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Evan and I delivered four custom-sized barn doors to cottage country. The cottage was located in Kawartha Lakes Country north of Peterborough, Ontario.

The barn doors required special handling and some muscle. Thanks to Evan aka "the human crane".

It was quite the operation moving the doors across the deck, through the patio doors and up a narrow staircase.

The barn doors will be used as bypassing closet doors, a bathroom door and the main bedroom entry door.

The doors were left in place in the bedroom waiting to be installed.

Here are the "before" images" showing the bypass closet openings, the bathroom doorway and main entry doorway.

The barn doors are scheduled to be installed soon so we will be able to post the "after" shots.

Dave

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When it comes to authentic barn doors, the purists want a rough textured wood grain in simple basic designs. If the track and hardware have a used look to them, then all the better. These plain door designs inspired by simple rural country values offer useful, practical function and provide an interesting focal point. Now available on TrendingHome.ca.

Classico Barn Door Laundry Room Application

Classico Barn Door Bedroom and Bathroom Applications

Barn Door For Meeting Rooms at the Office

Sliding barn doors are excellent for closet doors

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Renwil has been creating exclusive art for over 45 years. The design studio, based in Montreal, commissions exclusive art from a

gifted team of in-house artists, directed by industry veteran Patrick St. Germain. Constantly working with new materials to create original works of art, every original design is uniquely crafted by hand and is exclusive to Renwil.

Sunburst Mirrors

The sunburst mirror design is said to have its roots in the halos surrounding figures in medieval religious art. During the 17th century, the Catholic church began using elaborate monstrances, decorative stands used to display the communion wafer, with radiating gilded rays.

Monstrance (Source of image www.holyart.com )

The sunburst design was famously incorporated above the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Alter at St. Peter's Basilica

 These design elements influenced prominent architects of the day including Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin Mansart who had an impact on Louis XIV, the Sun King of 17^th century France, who decorated his palatial country chateau Versailles with sunburst-themed architectural elements. The Royal Palace of Versailles is located in the Ile de France region just 19 kms (12 miles) from the centre of Paris was more lavish than any of the noble palaces in Europe and is a great example of French Baroque architecture for secular buildings.

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Louis VIV, the Sun King.

The main gate incorporates the sunburst design element The main 17th-century Gate of Honour at Versailles is one of the signature design elements of Versailles. The wrought iron gates are adorned with gold leaf, fleur-de-lis, crowns, cornucopias and an Apollo sun mask, Louis XIV’s personal emblem.

Gate of Honour at Versailles

The sunburst mirror evolved from this Sun King emblem where a small circular mirror became the focal point in living rooms and dining rooms. Clusters of sunburst mirrors is an attractive option.

 In our home we purchased a Renwil sunburst mirror and hung it in our living room. It is a focal point in the room. In the morning light it comes alive with shininh reflective light that brightens the room.

Several sunburst mirror designs that are currently available on TrendingHomeDecor.ca are shown below.

Como Sunburst Mirror

Dios Sunburst Mirror

Celeste Sunburst Mirror

Arizona Sunburst Mirror

After two months the kitchen renovation has been completed. The plan was for a six week project but the two additional weeks were needed for finishing touches. We replaced the carpet in the dining room with a laminate flooring that coordinated with the kitchen space. We chose not to extend the hardwood floor from the kitchen into the formal dining room area. We did this because we wanted to a lighter floor finish to provide contrast to our mahogany dining room furntiture.

We like the new laminate floor since it provides an easy-to-maintain hard-surface floor. With the previous carpet floor, there were always stains to deal with and occasional steam cleaning. At the same time we removed the old crown molding and upgraded the baseboards to an 8" wide profile to  anchor the space.

Removing the wall between the kitchen and dining was a good decision. Our new kitchen is a lot more functional with the island being the focal point for kitchen conversations and food preparation. There is a better flow in and around the island and two or more people can co-exist in the space without bumping into each other, which was a problem with our old kitchen design.

One of the clear benefits is how much brighter the kitchen is with natural sunlight streaming in from the kitchen and dining room windows. The recessed lighting and island lighting had task lighting that makes the kitchen a joy to be in.

We achieved a brighter open kitchen which was our primary goal.

A fun kitchen accessory from TrendingHomeDecor.ca that was used in our kitchen renovation were the over-sized Decadent kitchen utensils.

