Home Sweet Home Reno: Month Four

December 21st we not only celebrated the beginning of Christmas break for the fam, but also another month down of dual home ownership.  Maybe celebrated is the wrong word.  :c)  As you'll see below, it was a busy, busy month!

Accomplishments:

• Dug trenches for re-routing plumbing to new sink location
• Plumbing re-routed for new sink location
• Dug trenches for new electrical floor plugs in living room
• Installed electrical for new floor plugs in living room
• Settled on paint colors (I THINK)
• Picked grout colors for remaining areas (half bath plus master bath)
• Framed out half wall between kitchen and living room
• Framed out return to hide electrical on the half wall between the living room and kitchen
• Inspected cabinetry for kitchen and master bath
• Framed out new opening to master bath
• Framed out new toilet room in master bath
• Framed out pocket door to new toilet room in master bath
• Received stair quote
• Received plumbing quote
• Received electrical quote
• Received fireplace quote
• Received contractor take-over quote
• Bead board research
• Ship lap research

Purchases:

• Microwave
• Microwave trim kit
• Ovens
• Cooktop
• Kitchen Sink
• Half Bath Vanity (included sink, counter, fixtures)
• Half Bath Vanity light
• Half Bath Mirror
• Girls' Bathroom Mirrors
• Girls' Bathroom Sconces
• Materials for Bead Board in Girls' bathrooms & half bath
• Cabinet Pulls for Kitchen
• Cabinet Pulls for Living Room Built Ins
• Master Bath Shower fixtures
• Master Bath Faucets
• Master Bath Pendant 
• Cabinet Pulls for Master Bath
• Cabinet Pulls for Built Ins in Study
• Cabinet Pulls for Laundry Room

In the Pipeline:

• Schedule Plumbers
• Solicit more Electrical Quotes
• Solicit more Carpentry Quotes
• Solicit more Fireplace Quotes
• Line Up Temporary Housing

As you can tell from this month's summary, we got a LOT accomplished and I have the credit card statement to prove it.  Ryan and I each took a couple of days off here and there when we could so that we could be at the house to help GC, run errands, or just watch and daydream about what it will look like when it's finished.  

I'll tell most of the stories of this month's happenings with the pictures below, but the biggest discovery this month isn't in any of the pictures (although if you read between the lines you've likely figured it out).  So- we came to grips this month with the fact that our house will NOT be ready when we are scheduled to close on our current house.  As I mentioned previously we really didn't expect it to sell so quickly and we kind of freaked out.  (We = me.)

We started talking about alternatives with our GC and decided jointly to solicit a bid for what the cost would be to have another Contractor and his crew take over the job in order to complete it on time.  We figured hey- we've done most of the structural work and have purchased 95% of the materials at this point- how bad can it be?  Well... the answer is pretty bad.  The bid came back astronomical and we knew that no amount of bargaining and bartering, short of Ryan selling his body, was going to make it in our ballpark.  So, we came to grips with the fact that the universe and fate seem to want us to do this ourselves.  Roger that.

So that is what our plan is.  We are, as I type this, in the process of researching alternative places to live for a couple of months while we try to finish this up ourselves, with, of course, the assistance of various subcontractors for the pieces of the puzzle we aren't skilled enough to do.  Again I say- it looks SO MUCH EASIER on HGTV!  :c)

Stay tuned for next month.  I think (read: hope) things are really going to start taking shape and I'll have some pictures that look more like a habitable house (read: with sheet rock.)   

Went over to the house on a lunch break to check on GC.  Found him digging this trench in our kitchen.  Rockstar!

I don't include too many pics of materials in these updates because I don't want you to envision something and then think the actual result isn't nearly as cool as your vision.  This month though, as you can see above, I did a LOT of material purchasing/research.  So that's most of what I have in my camera roll.  This particular day I was supposed to be picking grout.  That's the tile for the shower in the master.

Just checking out some knobs. (Haaaa.)

I should mention that this month included Black Friday which is why I went on a purchasing binge.  Thanks to a half off cabinet knob sale at Hobby Lobby, I procured enough of these bad boys for the girls' vanities in their bathrooms.

I spent a LOT of time at Sherwin Williams.  Like, a LOT.  If I had sent them this year, they'd get a Christmas Card.  From the top down we have SW Butter Up, SW Pussywillow, SW Pavestone, SW Sea Salt, SW Glad Yellow, SW Naive Peach, SW Colonnade Gray and SW Extra White.  We are using all of these except Butter Up.  Anyone from my office can probably tell you exactly where I keep the SW fan deck and confirm that if you came in my office I almost always had a couple of chips laid out letting them marinate in my mind.

