House Update #8

It has been a while since the last set of pictures and a LOT has been accomplished! We have cabinets, drywall, paint, floors, a functioning laundry room, finished siding all across the back of the house, a bench along the back wall of the deck, a widened driveway and lights! Woohoo!!

We are scheduled to get countertops next Wednesday. That translates to plumbing (sink and dishwasher) on Thursday, so we're (I'm) still doing dishes in the kids' bathroom sink. The ceilings are getting scraped in the rest of the house next Monday-Wednesday so we're camping out at John and Linda's for a while. There are still some big ticket items to finish, like the counters and backsplash...but the little ticky-tack items are proving to be more annoying. Like painting the baseboards in the dining room. That won't happen until last-minute, but it's keeping us from relocating all the dining room stuff out of the living room. And the one can light in the kitchen that got cut in the wrong place- that will require a patch, mud, sand, paint job before the hole can be re-cut. Annoying, but liveable.

This is standing in the hallway looking into/through the kitchen (please note Makena's outfit includes knit tights on a day that's slated to be 88 degrees).

Standing in the dining roomKitchen- like my makeshift countertops? That's leftover flooring boards locked together. Came up with that one all by me onesie.

Laundry room- the old fridge will go in that corner on the right.And this is how we've been living. Although we were able to relocate most of the kitchen stuff back into the new cabinets...and now most of the laundry/cleaning stuff is back into the laundry room cabinets...the dining room still resides in the living room. Soon...soon...soon...

House Update #7- you wish you were here!!

Holy destruction, Batman! We're in almost over our heads at this point. The kitchen is OUT. Gone. Empty. I'll just let the pictures tell the story.
That's the wall where the dishwasher was in front of you.
That's the ghost of the pantry on the left and the fridge in the middle of the floor-less slab.
Where are all the things that used to be in the kitchen, you might ask? They've all been relocated to the living room. Be on the lookout for us on the next episode of Hoarders: Burried Alive on TLC.
To add to the redneckness, the appliances are on the sidewalk awaiting sale to someone from Craigslist (cross your fingers that actually goes through). I included the overfull dumpster in the background for your viewing pleasure.
The first glimpese of hope...the deck is done! We're going to go ahead and put new siding up behind it and then add a bench along that back wall...so there are a few more things to complete, but.... And the addition has been painted! We think it's purty.

House Update #5

I think it's been over two weeks since I've posted about the house. We've made progress, but very slow progress. The replacement windows (for the remainder of the house) came in but were three inches (!!) too wide (fault of the delivery company, not any of our guys) so we sat on our thumbs for a week waiting for the correct ones to come in. That same week was full of inspections so we'd get the framing complete one day, then spend the next day waiting for the inspector. Insulation up the day after that (a 20 minute procedure), then another day waiting for an inspector. Last week was siding (which is up but not painted- our back door neighbors just loooove their view right now!) and sheetrock. Holy dust, Batman. They also tore up all the grass under what will eventually be the deck so we've got one back door that leads to a 2' drop off onto the driveway and another that leads to a big patch of dirt (soon to be mud). Fun, messy times!

House Update #4

We have windows! This past week was mostly filled with less big-visual-impact stuff like electrical and HVAC work, but the big item was the installation of the windows! It makes a huge difference now that we have some natural light coming into the back of the house...although we still have the old breakfast room wall intact and, as of yesterday, a big sheet of plywood where the back door used to be.
This week we have a slew of inspections slated that will get us insulated and secure. After that, the old wall should come down. Mess, mess and more mess. We're also expecting that the replacement windows should go in this week. We've lived in this house for almost seven years and have only been able to open 4 of the existing 12 windows. Perfect timing for the onset of our nice weather!
Windows!

You can kind of get a feel for the way the back of the house looks- it's odd to see windows through our current windows. The electricians have already removed the wiring from the current wall in preparation for demo...so we don't have use of the light above the breakfast room table...it's a dark cave back there!

