Hi friends! Welcome to our first post of 2017! A belated-Happy New Year to you all ❤

I can’t believe we’re at the 25th of January already! Where does the time go!? February is only a week away!  It’s been almost a full month since our last post – and so much has happened since then. Let me bring you up to speed…

Previously mentioned was our doings on making our old upstairs bedroom into a TV-viewing room. We’ve just about got that project completed I’m happy to say!

• Drywall: up, mudded & sanded! -Check
• Ceiling: Tongue & Groove up and stained! -Check
• Paint: primed and final finish coat! -Check
• Trim: Floor trims cut and painted! -Check (Window & ceiling trims still to do)
• Stove: Sanded!-Check (still needs to be painted)
• Floor: Almost all the material is on-site! (need approx. 16M additional flooring to complete room)

That little ‘cubby hole’ once was a closet. We yanked out all the shelving -but now it’s just a pretty big chunk of empty space. I thought we could make some sort of multi-purpose game storage/dry-bar out of it. Then I found this idea on Pinterest the other day, and I really like it!

Our walls are freshly painted so there wouldn’t be any planking used, as in the photo above. But you can get the idea of a comfy bench-style seating with plump pillows. I think it would be a neat place to curl up with a book. What do you think? Too small, too uncomfortable?  Do you think our previous idea of a dry bar with some under cabinet storage for games is a better idea??

It’s neither a large room or a small room – just somewhere in-between. At 15.6SM, it’s big enough for a couple new Asko recliners which will make watching a movie or taking a nap really easy to do!  Since the room is almost done, the last bit of painting in there is to update the stove! EEEK. Pretty hideous right?!

I used a white gloss on the downstairs stove and applied with compressed-air sprayer. I will use the same color on this one too, but no thanks on the sprayer. I didn’t get the results I was hoping for. Probably terrible technique on my part, but I got good results when I painted the DIY trellis Pekka made…hmm.

As for technique, the current paint job on the stove is bi-color gold and baby blue swishes. It looks ugh…really bad. After sanding down all the drips, glops and brush strokes I think it’s about ready to be transformed!

If you’re at all wondering what products we’re using, here’s a partial rundown.

All our interior wall paint is Tikkurila and the color used for our TV room is the same as what’s downstairs in the living room/dining room: Tikkurila Vulkaniitti. The stain used on some of our flooring and on all the tongue & groove ceilings is Osmo 3072 Punatammi.

I also have used Osmo Top oil on the kitchen counter tops. If you’re going to use the Osmo stain, I’d recommend GOOD ventilation otherwise you will succumb to the fumes! It’s some pretty stinky stuff! I like the Tikkurila paint, although it does come very very thick straight from the can.

In between getting the TV room ready, I finally got around to repainting the entire downstairs living spaces, crown molding and trim included. I think that’s 4 coats of paint on some of those walls! Good grief. The odds seem to be in my favor that the walls will stay intact from now on. No more gouges and dings from building materials being carried through the house! (at least I hope so!) Hurray!!  I also painted a few hundred feet of new crown molding, window & door trim for other rooms which all still needs to be installed. Whew!

Before the kitchen can be re-painted, the crown molding needed to be caulked all-around.  Pekka got out the ladder and caulked the crown molding the other day and it’s looking a lot better in there now. Caulk is a great thing!! You can catch up on caulking by watching an ‘action’ video as Pekka demonstrates his techniques on our YouTube channel! (click the video link above)

With the caulking dry, all that’s left to do is to re-paint the walls. One wall gets the Vulkaniitti color and all remaining walls  get Tikkurila Shaali, which actually (thankfully) doesn’t much look like the online sample.  The actual color is much lighter (as seen here) and works/looks great as a contrast to the darker Vulkaniitti color and looks nice with the oak cabinets.  we even happen to have some brushed aluminum back splash tiles in-the-box from a purchase we made a few years back…maybe they will make it up on the wall!?

We had some cold days and nights, but nothing like last year…so far. But on the whole, our winter weather has been very mild.  -22.5c = -8.5f That’s pretty cold!

And, the electricians were back again to tie-in the last bits of the wiring to the circuit box and complete a test of all the electric points through-out the house.

Believe it or not, they’re not done. We’ll see them again sometime this summer most like when they are back to finish?!  There are a couple of places that don’t have electic running yet – our vestibule has no ceiling light and the radiator isn’t connected.  I think there’s one remaining pendant ceiling light left to install in the kitchen. It matches the one over the dining room table.

One great thing about getting all the walls painted (again!) is getting the artwork up on the walls that’s been sitting in scattered stacks and piles around the house.  There are still pieces left to hang, as well as some furniture that hasn’t made it to its final destination. Soon! Soon!!  There’s a toasty warm Berber wool rug on order with only a couple more weeks before it arrives. Can’t wait until it gets here! After working so hard for so long, it’s nice to be able to decorate and put some final touches on things. 🙂

After some careful observation, I realize we have acquired quite a few plants over the years. Sadly, some of them are really rather sickly and tired looking. I think it’s time to refresh our stock and hit up the plant sellers again. I’ve got some assorted forced bulbs doing their thing, but no blooms or blossoms yet. A once-goregeous Croton has suffered the terrible fate of leaf-drop trying to survive the dark Finnish winter. It’s a skeleton now, really nothing more than sticks in a pot. Really sad. As I was writing this, another leaf fell…

It’s about time to get seeds started! Plus, I have three new sewing projects to knock out when I find the time & courage! I’m a little new to sewing with stretchy knits… wish me luck!

Once again we hope your New Year is off to a good start. Wishing you good health & happiness!

We’ll be back again soon with more remodeling updates. There’s a floor to lay, more drywall to hang, and the topper is a new set of interior stairs!  The stairs are the last really big thing yet to do – nothing like saving the biggest and hardest for last!  🙂

See you again soon!