Solid Gold (and Brass) Baby!

The kitchen reno is progressing nicely....we're at the drywalling stage with hardwood floor refinishing happening this weekend.  So...it's at the kinda boring grunt work stage.

BUT!  Some exciting things have been coming in the mail....

Like our satin gold faucet!  Yup, we're abandoning the chrome wave and going with gold and brass fixtures (in satin finishes, of course).  This is a Jewel faucet.  The great thing about Jewel is their made in Italy faucets come in tons of finishes...but all are polished.  So, we contacted the company to see if they would do a satin finish for us, and they did (and for no extra charge)!  The guys at the Canadian distributor in Surrey, BC were really great to work with!

And check out these babies, who just arrived today:

Satin brass cabinet edge pulls by Complete Cabinet Hardware.  Oh man, I cannot wait to see these guys peaking out from all our cupboards and drawers...

So yup, things are progressing.  Fingers crossed that we'll be installing cabinets in a little over a week...

Reno Gold - Original Hardwood

So.....remember when I said we might consider refinishing the original hardwood under all those layers of vinyl tile in the kitchen if it was in decent condition...but that that was highly unlikely?

Well, surprise surprise!  There is beautiful golden hardwood under there and we are going to refinish it!

So, despite the fact that we spent hours upon hours selecting the perfect tile for the space, we are scrapping that and saving some serious $$! 

Refinishing won't come without challenges.  We realized that when after hours and hours and hours of scraping up vinyl tile we found a lovely hole in the floor in one of the most visible areas....but, overall we are thrilled with the idea of original hardwood.  We were always a bit uneasy about how the tile would age over time, but the hardwood is classic and true to the vintage of the house....and now we have a bit of room in the budget for surprises....or maybe a new light fixture!

Kitchen Demo Progress

Now that the ceiling and walls are down, it's on to the floors...they consist of vinyl tile on vinyl tile on 1/4" ply on...you guessed it, more vinyl tile on original hardwood on original plank subfloor.  And ugh, it all has to come out!  If the hardwood is salvageable we may refinish, but that doesn't look too likely.  The good news is that none if the layers of vinyl tile contain asbestos (we had them tested)!

Let the Kitchen Renos Begin!

There's no turning back now!  After nearly 4 years of dreaming, planning, and designing...this is happening!

Check out the kitchen in its pre-demo state here.

The Nursery Begins...

Life's about to get a whole lot different around these parts.  Yup, we're expecting...TWINS.  Identical twin boys to be exact.  We've got about 3 1/2 months until our little bundles of joy arrive, so we're getting down to business and prepping the nursery.

This weekend's task...build an Ikea Pax wardrobe.  We initially had hopes of finding something vintage, but the busyness of life and the exhaustion of pregnancy squashed our visions of scouring flea markets and antique stores.  So we defaulted to Ikea (of course).  Besides, now that we are living in our 750 square foot upstairs apartment, space and especially storage are at a premium.  The customizability of Ikea's Pax system help make the most of what room we have.

Just like the Ikea flyers tell you, when space is at a premium, maximize vertical storage.  At 8' tall, this wardrobe does just that.  What they failed to mention (and what I failed to think of) is that that vertical storage gets built horizontally...and needs a whole lot of floor space...

Yup...just enough space in our 8'x12' nursery to inch my way around and get this thing built.  I had some reservations about not having enough room to tip the wardrobe vertically...but a little manouvering and we somehow got it in place.

We opted for glass Storas doors - they are slightly reflective and subtly transluscent, so they help reduce the massiveness of the wardrobe.  We had initally planned for two hanging rods, but decided that drawer space is more practical...after all, are we really going to have time to put each of their teeny pieces of clothing on hangers.  Not likely.  So we'll just throw nicely fold everything and shove gently place it in one of the three Komplement drawers.  We've left space at the top and bottom to add some storage bins to fill with whatever other crap nice things the babies come with.

Oh and hey, did you see those awesome wooden animals in the first picture?

We picked them up on our last-real-vacation-ever-before-our-lives-are-consumed-by-kids trip last fall in Copenhagen.  Copenhagen is pretty much the best place on earth for kids stuff - there's a toy / kids store on just about every corner.  I think it's something to do with the legacy of LEGO (did you know that "LEGO" is from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play-well", I do, because Wikipedia just told me).

Anyways, these little guys are from Holztiger.  They are handcrafted, handpainted, and Made in Europe.  And yes, I fully realize that one day our little angels will colour all over them with marker.  That's why I took a picture of them.

And now for some tips for anyone building a Pax wardrobe right now and found this post by googling "I would rather have a big Pax bonfire than continue building this giant wardrobe!"

• even though when you generated your shopping list from the easy as pie Pax wardrobe planner, it says that the hinges are included with your Storas door, they are not.  Get over it.  They are in a separate bin that you can only find by asking someone.  If you, like me, did not realize this fact until you got home and were trying to put your wardrobe together, you will have to drive all the way back to the store to get them...yay!
• Komplement drawers can be placed in every 6th hole.  That means drawer, 5 empty holes, then another drawer.
• Hinges get in the way of your available holes.  Put the doors on first so you can see where your other stuff can go.
• If you (like pretty much everyone) have baseboards / quarter round around the perimeter of your room, your wardrobe will not sit flush against the wall, making it difficult to use the provided holes in the back of the wardrobe to anchor it to the wall.  Instead I plan to buy some steel L brackets from the hardware store to connect the top of the wardrobe to the wall.