House Update #3

Wow. For all the thumb-twiddling we've had to do during the rain and waiting for delayed deliveries...when these guys get going, they go fast. We started with a slab this morning and now we have a framed new room all tied in to the roof and a shower skylight that we can actually see through- a big difference from the old, clouded over one. They finished the roof on the back half of the house today (the lion's share of time today was spent tieing the new roof into the old)- the front half they'll finish in no time tomorrow. I made it about 20 minutes this morning with all the banging and hammering before I threw the dogs in the car and camped out at my parents' until I picked up the kids from school. Headache, anyone?

New roofline. There are two windows covered up by plywood here- there will be one on the far right that is the same size as the smaller one on the left and the one in the middle is really twice the size of the other two but they've got plywood over part of it, too.

They had to cut one of the main trunks of our Crepe Myrtle tree- makes me sad b/c it's a big, pretty tree.

A shot from our current back door- you can see where the windows really are from this view
- not sure why they covered some parts up with plywood and not others.

House Update #2

We have brick surround and a slab. We also have six roofing trusses laying in the front yard. Why the front yard, you may ask...because the 18-wheeled flatbed trailer that delivered them was not going to get up the driveway without tearing up the yard or cracking the concrete so...front yard it is. We look a bit like a lumber yard (which is actually better than Sanford & Sons' front porch, which was an apt description for our porch until yesterday, but I digress).

House Update #1

We're a week in and the first part of last week was great! Everybody was working pretty fast in order to beat the monsoon that came during the last half of the week. So...we have the footers inspected and poured for the new part of the house, the drain installed and inspected for the new location for the washer and....drumroll....a fence along Assclown Neighbor's property line!! (no, that has nothing to do with our work, but it's worth mentioning).
The monsoon left us with a sloppy wet pile of dirt and busted up concrete immediately outside our back door. Until they pour the slab out there (slated for this Friday- cross your fingers), we've essentially lost use of our back door. Willow can't get it through her head that she has to go out in the front yard to do whatever it is she has to do. She's not the sharpest tack in the box sometimes.
Here are a few pictures.
Like the Port-a-Potty? Sexy, no? And, for good measure, here's a shot of the fence. He actually told Brett it was going to be a privacy fence. Clearly, his definition of "privacy" is a little porous, but it's better than the rotted, half-collapsed monstrosity that used to be there. A few evergreen plantings this summer will help, too.

An ode to our kitchen

We're scheduled to start our house renovation on Monday! That's a little "woohoo!!" and "uh oh" all combined. Having the back of the house, part of the back yard and kitchen (for a short while) torn up is going to make me a little nutso, but it will be worth it.
If you've never been to our house...well...I don't know who you are. But, suffice it to say, it's not a big house. Strangely, though, its 1800sf were laid out in a surprisingly open plan for 1985 and the only times we really feel cramped are the times during the winter (ie- no going outside) when Brett works from home on a long-term basis...oh...like now (only a week left before he gets the sling off). We've hosted parties for 50 inside, parties for 100 outside, seated dinners for 20 and, even though it's really not huge, somehow there are always at least eight people milling about in the kitchen at any given gathering. I've even walked in there to find six grown men sitting comfortably on the floor lost in conversation (this was during a wine 'tasting' party so I will leave the definition of 'comfortably' up to you).
We've contemplated moving about a half million times but, for a number of reasons, it just hasn't happened. So...we're going to gut the kitchen and add another living space, mudroom and deck. Yea!
Here are a few pictures to memorialize the house as it is now.
The kitchen leading into the breakfast area- that back wall with the bay window is getting pushed out over the existing patio.
Another shot of the kitchen- come on, you're secretly jealous of the 30" oak, builder-grade cabinets. Another look at the bay window- it really is pretty and we've enjoyed it. The washer and dryer are in that closet behind the breakfast area- those are moving to the mudroom and that closet is going to be opened up and become the new breakfast area.The back yard as it is (it's winter so it looks terribly sparse). The new part of the house is coming out over the existing poured (white) patio and the deck will be almost the length of the right side of the house.A closer shot of the patio that will be covered up. And, for good meausre, a few swinging shots we were able to take on a recently sunny day. No, the ass-clown of a neighbor still hasn't fixed his fence and no, I never did call the city on him...but we have seen fencing company trucks in front of his house lately- cross your fingers.