WHAT'S NEXT FOR OUR HOUSE? PART ONE.

“WHAT’S NEXT FOR OUR HOUSE?” AND OTHER THINGS A SPOUSE DOESN’T WANT TO HEAR AFTER RECENTLY COMPLETING A RENOVATION.

Turns out, I am a project junkie. Which would be cool if I was handy, but I am not. 

As you know from reading about our renovation, I had an absolute blast throughout the process. I would do it again in a heartbeat if the right opportunity came up. Selecting the flooring and windows, deciding on the width of the v-groove – and yes, even choosing white paint. Give me all of the decisions.

 So now that the house is “finished”, my attention has turned to our outdoor living spaces (maybe because we’ve been inside for 8 weeks and counting?!)

(Note: Neil did not like the quotes around “finished”).

We have an existing brick patio, and I am strongly considering whitewashing the brick. I think a more muted, neutral brick color will blend in with the landscaping, which consists of a lot of greens, purples, whites and light pinks, pea stone gravel, and blue stone steps. And the whitewashed brick would contrast well with the grey and black exterior of our house.

AllModern first popped on my radar when one of my younger sisters was furnishing her first apartment, and a couple of hours down a rabbit hole later, I had completely planned a new look for our patio and backyard.

OUTDOOR LIVING SPACE REFRESH

LAUREN MARTTILA x ALLMODERN

I’m not sure about you, but I am ready to see friends and family again, so I really want to create a space that would allow for that. 

I immediately fell in love with this outdoor sofa, chair and table set. I was drawn to the texture, and the aesthetics jived with the interior of our home. I want the outdoor living space to feel like an extension of our interior, so I added in some outdoor throw pillows as well – you can never have too many pillows.

(I also like to bring the outside in, which I did with “Grey Lady”).

If you have the space, chaise lounges are a must for outdoor reading (and naps). Bonus: these come with cushions. I’d add these planters and fill them with flowers to compliment the planted beds around the house.

Next up is a large dining table. Neil loves to cook, I love to eat – and I am really looking forward to being able to have friends and family around the table this summer. 

As a perfect way to close out the night, I envision sitting in this chair set around a cozy firepit. 

Oh, and did I mention I want to add a pool?! (See what I did there? Whitewashing brick and new outdoor furniture doesn’t sound so over-the-top now).

If you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration for outdoor living, here are a few blog posts from AllModern to get you started: Small Patio Ideas for a Year-Round Vacay | 11 Modern Backyard Ideas | 9 Small Balcony Ideas to Spice Up Your Summer.

WELCOME TO OUR RENOVATION. PART FIVE.

“WE HAVE TO MOVE BACK HOME A MONTH EARLY” AND OTHER THINGS HOMEOWNERS SAY THAT MAKE CONTRACTORS SHUDDER.

PART FIVE.

Woof! Who else is still stuffed from Thanksgiving?! I hope you all had a special few days surrounded by your favorite people.

I took this opportunity (family in town) to ask my mom to help me clean my dreamy but impossible to clean Urban Electric smokebell pendants in our kitchen. To give you a mental image of what this entailed, there was a duvet cover covering our kitchen island, and Neil acted as a safety net. I’m not sure if I was more concerned about protecting the pendants, or our kitchen counters (read last week’s post for context).

Before buying anything breakable that will hang from high heights, I highly recommend you ask yourself, “How will I clean this?” You’ll thank me one day. Our electrician asked me this question after he finished hanging them.

We hosted Thanksgiving in our NEW DINING ROOM (with our framed “Grey Lady”), which was so great to finally be able to do. I only consumed one bottle of wine while kids played on/with/around our glass wall and sliding door. It survived, and so did I.

This feels like an appropriate segue because I left off last week with the install of the glass wall and sliding door, conceptualized by me, and designed and built by Simon from Surfside Glass and our builder, Julius Pasys, owner of LithCon Inc.

Sometime in May, I had to break the news to our builder that we had to move home about a month early; June instead of July. (The photo below is approximately what move in day looked like downstairs.) In hindsight, I should have delivered that news with a six-pack of beer.

The bad news was that the second floor had to be move in ready about four weeks early. The silver lining (for everyone else) was that Neil and I (and our old pup) could be relegated to the second floor while the first floor was finished.

Timing is everything for a renovation, and I especially saw that towards the end. Painters had to finish (upstairs) so everything could dry and the floor protective paper could be removed (omg the floors were soooo good when I finally got to see them). The shower tile had to be finished so we could actually shower. The post-construction crew needed to clean so the furniture could be delivered – and if you’re an inexperienced first time renovator like me, you maaaay do a couple of those final steps out of order. Lesson learned: cleaning before furniture delivery.

Living through a renovation for a month or so was like glamping. Outdoor shower? Check. Eating off of disposable dinnerware? Check. Look both ways to ensure no one is around before you pee? Double check.

A significant benefit of living through the last 4-6 weeks of a renovation (timeline is extending as we wait for our kitchen counters) is we had the shortest punch list in the history of punch lists.

