This is a view of the remodel of our master bathroom/dressing area.

As always with pictures on the internet, the colors are a bit off.  The room isn't even close to the yellow shown in the picture, but the wonderful outcome of the project still comes through.

Once again, you'll notice the superb craftsmanship of the cabinets created by our cabinet maker, Tom Woodruff.

We got the hardware from Rejuvenation House Parts in Portland Oregon.

Originally we were leaning towards black hardware, but Tom talked us into going with the chrome.

We are not sorry.  It looks great!

Notice the glass work along the top of the enclosed toilet towards the back.   Our contractor, John Meuller, designed this transom feature.

The toilet stall is very small and would be very dark if it weren't for the natural light this feature allows in.

We are extremely pleased with how this turned out.

We got the ceiling light fixtures from the Rebuilding Center in Portland Oregon.  They sell vintage house parts recycled from old houses that have been torn down.

Though the lighting fixtures don't show up well in the picture, they are perfect for the house.  We will have a separate post about them later.

So that's it for now. We'll have more posts, hopefully in the not too distant future.

It's been awhile since we posted anything new on the blog.

We figured we’d do this quick post to let you know the project is moving along and is going very well.    We would have posted earlier but we've been really busy.

As a teaser, we’ve posted a cropped down picture of the new kitchen cabinets, counter-top, microwave, and stove.    There is quite story there, but we'll save it for another post.

The reason we don’t just show you the whole house is because, though it's mostly done, it is unfinished.

We are at the stage where we are painting and installing the baseboards and trim.   It is a huge task and until it is done the house looks unfinished.

We figured that if we show you our progress so far it will be anti-climatic when we show you the finished project.

However we will tell you this much.    It came out really well and we are excited about eventually sharing it with you.

As you can see, the old kitchen is gone!

John Mueller, our remodeler extraordinaire, has completed the demolition of the kitchen and hallway.   The electrician has been getting the electrical work in order and everything is being prepped for the cabinet installation.

We'll keep you informed of developments as they happen.

Our kitchen tear-out is beginning this week! (Don’t worry; it was not the original 1955 kitchen.)

Gone will be:

   * An impossible-to-keep-clean kitchen sink

   * A glued-down cutting board with a giant crack

   * A drawer which can’t be opened unless the dishwasher is opened

   * No counter space between the cooktop and the frig

   * Double ovens which routinely set off the nearby smoke alarm

Stay tuned to see our new retro kitchen!

Here is a quick update of the installation of the new shower in the remodeled master bath.

John Mueller, our remodeling contractor and an artist, has been working away on the project.

The picture on to the left shows the new tile that is now completely laid.    The grout still needs to be applied, which John will do next.

That's it for for now.

We’ll keep you informed as things develop.

Finally!    The remodel of the master bedroom and bath has begun.

As you can see from the pictures to the left, the future master bath has been stripped to the studs.

The top picture is taken from the bedroom into the new bath.    The next picture is from the new bath into the bedroom.

We are on our way!

Our contractor is John Mueller, who is better known as a local La Grande artist.    You can see his work and learn more about him at his web site.

He does his art work out of Way Point Studio.    Fortunately for us, his day job is working as a general contractor doing home remodeling and construction.

We went through a lot of contractors before we found one who appreciated our vision of what we wanted the house to become.    We are very fortunate to have found John.

The bottom picture to the left is huge wasp's nest John found when he pulled down the ceiling.

Fortunately it was an old, mostly abandoned nest, and the remaining wasps were sluggish from the cold weather, so it wasn't terribly nasty.

As you can see, the nest is huge.    It entirely filled in between two rafters.    It was most impressive.

We added sealing off the holes to the outside where the wasps got in to our to-do list.    We've had enough of those critters.

So that's where things stand with our mid-century home remodel project.

Stay tuned for further details.

Choosing paint colors for our mid century home has been particularly challenging.

In this video Anne shows our progress in painting the house interior while explaining the particular challenges we faced in selecting our color scheme.

As we mentioned in our previous post about our master bedroom/bathroom remodel, we are having two new windows installed.

One is for the new master bath and will go where there has never been a window.   The other will replace the vinyl window in the original bathroom.    Both windows face west and are adjacent to each other in the back of our house.

Since the original bathroom has a vinyl replacement window, we have no idea what the original bathroom window was like.    This left us with no template for our new windows.

We had to get creative and design new windows based on the appearance of the original windows we still have.

The top picture on the left is of our original kitchen window.    One of the things we love about our house is the rather unusual windows which combine a casement window with a fixed sash.    We wanted to replicate that look throughout the house.

After a lot of thought, we decided to design our own windows based upon the style of the original windows.

We did a rough drawing of a casement window with a small fixed pane designed to fit in the rough opening of the original bathroom.

We then worked with Versatile Sash to turn our drawing into finished windows, one of which you see at the bottom left.

Though there are some minor differences due to changing technologies, the windows are remarkably similar.    We are quite pleased.

As you can see, Gary has already primed the windows and they are ready to be installed.

Once the ice melts that is making it nearly impossible to do anything, we are going to have both of the windows installed.

It's a challenge trying to explain a remodel project on a blog.

Conveying how we intend to change a space with only words and pictures is quite difficult.   We decided to try a different approach.    Video.

Though we recognize helping people understanding what we are attempting to accomplish through this video is still confusing, at least it give you a better idea of what we are up to.

We hope you find it interesting.