Weekly Wrapup: 9/26 - 9/30

As you may know, we have been in the middle of major renovations in our house since the end of July.  It has been an exciting, trying, crying and anxiety laden time in our lives.  Little one has been right in the middle of the uproar and her schedule (trying to figure out if we had one) has been messed up.  Daddy and little one worked getting furniture back into our house!

For the first time in over 3 months, I had to travel for my job. I was off to Boston Monday through Wednesday. Getting back into a routine was the first order of business for Daddy and little one.  Not an easy task.  This is our supposed schedule :

• Get up at reasonable time (around 8am)
• Eat breakfast (why is that one so hard to get done?)
• Get dressed (and take shower for little one if she did not have a bath the night before)
• Mommy's Morning out (in our case it should be Daddy's morning out!)
• Lunch
• About an hour of "school"  in the early afternoon
• Play Play Play Play ("wait you need shoes to go outside"; "no don't <insert your defnition of NO>")
• Make dinner (why does it always take longer with HELP?)
• Eat dinner
• Story time
• Bed by 8pm (okay more like 9 or 9:30)

This last week Daddy and little one came close.  Yes we missed dance on Monday but not really surprised as Daddy doesn't always think of that.

Outside of getting back into a semblence of a routine, the big thing we did this last week is use our imagination.  Bill let little one have a big box to play with.  Here is what we learned this week:

1. How to build a tent
2. Cages hold back the monsters
3. Hide and seek
4. Tossing the ball into the "basket"
5. Tell stories about the box and her dwellers

Fun fun stuff and I loved that little one wanted to teach us these things.  I have always found one learns more teaching another!

What a difference cabinets make!

On Tuesday, we were at a point that I felt like we may never get done.  Things were starting to come together

• All painting but the study was done
• Hardwood floors stained and 2 coats of poly with the 3rd to be done after everything else is done
• All new doors in and painted
• Electricians working on the final lighting

But the kitchen was bare.  No calls from the cabinet maker that he was done and I was getting worried.  Yesterday, I never went into the house. I was in my office heads down.

I walked into the house this morning and.............................................. WOW see what has been accomplished:

Looking over the bar/island cooktop into the kitchen.

Front of cooktop island

Another look at the kitchen

And just heard from our contractor that the countertop guy is headed here to make the template for the counters!   I can see progress and I have a kitchen.  Okay I can't cook in it yet but I have one!

Wordless Wednesday: More Renovation

Are you sick of it yet?  Yeah, so am I.  I am so ready for it to be done! And we still have about 3-4 more weeks before we can move furniture back in!  So with that said, here we go:

Bill in demolition mode (goggles and mask a must!)

Daddy, is it done yet?  PLEASE!

Old dishwasher, kitchen is no more!

Beams are in! Standing at the back wall of living room,
looking toward what will be the island cooktop/raised bar and kitchen wall.

Tackle it Tuesday -- Transforming My Chandelier

Here is my goal:  Transform the frosted glass and metal chandelier bought at the Savannah, GA Habitat for Humanity Re-store for $25 from mottled brown and red to a hammered silver finish. 

We bought the paint to do this project over a month ago. I am notorious for starting a project and never finishing.  

 I have priced a similar chandelier in a lighting store for over $300.  I figure between spray paint and a little elbow grease, I will have a light in my dining room I am proud of for less than $40.  Especially since I already have sandpaper in the shed from other projects of Bill and my Dad's.

This one I have a deadline as the electricians will be ready to put this in for me early next week in my new dining room.  Well no more procrastinating.  I have the first coat on the lamp and oh what a difference a couple of hours on an afternoon makes. 

I still have one to two more coats to do but hey Bill can't complain, I am getting it done!  Tackling it and finishing it will be a major accomplishment.  Come back next Tuesday to see the finished product (maybe hanging in the dining room if the electricians are done as they think they will be.)


