While I was doing the laundry...

It is going to be so nice to have laundry on site! While I was doing the laundry at my parents house, as I have for the last 10+ years, Josh was over at the house working on our laundry room! We got the cabinets at Lowes. They look pretty good for cheap pre-fabricated stuff. They are stained "Merlot", like the wine, and we have a black washboard style sink; not installed just yet. It is a pretty snazzy looking laundry room if I do say so myself!

French Closet Doors; Oui Oui!

I couldn't resist. I had to go check out what the boys were doing with the doors at the house. All the doors are the Shaker Style like the kitchen cabinets. It is the closet doors that are my favorite! French doors! Yes, French.

No stupid track for the doors to de-track from, and they are going to have HANDLES!!! Yes, HANDLES....That may seem like a silly thing to be excited about. However, the closets (the use of the plural form is used loosely here) in my apartment consist of one closet door without a door handle that does not close, and a wooden rod going across the wall in an open room. I feel like singing "The Jefferson's" theme song..."movin' on up!"

I also know now why parents remove their kid's bedroom door when they slam them...

So we are trying to decide on tile. I think I like the darker one. Josh wants the black but I am afraid it will be too hard to clean. The counter top guys are suppose to come on Friday to get exact measures but the counter-tops will not be ready until after Christmas. Looks like we are going for Corian, the price is reasonable and I want solid counter-tops. The entire counter-top will be seamless including the sink which they are including for free. It is going to be really nice and I am super excited. Tomorrow Josh and a friend are going to hang all the doors in the house (pictures soon to come of course) The friend that is helping hang doors has been working on our linen closet, so hopefully he will have that done as well. Josh picked up the washer and dryer today and they are sitting in our living room. Josh plans to seal the tile in the laundry room and install the washer and dryer.

Good bye Porta-Pottie!

I am just thrilled to finally have a toilet in my house! Still have to get sinks, but at least we can get rid of the B&B toilet in my front yard! That thing is costing us over $70 a month, not to mention it is unsightly!

I guess I can finally use that toilet paper rack I bought at the Ferndale garage sale last year. I will have to spray paint it and bring it over.

Almost all the lights in the house are finished. We need to get two more porch light, Josh just has to switch out some element in the ceiling fan light and the electricians wife did not bring enough of the lights for the Shelf Lights (which looks really awesome by the way) Almost all of the lights in the house have dimers on them, even the can lights in the ceiling above the porch. The pendent lights look even better now that there is electricity running to them. I know I already posted a similar picture but here is what they look like lit up; which even looks cooler when it is dark!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Electricity!

Today Mike came over to hook up the electricity and install all of the light switches, outlets, ceiling fan, and of course; lights! We originally bought these just for the electrical components. We bought separate glassware. Then it turned out the glassware we wanted to use instead would not fit with the electrical component so we have to use the glass they came with. Now that they are up I really like them! They were such a steal too! Originally $60 a piece, we got them for $15 a piece! This is really turning out to be quite the productive week! Hopefully Josh will stick to his word about working on the house 3 days a week once his current job is finished!

So the tile for the shower wall has been installed. It still needs to be grouted but it looks awesome. Andy just laid the floors in the master bath today, I hope I did not mess them up by walking on them! Yikes.

We have a whole bunch of title left over, I guess Josh way over estimated. This is good because we can take it back and use the difference towards the Granite tiles for the kitchen counter-tops.

Starting the Tile Floors!

So Andy came and put the tile floor in the laundry room and guest bathroom. It still needs to be grouted, but it is still exciting. Josh says him and Andy are going to start on the master bath this weekend, hopefully they will get to grouting too. It feels so close I can taste it!

It is the little things

No pictures but a written update. So since my last post. We bought a ton of supplies in Oregon on our way home from Bonnie's Wedding. All the tile for the bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen back splash; and all of the light fixtures for the entire house. Josh finished the the hardwood floors in the kitchen installed the rest of the cabinets and has them ready for counter tops. We are still deciding on counter tops, but if it was up to me we would go back up to Oregan and buy the rest of our supplies plus granite tile. It will be much cheaper if we do granite tile vs. solid granite because Josh can install it himself. He is getting the house ready for tiling in the rest of the house, Andy is going to come over and help him. I am so glad we have friends with trade skills that are willing to help us out. Maybe I will run up to the house and take a video of my new cabinets, I think it is just so cool how they close on their own.

More "during" pictures

And here is the kitchen, finally with some of the cabinets. They are Hickory and delicious! Josh only installed the "upper" cabinets because he still has to put the hardwood floors in the kitchen.




Here is the living room with painted walls. No floors just yet. Be patient.

The dining room with painted walls....

Here is the start of those hard wood floors. All new floors had to be put in the kitchen and living room (where the garage use to be) and is various areas throughout the house where the old hard wood was damaged.


You can see where the old floors meet the new floors.

Floors going down in the kitchen.


And a floor view of the floors taken from the hall.

The floors are going to take awhile. Josh is still sanding because the original floors were not done well and are uneven. It is going to take several layers of sanding for it to be up to Joshes standards. I will keep updating!

