Let's head over to Lexington

Wow, it is hard to believe my guys have only been working on Lexington since last Wednesday! We shaved a few days off our time frame since they finished the demo 3 days early. This was the progress as of Monday morning and since then things have been going at a fantastic pace (they are laying tile floors right now).

Dining room.

I LOVE the kitchen now that it is open. I think this is the single biggest change and really adds light to the whole main level.

 

One of the 4 staircases. I have a REALLY cool idea for dealing with the stairs on a tight budget and I am starting on them this weekend (this way I am out of the boys' way LOL).

Up stairs hallway.

 

Master bedroom now that the wall is out. A lot of you had great suggestions with trying a pocket door in here but in the end it just wasn't in the budget so we are going to go ahead and drywall it up. The secondary reason this is the best option is that the door in the bath room is currently hung backwards to accommodate the old opening but this way we can hang it on the right side which will show off our pretty new tub tile much better. Not ideal, but one of the tough choices we've had to make.

I ordered all our cabinets from Ikea and am blown away by the price! A whole kitchen for less than $3000!!! The only reason I am confident that this will be a good choice is because my contractor is actually formerly a custom cabinet builder. He knows all the tricks to make it right and look custom, things like custom building proper bases instead of using the feet they sell at Ikea, etc. I am really excited to see how he brings it all together after seeing his last few client spaces. I wish I could give more input on how hard/easy the ordering was but he literally designed and itemized the whole kitchen, I just had to pay for it.

But even with a pro I've had my own changes to make LOL.

No cabinet over the range for lexington! I prefer a nice chimney hood for an industrial touch.

From the moment I started looking for a house last January I cataloged image after image of finishes and products I want to try. I think little variations on the norm will be what sets Lexington apart from other houses for sale in our city. 

The dining room/kitchen level has been tiled already and I went with a beautiful chevron pattern like this.

 

I wanted to translate it into our wood floors as well but that was PRICEY! So we stuck with the tile for now. A lot of cuts, and a bit more waste, but even the installers were blown away by how great it looks! 

 

So what flooring materials did we use? I found super cheap 12x24 tile from Lowe's that runs only $3/sqft and a beautifully worn/aged laminate for the upper level and living room that my contractor scored for only $1.80/sqft. I love the way these materials look together and with some chunky, cream baseboards they will look amazing (I hope!).

I can't wait to get started on the stairs tomorrow and show you what I have in mind.