Day 1 & Day 2

As I mentioned in my last post, we finally closed on the house this past Friday. We got started right away. With our building permit in hand, we taped the windows, doors, and grabbed as many crow bars as possible and the Mister and I started whacking away. I've never demo-ed a wall before, but it.is.the.best.therapy. Ron refers to our weekend of demolition as a romantic date. I guess it was "romantic" despite my sweaty...er....glistening self and finding bits of plaster in random places!

Below are some before and after shots to give you an idea of what we are going after. The vision is to open up the first floor so the foyer, living room and dining room all flow together. We decided to keep a little bit of framing in between the areas to differentiate the rooms and not have a just one large great room. It was a plan of compromise in order to achieve flow but still have some coziness in the different spaces.

Before - Foyer looking to the living room and dining room walls to the right


Before -Dining Room



Before - Living room into the dining room



Me- fully prepared with mask, goggles and crow bar in hand.



After- After 10 hours, the dining room wall is gone! We plan to add a 1 foot header to all the doorways, and hopefully find a cool raw beam to use as the header.



After - we scaled back the walls from the foyer leading into the living room



After- we also scaled back the walls leading from the living room into the dining room. The guy on the ladder is our good friend and FANTASTIC contractor, Jason.



More updates to come!

New Project!

Well, it happened. After a few months delay, we finally have closed on our house on Capitol Hill!!
I wanted to share this news back in March when we were suppose to close, but hiccups happened and our closing didn't take place until this past Friday. I didn't want to jinx anything so I kept my mouth shut until our names were on the dotted line and our bank account was void of a lot of money! So here she is (click on the photo to take a tour) - you must be forewarned that you need to put your "vision goggles" on before you proceed and keep in mind she will be getting a makeover/face life.



I hope you want mind amusing me as I will be posting updates on the transformation of the house. I get so giddy about it, sometimes I can't sleep at night. A 'home' is important to me, and I'm stoked that not only do we now own one, but we snagged a fixer upper so we can put our own fingerprints on it.

Happy Friday!

Friday could not have come faster! I'm planning on relaxing this weekend and helping out with the Hopkins Mural project on Capitol Hill on Saturday. Located in Southwest DC, the Hopkins apartments are low-income housing units. Last year, the community recognized that the community playground was in need of help. About a year ago, a few churches and community members came together to build a new playground, and this Saturday we are painting a beautiful mural to add some "oomph" to the space. This is a great opportunity to serve and help provide a safe place for kids to play. If anyone is interested in coming out to help paint, all you need to do is show up! Here are the details:

Saturday, May 15

Hopkins Playground 1200 K St SE

Painting starts at 10am!

2010 DC Design House

I headed over to the DC Design house this past Saturday with a few friends and as always it left me inspired! This year the design house was located in Chevy Chase, MD in a Georgian-style country house built in 1905. The home has had many owners/tenants including the Ambassador of Mauritius. Walking through the home, you can clearly see it is a house for entertaining as you weave through a maze of rooms.

All the designers who participated in the show house did a wonderful job in keeping with the nuisances of a Georgian-style home but they also put their own spin on their designs whether it be adding a modern touch or choosing a whimsical detail to the room. There were a few veteran designers such as Kelley Proxmire, Barry Dixon and Page Palmer and a few new designers like Cynthia Ferranto, Shazalynn Cavin-Winfrey and Barbara Franceski.

Unfortunately, they did not allow photography so I don't have photos of all the rooms, but I've pulled photos from the Washington Post and DC by Design blog to give you a grasp of the house.

The formal living room was designed by Frank Babb Randolph. I love the classical styles of the columns and the symmetrical arrangement of the furniture sets the focus on the beautiful fireplace.

(photo via me -I sneaked this one)

Tracy Morris was the brains behind the eclectic artist studio. I wish I could have gotten a detailed shot of the floors as she had them painted and "dragged" providing a textured look to the floor. I would love to call this my office!

The library was created by Victoria Sanchez. Victoria selected soothing colors, and this room has a wonderful view of the garden and pool.

Kelley Proxmire is responsible for the wonderful family living room with dark chocolate walls. I love that she dared to go dark!

Isn't this "closet" a dream! Celia Welch had custom storage made for this room. On the wardrobes is Farrow and Ball's "Elephant's Breath" and the walls are in F&B "Charleston Gray." This room led into a small bathroom that had a fantastic Greek key tile boarder.

Last we have the dining room created by Basha White. I love the painting she chose as the focal point and her inspiration for the pallet of the room. If you can look closely, Basha had the ceiling painted with silver leaf which gave the room an intimate glow.

There were so many more rooms I wish I could share! Hopefully other publications and blogs will highlight the other amazing designers. Make sure you check out next year's DC Design House and see for yourself the creativity that goes into a show house. I hope to be a part of this great event one day!

Ahhh....

(image via Mary Ruffle)

So glad it's the weekend. I know I slacked off this week with posts, but I ask for your grace. This week was a zoo, and all I want right now is to be laying on this bed taking a long, deep nap. I'm headed to the DC Design House tomorrow, so I'll have some great updates on that next week. Until then....ciao!