Here's the half wall between the kitchen and living room.   The half wall will hold the sink, dishwasher and some drawers for dishes, silverware, etc.

If you were an avid Sesame Street watcher, you're probably pretty skilled at detecting which one of these is not like the others.  If not, allow me to show you- it's the top one.  So... what happened here?  I convinced our GC to open the box of our master vanities so I could work out in my mind what color cabinet pulls and fixtures I should look for.  Good thing I did because we found a hot mess.  Mis-colored drawers.  Stripping.  Boxes that weren't square.  Thankfully the cabinet rep came to the house and agreed that they needed to be replaced immediately.

Since our kitchen cabinetry came from the same place as our master vanities, we had what one might call a panic attack.  We set aside a Saturday to start opening a sample of the 61 (!) boxes to check them.  Fortunately we found that the quality of the kitchen cabinets was much better than the vanities.  HUGE sigh of relief.  Ryan doesn't appreciate it when I ask him to take pictures.  My posting this publicly is his repayment for refusing to cooperate.

Ryan left one evening to run an errand after the girls were in bed.  Hopped up on hot chocolate, I decided to make some bad decisions.  I went out into our garage and decided to open the chandelier for our breakfast room because I couldn't wait to see it.  I opened the box and found... this.  What is this?  Not a light.  It's 2 three foot artificial Christmas trees.  They have since been returned and replaced.  On a totally related note- every box in our garage has now been opened and checked.

After the cabinetry drama was put to bed, the men returned to framing out the entrance to the master bath, the new toilet room, and the pocket door entrance to the toilet room.  Previously the entrance to the toilet room was perpendicular to the entrance to the bathroom and you had to walk past it to fumble around for the light switches which were on the wall adjacent to my vanity.  We've now flipped where the entrance was and where the light switches were so that each is in the other's old home.

This is the wall that separates the garage from the kitchen.  On the inside it was previously home to the sink and a faux window box that protruded into the garage.  In the new layout it will be home to the cooktop.  In order to run gas there we had to rip the wall open.  In doing so we discovered that it was kind of a hot mess.  There was wiring that wasn't properly capped and beams for a load bearing wall that weren't properly supported.  GC was busy, busy getting this bad boy cleaned up.

GC and I spent a whole day hunting down ship lap only to discover what I was envisioning didn't seem to be readily available.  So he cut some himself (yes, he cut some himself) so we could compare it to the look of v-groove.  Also, clearly, the paint sample fairy struck here.  Left is SW Pussywillow and right is SW Pavestone.

Two-for- (Turning) One Special

This year, as you may have gathered, there was quite a bit going on around the time I should have been planning Brynn's birthday.  Each day I got up in the morning and promised myself that I would look up invitations and start planning.  Some how I got in bed each night with no recollection of how I'd spent a single minute of the day but knew that none of them included party research.  Work was crazy.  House-selling and renovating was crazy.  Some family events that cropped up were crazy.  

As the days crawled by I started to feel more and more guilty that the time was slipping away- especially in a season that was so busy not only for us but for everyone with the holidays approaching.  In talking to Ryan about it he reminded me that when I looked back on my childhood not only do I not remember anything before 4, but the things that I do remember aren't perfect decorations, awesome invitations or intricate themes.  The memories I cherish most are time spent with family and the excitement and wonder that go with all the little things that seem so big at the time- store bought cakes, wrapping paper, bows, etc.  He reminds me of these facts regularly but I normally brush them off.

The week before Thanksgiving I finally gave in to the fact that he was right and that with all that was going on I was going to drive myself into the ground if I tried to pull something together.  So I texted our families and asked if they would be up for having a small party in conjunction with celebrating Thanksgiving.  That way Brynnie got TWO parties (more is better to any kid, right?) and no one was inconvenienced or had to go out of their way.  Winning on all fronts.

So if you've been worried that you were left off of the invite list for a big bash for Boo Boo, rest assured you were not.  (Same goes for Xmas cards- once again, those didn't happen this year.  NEXT YEAR!  Seriously.)

At the Martin's, I mainly only captured the portion of celebration that matters most to kids- the present part.

What is all this attached to my present (the ribbon is the gift.  Duh)?  That box is kind of in the way of me enjoying it.

In awe.  I believe that is Kylie and Emery playing with another one of Brynn's presents in the background.

