Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas in Defiance

The day of the Christmas Parade, December 7, the Inn was decorated to fit into the holiday spirit!
The parade started at Wine Country Gardens, passed the Grapevine Bistro & Visitor Center, The Katy Trail Bike Rental, The Robin's Nest on the Katy Trail, The Defiance Roadhouse, then up the hill past The Inn at Defiance, ending at the Yellow Farmhouse Winery.

Although it was a cold day which kept some of the pets away from the pet parade, there were still quite a few float and pet entries. The merchants all had hot chocolate and cookies to keep you warm, the Yellow Farmhouse offered Santa photos for your pet, and the church hosted a delicious lunch with very tasty chili and yummy cookies for sale. It was a fun (and filling) day!
 
 

Remodeling of the flooring at the Inn at Defiance



January 2014 proves to be a busy month with hammers flying and new flooring!

New flooring is going into all of the bathrooms as well as the kitchen, 4 Seasons room, Master bedroom suite, and the lounge with work slated to begin the first week in January. 

The three main area bedrooms all have the original wood floors of the building (the original part of the building is 111 years old, although when the previous owners remodeled to make it a B & B, they updated all of the walls, but kept the floors). The carpeting in the master suite was removed and cherry hardwood flooring is being installed.  The carpeting in both the four seasons room and the dining room was all removed, and the dividing wall was partially removed to make the dining room a lounge. Both of these rooms will have porcelain tile that compliment each other.  All of the bathrooms will be refloored with porcelain tile as well.

A lot of options are available when it comes to flooring.  Hardwood choices are very abundant. When choosing the cherry hardwood for the Master Suite, we liked the smooth finish and the size of the planks. We considered going with a distressed-type wood, but decided against it to go with a more rich and elegant feel.

The kitchen area will retain the 12x12 ceramic tile around the kitchen island and the immediate work area.  For the remaining area of the kitchen, we wanted it to be comfortable with a "warm" feel to it, yet have something that would flow from the older hardwood in the front of the house and compliment the hardwood of the Master Suite which abuts the area. We chose a dark cork flooring, something we hadn't really seen before.  It really gives a unique look to the kitchen eating area.

In the four seasons room, we needed something that would hold up well to moisture since there is a large hot tub spa in there, and we also wanted something that would blend and flow well into the lounge area.  Because of the ability of porcelain to work well in that sort of atmosphere, we selected a 12 x 12 tile that has a somewhat rough texture to it (so it won't be slick if wet).  As it flows into the lounge area, we'll be adding a border to set it off, and possibly some sort of medallion in the center.

The bathrooms are all also getting varying shades of porcelain tile (a Noce, an Almond, and a Copper). There are many flooring/tile companies that carry these, so we shopped around quite a bit to find something that was of a good quality but not too harsh on the checkbook.

The upper floor of the Inn will also be having all carpeting removed and wood plank flooring installed to change the room from what was a former exercise room to a library and activity room with an observation area that looks out across the Missouri river valley.

We're still shooting for a mid-March opening date and believe all of the flooring will be completed in plenty of time!  Here are some "IN PROGRESS" photos.