Progress!

It's crazy how fast the framing goes up! I was at the house on Tuesday evening and none of this was there. This video was taken this morning! (Friday)



I'm working on a little project of my own...painting Aidric's room! I had a hard time choosing paint colors.. I've gone through 3 different blues and have finally settled on one. The walls will be this color, with this red as the accent.




Here's my progress..the long wall is the color I am putting up- the smaller wall with the dark blue was the runner-up =)

a little more demo..and the floor plans!

It is killing me that 3 weeks have passed with NOTHING being done to our house except a tiny bit more demolition. I hate that we had a plan- a plan we were happy with and that we thought would work perfectly for us. But, one walk through mid-demolition led to brainstorming an entirely different idea, which led to a LOT of waiting on our part for new plans and a new estimate and has brought us now to almost being ready to commit to the next stage...

The front bedroom closets have been opened up, b/c this is where the stairs will likely be going now. I believe there are still a few "maybe" issues yet to be seen as the demo continues. As long as it goes ok, we are 100% sure this is where we WANT the stairs.

When you open the front door, the stairs will start about 3 feet in from the end of the (opened) door and to the right. These are pictures I've posted before, but a good "look" at what you see.


This is exactly where the stairs will be.


This is the most current floor plan. I think if you click on it, you can see a slightly larger version.

downstairs:


upstairs:


These were taken today from inside the bedroom that is on the right of the front door. The closet all the way to the left will stay. Immediately to the right of it, there will be a doorway to this room. The other closets will be gone, and that is where the stairs will go.

Demolition begins!

We're currently stalled on the work b/c of our own indecisiveness. Right before Christmas, Chris was over at the house and brainstormed an entirely different location for the stairs. The work was planned to stop for a week for Christmas anyway and there was a termite fumigation scheduled before New Years, so it was a good time to stop and really reevaluate what we wanted.

Here's what the house is looking like today.

From the front door- no more stairs! I love how open it feels.


Where the stairs used to be- this room on the left of this wall is where we'll have our playroom. Now that the stairs are gone, this is the wall I want to open up with a big doorway. I don't even want to hang doors, just have the open space. But, we'll make sure that the space is a standard "double door" size so that doors can be hung for resale purposes, making it back into another bedroom.

Reminder: on the right of the entry: first door is master suite that we'll use as a guest room for now. Second door is a closet. Opening that comes next is the kitchen.



This is looking back at the closet from the kitchen. I took this picture b/c IF we do put the stairs in the front of the house, this is where they will be. They will start about 6' in and 2' to the right of the front door. The closet that was in the vanity area of the master suite would be gone, as well as this hall closet here. This is where we've decided we really WANT the stairs to be. But, we (and by "we" I mean "Chris") needs to meet with the builder at the house in the morning to discuss the cost and go over the exact floor plans.


The kitchen minus cabinet doors and drawers.



Sub-Zero refrigerator! I've been googling "how to clean a really dirty refrigerator". It's huge and a really nice appliance, but it's currently pretty gross. We've purchased some heavy duty but "green" cleaning solution and rubber gloves. Not sure who is going to get the fun task of actually doing it though...


The various pieces of our kitchen cabinetry out in the garage. Actually, as I type this, Chris over there now painting the doors.


This is the back room. The original remodel plans had the stairs going up the right of the room here. Because they would go through a bit of the laundry room, that drywall and the ceiling was torn down. Oops. Lesson learned: make up your mind prior to demolition =)

Before: Upstairs

This is the large living room upstairs that will become our Master Suite. The stairs, where Chris is standing, will be filled in and our new laundry room will go in that general area. Directly behind Chris and Juliet is a full bathroom that the kids will share. Their bedrooms are on either side.

IF the stairs go up the back room, they will come up about where James, our real estate agent, is standing. But, they may end up going in the front of the house and would end up right outside of the bedroom that is behind James. Did that make ANY sense? It's so hard to describe and since plans aren't firm yet anyway, I'm not going to try any harder right now! Once we make a decision, I'll post the floor plans and then it will make more sense!



The bedroom part of the master suite will be over here.


The bathroom is the left on this side of the room..and if the stairs go to the right, Chris will have a small closed office that is a loft OVER this. If the stairs go in the front of the house, his office will be the corner right of this room.


This shows the length of the room.


This is one of the bedrooms. They are both very basic, but large rooms. I think Aidric is going to get the bigger room. But, Juliet will get a new walk-in closet in her room if the stairs do go up the front of the house. (Her current closet will be sacrificed to those stairs, so she'll need a new one anyway). It makes sense to put her closet on the wall that will connect to Chris's office for more sound proofing and if we're doing a new closet, it might as well be a walk-in! Chris had the idea to do a built-in desk next to the closet and I love that idea as well.