On Saturday November 28th when we woke up at my parents' house I immediately started setting up for Brynn's party because I was worried if I didn't do it, we would forget.  I have a bad habit of getting lazy (exhibit a: the fact that I never have pictures of our visits) when I get within a 2 mile radius of Camp Nonnie & Pawpaw.  You'll have to excuse the fact that we're in pajamas.  

The finest party-ware that Target had to offer.

View from the Birthday Princess' throne.

Cupcakes?!  For BREAKFAST?!  What did I do right?

What is it with you guys and putting things on my head?  Have I been unclear in the past?  I am NOT a fan.

Difficult to tell in this lighting but she's entertained by this tiny sparkler.

Not entertained by having to wait for food though.  Ever.

They're going to kill me for posting this photo, but how could I not capture how good they look in hats?!

Daddy and sis also rocking those hats.

If GCing doesn't work out, I really think he has a future in party hat modeling.

Doing much better with sweets than she was on her actual birthday.  Maybe those Mama genes are coming alive.

Doesn't look like she's too upset that she didn't have a big fancy party, does she?

Daddy's thinking "I'll never be able to match these."  Brynn's thinking, "he'll never be able to figure out these outfits."  Both accurate.

Sis wasn't interested in the clothing but showed up when toys got involved.

Happiest of Birthday (Parties) to our little Brynnie!  I hope you aren't upset with me for not having a big bash.  Maybe we will for your second birthday.  :c)  We love you more than we could ever possibly put into words!

Day of Thanks 2015

You may or may not recall- but Thanksgiving took place this (I suppose at this point I should say "last") year.  On Thursday November 26th to be exact.  Despite the fact that I am just now getting around to blogging it, we did observe the holiday.  If you know our family you know we don't pass on opportunities to celebrate and/or eat.

We celebrated this holiday by doing our usual tour o' Houston, so I'll keep my verbiage short and sweet so we can all focus on what really matters- MORE pictures of my adorable offspring.  We started off the morning at our house where, despite not having procured holiday-themed outfits for the children, I decided a photo shoot needed to happen.  I have no less than 28 pictures from this 3 minutes that none of us will ever get back.

Mom, why is sis so silly?

This picture.  It sums these two right up.  Em laughing maniacally, most likely at herself, and Brynnie saying "uh uh uh."

Here they are actually smiling.  Not at me, of course.  At their Daddy.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Post photo shoot we all loaded up and headed to the Branch to celebrate with the Martin crew.  The day was marked by lots of food, lots of laps around the living room (not me) and looooots of laughter.  Em spends 80% of her time with Kylie laughing hysterically for no reason that any of us can identify.  To say that she idolizes her big cousin would probably be an understatement.  It melts my heart.  

Walk #1 to go check out the Johnson's lights.  If you haven't been, I recommend it.  Your kids will be in total awe of all the things to look at.  You'll be in total awe as you imagine trying to get your husband to agree to putting up that many lights.

Dr. Kylie checking out her patient while Emery the intern looks on.  When asked what his symptoms were he said, "I have a headache and I've been tooting a lot."  Sounds like a regular Thursday for him to me.

Two peas in a pod.  Are you wondering why Em has a different outfit on than in our original photoshoot?  Oh yes.  Let me share.  So Lola was bunking with Grandma & Pawpaw while we had the house on the market so we didn't have to worry about what to do with her for each showing.  Lola was so excited to see us when we walked in that she smacked her weapon tail so hard that it started bleeding.  She then was flinging blood everywhere.  Wouldn't be a family holiday if a load of laundry and approximately 400 paper towels were needed in the first 5 minutes, would it?

These 3 love this game.  They have their Pawpaw's heart for sure.

Standard.  I'm trying to take a picture and she's telling me what she needs.

Brynn's first (real) Thanksgiving.  I promise we fed her.  As you may have gathered from posts in the past, doing so is a two-handed affair.  Since I've not learned to take pics with my foot (YET), there aren't generally photos.

Walk #2 to the Johnson's to check out the lights.

We spent the night at Grandma & Pawpaw's which meant the girls had a slumber party.  They had an ah-mazing time.  Bright and early the next morning, after some delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls, we hit the road and headed to Conroe.

We spent the remainder of the weekend there and, ONCE AGAIN, I failed miserably at taking pictures.  I have zero.  I do have pictures of Brynnie's Birthday parties, (stay tuned) but otherwise no physical evidence we were there.  If you doubt me, just look at the scale when I stand on it.  Trust me when I say the poundage shown can only be the result of the food consumed there.

