Sometimes, really pretty things happen around here...

...and best part is, this didn't need any paint, filler or nails!

Yes, there is a laundry god

With scaffolding playground still in full effect, I'm glad to have my shiny new washer and dryer sitting away happily in the mudroom to distract me. The machines we had before (wait, still have...they're sitting outside on the porch, CLASSY) used to eat buttons and twist pant legs into knots, so I feel extremely spoiled to have the Ferraris of home laundering at my disposal.

Clean underwear for everyone!

Welcome to my week

On deck for this week is a push to get the planks on the walls and ceiling of the entryway and up the stairs. Oh, and we're painting them as well -- neither of us wants to reassemble the scaffolding for a second time.

The big pain with this plan is that the bathroom (the only working one in the house right now) is right up at the top, and you have to get in touch with your Cirque de Soleil side to shimmy and twist your way through the scaffolding to make it up.

Bonjour mudroom

I realize that I haven't posted a photo of the floor in here yet, you'll have to forgive me on that one, it's been grouted but it's covered in sawdust, and the grey rainy day isn't making for happy photographs of it. Feast your eyes on the panelled walls instead!

We're halfway done installing the planks, and then it will be filling and painting the ceiling (also planks) and the walls. No trim in this room for a while yet, but with a little luck, the shiny new washer and dryer will be moved in soon so we can break our 17 month streak of no home laundry services.

Now with more countertop

 
We had our countertops installed right before Christmas (not without a few screw-up's, one of the pieces that fit around the sink was cut wrong). It was quite a treat to have a level surface to work on after 2 weeks of balancing everything on the cabinet tops.

We went with soapstone because we wanted something a little different -- so different that all of the installers mentioned 'oh you'reeeee the soapstone people'.  Caesarstone was on the list of finalists, but we couldn't get past the super shiny bling finish of it. (It does come in a honed finish, but with that it only comes with a 2 year warranty, and has horror stories of permanent staining.) Soapstone seemed to fit the bill as it won't stain, but it will scratch and chip here and there. You can buff out the scratches with mineral oil (also used for constipation, as we found it in the pharmacy section!) and it looks good as new. We won't talk about the pair of pliers that Trevor dropped onto the counter at ceiling height working on a light overhead...that one was a bit more than a scratch.  But we'll all chalk it up to character, right?

Speaking of overhead, here are the Harmon pendants that we bought on sale at Restoration Hardware. They took forever to arrive, but well worth the wait.

I'm not posting any super-styled up photos yet...we're still in the middle of things, and it might give the impression that we have nothing else to do but decorate around here (far from it). Eventually the kitchen will be getting a tiled backsplash and trim moulding, but we're attempting to do things in some sort of order (mudroom, then onto finishing ceilings, then finishing wood floors, then trim).