Not that you can see a lot here, but this one will be Juliet's room.


And this is Aidric's.


This is the bathroom they will share. It needs cleaning and major updating. If the stairs go in the front of house, a small slice of this bathroom will also be sacrificed. It will be a good change though. The door will move to the right and we'll get a small linen closet in there.

Before: Downstairs

This house is going to be a work in progress for a long while. There's just no way we can turn it into our dream home overnight...or in the next 2 months. So, I'm going to try to give a brief rundown of what we think our PHASE 1 plans are for each space as well as future plans. Keep in mind, future may mean 5 or 10 years...

The exterior of the house, including the very narrow driveway that leads to a detached garage. In the future, I'm sure there will be many changes. For now, just a new roof. Someday, we'd love to do a smooth stucco, new windows upstairs that might include dormers and a new front door.






Entry
8 foot ceilings that feel low to Chris who HATES low ceilings. I think they are fine. It is nice and wide. The ceiling may or may not get raised a little in phase one renovation. These stairs have actually already been torn down. We're not exactly sure where the stairs will be going. We thought we knew, and then Chris had a brainstorm and now we're re-evaluating.


There is a bedroom on either side here. Going back, the kitchen is on the right and across from the kitchen there is a tiny hall with a bathroom and yet another bedroom. You see the stairs going up and to the right of those, there are about 5 steps that go down to the back room. That back room (and the upstairs) was an addition to the original house, but we're not sure when it was done. The back room is long and narrow. (Approximately 34'x11')

This is the bedroom immediately to the right of the front door. It is the original Master Suite. And it's sweet alright =) It will probably remain a bedroom for now. But in the future, we'd like to completely demo the bathroom, knock down the wall between this room and the kitchen and open the whole side of the house up for a bigger kitchen, butler's pantry and dining room. Those are the big dreams. For now, new carpet and paint.

Looking in from the hall..


Taking a few steps in and looking to the left- a vanity, sinks straight ahead and a closet to the left of the vanity. (this closet will be important later...)


The SWEET pink bathtub.


More closet space in the actual bedroom.


This is the bedroom to the left. Not much will happen with this room. It will remain a bedroom for guests. It will probably double as a home office space for me. Just new paint and carpet for now.



The kitchen. Chris is already in the process of cleaning, sanding and repainting the cabinet doors and drawers. He has taken off the hardware as well, and we're searching for some new knobs and pulls that are more our style. I'll do a close up on these so you can see why these do not fit that description. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with them, they're just not "us". But, if you know someone who would like them, we have about 30 or so to get rid of!

Other than some deep cleaning and lighting, we're not planning on doing anything else to the kitchen right now. We are lucky to be inheriting some great appliances!



Just across from the kitchen, there is a small hallway. It leads to a small (but full) bathroom to the left and another bedroom to the right. We'll be using this bedroom as a playroom. I'd really like to put a big open doorway on the wall where the stairs are currently. I like the idea of keeping an eye on the kids while I'm in the kitchen and this would allow me to do that. Looking into the room. (I cheated here, this isn't really a "before" picture- I didn't have one, so I took this pic the other day and you can see the nasty carpet has already been pulled up.)

I can't believe this even constitutes as a closet!


Here's the bathroom. Despite what I thought when I first saw it (that it needed to be completely redone), I now think it just needs a new vanity, sink, lighting, toilet and accessories. I guess what I'm saying is, the tile and tub can stay. Because it needs new paint too. I do think this can be a fairly budget conscious fix though- no professionals needed!





To finish off the main level, here is the back room. Like I mentioned, long and skinny. The listing pictures show this being used as a dining room. So, if you use the house the way it was shown, you have 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room on the main level. If you want to sit around and talk? You need to go upstairs. A little odd, no? So, we'll be using this room not as a dining room, but as a family room. Either now or later, we'll be pushing the back of the house out about 6 feet. The laundry room is on the end opposite the fireplace, and that will eventually be a mudroom. I'm SO excited about having a mudroom!! We'll have a stackable washer and dryer in there for beach clothes/towels as well as kitchen stuff. I just love the idea of having a whole room dedicated to shoes, book bags, etc.

This picture is taken from the sliding glass doors on the back wall, looking back at the front of the house. (And the stairs that no longer exist)


Looking towards the laundry room/future mud room. The kitchen is to the right of Aidric.


Looking FROM the laundry room at the other side.



The back of the house. When the back room gets extended, it will go to the brick pillars. We haven't done too much talking yet about landscaping and a new deck yet, but that's in our future as well.