Kate and Gordie's House

For todays post I thought I would share one of our current projects at Moving Designz. This is a beautiful large new build project.

We've been involved with the homeowners, mostly I work with Kate, since early summer planning for the project. Kate has fantastic taste and we are so on the same design wavelength. We're about a month away from completion. We were hoping they would be in before Christmas but sadly that is not going to happen. However Kate and her husband should be in early in the new year.


The house is situated on a beautiful waterfront property overlooking Charlottetown harbour. It has the most stunning water views from the huge windows along the entire backside of the home.

The house was designed by a local draftsman and shortly after we became involved... tweaking the functional layout, designing the lighting plan, choosing surface materials and working on kitchen layout. After all those stages which I call the "uglies" we moved on to choosing furnishings to complement the homeowners taste. The style we are going for is warm modern contemporary mixed with classic elements.





In this picture all the main framing is done and the windows are installed. On this particular day, in late October, we were working on the electrical layout and checking out the interior surface finishes on site.






This past Friday the great room looked like this. Now that all the drywall and seamfilling is complete it's looking alot more like a house. The fireplace is also now installed and most of the trim is complete except the baseboards which will go on once the flooring is installed. Although the firebox looks like a big square it is actually long and linear ... more on this below. To the left of the fireplace in the nook will be built-ins.

This angle illustrates the amazing waterfront view as you enter the home. And as you can see it is open concept and has very little wall space. Who needs art when you have this view 365 days a year?

This is the colour palette for the main floor furnishings and to some degree the surface finishes. From right to left, creamy off white for the sofa and chairs. A lovely print and two very soft blue and cream fabrics for the toss cushions. A brown textural fabric with tiny cream dots for the chair toss cushions. And for the cubes, chocolate with blue circles.

The hardwood flooring will be a deep espresso bamboo. It is due to be installed later this week.

The main seating arrangement is a large sectional very similar to this one which will be upholstered in soft cream fabric just like this image. BTW this room is by Kelly Hoppen one of my favorite designers. I love her aestetic!

The chairs will be upholstered in the same off white fabric as the sofa and will have 2 small back pillows in the brown fabric with the little cream dots.

Two of these cubes will complete the seating arrangement. The fabric on these is the dark brown will the little blue circles.

This is the cocktail table. Very low and sleek, a combination of deep espresso and brown laquer. The coolest thing about this table other than its good looks, is how its pieces swivel and opens up which allows the piece to grow. See below.

Isn't it the coolest?

The fireplace wall tile is somewhat similar to this image being flat to the wall. However the stone is pale creams and pale browns.

The fireplace unit is long and sleek like this one with crystals as opposed to logs or stones.

A huge part of the great room will be the gourmet kitchen. This is how it looked in October.

On Friday this is how the kitchen area was looking. Still pretty empty as the white cabinets are being custom built off site. This very large kitchen will feature stainless steel appliances with a counter depth princess door style fridge and built in wall ovens. In fact, most of the cabinetry in this kitchen is ceiling to floor with glass doors and/or shaker style door panels.

The countertops are this Caesarstone in a white colour which resembles marble.

Pale blue glass subway tiles for the backsplash. Though not exactly this colour they are a little more greyish blue.

The kitchen will feature not one but two islands. The central island is the prep and work area while the outer island is for entertaining. This is the style of pendant lighting that will hang over both of them. Two larger ones for the center island and 4 smaller pendants for the outer island.

These are the bar stools for the outer eating and entertaining island. This island will be wood stained in a deep espresso finish.

We're still searching for the perfect table and chairs for the eating nook. I think I found them today. We're looking at a large charcoal stained bamboo table with seating for 8 to be paired up with sleek white and chrome chairs. I'll post more images as we progress further. Thank you Kate for allowing me to blog on your new home :)

In the next few posts I will cover another large renovation and decorating project currently underway in Charlottetown. This large historic house is being converted from three chopped up and dated apartments to a 5 suite boutique style Bed & Breakfast. We're still in the construction phases but big changes are now underway.

Thanks for reading.

Susan

My New Obsession

I remember watching an episode of Design Inc with Sarah Richardson in which she confesses that one of her guilty obsessions is vacuuming. This was during the wrap up phase of one the projects when they were all in a cleaning frenzy.

And while I'm in no way comparing myself to Sarah... this last week I could hardly wait to get home every night to vacuum. As I said to Anita and Ashley I think I've lost my sanity. By now you are wondering why would she be so keen to vacuum.

These past couple of weeks I have been the one who has been living through renovations, normally thats my clients job. I had new hardwood flooring layed at my house this past week. I also have to mention that the cases of hardwood have been stacked in my kitchen and stairway landing since May. Just like the carpenter whose house always comes last so in fact did mine.

I've had closets ripped out and found myself peeling 10 layers of wallpaper from the inside of these old gems before going to work in the morning. This is in preparation for the seam filling. My house is about 100 years old and the interior of the upper closets with the shelving had never been touched.

This is the rental beast I used to do the clean up. It's a standard shopvac with tons of sucking power. Perfect for getting rid of the sawdust which managed to cover everything in its path. Prior to beginning the renovations all of my furniture was moved into a rental container parked in my driveway. Since the entire main floor was being restored it only made sense to get everything out.

