Our wine cellar: part 3 and reveal

Our wine cellar is a huge source of pride in our home. We love it!
 We didn't have air conditioning in our home for two years but we had a cooling unit for the wine cellar. I know, our priorities are all messed up! At least we had lots of cool  wine to dink away those hot summer days:)

Here is it is- our cellar:

We are currently running low-ish on wine since we restock in fall/winter during wine making season.
We painted the walls a light buttery color, installed wooden crown moldings stained walnut, and the wine racks were also stained walnut. Yes, we stained and assembled all these wine racks- it took forever!!! The wine racks were purchased at Aux Plaisirs du Bacchus on Bernard Avenue in Montreal.
You can also see the end result of the travertine floor. It's just the right look for a wine cellar.

 

We use an old wine barrel to decorate a corner of the room and we got some wooden wine boxes from our local liquor store to hide some wine making supplies. Tip: In Montreal if you ask your local S.A.Q. for some wooden boxes they'll give them to you for a small donation.

 We have a small bistro table in the room, mainly for good looks. We don't actually drink in the room because it's cold in there (10-12 degrees celsius). 

View from the wine room into the living room. We installed an exterior grade cedar wood door. Ideally, the wine should be in a dark room and the door shouldn't have glass. But I wanted to be able to see into the wine room from the living room so we decided on this door. The room is large enough that the light that flows in doesn't disturb the wine

View into the wine room from the living room. Love it!

The light fixture was purchased at Home Depot and it's the right size. color, a style for the room. Just to add some pizazz we also installed a decorative medallion.

I think it's now clear to everyone that I love my wine. Every year since we've been married Tony and I have made wine, about 200-250 bottles each year. We also like to buy some inexpensive bottles and of course we love it when our friends bring us gifts of wine bottles- hint, hint! LOL- just kidding:)

Smiles,
Nancy

linking to Between naps on the porch and other parties on my Party Link page

Living room renovation: getting it done and choices

Because this was our second large DIY renovation project (after the basement bathroom) we needed some help along the way. We were still new to the game. Luckily my father was still willing to help and teach us along the way. The project took a full 6 months to complete. This was because Tony and I were both working full-time, I was working on my Ph.D, and we were also planning out big Italian/Portuguese wedding. We were busy, busy bees!

My daddy and I hard at work! The first step was to put up the ceiling. 2"x4"s were used to help hold up the gyp. This isn't the smartest of ideas since the gyp was heavy! But, we were new to this. We used 5/8" gyp for both the ceiling and the walls.

We then installed the gyp on the walls. Even at this primitive point in the renovation I think the room looks better than the original. One thing I must say is that we didn't insulate the walls in this room. You can see in the previous image that there was some, although very inadequate, insulation. We were tight with the budget. Also, we figured that since many older homes in our area didn't have insulation, we didn't have to add it. This is one of our biggest regrets because the room is much colder in the winter than the other rooms we did insulate. Live and learn! 

You can see that there is a gap above the fireplace. This is where we removed the boxes hiding the old water heater pipes. We had to create a decorative molding to mask this gap.

My daddy working hard!

My daddy working hard again! I also enrolled my sister as a volunteer renovator. How nice of her to participate! Funny, both my father and sister stopped calling and coming over. I wonder why? Just kidding:)

The biggest impact in the room was the installation of wood floors. We choose a 2 1/4 inch wide American cherry. I know that large planks are in style but we loved the look of the very thin planks reminiscent of wood floors in older homes.

The arrival of tons of wood!

Installing the wood floors. We had such a hard time getting a company to install the floors. Because the planks are so thin, there was much more work involved. Some companies just refused while others wanted up to $5000 for the installation! Crazy! We called Montreal Parquetery, the store where we purchase the floors, requesting to return the floors. They recommended a company that gave us a great price and service. We are happy we didn't return it because the end result is gorgeous.

You can see how small the pieces are.

Installation complete! This is before the floors were varnished, which changes the color significantly.

We installed large 5 1/4 inch crown molding. Makes a big difference in the room.

The decorative items:

We wanted to keep a coffee bar area in the room so we purchased this bar from Hooker Furniture.

The coffee table and console are the Pavillion collection from Bombay Company

I purchased this clock years before we bought the house and just kept it in the box. It's large so you need tall ceilings but it's definitely a show stopper.

That's it for now!
Later in the week I'll show off the final product. Check back soon:)


Nancy