Weeks 9-13

I'm starting to be able to see what the house will actually look like finished and I'm getting excited!!

Been averaging a visit to the house about every 5 days which has been good. Hubs gets more stress about all the work left to do when he visits the house too much. There's times where I refuse to go over with him because I know there won't be enough changes to warrant the visit. Weird. I know.

Real life outside the house seems to take up most of my time these days. And because I tend to over research sometimes, it's taking me longer to make decisions. It's a curse, but then, it's pretty cool when your SIL is on the way to the store and asks what brand washing machine she should get since she knows I already did more reading on it then she ever would. We went with Electrolux brand if you're wondering.

Week 9-10
The house wounded up needing tons of plaster work to repair walls after wallpaper removal. Especially the dining room. Oh that poor dining room. Then the plasterer didn't show. And then finding a new one became it's own challenge. And then I had to leave town for two weeks.

  

Week 10-11
The weather turned cold, so it was a relief to when the radiators started up without any problems. Finalized all paint colors! Okay, a few I totally asked Elizabeth to pick my kitchen wall color. I think because I want the kitchen to be perfect, I couldn't make any decision. Frozen. Plus it was weird to worry about colors about while traveling. Hubs and I joke about the scene in Lost in Translation and the package his wife overnighted him. We can't be like that! Ha!

Below: Kitchen & family room flooring & cabinet colors (squares) with paint samples.

Week 12
Looked at lights with Elizabeth in person, cause online was so uninspiring. It was hard to connect to any until I saw them in person.
Photo below; current thoughts for house (sorry it's a pic of a pic, life is crazy hectic these days).
Antique chandelier below is being considered for our dining room. They are re-wiring it this week so we can go see what it would look like lit.
Mover bids & giving away random house stuff.
Selling a few things on my condo's bulletin board has helped us purge.

 

Week 13
Finalizing light fixtures, still. Hubs took an interest, it's been more of a negotiation between us. He prefers way more traditional lights and while I tend towards the juxtaposition of modern fixtures in historic homes. It took time to find ones that we agree on, fit the budget, and work for the house. Yeah. It's an annoying trifecta.


Haven't ordered them, but this is the idea:

Upcoming week:

• A radiator specialist is removing a long baseboard radiator in the basement because the new built in cabinets are going where it sits. And then we are thinking to replace it with a smaller one. Heat wise we should be good since we are adding heated floors. 
• Calling antique store to request they go ahead a re-wire a light fixture we are potential interested in for the dining room. Then hubs and I will be able to see what it looks like lit  we like it off, so fingers crossed  
• Working through the "to do" list for the move. Seriously so many annoying details. 
• New car search. The timing of this is the worst. And Hubs and I have different ideas of what we should get next (we only have the 1 vehicle), so we are kicking tires and getting to know what's out there now. I test drove one and loved what cars are like now. 

Weeks 5-8 of Home Renovation: Old Wallpaper Behind Walls & Pipes Moved

October was a lot of behind the scenes progress after the demo phase. Seems to be the phase where things look a lot worse before they can look better. Which has been a bit discouraging as the homeowner, but the logical "construction side" of my brain knows better.

Check out these two photos of this old wallpaper we found behind the walls after the pipe was moved. Photos of where it was hiding are after the jump...

Week 4 Home Reno: Pipes behind the walls

It was a fairly smooth week, so I only made it over to the house twice this week. Once to drop off new tile we bought (pics below!) and to check out the newly discovered pipes behind the wall.

I'd like to suggest that every renovation budget have an automatic line item of "moving pipes" and be sure to double it from what you anticipate.  That's the page we turned this week.  Don't get me wrong, I knew it was coming, but it still hurts.


Tuesday / Kitchen Slabs - Went to see our new kitchen slabs in person!
Relieved I like the new ones just as much as the original (the original slabs had a finishing issue). I had a super hard time deciding on the cabinet color but...drum roll... it is officially Sherwin Williams Serious Gray 6256
Happily hand Elizabeth a key to the house this week too!

So many potential gray paint colors!

