I'm finally posting some before and after pictures of our Living and Dining rooms. Both rooms still lack finishing touches, such as drapery.

Flooring and Wall Colors

The new flooring has been one of the hardest choices for us to make.  We originally chose a very dark engineered wood, wide plank, handscraped floor for the kitchen area and adjacent sitting room.  However, our original plan was to paint the kitchen cabinets a gray-green color, but now we are sticking with the dark wood and hoping that the new cabinets will match the old - if not, we refinish them in the same color.  So now that the cabinets are staying dark, we decided to go with a lighter color wood flooring.  There are so many options right now from exotic woods to old standards like red oak.  The trends seem to be wider plank and many are choosing handscraped for an older look.  We decided to install red oak, medium width planks.  This is a timeless look that never goes out of style.  I was worried about the wider, hand-distressed planks going out of style sooner.  They just seem like a trend, not a mainstay.  And since hardwood floors last for decades, a timeless look that can be both modern or old is the way to go.  The lighter wood is easier to match with darker furniture and darker wall colors, both of which we like.  Really dark flooring tends to be paired with light furniture, light rugs and light walls - although I do like the all-dark look, but my wife doesn't. 

Red Oak

Dark Maple

Wall colors. I want more gray-toned colors, my wife wants more vibrant colors. I want a darker feel and she wants a brighter feel.  So, after painting a number of color patches on our walls, we ended up with Sherwin Williams Softened Green.  I still think that a more gray-green, or even gray-brown color would have been better.  I especially like Valspar's "Smokey Oyster" and Sherwin Williams "Frape". 

Sherwin Williams "Softened Green"

But, I'm not afraid of color, so green it is.  I'm hoping that we can paint most of the main floor all the same color.  Our floor plan is not very open and is divided between four main rooms (Kitchen, Dining, Living and Sitting), as well as an Entry.  The Kitchen, Sitting and Dining rooms will now all be the same wood flooring, just leaving the Living room (tan carpet) and Entry (Beige tile with an antiqued design).  The Entry tile will probably stay - any votes otherwise?

Entry Tile

Entry with View into the Sitting Room

Bathroom Vanities

We're trying to decide on a new vanity for the master bath. I've always been a purist when it comes to interiors and architecture. I've always felt that the inside should reflect the outside, however lately, I've come to appreciate the mix of old and new, just as long as it can be done in a way that doesn't detract from the one or the other.  The hope is to mix the old with the new and make it seamless.  I have always tended toward modern architecture.  I remember the first books on architecture I checked out at the library when I was younger. I was captivated by the clean lines and empty spaces of modern homes.  I loved the way Mies van der Rohe fused sleek marble with concrete, glass and steel while maintaining a sense of warmth.

I was hoping that our next home would be a modern home.  When we moved back to Utah from Las Vegas, I found the perfect mid-century modern home totally restored to its original splendor.  The only problem, too far to commute to work and too far from family.  Plus, I just couldn't bring myself to move to Ogden.  Also, with having to keep our home in Las Vegas, we were very limited in our price range. So we ended up buying a 1973 take on French Provincial.  If I had to choose an architecture other than modern, it would be French Quarter.  I love the gas lamps and the mix of Victorian with colonial southern plantation. But, I just can't let go of modern, leaving me in a bit of a conundrum.  My plan is to marry modern with French Provincial and hope we come out with something that is both sleek yet historical.  As we renovate our home, I will continue to use this blog as a way to let friends and family follow our attempts at merging the two styles. I have a feeling that we will either fail miserably or create something that maybe hasn't been done, or at least not done exactly the way we will do it.

Help us decide on the vanity.  Here are pictures of the ones we are currently considering:

Andrea's 1st Choice

My first choice.

'70s Twist on French Provincial

I would like to say that we purchased our 1973 French Provincial Modern style home for the mostly wooded lot (extremely wooded compared to our home in Las Vegas). However, there is some sort of strange charm that a '70's take on French Provincial evokes. From the two-story entry on the main floor to the slanted walls on the second level, our new home (now two months since our move from Las Vegas) is really starting to grow on us. The resident deer have been an absolute delight to the children and to Andrea and myself as well.  It's easy to imagine being in a rural mountain cabin as we look out our windows.  All this in the midst of an urban suburb of Salt Lake City, called Bountiful.

Maybe it's just because of the season, but the house, at least on the outside, has an evil haunted aura. Our nine-year-old son Sawyer has been the most scared of the home, but he tends to scare easily. There are four large sconces on the outside of the home (two by the front door and two on each side of the garage) that came from the original Trolley Square in downtown Salt Lake.  The previous owner converted them from gas to electric. I wish that he would have left them as gas lamps and plumbed the home for gas, but, being the early '70s, I'm sure that electricity was preferred. I've been searching for a flickering bulb that actually looks and acts like a flame.  Instead, I've found flickering bulbs that emulate Frankenstein's laboratory, only to further the haunted Halloween look.  I guess I'll leave them in the lamps until the end of October. If anyone knows of a bulb that looks (and most importantly acts) like a flame, let me know.

Woods on the west side of our home.

This view is from the staircase to the front door. The block retaining wall in the background is along our driveway to the garage.

The above 3 photos are all in the front of the house (on the right side) covering the portion of the home you can't see in the first photo of the house.

This is a real French Provincial style home.  We use this as our inspiration.

We had planned to renovate the home over the next five years, however an overnight leak from the master bathroom toilet turned our new home into a mess of wet floors, ceilings and walls on all three levels. We now find ourselves in a hurried version of our previous five-year renovation plan.

Kitchen renovations. The wood floor was totally destroyed and is now plywood.

Installing new ceiling and lighting.  Previously there was a beautiful flourescent light box.  I wanted to install 3-inch can lights, but they were twice the money as the 5-inch.

More ceiling and floor renovations in the kitchen.

A portion of the master bathroom.  This is where the sink vanity was located. Note the slanted walls which are prevalent on all of the second story outside walls.