The "during" pictures

Originally Josh said he was just going to cut the walls half way up for the new electrical and then patch over with new drywall. My mom and I were in the front yard clearing way brush...when out came drywall, and insulation (no surprise here) but then out came the toilet which smashed all over the front yard, and then the bath tub, and then ALL of the kitchen cabinets...it was like a bad car accident; you can not look away but you can not speak either.




So, I am not going to post every picture with the walls down. Just enough to give you an idea of how extensive it was. This is the back bedroom across from the master. The whole south wall was hit the worst with the termites. This is just the beginning of the demolition. Right before the toilet and everything else got thrown out!











This is the same south wall but in the master. See that green stuff below the widow at the top of the picture? Yeah, that is grass. The termites were so bad they ate right to the stucco. When Josh ripped the stucco off we had a nice "natural" window.

Remember the picture of me standing in the pink bathroom? This is it. Minus the bathtub, toilet, sink, walls, and floor of course (those are all out in the front yard).












Oh, and remember the picture of me and my dad standing in front of the dining room window with me pointing out? Yup, that's it. Minus walls and a kitchen that was to the left.












This next one is of the garage. It is after the demolition started, but I will show you a picture later that will be drasticlly different. The garage is going to be where our new living room will reside. So think, "the picture with the long skinny window and blue ladder".










Ok now. I told you to pay close attention to the very first picture with me standing in front. Where the front door, window and garage were...before we did some "switch-a-roo"....
Told you! The window and front door are swapped and the garage door is gone. The window from the dinning room has not been switched yet here, but you can see were the board is (where the garage door use to be) where the window will go.








Now here is the back of the house. With French Doors mind you. Josh had to remove all the stucco and most of the exterior walls under it because when he went to put nails into them for the new siding the boards were so old they split.















And here is the new front of the house. Plus some beautiful siding! I do not know why anyone would want to use stucco in our wet earthquake prone area...the back door there Josh added. It goes to the laundry room.
















Notice also that the back door from the garage, on the far left of the picture, is gone. There is a new skinny widow up top too, that is the new bathroom. The kitchen window had to be moved over to make room for it, the whole kitchen was essential shoved towards where the old garage was. If you scroll up to the "before" pictures, when it was still stucco, you will see what I mean.












Remember when I told you to think, "the picture with the long skinny window and blue ladder". that is this, with vaulted ceilings. The doorway is where the doorway off the old dining room use to be which went to the garage. Josh added the wall. This picture will soon be updated with walls too. Just stay tuned...













There's the walls! And ceilings with light shelf. The light shelf goes along the top of the wall all along the living room, dining room, and open bar between the kitchen and living room. And here is the kitchen, with dry wall.



















And here is the dining room with the walls taped, textured, and primed. Remember the picture of Kim and I standing in the doorway in the "before" pictures? Yup, that's the window switched with the front door. We also widened that doorway there where the crummy old wall heater use to be. As you can see from the vent above the window, we had central heating installed.















And here is the living room, taped; textured; and primed....remember? "the picture with the long skinny window and blue ladder"...And another good view of the vaulted ceilings & light shelf.

The "before" pictures"

We just did not know how much of a fixer up it would be, and that we would still be fixing it up almost a year later. But when this picture was taken I was so excited. It did not matter that there was a lot of work ahead of us, it was our house and our work.






Pay close attention to where the front door is in relation to the window...we will see a "switch-a-roo" here soon. But, on to the rest of the "before" pictures. Also note where the garage door is in this picture below. Street view.













So here is the living room, or well, back on Oct 29, 2009. Kim and I coming in the front door that I am standing in front of in the picture above.













You can see the light reflecting off the floor from the open front door where Kim and I are standing. Again, pay attention to where this window is, it will later make a swap with the front door. This picture is taken standing in the dining room, which is the picture below.











Pay attention to this window. It will be put into the new living room (where the garage door is in that picture above) and be replaced with french doors. To the right is the doorway to the garage which the back quarter will become the laundry room (and the rest will be the new living room) and to the right is the kitchen, which half will become a second bathroom and half of the dining room with make up for the lost kitchen space used for the new bathroom. I know, confusing. I did say remodel right?







Here is the old kitchen. The window is going to be moved over. See that doorway in the very back there to the left? That is going to be the doorway to the new bathroom...I will keep walking you through it step by step, but you might have to scroll back up as we move on and it gets more confusing; just to reorient yourself.









Notice where the tub is, that will be changed. The wall to the left of the tub will be removed and become a doorway. The person taking this picture is standing in the doorway, which will soon be a linen closet accessed from the hallway. Hopefully as more pictures come this will make more sense; not less.













Ok, see the last open door below, across from the heater? To the left. That is the old door to the back of the kitchen I pointed out in the picture above...the doorway I said would go to the new
bathroom. Nothing special about this picture, just put it in to help give you direction.












Ok, here is the master bedroom, if master bedrooms existed in the 50's.
The wall to the right of the window will be knocked down to make a doorway to the old bathroom, which will become the master bathroom. The doorway leads directly to where the tub is in the picture above. There will be another picture later with the doorway punch out and it will make more sense.











White walls and green carpet in room across the hall from master.














Quite possibly the ugliest pain color in the bedroom off of the living room.















The back of the house...

I decided I should get this all organized. What a great way to archive; on-line.