Home Renovation Weeks 2 and 3: Carpet Gone

Week 2: Surprise Under Stairs

Two weeks of updates in one post! Hope it's not too long, but we were traveling last week.

Carpet Removed - the old carpet was removed while we waited to receive bids from potential contractors. And SURPRISE we discovered this black stripe on all of the above ground stairs.  So at some point in time the stairs were stained an ebony color and it was (partially) removed, perhaps in the 1980s or 90's when it was last remodeled.
Which makes me wonder... at what point in time it was stained black??

Sanding and re-staining all the stairs would be much more costly than replacing the carpet runner so the stripe will remain for the next owner to wonder about.

Not to be out done, the basement stairs (pic below) also came with a stripe of unfinished wood.  And some really nasty sub-floor was at the top (to be replaced with original hardwoods from another location).

Renovation Week 1: A new car too? Noooooo!

Renovation Week One Report 

I'm starting the clock with the day we bought the house. It might be cheating since we planned during that month before, but it is better for my mental health this way. =)

Under the Carpet

We have wood floors under the existing carpet! Hooray!

The master bedroom needs to be patched where the original closet was removed, but they are in decent shape otherwise.  I was told due to the size of the existing flooring, they have to make the replacement floorboards by hand.  Hmmmm. Sounds expensive.

New Car

We had a "fun" surprise on the day we drove over to our new house with shiny new keys in hand. 

Our car can't turn the tight corner into the garage.  The garage is "normal" size. But the alleys were designed before today's oversized vehicles were invented, so they are quite narrow.  Our vehicle is too long to make the tight turn. After about 30 minutes of "Are you serious?" we realized it wasn't going to happen and went back to our condo.  

My friend's SUV fit after a 3 point turn, so not all hope is lost.  Have to say, I am so thankful I was not the one driving that day.  So um, yeah, let's just go ahead and add buying a new (smaller) car to the list.  No. That's not stressful at all. Not at all.

Quotes for Work Needed

Both our designer Elizabeth and myself met 3 contractors out at the house this week so they could size it all up with the plans and provide a bid for the work.

My carpet guy came out to measure for his quote on Monday. I had a coronary when I saw the quote for the new carpeting on the stairs. 

We might have wood stairs withOUT the beautiful carpeting chosen as a stair runner.

They are removing the old carpet next Tuesday. Elizabeth explained a carpet runner is very labor intensive work and we have a LOT of stairs (and price is in the normal range), but we can always do it after we move in aka when we have the money.

Keys

I asked Elizabeth if it would be too forward of me to give her a key to the house so she can come and go. She laughed and said lots of clients give her one. That made me feel better, I was afraid I was implying too much. 

In the back of my head, I'm debating to changing the locks for the renovation or just add a punch code key pad.

Cabinets

E & I made a second visit to the cabinet maker I selected to review cabinet faces for the entire home (kitchen, master bath, wet bar and the office). Picking a paint color for the study's painted cabinets was so easy, but I'm struggling with the kitchen color.  I want a blue grey, but not too dark and not baby blue. Internal struggles. 

Kitchen Slab Update

The quartzite slabs we selected for the kitchen were having issues with the finishing, but lucky me, they have a new shipment of the same slab withOUT the problem coming in next week.
The best part? Now I get consecutive slabs that will match end to end. Talk about a happy accident.  

Just hope the new slabs have the same look as my old ones. 

The lighter color slab above is for the kitchen (a natural quartzite) and the dark one is a marble for basement's fireplace hearth and surround. I know marble is all the rage now and lots of people love living with it, but the foods that destroy marble are all of my husband's favorites. Don't trust ourselves with marble in the kitchen quite honestly. 

Next Week...

Past Client Site Visit - I am traveling so Elizabeth will be visiting a past client of one of the potential contractors to see his work in person on our behalf. 

Wallpapers - Hubs and I (or just me?) will be looking at wall paper samples this weekend. 

Review Pricing - Hopefully the quotes from the contractors will come in for our review.

Removing carpet on Tuesday.