Weekly Wrap-up

Renovations: So much work! Mr. Project is seriously amazing. I don’t know how he does it day in and day out. And the house slowly but surely comes together under his direction. I went over on Tuesday and sealed tile and I was exhausted after just one part day of working on the house. He is my hero. The house is being PAINTED on Tuesday. That is one huge step. It will finally look like a house again, a super cool house. After that it’s lighting, flooring and trim and then we can move in… as long as there is one working bathroom (or several partial working bathrooms!). I also need to arrange some sort of window coverings between now and then, and we’ll have to arrange an impromptu kitchen for the next 3 months. It will be fun though, just having this place that is so wholly our own creation.

Moving Preparations: The kitchen is nearly all packed up. the rest of the house needs to be packed as well, but I’m optimistic about it because I’m pretty good at moving. We are hoping to move all the boxes on the 25th and then move the big furniture later that week. We have to be out of our place on the 30th, but I found out this week that I don’t need to clean it. Apparently the place needs to be completely spotless including windows on both sides… or else you pay $130 for a cleaning crew. Yeah… I’m not even going to attempt it, I’ll just pay $130 for the crew. We will need to do a little touch-up painting though.

Milestones: Ollie is growing like a weed. He is so smart and interactive. He loves cooing and trying to talk, and he really loves playing with daddy’s beard. He’s a snuggly baby, and such a good sleeper and eater. He has really taken to the sleeping through the night thing. He’ll do a solid 7 hours, so usually I put him to bed at 9 and then feed him again at midnight and then he’ll sleep until 7 am. And since I of course have stayed up way too late (like 2 am) I will have him take a nap with me in the morning from 7 until 10.  He’s also starting to be super awake in the day and just kind of take cat naps except for one long nap in the afternoon. He has a stuffed giraffe and he loves to snuggle with it when he falls asleep. He also loves to look at the TV so I’m trying to keep it off as much as possible. My favorite thing right now is him holding his feet. I’ve always loved when babies are obsessed with their feet.

Home ownership: The house has a nice tilt to it, about a half inch or so from one side to the other. This makes finish work really really fun!

Fathers Day: We both totally thought that this weekend was fathers day… we did not realize this until about half-way through church. Of course I already spent a good 3 hours preping dinner & dessert before church (we get out at 5 so usually Sunday dinner consists of leftovers). I took father’s day photos even:

HELP! This week I had a sweet girl from the ward come and help me with packing and with the baby. She’s been a life saver. I’ve been able to get more work done and help more on the house. I’ve also managed to take a nap with the baby every afternoon after I take her home. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I sure do love snuggling with the baby.

Week of the word: BUSY we are busy busy bees right now. So many little details to take care of equals a lot of running around.

Pre-paint preparations

This last week has been like a whirlwind at the house – all in preparation for PAINTING! Once the painting is done, this place is going to look like a completely different house. Case and point… here is the kitchen before:

And the kitchen currently :

And once the paint gets on there, it’s going to be glorious! Isn’t the trim so pretty? I love how now the windows become such a singular focal point. Fabulous! On the far left-side of this photo you’ll also notice the sliding glass door has been replaced by a sparkly new one – super yay! (to see more kitchen photos see Kitchen Plans)

Okay in other updates, the master suite is 95% ready for paint. Here is the before (and me 9 months preggo):

And the current:

Ahhh much better! and not 70′s looking at all. The master is not huge, but it is a good 50% or so larger than our current master, it’s going to feel so luxurious.

And inside those doors:

The bathroom – a 66″ vanity fits into this space with recessed medicine cabinets and wall-mounted faucets

The subway tile shower, just needs grout and glass

The walk-in closet:

(more before photos)

The closet will eventually have shelves and bars – the usual. Eventually.

The half-bath finally has a working sink. Once its painted, the light fixture will be installed and this room will be FINISHED! Oh and I have to find a mirror too, minor detail. Anyone have any mirror suggestions?

The other fun thing that got done this week was the front door.

Isn’t she lovely?? Well once the trim goes back up she’ll be even more lovely. Also we are going to stain her a dark walnut.

