Inspiring fireplaces

Hi everybody, I hope everyone had a relaxing and fun weekend.  We tend to never really have a relaxing weekend, but we usually have a enjoyable weekend. This weekend we had four birthdays to celebrate, lots of fun!

One of the things that made this weekend even more exciting for me is that my husband started to build and install my gas fireplace, yeah!  I have been anxiously waiting for this moment, I have always wanted a fireplace in my house.  I love the cozy, comforting, warm feeling of a fireplace.  Eventhough,  I chose a modern linear fireplace instead of the traditional log fireplace, I'm sure it will still feel very cozy.

There used to be a long, thin window on this wall, which was so useless and didn't make any sense.  So, we elimnated the window and put two windows with enough space to accomodate for the fireplace.

 Boxed out floor to ceiling surround...

 Here is the fireplace out of the box, it is huge!

We fired it up and it works, hooray!  Love it!

Now, it is a matter of finalizing the finish of the surround.

Here are some of my inspirations…

Contemporary Spaces by Kelowna Artists & Artisans Brandon-Johnson Art and Design

Modern Living Room by Vancouver Architects & Designers Architrix Design Studio Inc.

Contemporary Living Room by Hudson Specialty Contractors Construction Daniel Rodrigue

SallyL: Jennifer Brouwer Design

Contemporary Living Room by Denville Kitchen & Bath Designers Trueform Concrete

Contemporary Living Room by Brooklyn Photographers Rikki Snyder

They are all so beautiful… What do you think? Which one would you choose?  I think I know which one I would choose.

Have a great day!

Art Exhibition at Cuisine by Claudette

This past Friday, my dear friend Claudette, owner of Cuisine by Claudette a gourmet eatery in our neighborhood exhibited her first art show displaying the works of local artists and yours truly, me.  Claudette is an incredible chef and also an art enthusiast, it was only a matter of time before she blended her love for food and art into her restaurant.

There was a huge turn out for this event, the exhibition consisted of beautiful pottery, watercolor paintings, artwork using recycled wood, stunning photography, ink drawings and acrylic paintings.

Exhibit featured works of these following artists…

Beautiful Watercolor creations by Arlene Cornell.  You can see more of her work here.

Incredible artwork of Thomas Kerr, a professional illustrator has been published major newspapers acrooss the United States.  More of his work can be seen here.  

Liz Smith-Breslin displayed her gorgeous photography and her beach writing photos.  She owns beautiful gift store, the Blue Bungalow in our neighborhood where you can find coastal artwrok, jewelry, delicious smelling candles and more. 

Eugene Nichol and Susan Locke displayed their unique and beautiful pottery.

Pamala Wyatt of Painting Pamala created these distinctive gifts from salvaged wood and and re-purposed items.  

Jack Neasrey uses wood from old picket fences, shells found on the beach and recycles wood to create amazing wall decor, benches and more.

Finally, I displayed two of my acrylic paintings and a sea shell mirror,  I really enjoyed being a part of this wonderful exhibition.

Enthusiasts of all ages showed up to admire the works of our local artists.  

Caricature artist drew fun pictures of the visitors…

Even filmmaker/director Kevin Breslin had a caricature portrait done of himself.

It was such an enjoyable evening and a great turnout, hopefully this will be the beginning of more exhibits to come.

If you are visiting Rockaway, don't forget to stop by Cuisine by Claudette at 143 Beach 116th Street, Rockaway Park, New York.  Come in and taste Claudette's incredibly delicious mediterranean cuisine, her food is all about freshness, distinctive quality and mouthwatering flavor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Home renovation update

End of this month is the one year anniversay of Hurricane Sandy, I can't believe how fast time flies (even when you are not having so much fun, Ha).  It's been almost a year since we have been out of our house and started our rebuild after the storm.  Being that my husband is the contractor on the job, I feel very secure that the house is being built well.

My husband wanted so badly to knock the house down and rebuild it from the ground up, but we didn't have the time or the budget for that kind of project.  He would have rather gone that route because when you open up walls in a old house, its like opeining up a can of worms.  Our house especially, because it had gone through a few different alterations with a lot of shoddy work in its' lifetime.

Our house was built in 1912, then in the 1960's it became the only green grocer in the neighborhood.  The neighborhood assosciation didn't like the idea of all the traffic and a commercial store amongst their residential homes, so the association bought out the store and changed the zoning to have no commercial stores in our section of the neighborhood.  They were quite powerful at that time…  As a result of the swift change from the store to a house, they had carelessly constructed the house without adequate support.  Due to Hurricane Sandy and the poor construction, I am surprised only the exterior wall fell during the storm.   We had to  repair and replace all the structural beams and joists and then some!  You can see it here and here.

The exterior of the house got a nice fresh look with blue grey siding with white trim and chose a charcoal ledgestone to wrap the foundation wall.  I love the way its coming together!

Here is the ledgestone for the bottom of the house.

We are added a portico over the steps and the porch I always wanted…

It seems to have already attracted all the kids on the block, that's what its all about!

There's been a lots of progress inside too… We had noticed that there was space between the ceiling in the livingroom, so we decided to raise the ceiling to almost 11 feet,  which can accomodate even a bigger christmas tree this year, yeah! I love a big tree!   So far, all the walls have been insulated, drywalled and all the electric is in place, tubing for the air conditioning has been bought to location.

The first floor is almost done, its just in need of the fireplace wall to be built out and placed, walls painted and floors installed.  It's the home stretch… I can't wait for the fun part, decorating!

I wonder how the livingroom is going to evolve this time, before it looked like this…  I was not thrilled with the sea of brown that was going on here.

Thanks for stopping by!

One Room Challenge Linky Party at Calling it Home blog

I stumble upon this wonderful blogger, Linda at Calling it Home while surfing the blogsphere.  Besides having a great blog, she has a great linky party called One Room Challenge.  This the way it goes, you choose a space you want to transform and you have six weeks to accomplish this.  Meanwhile, once a week you talk about the stages you are at with your project.  Linda provides easy guidelines for the participants follow. This is such a great way to get a project done that you may have been contemplating and to meet new bloggers.

I would have loved to join this party, especially because I am such a procrastinator, this would have put a fire under my ----.   Unfortunately, my house is not yet ready for decorating, we are still in the structural repair stages of my home renovation.  Today is the day to get in on this fun challenge, so hop on over there and check it out!

One Room Challenge at Call it Home

Thanks for stopping by!