Ugh. The last few weeks have been so busy for us with our day jobs that house projects and our beloved blog have unfortunately taken a back seat. And by back seat I mean in the way back row of seats in a ginormous SUV, or perhaps a bus. Though I do want to quickly report on a small amount of progress made on the front vestibule project.
Here's a recent pic of the space:
Looking good, eh?
Just picture beautiful french doors (painted black) in place of the black door pictured above, and the stripped interior door painted in the top shade of turquoise shown on the sample board. Benjamin Moore's Florida Keys Blue if you're curious. (Thanks to everyone who cast a vote last week for their fave color.)
Here's the current state of our project check list:
- Renovate the space, walls, ceiling, molding, strip, patch, paint
- Install new tile floor
- Make interior transom window operational
- Purchase salvaged french doors and new front door
- Purchase antique mail slot
- Select color for front door (Benjamin Moore Florida Keys Blue!)
- Strip doors and replace glass panes
- Build up, size, and install french doors
- Build up, size, and install front door
- Replace exterior transom window with either leaded glass or painted house numbers (we're not sure on this step yet)
Well item number five, consider yourself officially checked off! Despite a previous setback on this item (detailed in this post), we're now the proud new owners of an antique mail slot.
Despite it's petite size of only 6 3/4" x 1 3/4", and even smaller in the opening (not USPS regulation size by the way), we think it will be a wonderful touch to the front of our home. With all of the older and historic homes around us, our local carriers are accostomed to non-regulation size mail slots. And, given they don't like to go the extra step of opening an anterior door AND putting the mail through a slot in another door, we think we're okay. We assume they'll just throw it on the floor of the vestibule like they do with our next door neighbor's mail. (Our neighbor, by the way, has a "normal" sized mail slot. But I digress.)
In case you're curious, we found the mail slot on eBay for a hefty sum of $75.00. After several failed attempts to purchase this particular mail slot at other antique stores and online stores, we decided to go for it rather than holding up the project any longer. It was more than I wanted to pay, but at some point you need to pull the trigger.
What do you think? Is it a good choice? Alex is obsessed with the architectural details, so he really wanted something that was correct for the age of the house.
Yes, we know, this project is dragging on months past our expected completion date. Just please don't ask us if we're done yet or plan to hire someone to finish it. But more on that tomorrow...