It’s amazing how far everything has come, especially in such a short time. I’m so so so excited for paint, the house is really going to feel done once the paint goes on. After that its really just a matter of Mr Project installing the floors before we can move in 2 weeks. Everything else will have to get finished after we move in. And of course that list will be never-ending.

Here is our updated move-in list:

• scrape ceilings
• tear down some unnecessary walls
• remove ALL trim/casings
• add necessary walls (frame, drywall)
• put in recessed lighting, move outlets, fix non-working outlets
• re-texture ceilings and smooth drywall
• Install new windows in Kitchen
• Completely re-do half bath
• Completely re-do master bathroom!
  
• Completely re-do guest bath
• install all new underlayment
• replace ALL doors
• replace ALL trim/casings (this week!)
• Prime + PAINT! (this week!)
• put up new railing on stairs/overlook (next week!)
• install carpet (next week!)
• install all new hardwood flooring (next week!)

(More Project House Posts)

Renovations Update

So much happens every single day on the house. In my last update I shared with you my vision for the kitchen. Just a few days later and the one side of the kitchen was ripped out and the drywall was removed:

Then two days later the contractor came and made 4 holes for the windows:

And just a few hours later, the windows were in:

You can kind of see the tree and pool in this photo:

Here is a long shot of the room. It really is going to feel so much more open when all is said and done.

So now what will happen is that the electrical will be finished and then drywall re-hung and all the trim work will be done before the painters come in. The new kitchen wont go in for another 3 months, but it will look really nice until then!

The master bathroom is under-going its own renovations at the same time – check out my previous post on the bathrooms to see how far we’ve come. Here is a view from the outside:

Drumroll please… here is the tile work being done:

I love the visual interest that the shelf brings. The white subway tile will have white grout and will also be on the ceiling over the shower. We’ll have glass that goes all the way to the ceiling for a nice steam shower effect. The floor of the shower has the same tan penny tiles as the shelf:

Here is the plumbing for the wall-mounted faucets

Faucets will look like this:

And will have a 12″ backsplash that looks kind of like this (I couldn’t find an actual image, but this is close):

In other bathroom news I need to clean and seal the grout and tile in the powder room tomorrow. Then the sink will be ready to install.  Here is an updated photo so you can see what the vanity looks like:

I need to get new nobs… I’m thinking something simple but heavy like this knob from RH:

I still need to procure mirrors for all the bathrooms. This is low on the priority list, but it will be really odd to live without mirrors for awhile. I think we’ll end up feeling like vampires or something.

I finally bit the bullet and decided on the paint colors. Here is a shot of  SOME of my testers (I swear I spent a small fortune on testers):

The two big ones in the back are Silver Fox which I absoultely adore, and Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore. The dark one in the middle is Slate by Restoration Hardware. The brownish one is Ashley Gray (Benjamin Moore) and I can’t remember the name of the other two more tan-ish grays.

What I ended up going with is Abalone by Benjamin Moore. Its the lighter version of Silver Fox and we really wanted something pale throughout the whole house. The Master bedroom will be a really dark warm gray (I can’t remember the color name) and the Master Bathroom will be Ashley Gray @75% strength.  My craft room will be a dark desaturated greenish-blue. And the laundry and two bathrooms will be Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. Everything else will be the Abalone. Now that the stress of picking colors has passed, I am super excited to see how everything looks and to really start formulating how I want our furniture to come together.

Here is our updated move-in list:

• scrape ceilings
• tear down some unnecessary walls
• remove ALL trim/casings
• add necessary walls (frame, drywall)
• put in recessed lighting, move outlets, fix non-working outlets
• re-texture ceilings and smooth drywall
• Install new windows in Kitchen
  
• Completely re-do half bath
• Completely re-do master bathroom! (in progress)
• Completely re-do guest bath (in progress)
• put up new railing on stairs/overlook (scheduled)
• replace ALL doors
• Board & Batten in guest bath
• replace ALL trim/casings (this week!)
• install all new underlayment
• Prime + PAINT!
• install carpet
• install all new hardwood flooring (ready to go)

Wish us luck this week… we’re going to need it!