Thank you to The Daily Meme and 5 Minutes for Mom  for the inspiration to get it done!   I will definitely be tackling more projects as summer turns into fall. 

What are you tackling today?

Wordless Wednesday: Hard at work!

Been waiting for today to really show off the efforts of our hard work this week!

End cabinet next to Fridge and basically where a column will be!

Fridge and cabinet area and part of the cooktop island

End view of kitchen looking into what will become the study

Cabinets gone where the fridge used to be

Where the new island/bar and cooktop will be looking into the living room

Renovation: Kitchen is barebones!

It is amazing how much a 3-man construction crew and my hubby can demolish in a day.  Yesterday, the crew came in, took the drywall down on the three remaining walls to be replaced with beams and columns.  This took, oh 2 hours maybe!

They pried up the hardwood flooring in the dining room, kitchen, foyer and study.  This will be reused but was running the opposite way than that which is in the rest of the house.  Bill has removed nails from about 1/4 of the boards so far.  As I said it will be relaid then we will have someone come in to sand and refinish the entire house.  The crew completed all of the rooms but the dining room.  They will be back on Wednesday to complete that.

Next up after removal of the flooring is bracing to allow removal of the load bearing wall studs.  Then removal of the studs and putting in beams put in to handle the load.  We also have 4 columns going in to carry the load from the beam to the pillars under the house.  I am learning first hand just how much work remodeling is --- and no it doesn't happen in 30 minutes like on HGTV.   I already knew that but the reality is so much more.

As promised, here is the proposed new layout of our house.  Keep in mind the back bedroom and bathroom changes are not happening in this phase except for the new doorway!  Another causality of budget was the ventless fireplace and cabinetry in the living room.  We are piping/wiring for it but will not tackle that till later.

Renovation: The Wall is gone!

Okay not completely gone but the dry wall is gone. 

You can really start to see just how open the living room is going to be.  Bill has his assignment from our contactor for what must be completed before the crew arrives on Tuesday.  We must have the drywall gone on the walls and pieces of walls that are going to be removed.  The studs must remain because most of the walls we are removing are load bearing and beams must be put in place along with columns.

Before

So far, between our nephew and Bill:

• The wall dividing the living room and hallway has been demolished.  
• The wall between the telephone room and the living room is gone. 
• The carpet is gone in the hallway and telephone is gone
• We found out there is hardwood through out the house and we are pulling out all the carpet and refinishing the whole house! WOOHOO! Can you tell I am excited?

After

Sunday's agenda:

• Pack up the kitchen and in the process determine what must be packed and what is going out to the RV
• Move furniture out of our bedroom and closet room in anticipation of pulling up carpet
• Couponing (a whole other story that I haven't written yet)
• Laundry

Renovation Day 1 - Demolition starts

TODAY is the day! Demolition of the kitchen, living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen area, weird double entry foyer and hallway has begun.

I foresee lots of Wordless Wednesday posts coming out of this renovation!  For today I will outline what we are doing and how it is going!

To understand what we are doing, please take a look at the existing floor plan.  Can you see a major design flaw in the kitchen?  Wait for it................. yep you guessed it, the cook top island.   If you think it looks bad in a flat drawing, it is nothing compared to the reality.  Both Bill and I have lost over 200lbs from our largest weight, and we still can't get by it without turning sideways.  And heaven forbid you have someone who wants to come into the kitchen when the oven door is down!

Here are some of the highlights of our new plan, come back later this week to see the floor plans!

• Kitchen wall where the refrigerator is today will be gone, at least the upper portion
• New door to a new deck on the sink side of the kitchen
• Flooring refinished darker throughout the house
• New cook top, oven/microwave/convention oven combo on the wall
• New cabinets, sink and counter top
• Today's dining room will be the study and Jea's classroom
• Today's Eat-in kitchen area (also known as the den by Bill and his sister) will be the dining room
• Living room wall that makes the hallway is gone

Today, the carpet in the hallway and the molding from all of the front rooms is being removed by Bill and his nephew.