Home Sweet Home Reno: Month Two

Guys, I have REALLY got to stop getting so far behind on these!  I pretty much forget what happened when.  Doh.  Thank heavens for time stamps on my iPhone.  :c)

October 21st marked 2 months of being the proud owners of what we have affectionately (and very jokingly) deemed our "vacation home."  Here are the main highlights for the month before I jump into my usual prose.

Accomplishments:

• Dumpster rental
• Removal of all carpet
• Removal of all kitchen cabinets
• Removal of kitchen island
• Removal of tile in living room
• Removal of all old tubs/showers
• Selection of shutter repair/refinish contractor
• Removal of shutters for offsite repair
• Laid hardi plank for upstairs bathrooms
• Replacement of tub in Brynn's room
• Selection of lay out for new cabinetry in kitchen
• Selection of appliances
• LOTS of material selections

Purchases:

• Kitchen Cabinetry
• Master Bath vanities
• Master Bath tile
• Half Bath tile
• Girls' Bath tile
• Wood plank tile for first floor
• Fridge

In the Pipeline:

• Paint colors.  Ohhhh so many paint colors.  
• Lights.  Because those are my favorite things to google.

So the biggest story of this month was- well, starting.  As you may recall from the first month's post, we "hired" (read: bribed with beer) my Dad as our GC for this undertaking at the end of September.  This was super exciting but right after making the decision, he and my Mom departed on a long-planned nearly 2 week cruise literally days after this decision.  If you're thinking- man, that's a good excuse to say "my contractor fled the country," you and I are soulmates.  I did that.

Does that make you anxious we lost a month?  Clearly you don't know our GC.  The weekend before they left on the cruise, Ryan, Matt & the GC spent the weekend removing all the old carpet in the house.

The lost 4th Property Brother.

Check out that card table.  Sweet classy molassy!

Real men.  Real work.  Real beer needed.

Then the parental units went on vacation and left Ryan and I with the homework of "make selections" and to sign for whatever crazy equipment showed up on our doorstep in the meantime.  No pressure.

Delivery #1.  Emery saw it and said "Lola's Food!"  In reality it was some crazy chipping hammer.

Nothing says Thursday night as an adult like beer, a bowl of peanut butter puffs, a spreadsheet filled with every wood look tile on the market and the SW fan deck.

Grays are hard.  1) SW Agreeable Gray, 2) SW Colonnade Gray, 3) SW Anew Gray and 4) SW Mindful Gray.

Sneak preview of kitchen-y things.

Also prior to leaving, the GC met and approved a subcontractor to take the existing shutters to his offsite warehouse for painting and repair.  One Friday Ryan and I met him at the house so we could supervise (read: google appliance reviews while he worked).

At this point in the project, I've actually forgotten completely what this joint looks like with shutters.  At the time this looked crazy to me though.

I've also since forgotten what the foyer tile looked like.

One of the weekends while the GC was cruising, my brother and Ryan spent the morning pulling down the uppers in the kitchen. They tried to do the lowers and realized they had no idea how to do that. 

See ya cabinets!  Fur downs, we are coming for you.

Flash forward to when the cruise ended and things really started moving.  Thanks to the magic of the chipping hammer and more enthusiasm than most HGTV hosts, GC really got the dust flying.  He chipped out the tile in the kitchen, laundry and living rooms himself.  Color me impressed!

Hello there concrete (and my Dad's mistress, the chipping hammer).  Oh, also apparently the lowers came out.  And some sheet rock.  Not sure where in the timeline that fell.

This day is when I heard the angels singing.  Ryan and I loved the house from day 1 but deciding to put an offer in was contingent upon us being able to open up this wall.  The squealing that took place when I saw it was for the record books.

Kitchen, meet the living room.  You guys are neighbors.

Then the island came out.  And the fur downs.  80's, you can have those back.  I can't recall who of the demo crew (Ryan, Matt & GC) gets credit for these but I'm sure they were all there in spirit even if not body.

Open walls are the new open concept.

Towards the end of this month of home reno-ship our tile guy came out and gutted the showers.  When this project is completely done, I'll do some much better before/during/after photos but for now trust me when I say what a difference this all made.

More "bye Felicia" to fur downs.  This time they were in the master bath.

This is Brynnie's bathroom.  Previously this was all enclosed.  Like those tubes you shoot your checks through at the bank... but a shower.

Em's shower.  We'll probably get the insulation cleaned up.  Probably.  :c)

Oh, and somewhere in the midst of all this we wrapped up like 40,000 hours spent at ProSource and pushed the button on our order for all of the tile for the whole house plus cabinets for the kitchen and the master bath.  Not too shabby for a month where the GC was out for 2 weeks, huh?  Stayed tuned for month 3.