amazing! We love our new kitchen and we hope you will too.  Enjoy the finished pictures!!