Finishing the Foyer

I normally do my Weekender post on Fridays, or at least the Fridays that I remember to do them, but I promised a foyer post this week so here we go!

I mentioned before that 2019 will be the year we actually finish a bunch of projects that are already in progress. We have a few different areas to choose from and we decided to start downstairs in the foyer. Here’s an accurate depiction of how the space has looked since the day after Odessa’s birthday party.

The foyer is mostly finished; it really just needs baseboards, crown molding, and window/door trim. Oh and we have to repair the window sill because Barley has to constantly stand on it to bark at every living thing that passes and let’s just say she’s not the smallest dog.

Before we can do any of that though, we have to pull up the floors and re-install them. We originally installed the floors as a temporary fix but turns out we love them and the dogs can run and slide across them all day without scratching them so we want to put them throughout the downstairs. The problem is that to do that we have to install them from the front of the house going toward the back of the house and right now they’re the other way around. It shouldn’t be too bad since they are super easy to install so at least there’s that.

So that’s hiccup #1 with finishing the foyer (because it doesn’t make sense to put in baseboards before the floors are done). #2 involves the “mudroom” bench and laundry room.

We have big, big plans for the laundry room in the next couple of years. It’s a project we never really thought of as a priority but honestly it will have such a domino effect on  how the entire rest of the downstairs functions that it’s something we’re trying to move up the list. When I say big plans, I mean completely changing the lay out and blowing out walls and that includes the wall between the current laundry room and the little bench nook by the powder room and taking out the bench itself. Since we want to carry the flooring into these areas as well, we’re going to need to go ahead and at least tear the bench out and potentially that wall so we can install the flooring properly.

Fun fact: the paint samples at the top of that photo have been there for approximately 5.5 years.

I’m a little sad about ripping the bench out because it’s the first thing we ever built but it tends to just be a place we throw crap so it’s probably better this way.

Once the floors are done we can install all of the new trim and the foyer will be mostly finished! We’re going to get a new front door this spring which should be the last thing we need to finish this space.