Plaster, beginning kitchen and bath

Hi folks!

I don't even know quite where we left off. All of a sudden it's cold again and we are still working hard to get in our house.

Last June after the wedding we had a guy named Buzz come down to Kentucky from Vermont to teach us how to do veneer plaster. We completed one room and we've slowly been finishing walls since he left, in between other projects. Here's one room that we finished, and now we've even got it trimmed out with baseboards and window casing- the future MAN CAVE!!!

       

Here you can also see our finished floors- a whitewash with Bona Naturale sealer. I also cleaned and sealed the brick- here, and in our bedroom, and our kitchen, and our upstairs living room. A big job!

Why are we doing plaster, you ask???? Well I still feel guilty tearing out the original plaster. I love the look. It is stronger and more mold resistant. For more plaster inspiration see Tara and Percy- they do it a lot and Percy even gave me some advice via email:    http://www.jerseyicecreamco.com/blog  They recently redid a kitchen in TN that is beautiful.


Other things that happened:
Levi built an upstairs deck. And tiled the downstairs part with Quartzite. It's a beautiful grey stone

Levi's dad came to visit. And our friend Bradlaugh. And our friend Kurt. And we put them ALL to work!!

We layed a herringbone floor in the kitchen. And installed our kitchen cabinets. And installed our marble sink. Yes I said marble sink. And installed some lights!

First, there was rosin paper. 

There was a lot of snapping chalk lines

There was some shimming with cards. And some pieces of cards are permanently stuck in our floor!

The finished product!! Glorious!

Coolest marble sink ever.

We got a bertazzoni gas range. 

Cabinets!!!- they are all simple drawers except for one cabinet under the sink

More cabinets!

Its a little dark but you get the idea. Countertop on the left will be stainless steel, on the right will be marble. 

There have been lots of little bumps in the road. I don't want anyone to read this blog and think- hey that looks so easy! For example- herringbone floor- NOT EASY!!!! Special thanks to my husband Levi Kepsel for making this awesome floor happen. We were in Chicago recently and saw several herringbone floors that had much larger gaps than ours! Other things- how exactly does one install a 300 pound marble farmhouse sink? No one at Home Depot Paducah can tell you. No one anywhere can really tell you. Also, how exactly do you fabricate a stainless steel countertop to fit over it, or should it just fit up to the side of it? Figuring this out will involve taking yourself to the sheet metal company with some plywood and a pizza box and your handy father in law and discussing it with someone. I think we have it worked out, but time will tell.  The frustrating thing is that we seem to be always doing the strangest things (according to Paducahan's, that is)! When you call the receptionist at the sheet metal company she will be very confused and tell you that no one has stainless steel in their home kitchens. When you call the fireplace store they will tell you that you really can't fit gas logs into old coal fireplaces. Luckily for me, I have this secret weapon called THE INTERNET.  Hmmph.




The bathroom upstairs is making progress as well. We've got our black hex tile floor layed. We've got our subway tile installed all the way up to the ceiling. And we dropped off our skirted cast iron tub that came with the house to get refinished at Lakewood painting in Murray. It will be black on the outside. And, how could I forget.... Bill installed our first toilet. We are very excited about this. I don't have a pic but it is one of the greatest upgrades yet!

We plastered the walls we aren't tiling

This tile now goes all the way up to the ceiling

This is our skirt case iron tub when we dropped it off to get refinished. 

Also, we bought a chandelier! It's filled with packing peanuts but you get the idea. It's an antique I found online and came in a big wooden box. This will hang in our dining room. 

Going out all fancy in Chicago after I took my boards.