Sheetrock!

Jim expected to sheetrock on Monday (June 24), and we were all excited to stop by and see the transformation.  Sadly, nothing happened on Monday.  We were sure something would happen on Tuesday, but more sadness.  Nothing Wednesday.  I stopped by on Thursday and saw...

Sheetrock!

 Here's Noah checking out our cool skylight balcony.  It's very, very tempting for kids, but they have been strenuously warned. 

Velux makes a blind for the skylight.  Very reasonable, thank goodness, because a custom job would have been pretty scary.

Met with Kristen on Wednesday for a paint consultation.  2 1/2 hours!  I was cross-eyed by the end, but it was incredibly helpful. 

Met with Steve from Empire Carpet today at the new house.  Empire has a hard sell strategy where they try to get you to sign a contract right then.  Unfortunately (for Steve), this strategy doesn't work if the price is really high.  (I had shopped around already.)  So he got on the phone with his "manager" (not sure if there was really anyone on the other end of that call), and came back with a price that was cut almost in half.  We were kind of stunned, but still refused to sign anything.  Steve's heart wasn't in it at that point, so he didn't protest too much.

This was the third big unexpected price break we've gotten in three weeks -- first was our new car,  and second was the new refrigerator -- thanks to David.  I got the prices, but he told me to shop around for the car and to bargain for the fridge, and it worked!

Here are more photos of sheetrock:

Mud room

Opening to kitchen closed up slightly to line up with kitchen window

Marco taping the skylights

View down the hall toward our bathroom

 

 

 

Our bathroom

Our enormous shower

Tile woes

I've been teaching Evie about finding the area of shapes, so the price of tile shouldn't have been a shock to me.  And yet, when we went to the tile store yesterday with the quantities that Justin the Tile Guy recommended, I was totally horrified by the prices.  The prices seem a lot cheaper when it's per square foot! 

Our shower is enormously huge.  The shower alone is about a third of our tile cost for the whole house.  It's David's baby - one end is supposed to be a drying/robing/snacking/newspaper reading/coffee bar area.  All professionals involved have commented on the size.  Enough.  We know it's big.

Here is a possible find for our kitchen backsplash:

 

 



Evie likes it vertical, Noah likes it horizontal.  Justin says it looks "bathroomy".

Look here for a good ideabook on kitchen color palettes.

Houzz kitchen color palettes

Insulation

Insulation has been the only real point of difference between Russ and Jim. (I was about to say the only point of contention, but that would be wrong.)  Jim won that one, partly because we were nervous about having him supervise a process that he doesn't like.  Anyway, here's the insulation going in:

Here's the outside - lots of rotten trim to be replaced:

New tub for the kids. Nice and deep.

Skylight!  All the sheetrock for the third floor will be brought in through this opening, then the balcony skylight will be put in.  I had not thought about what the view would be (though I'm sure other people did). Am very grateful not to be looking directly into someone's bathroom.

Carpet torn out.  Two steps forward, one step back.

 

 

Here's the beautiful box that Jim built to hold the TV.  I took one look and said, "Are you sure it's going to fit?"  There was some back and forth between Jim and David, and they concluded that it would - by force of will.  If it's exactly centered, there should be a whole 1/8" to spare.  Maybe.

 



Framing is almost done

Third floor is framed!

 

 

New linen closet in master bathroom also framed.

 

 

 



Rain, rain, go away!

Our basement leaks.  There's been torrential rain over the last week.  I drove over with a mop and bucket and towels and dried it all out after the first rain.  After the second, I decided not to think about it anymore.  Today (fourth day of major rain), I bought a dehumidifier.  Hopefully someone at the house will plug it in, and the water will all go away.

Picking up in the middle

It didn't occur to me to start blogging about our huge reno until late in the process, but better late than never.  It will at least give us a way to remember the whole thing, when we're in our dotage (which how long we're hoping to stay in the house after all this - seriously, if our grandchildren spend their whole lives in the house, it will have been a great investment).

Here's the scope of the project: 
Bump out front of house to expand mudroom
Add lean-to shed to back of house
Gut kitchen and install new everything.  Add skylights and new windows.
Gut powder room and install new everything
Move wall between living room and family room and shrink it to allow passage on either side.  Install two-sided gas fireplace, TV and display shelves in wall.
Gut master bath and install new everything.  Add skylight.
Move laundry machines to former smaller office space in master suite
Remove linen closet to expand master closet
Change laundry closet to storage closet
Take out shower insert in bathroom and replace with tub and tile
Add playroom, guest bedroom and bathroom in attic.  Add skylight and new windows.  Create access to storage spaces.
Open staircase to attic and replace stairs
New handrails/bannisters
Recessed lighting throughout
New alarm system
Wiring for sound on first floor
New painting and carpeting throughout
Refinish floors
Expand septic system for extra bedroom

Did I mention this house is 10 years old?  And that we closed May 1 and are moving in July 30?

Here is how the house looked before the renovation started.  Perfectly nice. 

Here is how it looked after demolition.  Would be a bad time to run out of money.

 

Porch torn off.

From the inside:

Old view of mud room:

With the mud room addition:

Here is Evie looking at the inside:

Huge difference from the front door.  There's something to the left!  It makes the house look so much bigger.

New view from dining room:

New reinforcement for floor joists in attic:

 

 

Here is where David put his foot through the ceiling.  He was showing Andrea the guest room space in the attic.  Noah was in this room when it happened.  ("Mom!  Dad!  The house is breaking!")

 

 

Here are Jim and David admiring the fireplace block.  A TV will go where the plywood is now.  Or a giant saltwater aquarium.

The project has been pretty smooth and free of nasty surprises, until this week, when Mike the Cabinet Guy blithely informed us that we would be getting our cabinets the week after we move in, probably.  I called Russ, Russ yelled at everyone, and we're sort of back on track, except a week behind.  We almost certainly won't have a functioning kitchen when we move in, but it'll be clean and safe and at least we'll be able to get in.

Our bathroom is a little strange, and I think we've made it stranger.  It has a massive shower, and a tiny space for a double vanity.  It's crammed into a corner, so whoever gets the sink on the left will be squeezed.  I'm guessing that will be me.  Today the plumber said it's not the choice of vanity that creates the squeeze - it's just the location of the door and the shape of the eaves and the location of the studs.  So that's the way it is.

Yesterday, I looked at the massive shower with Justin the Tile Guy.  We sort of planned out how the tile and the glass liner accents would be laid out.  We relocated the shower alcove to make it less conspicuous.  Justin has his doubts about the glass accents, but he's wrong!  (It will NOT look like a candy cane, no matter what he says.) 

A couple of days ago, we added a linen closet in front of the storage area.  David wanted to just lose the storage area, but I refused.  We have no attic and a wet basement, so we need storage.  Plus, we need a place for a towel bar.  The bathroom is already weird, so I don't think a little more weird will make a difference.

The whole master suite is weird - bedroom, laundry room, bathroom, then office?  Ellie thinks the office location is great - potentially three locked doors between the office and kids! 

The house's layout is very unusual, but it's actually perfect for us as a family with two kids.  And it's my favorite kind of house - looks small and cute on the outside, but it's big on the inside.  Even though I appreciate so many things about our first house, I never loved it.  It has little charm.  This house, though, I think I could really love.  Someday. 

We didn't buy it because we wanted a project, though.  It was location.  Walk to stuff!  Short drives!  Close to highway!

Mom and Dad saw it at its worst, and they seemed to totally understand why we're doing it.  Dad even said the space is better laid out than our current house.

David got me The Money Pit DVD for my birthday and actually wanted to watch it.  It was about 10% funny and 90% really freaking scary.