This is my vacuum which inconveniently kicked the bucket on day 1. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the shopvac is the way to go.

This is a picture I took on day 2 of the flooring installation when they had just finished laying all new subfloor to level all the surfaces. On day 1 the old light maple hardwood, that had seen better days, was removed.

By the end of day 3 all of the flooring was complete and on the morning of day 4 in came my sofa and area rug. The new flooring is a rich medium brown in a 2 1/2" plank width. I felt this wood was very much in keeping with the age and style of the house. It's actually called Ash Cappucino and has a rich grain to it. I can't even tell you how happy I am to have the new floors, they look so beautiful.

This is my diningroom after the install. On Thursday and Friday all the main floor walls and trims were freshened up with a new coat of paint. The painters I use sand after the first coat of paint so the shopvac was in use every single day. I was also able to slowly start bringing the larger pieces of furniture back in to the house.

This weekend all of the furniture is back in and I am slowly putting things back together. I actually got to sleep in my own bed last night. Yesterday and today the carpenter has been here cutting down the doors and rehanging them. He also hung up the flat screen tv and today is working on putting the quarter round trim on the bottom of the baseboards expansion gaps.

I will post pictures of all the completed rooms in next weekends post. I have ordered quartz countertops for the kitchen. I am hoping to have them installed by Christmas. That would be a nice way to end the year and the renovations.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

Susan

More Projects... Completed and in Progress

For todays post I thought I would share some images of a couple of the projects we've been working on over the summer and finishing up during these last couple of weeks.

First up a major laundry room and bathroom renovation. I posted progress pictures of this project a few weeks ago. Both of these rooms are now 100% complete and we're waiting for a few more things to finish off the house in the diningroom, livingroom and kitchen. I'll post those rooms later this month.

Thursday, Anita and I spent all day at Mary's house applying finishing touches to her laundry/powder room. Below is the original laundry/powder room. It is a small space at only 8' X 9' so we had to make every inch count. The room was in need of additional storage and updating as it is the only washroom on the main floor of her home.




View 1 before the renovation. This is the original wall of appliances with open storage.

View 2 after the renovation. Our solution was to have 2 sets of closets built to enclose this wall. A small coat closet on the left and a double laundry center closet on the right. Now all of the laundry equipment and cleaning supplies are conveniently hidden and well organized.

And behind those custom built double doors a newly organized laundry center with shelves attached to the inside of the double doors . Now there is plenty of room for organized storage of cleaning supplies. The interior shelving has storage for laundry baskets and a rail to hang dry clothing.

View 2 before the renovation. The original location of the main plumbing fixtures.

View 2 after the renovation. The new plumbing fixtures are now moved to the wall opposite the laundry closet. The scope of work involved new tile flooring, new built-ins closets, a new set of stacking appliances, installing wainscotting, new toilet, new vanity with matching storage cabinets, new faucets, new lighting and a new paint scheme.

The artwork is an original painting of the homes exterior. It's a very pretty house.

Let's look at the upstairs washroom renovation.

View 1 before the renovation. Everything was removed so we could start fresh.

View 2 after the renovation. This room has completely changed. Here we added another new marble topped vanity, new faucets, new wainscotting, new built in storage under the eave, new lighting, new wall colour, new tub with double shower heads, new shower tiles, new artwork, new towel racks, new window treatments and a shower curtain. The only last detail missing is the shelf for the top of the built in cabinets. Our carpenter will have this last element painted and installed next week.

On to another project. I was at this house yesterday with my installer to hang up the beautiful silk draperies. This room has undergone a major change as you will see.

View 1 before the new furnishings, the original livingroom. This client desired a new updated look for her livingroom.

Here is Bruce up the ladder starting to install the drapery hardware. This is the in between shot that I couldn't resist taking.

... and a couple of hours later the room was looking pretty good!

Although not completely finished the room has undergone a remarkable turn around. We're waiting for the back ordered lamps and the large piece of artwork that will be placed over the sofa. Back orders are annoying but usually worth the wait to get the perfect piece.

View 2 the diningroom before.

View 2 the diningroom after. I love the clean new look of this large open space. I particularly love the new modern diningroom light fixture. We are the exclusive dealers on PEI for this line of Canadian made lighting. In fact every piece of furniture and all of the accessories including the area rug is from Moving Designz Home & Cottage. I've been hoarding the area rug back in our warehouse for months waiting for just the perfect project and it looks WOW in this room.

Next up... I was in Western PEI late last week to review progress on another bathroom renovation.

I took the following pictures while getting lost on the way to my clients home... Getting lost wasn't so bad as I got to see some spectacular scenery. PEI is a very windy place to live but the wind does have its advantages when its energy is harnessed with these giant wind turbines.

There about 54 of these giant beasts dotting the landscape in the Cape Wolfe area.

And on the other side of the road is the fabulous picturesque PEI coastline.

When I finally found the house... here is the bathroom I am working on. Still under construction this room was once a guest bedroom. Soon it will be a luxurious master bathroom complete with a custom vanity, storage cabinets, a large jetted soaking tub and a flat screen television mounted at the foot of the tub.

Stay tuned for the completion of this room and other projects we have on the go.

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful long weekend!

Susan