Weekly Wrap-up

Renovations: Mr. Project is beginning to panic. Which is par for the course with a MAJOR house renovation squeezed into 2 months. We have less than 3 weeks left, and SO MUCH to do… it could be interesting. All that needs to be finished for us to move in is the painting, the flooring upstairs and in one room downstairs, one working bathroom, and the stairs/railings. Everything else we can finish after we’ve moved in. Needless to say we want to get as much done on our list as possible… so these next 3 weeks are going to be NUTTY! One of the girls from our church is going to help me with the baby while I pitch in a little bit more with the house – mostly all those little things that end up taking way more time then they should. This way Mr. Project can focus on the big things – like dry-walling the kitchen and master bath/closet.

Current Arrangements: We put in our 30 days notice with our apartment office. They love us and are sad to see us go. This really has been such a great place to live. I’m sure we will miss all of the Pros that come along with living in an apartment, but we will not miss the cons (like the upstairs neighbors being SO LOUD). Our apartment right now is about the hugest mess ever. I have been extra tired lately due to sleep training. I’m actually getting more sleep, but now that my body knows it’s allowed to sleep it has called in all its debts and is begging for more and more sleep. So basically now I feel like I’m recovering from having a newborn, and it’s exhausting. So the apartment has fallen into a state of messiness not previously imagined.  And Mr. Project who used to make cleaning ends meet, is now working on the house about 18 hours a day and doesn’t have time to help me as much as he was. So between those two things it’s gotten pretty bad. I vow this week that I’ll get it under control and start packing. I can sleep in 3 weeks when we are in our new house.

Decorating: We all know this takes $$$ but we’ve spent all our $$$ on the renovation and now we just have $ so we will be living in an empty house for awhile until our savings bounces back. Which is fine, I actually like to take time to do things because it helps me visualize better and not make huge purchasing mistakes. However I’m mostly concerned about the things that we do need sooner rather than later like window coverings and desks. I’m excited for the house to be mostly finished so that I can drag Mr. Project to garage sales on Saturdays. I love up-cycing, it just takes so much time and dedication.

Home Ownership: The pool is now a sparkly blue! We are good to swim in it… but it’s been really cold here, so we need it to get hot and possibly get some solar rings to put in it. The pool vacuum pump has decided to leak, and the vacuum itself has been having difficulty. We will need to get both of these repaired but are hoping to wait a few more months if possible. The yard in the mean time is becoming horridly over-grown. We just don’t have the mental energy to deal with both the inside and outside of the house. So the yard will have to be dealt with after we move in. We’d love to plant a garden, but it’s going to have to be a late-summer garden. We do however, have a lifetime supply of rosemary.

Pink Berry: I went for the first time and it was great! I have such a hard time making a decision though, so I’d love to hear what is your favorite so I can try something new and fun there.

Milestones: Oliver is such a joyful happy baby. We absolutely love to see him grow. He seems to be making huge jumps every week. He wants to just look around and take everything in. He rolled over this week for the first time. And he also can grab things that you put in front of him. He gets SOOOO excited  and practically jumps outside of his body every time I show him a toy. He’s pretty much all smiles except when he’s hungry, then he’s all business. He is starting to actually look at books when I read them to him. My favorite is a book called “Thats Not My Pirate” which I read to him almost everyday. He has also really started to discover his feet and he loves to hold and eat his toys.
Emergency Prepardness: There was an emergency fair this weekend… add another thing to the huge list of things to do! I hate putting stuff like this off, but right now we just can’t have one more big thing on our plate. As soon as we get settled in the house we will revisit our 72 hour kits (which right now is a fairly pathetic attempt stuffed in 2 plastic grocery bags and one beach bag). Also we need to work on food storage. We had a lot in SF, but then when we moved into our small apartment here, we decided to eat through most of it to gain the extra storage space. We need to make a dedicated space and re-group. Also in August, we’ll pick up a truck-load of food storage that has been waiting to be trekked over to California once we had a spot for it. So it’s coming along slowly.

Word of the Week: TIRED! We are both seriously tuckered out. I’m lucky that Oliver still sleeps a lot. It he were running around, I might really go crazy. Lately, I truly have been napping when the baby naps.