Articles by Jenia

How to: Stain Butcher Block with Black Ink

So apparently my choice of colors for the house is a) monochromatic and b) goes in phases. I am in what Sergey calls a “black phase” which follows a “white phase.”

When the kitchen renovation started, Sergey was shocked and appalled at the idea of everything being white: cabinets? white, tin ceiling? – white!, what even the floor?? – yep, white (though featuring black rosettes and black grout.) Oh and yea about the exposed brick…also white.… Read the rest

How to: Reclaimed Wood Counter (part II)

This past weekend was all about house time for us, in large part because we have plans for every single weekend in October save for one. Life – it gets in a way of house stuff (or is it the other way around?) The big accomplishment was leveling out and putting the finishing touches on our reclaimed wood island counter.

Over the two prior weekends we had selected, prepped and put together the reclaimed wood for our island counter top.… Read the rest

Construction days: 77-82

And we are back to our normal pace. There’s lots of small (time consuming) things which are getting done around here. As you might have noticed we aren’t really putting time estimates on this thing anymore – it gets done when it gets done. the more important part – it looks good. Anywho – we officially have a kitchen counter:

There are two light boxes by the walls which are masking a little problem that we have — the brick surface is uneven, which means that there is a larg-ish crack between the wall and the counter.… Read the rest

Weekend Warriors

In between our awesome trips, hanging out and hosting- through the entire renovation process, really – friends and family, we continue working on our end of the renovation process. This entails mainly thankless tasks that are hard to get wrong – demolishing, stripping old paint, priming and painting, and of course endless of hours of research of how tos (plaster) and best products ( kitchen hardware has been the bane of my existence).… Read the rest

Construction Day 76: Hooray!

Oh we have come so far! Look – we have a toilet paper holder!

But more importantly, we have finally added storage.

We had to get custom cut glass because the wall niche isn’t standard. but who cares?! we have storage. we can finally “move in” to our bathroom.I have had these knitted baskets with all of our bathroom crap sitting and waiting, waiting and sitting for probably a month now.… Read the rest

Construction days 74-75

I was very happy with Thursday/ Friday progress.

Exhibit A: Plaster walls. Its actually hard to see the difference in pictures, but the base coat went on Thursday and top coat was all done on Friday. There is a big difference to the touch though – base coat is kind of grayish and is pretty rough and almost sticky —

The top coat is white and smooth.

Overall I am very happy with the job they did skimming the plaster and so happy that we decided to stick with the original decision to go with plaster on all walls which are redone (the rest of the house mostly has plaster walls save for a few places that will be redone eventually).… Read the rest

Construction Days 68-73: Vacation edition

Sergey and I took a week long vacation – wednesday to wednesday – but the work continued while we were gone. I thought it worked out pretty well actually – anytime there was a question the contractors would text with a quick picture and we would follow up when we had time. We were still  a bit nervous coming home, but this made us happy:

A couple of notes here: the dishwasher still needs a front panel – it will match the rest of the cabinets.… Read the rest

How to: Penny Tile Floor

Awhile back – actually way before any concrete plans for this renovation materialized –  I came across these pictures of penny-tile floors and thought – that might be cool thing to do at some point somewhere in the house. Sergey was totally on board. In fact, I think he actually sent me a picture of the penny time floor for inspiration. It’s not that often that we agree on a particular project or look from the very beginning so this idea was definitely filed in the “for sure, maybe” file.… Read the rest

A Saturday Favorite

Now that breakfast made at home is hardly an option – due to cooking, clean up, and time constraints we have a new Saturday favorite tradition. A walk down North Capitol to get the requisite delicious items. First up is always Catania Bakery – not because its the closest, but because they run out of delicious Italian pastries by 9 am or so. And its not going to be a good day if you miss out on these exceptional apple croissants, the bread is excellent as well.… Read the rest

The Otto Renovation – Ikea edition

So I have been hoarding these pictures thinking I would do one big post about the ‘otto’ renovation (get it? say it out loud!) But I am not the most patient person it the world, plus I have enough of these for at least several installments. So, here we go :)

Otto really enjoys scaling things, so the pile of Ikea cabinets was his idea of perfect kitchen. His mediation pose says it all – no need to adjust anything here, i am quite pleasedthankyoumovealong.… Read the rest