House Update!

It has been way too long since my last update...and lots of changes have been made to the house!  Instead of telling you, I will show you.  Here are some pics of the progress:

Master Bathroom

Floor and shower in progress

Even further on the shower...

Finished (but dirty) shower!

Our bathroom vanity...handmade by the husband.


Guest Bathroom
 

Beadboard on the walls...and new white tile installed.


Kitchen

Working on the Kitchen...painting cabinets.

Kitchen, a little further along.  Appliances are here!

Removing wallpaper

The crazy part is that the house already looks different from these pictures!  I will post more updates soon.  The contractor is getting started on our kitchen tile and backsplash this week.



The Tub

We recently purchased a cast iron clawfoot tub off Craigslist for a mere $75.  We are almost done redoing it, and I will post on that process later.  In the meantime, I did a little research on the history of our sweet four footed friend.  We found some interesting markings on the bottom of the tub, including a date and a company name:

The name is "CAHILL" and the date is 10-30-17.

As a history nerd and librarian, I was very curious to learn more about the history of our tub.  The date it was made, 1917, was obvious, but what about Cahill?  After a bit of research, I found out there was an iron works company in Chattanooga named Cahill from 1883 to 1922.  The company is better known for producing iron gates and cast iron pans, so at first I thought I was on the wrong track.  Then, I found this little awesome piece of history:

BAM!  History nerd chill bumps.  This is from the U.S. Quartermaster Report of 1918.  The Cahill Iron Works gave a quote to the U.S. Government for fixtures for a housing unit.  That right there is a description of our tub.  Our 5-foot version was once sold for $20.25.  I'm not sure if our legs are "marine pattern" or not, they are claw and ball feet:

The Cahill company produced "Southern Beauty Enamelware."  Below is a 1909 ad I found for one of their sinks. 

Pretty cool!  And just think, the tub will continue to reside in it's hometown.

Kitchen Planning

So, quick update.  Most of what we are working on right now for the house is planning and...ugh...shopping.  I feel like Craigslist is eventually going to block me for over use.  Anyways, amidst all of our supply gathering the kitchen is coming along (and the master bathroom, more on that later).  I thought I would share our progress, and our proposed plan for the space.

The Progress

So, the kitchen has pretty much been gutted & the cabinets have been removed.  We are going to keep the old cabinets.  We love the hardware and their rustic look.  The hubs put backs on them this week.  I mean, really, who has cabinets without backs?  Especially when this is what is underneath them... 




Former rat's nest (all rodent residents have vacated, but their poop remains)

 


Here is our partially gutted kitchen.



The Plan

 

This is a sketch of the kitchen wall opposite the glass cabinets.  The sink part of this plan will be in the current breakfast nook.  We are pretty much leaving the layout on the glass cabinet side as it is.

Here is the original kitchen, just to show the cabinets we are working with:

Here are the colors I am hoping for:

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I love the kitchen pictured above...it is pretty much amazing...and my inspiration for our kitchen.  We are trying to keep the original cabinets, so painting them white will help make them look fresh.  The hubs is still trying to talk me into keeping the top cabinets wood...we will see.  The idea is to have very dark wood countertops, stainless appliances, and redish flooring.  The flooring we have picked out is actually ceramic, but has a brick look to it.  We are also going to do a white subway tile backsplash.  The only thing I haven't picked out is a paint color.  I think it will come to me after the room starts to come together.  My first instinct was to leave the room white, but now I think some color might be nice.  Keep you posted!