Wainscoting And Counters

It's been non-stop here at Catch Meadow Cottage! We have been pushing so hard to get everything done before December 1st (my projected deadline). In fact, I am still hoping to have my first Thanksgiving meal in my new home if we can finish sooner.  Hmmm, that's exactly two weeks away! I'm not so sure we will make it but we sure are doing our best.

This week I got all the trim painted as well as the wainscoting that Michael installed. There is more wainscoting to go up in the kitchen but that will go up sometime this weekend. I also gave the walls a first coat of paint.

The following photo shows the hall leading from the living room to the bedroom. The window on the left is where the cellar stairs used to be. It is now an opening looking down to the new cellar stairway. It allows heat to flow and offers a nice open feeling in the house. I am thinking about building bookshelves on hinges for this window. That way if I wanted to close the window I could yet still have a useful function for the space when I do close it.

                                         Here is the Wainscoting in the hall before it was painted. 

 Here is the hall all painted. As you can see, Michael has started installing the pine flooring. 

                        Here is the wainscoting in the bathroom. Notice the vanity is now in.

The bathroom wainscoting is all painted now. I decided to paint the beams white in this room, however, I am going to repaint the walls because it just seems too dark for this small space. 

Here is the entryway with the bare wainscoting. 

And here is the entry painted.

Now, this is the most exciting part of the week. The counters were installed on Tuesday! 

I am so happy with the outcome. I really wanted Carrara Marble throughout the kitchen and bathroom but after discovering how high-maintenance and very tricky marble is to install, I felt a better choice would be Silestone. I chose a style which was created to look just like Carrara Marble but without all the hassles. Silestone is 97 percent quartz and 3 percent composite material. It is extremely durable and doesn't scratch, chip or stain. Best of all, it doesn't have to be sealed every 3-6 months like marble! It is an absolutely fabulous alternative to marble and the best part is, 

I got it on sale and saved lots of money! 

Now I have to paint the cupboards to match.

                    Because the countertop is mostly made of quartz, there are glittery, little speckles that 
                                                            reflect the sunlight so perfectly. 

                                It blends so beautifully with my new farm sink, don't you think?

I chose a different edge on the bathroom counter to add a little more elegance to the room.

 Michael is working on installing all the floors this week. He wants them all in by the end of today! We will then have to sand, stain and polyurethane them. I decided to go with pine floors because I love the old look of them. Michael suggested that it would look even older if he varied the widths of the boards and used cut nails like the old-timers did years ago. I agreed with him. 

And here is what I woke up to this morning! At least five inches of snow on November 8, 2012. 

This is the scene from my apartment balcony. Simply beautiful. 

Enjoy the day! 

And thanks for all your support and encouragement.