Not Your Grandmother’s Linoleum

Lord willing and the creek don’t rise — we are in the home stretch.

The dirt piles are gone.  Whoop whoop.

And we have a gravel driveway, so no more slip sliding away in the clay.

Almost on easy street, DRF style.

The electricians are now done, the plumbers are finishing up as I write this, and the last of the trim was installed today.  It’s been a really, really good week, here at DRF.

Just Floored

Our floors went in on Tuesday of this week and that was the last big hurdle before the other subs could come back today.  

Although I would have never imagined putting linoleum in the forever part of the addition, that is exactly what we did.  Of course, they don’t call it that anymore — now they call it luxury vinyl sheeting.  Or luxury vinyl tiles.  Whatever.  It’s linoleum.  I used to think of linoleum as something you tore out of your house, as soon as you could afford to do that.

But here’s the thing — it’s durable, it’s tough, and it has a 110 percent guarantee that if we don’t love it after the first 30 days, they will swap it out with something else.  Can’t beat that.

It’s not your grandmother’s linoleum.  They have great patterns and textures.

These are the two floors we ended up going with… The ‘vintage tile’ is in the mudroom and the ‘stone’ is in the garage.  I love them both.

Here is the mudroom, before and after…

and now…

The garage platform, which runs from kitchen to bathroom looked like this, before the flooring went in…

And now it looks like this…

Technically, the manufacturer said this was supposed to be a faux stone look.  Looks more like a weathered wood to me, but I love it just the same.

Meanwhile, BJR has been busting his backside to get the electrical done.

He got up all the fixtures, inside and out, all 20 of them.  He’s the bomb.  We now have switches that actually turn real, working lights on.  Oh, the modern day conveniences this silly girl had previously taken for granted.

Picking out an entire addition’s worth of light fixtures was a little daunting.  I wanted to find American made — which was not easy.

There is this great little company called Barn Light Electric Company, out of Florida, that was started by a husband and wife in 2008.  They make beautiful fixtures, made to last a lifetime.  I can’t afford most of their fixtures, but I could justify buying from their discount, barn lighting line.  Like these beauties…that are real galvanized tin.

In the garage, aka temporary 2 year living space, I went with a really industrial look, to have a little fun with the whole ‘garage life’ thing.

Next comes the kitchen cabinets — which we will hopefully be picking up this weekend.

Because the plumbers finished today, we have water in the new addition! Plumbing and electrical inspections tomorrow!

Happy dance!

While this bathroom will be the garage bathroom, even though it will be our only full bathroom during the renovation process, I wanted to make it garage practical — hence the utility faucet.  You can hook a bucket on that baby.

This also means we have an actual kitchen sink — with running water! I still have to stain the stand that BJR and Uncle Joe made last weekend (but more on that in another post).

And two new toilets and a brand spankin’ new bathtub.  As soon as the hot-water tank is full, you know where you will find me.

And my washer and dryer are now hooked up!  WHOOP WHOOP.  No more laundromat for me.

Heaven.  I’m in heaven.

More to follow soon…there is a bathtub and a bottle of champagne calling my name.

xoxo from me to you…