Product Description: Decadent - STA222

This is our official "After" kitchen image

Here's the "Before" kitchen  image from the same vantage point.

Now that the new oak floor has been installed and finishin, we're ready for the cabinets. it took a week to get al of the cabinets and accessories delivered to our place. But we did get one day of installation as shown below. At this stage we paid Kirchen & Bath another 45% of our contract for a toal of 90%. We're now three weeks ito the project.

In week four more progress was made including the island and recessed lighting installation as shown below. Bringing Andy, our electrician, back in had to be coordinated with the installation of the cabinets. We had to be available constantly to make decisions for our cabinet installer regarding issues with plumbing and electircal connections since these cabinets have to be fitted around them. Before the cabinets were delivered we had to plan for this to minimize the cut-outs and holes that had to be made in the back of the cabinets. 

Now things are shaping up. We can begin to see our vision taking shape. The almond cabinets with an espresso island on an oak floor.

At the start of week five the quartz countertops were measured from the template of our installed cabinets and islands. Delivery will take ten days. Now the finishing details can be worked on while we wait for our countertop. Details like door installation, lighting valences and crown molding.

 At least we got to put the fridge back in place. Once the countertops are installed, the dishwasher, sink, garburator and water to the fridge can be connnected. Now ere're talking!

After one full week we are starting Day 8 all excited to get our new kitchen floor. We're going to remove the old floor and install a new wood floor with red oak.

The old kitchen floor needs to be re-finished

Once installed we'll have the entire kitchen floor sanded and stained to match the existing hardwood floor on the main floor.

Sanded and stained with one top coat of polyurethane.

Our new gleaming floor with a seconf coat of semi-gloss polyurethane and a final coat of high gloss polyurethane.

The installation of the structural beam has to be supervised by a structural enginneer to make sure that the LVL beam is sized properly for the estimated weight load and that it is installed properly to support the the second floor and first floor in the finished basement.

Prior to the beam installation, the old stud wakk was removed and a temporary support wall was installed.

Once the temporary wall was set up, the new beam was installed on the supports on either side.

 The new open space looks great! Now we're ready to replace the wood floor in the kitchen.

On Wednesday, Day 4, Andy our electrician, completed all of the relocation work we asked him to do so that the LVL (laminated Veneer Lumber) beam could be installed. Andy moved the dining room chandelier location approximately two feet on the dining room ceiling. He re-located the chandelier wall switch to the side wall and added three new wall plugs.

He roughed in the wiring for the under-cabinet lighting, the island plug and the new location of the island lighting. Andy will come back once the cabinets and islamd are installed.

On Thursday, Day 5, Scott our plumber, had moved all of the plumbing in the wall space to an wall section that is staying.On Wednesday Day 5, our prime contractor, Kitchen & Bath, http://kitchenandbath.ca/ completed the installation of a temporary structural wall.

 Both Andy and Scott had to work in the basement ceiling in order to make all the new connections to work. Not a big deal. Just a little drywall patching is required.

Since the the kitchen floor was  in transition, we decided to install a floor level vac pan, since we already had central vac system. I went online to research the contractors available and decided on the Vac Man http://vacman.ca/ who charged $200 to supply and install the same day. His online rating was good and his professional installation service confirmed that. Not bad. 

All of the contents of the kitchen cabinets had to be removed and store. This took two days to do and we decided to purchase ten large plastic storage bins to pack most of the goods away. Cost was less $100 all in. We found the best deal at Canadian Tire although Home Depot had a simple deal. We segmented the non-perishable food bins from the non-food bins and placed them all in the dining room. The disruption chaos has begun. Remember this is Day One of an estimated 42 days to complete this project.

The wall between the dining room and the kitchen has to be stripped of its drywall skin. The bulkheads on the ceiling of the kitchen have to be  removed to open up the ceiling to enable all the changes to take place. We had large drop sheets which we placed over the work areas to capture debris and protection the floor surfaces. We placed sheets over the dining room sideboard to protect it from dust and scratches.

We wanted to keep the kitchen appliances going as long as possible. So for week one, we kept the fridge, gas stove and sink operating to have some semblance of a functioning kitchen.

We had all the safety gear with work gloves, eye protection and safety boots

 It's true that the demolition process is cathartic and done properly can be a lot of fun. Everything went out to the dumpster in the middle of a howling snow storm.