As rooms were painted and built-ins completed (swoon, I can’t wait to share photos of these), up went towel hooks, mudroom cubby hardware, doorstops, and all of the other stuff I’ve heard you normally have to chase. And in an odd turn of events, our dog was in such sensory overload that she grew to be friendly at the age of 13 years old.

Unless I’ve missed something massive, next week will be the final reveal! Our architect, Matthew MacEachern of Emeritus, did a photo shoot at the house, and I’m so excited to share some of the photos with you.

Next post: The final reveal, and major thank yous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME TO OUR RENOVATION. PART ONE.

DIANE KEATON HAD PINTEREST, I HAD INSTAGRAM.

PART ONE.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to renovate your home? I had. I dreamed about tweaking ours for years. The biggest challenge? Convincing my husband, Neil, that it was time. (In hindsight, I am glad we waited. Seriously, my Pinterest board from 2012 needed to mature).

Photo Credit: Tom Olcott. Image courtesy of Emeritus.

Photo Credit: Tom Olcott. Image courtesy of Emeritus.

My photography is inspired by home décor, and I shoot with your home in mind, so I’m always thinking about aesthetics. After seeing so many of your gorgeous homes when I delivered your framed pieces, and when you shared your #LaurenMarttilaAtHome photos on Instagram, I was so inspired and sure of what I wanted for our own home.  But I quickly learned, we needed to bring in the pros.

The first thing we did was to enlist the services of Matthew MacEachern of Emeritus. Emeritus is a design, planning and development firm based in Nantucket, Massachusetts (with offices in Boston, too!) Matt listened to our needs (hello dining room, goodbye 1980’s kitchen layout) and designed us a beautiful addition to our traditional, New England saltbox home. Working with Matt and his colleagues Anton and Courtney (and mascot, Lucky!) was FUN.

Next up: hire a builder. We worked with Julius Pasys, owner of LithCon Inc. (During our renovation, I tried to get him to start an Instagram account, but to date – he is too busy building awesome homes to manage an account). I can’t say enough good things about working with Julius and his crew, and he is subsequently renovating my mom’s home. Thanks guys!

Before we even packed up and moved out, we decided on the roof, windows, flooring, and kitchen layout.  We could only move out of our house for so long, so I tried to make as many decisions in advance as possible, so things could be ordered right away. I knew inevitably there would be a delay somewhere along the way (cough: countertops), and I didn’t want it to be because of my indecisiveness.  

For the roof, we went with architectural asphalt shingles. I would have loved to do cedar roof shingles, but I didn’t want to blow the budget immediately out of the gate.  This type of restraint is why Neil and I still speak.

Next decision: windows. We used Andersen A-Series windows, and I am especially happy with this decision. If you are going with a darker exterior color (we did black for our exterior, and white for the interior color), ask your builder why the A-Series may give you a sleeker look. The majority of our windows are double hung, but we have picture windows lining the sides of our addition – they almost look like black steel windows from the outside. Swoon.

Next up was flooring. We landed on a light, natural colored oak called “Campania” – and I’m in love. The flooring decision was relatively quick and easy. Neil liked the ones I liked. (He is smart).  Also, please don’t fact check with our builder my declaration that I picked our floors quickly.

Matt, our architect, had a vision for our kitchen, which included a door to the backyard. This would give a line of sight all the way through our house to the backyard from the moment you opened our new front door. With that direction, Julius, our builder, proceeded to design our kitchen cabinet layout.

I learned just how much work goes into a kitchen, even before you take a sledgehammer to 1980s blue tile countertops. The mathematical equations on the walls looked like something out of Good Will Hunting (and I never once saw a calculator, so I was worried).

Meanwhile, there I was – ready to help: I don’t cook, and I was armed with saved Instagram photos of kitchens four times the size of ours. A lot of our kitchen design discussions started with “Well, when Neil is standing here cooking, he often reaches over here for xyz.” I’m pretty sure I also mimed those actions.

I love how our kitchen came out, and I will write a separate, longer post about all of the kitchen details. It will include things I learned, like: “being excited is not an excuse to order kitchen appliances three months early, because everyone will have to work around them. And one of the burners for your stove will go missing and you’ll waste a day until you find it hidden inside a couch you also ordered too early.”

That said, there is a good chance it will take me as long to write a detailed kitchen post as it did for our countertops to arrive. Zing! (I should note, the delay was through no fault of Caesarstone or anyone mentioned here. The counters are beautiful. And really, if you didn’t have one hiccup along the way – did you even renovate?)   

It was around this time (finalizing the kitchen design) that we packed up and moved out. Packing was awful. No way around it. My only tip is to order moving boxes on Amazon because, surprise – they arrive in another, bigger box.

I watched Marie Kondo’s show on Netflix in preparation for getting rid of stuff I didn’t want to pack, but she has nothing on a dumpster showing up in your driveway. If this sounds like something you would also do, tell your builder to pad your landfill fee budget line item in the estimate.

Check back soon for what happened once we handed over the keys. Hint: demolition.

Next post: A renovation is like watching sausage get made.