Dining Room Buffet

So we actually have had this buffet for a while, but I haven't posted about it, so I'll do it now. 

A few months ago I bought an Axium Buffet from Overstock.com.  I had been looking for a dark, modern-looking buffet, and this was it.

I read the reviews and the most common complaint was that it took a while to put together (most people said 4-5 hours).  I'm actually one of the weird people who love putting furniture together, so this didn't deter me. 

It arrived about a week after I ordered it in 3 very large boxes.  It came in about 200 pieces, including hardware.  No problem!  I gathered the tools I needed and got to work. 

It took me about 4 hours overall to assemble.  I did it 95% myself, but Matt had to help me lift some pieces when it started to get too heavy.

I love how it looks, and it's held up really well for the past few months.  I still need to figure out exactly what's going to go on top of it, but I'm not in a hurry.  

The Dining Room is Trimmed!

After months of procrastination, we finally finished the trim in our dining room!  I'm really excited with how it looks.  We spent the weekend cutting, nailing, filling holes, caulking and painting, and it was worth it.  Now we can finally clear all of the power tools off the dining room table!

But first, let's look back at what the dining room looked like when we bought the house.

Taken during our final walk-through in March.

It was yellow, the floors were stained dark and there was an ugly outdated window valance.  The first thing we did was rip down the window treatments and take out the trim.  Then I spackled and sanded the walls.

Window and door trim down, walls spackled.

Having the floor refinished made a huge difference in the dining room.

Dining room with refinished floor.

Once the floors were finished we were able to start painting.

Progress of the painted dining room.

And then... we stopped.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  We stopped working on the dining room.  There were many other project that were completed in between painting and the trim going up, but for some reason the dining room never seemed to be a priority.  But with the party we're hosting this weekend, we figured it was finally time to finish it.

Matt and I have a great system worked out for installing trim.  Matt measures and cuts, I paint the cut pieces, Matt puts them on the wall, I fill the nail holes, caulk and touch up the paint.   Here's an example of why caulk is our bff:

Before caulking

After caulking

So here is the final product:

It looks pretty awesome, right?  But wait, there's more!  After taking these photos I realized that the dining room really wouldn't be complete without the curtains, so I convinced Matt to help me hang them.  I need him for these sorts of things because I tend to want things done fast, but Matt takes the time to measure twice and make sure that everything is being done properly.

Measure twice, drill once.

We decided to use the same curtains in the dining room as the living room, since it's an open space and we wanted to keep some uniformity.

 So here it is with the curtains up!  I'm really pleased with how it looks.  Obviously I still need to steam the curtains since they just came out of the packaging, but it shouldn't take too long, and we finally have them up!  I think we might be ready for this party after all :)

Wait, we have a dining room?

Well, you may be surprised, as I really haven't mentioned it since we bought the house.  Honestly, I think we forget it's there sometimes.  It's embarrassing, but 90% of the time Matt and I eat our dinner in the office in front of the TV.  It's a bad habit. 

Anyway, we recently started to install trim in the dining room!  We still have a little bit left, but I thought I'd give you a sneak peek. 

Here it is with some of the base trim up.  Please ignore all the tools on the table.

The first piece of chair rail is up!

The window trim is done (well, except for the whole caulking and painting, but I'll get to that!)

 So anyway, I think this proves that we have a dining room, and in a couple of weeks it's going to look awesome! 

I've also been busy planning my brother's graduation party.  Steve graduated from Penn State in August, but my mom has been sick, so we postponed his party until she was feeling better.  Well, it's almost here!  We're rushing to get the house put together and get everything prepared for his party on October 30th.  Wish us luck!

Let there be color!

We finally have color in the house!  We finally got to the point of painting the house, and paint we did.  I spent the whole weekend painting, with a lot of help of course!   We got through the main spaces that we'll need to move furniture into, which is exactly how far I wanted to get!  Here are the photos, but I don't think my camera does some of the colors justice.

The bathroom is blue!

 The guest room is green!

 The office is brown!

 The living room is gray!  Also, that light fixture is new.  My dad was able to hook it up today, and I think it looks great!

 The stairs and hallway are gray!

And if you know me, you know I had to paint something purple.  Here's the dining room!

I can't wait until we're able to take up the drop cloths and see the floors with the new paint.  The house has completely transformed in the past few weeks.  Now all it needs are mouldings and we'll be ready to go!