You know how they say that when you’re experiencing something unpleasant, you should close your eyes and think of being somewhere beautiful? That’s what I’m doing with this first pic – it takes me away from the dust and paint and plumbing and electrical work. Well, that and providing the first of Debra’s mandated minimum two pretty pictures per post.

The work continuing at Hildring House is leading to a beautiful place, too. There has been a lot of trim work and painting going on the last few days. Here is a shot of the painter working on the accent wall in the library area.

The color (or perhaps I should say “colour”) is Almost Black from Farrow & Ball – very deep, very rich, very British.

The base near the new powder and laundry makes a nice transition to the floors.

Remember the small-ish opening between the dining/library and the kitchen that we expanded? Debra and Justin, our trim carpenter, devised  a trim casing for it – and all of the doorways, for that matter:

You may note in the pic above that the cabinets have not been painted. They do, however, have counter tops!

The tops are honed marble. You may recall from previous posts that we acknowledge but demur to all of the arguments against marble counter tops. We love them. Particularly with a honed finish. Debra searched for a slab without too much “movement” and that had some brown tones, as well as the traditional grey. The brown will pick up the floor tones and compliment the wall color (which you will see in a minute) nicely.

The Duravit toilet that Debra fell in love with has been set in the new powder

although they will have to pull it so that the tile can be installed on the back wall (it’s going to be black!).

And the ugly brick on the fireplace has a coat of primer on it:

As a reminder – here is how it used to look.

Back in the kitchen, the box for the vent hood has been hung

and it will be painted the same color as the wall behind it – Benjamin Moore Dark Olive. (This is the color that will go well with the brown elements in the marble.)

Saving the best for last, we have a functioning kitchen sink!

Personally, I think that faucet is cool enough – and having the sink is wonderful enough – that this should qualify for the second of Debra’s required pretty pictures. Don’t you agree?

Pretty soon, we may even be able to unpack some things!

Thanks so much for reading and for coming along on this adventure With the Barretts!