As always- we had a great time.  Too much food, lots of games and lots of laughs.  And with that- another perfect holiday is in the books.  Thank you to all who hosted us for their generosity, hospitality and company.  We all love you so very much!

Home Sweet Home Reno: Month Three

November 21st made 3 months of being home reno-ers.  Also, coincidentally, 3 months of my wishing that Joanna Gaines and I were BFF.  Okay, let's be honest- it's been longer than that.

So the main theme this month was making dust.  A lot of dust.  I'm not even kidding.  Black pants that cross the threshold will leave gray pants. I am fairly certain some of the floor removal carried over into this month.  Mostly pulling up the wood floors that were in the study and dining room.  Our GC hired an employee to assist in this endeavor.  More on that below.

So here's a summary of the month if you're just looking for that without all my babbling-

Accomplishments:

• Removal of wallpaper in kitchen, dining room, master bath & Brynn's bath
• Removal of wall o' mirrors in the dining room
• Demo of previous toilet area in master bath
• Widened opening of master bath
• Demo of master bath vanities
• Kitchen preparation for new beam
• Welding & installation of new beam
• Removal of old garage entrance door to kitchen
• Installation of new garage entrance door to laundry room
• Installation of pocket door from laundry room to kitchen
• Demo of fireplace surround
• Start of column removal
• Listed current house
• Sold current house

Purchases:

• Pendant lights for kitchen
• Chandelier for foyer
• Chandelier for breakfast room
• Chandelier for dining room
• Fixtures for the girls' bathrooms
• Approximately 1,076 paint samples

In the Pipeline:

• Still paint colors
• Finding an Electrician
• Finding a Plumber
• Finding a Sheetrocker
• Finding a Money Tree

As I've mentioned a zillion times, I've really got to start documenting this stuff more timely.  Otherwise I forget the exact order of operations.  What I mainly remember about this month is the day that I called our GC on the way home from work, as I often do, to see how his day went.  He informed me that it went well and that he had hired an employee.  When asked how he found said employee he let me know that he'd found him at Home Depot.  An arduous interview process was conducted of the gentlemen outside looking for short term work and Mario won the job.  Anyone who knows my Dad is laughing right now.

Mario assisted in lots of things through out the course of the month and we were very thankful for his help.  I know the GC appreciated having someone to help with the demo-related tasks so that he could focus on planning and purchasing as needed.  I appreciated the stories and watching their working relationship.  Super Mario has since completed his assignment.

The most notable accomplishment of the month was the installation of the steel beam where the wall came down between the kitchen and living room.  If you're thinking that you mis-read that and/or that I had a typo, you are incorrect.  The beam is, in fact, steel.  It was hand-welded with love by our GC.  Also probably where we will go if a hurricane ever comes because it's not going anywhere.  

I jest, of course, because that's what I always do.  In reality it's actually incredibly impressive.  He constructed and installed the entire thing himself.  When I asked how he installed it he chuckled and said "it's proprietary," and when pressed he started explaining laws of physics and I zoned out.  Suffice it to say though that it's amazing.  In case I wasn't sold on the awesome factor by myself, every sub-contractor that we have interviewed has commented on it.  

Two other exciting discoveries were made this month.  Who says that renovations are all bad news?  (Can you hear me knocking on wood from there?)  The first was that our GC did some calculations (more physics) and determined that for a fairly minimal cost we could remove the column that separated the dining room from a pseudo hallway to the half bath.  The second was that underneath the barrage of sheet rock and mirrors- our fireplace was made of... wait for it... BRICK!  Brick fireplaces are probably part of my love language.  

That's essentially this month in a nutshell.  We are clearly in the thick of the renovation madness.  Stay tuned for what month 4 held! 

This column is gone now but I was doing a little paint color sampling.  This is SW Dovetail.  Which I actually am not using but is a beautiful color.  This is an excellent representation of what the house looks like though- nearly every open expanse of sheet rock has at least one paint sample on it.

The GC and his hard-working inspector in the zone.  (This is pre-beam)

This is allegedly what our kitchen will look like.  Some day.

Some people receive pictures of their children while they're at work.  I receive pictures of shoring up for beam installation.

3 out of 6 of the shoring thingies.  (Don't google it.  That is the technical term.)

This is the entrance to the master bath from the master bedroom.  We widened it a foot or so.  We plan to one day install barn doors.

A picture of the beam in position.

Ta-da!  Beam in, shoring out.  You like that ducting?  We're going for a rustic feel.

Ryan's project for a day off was demo-ing the fireplace.  I was pretty pumped to receive this text.  She's not much to look at now, but hopefully we can get her cleaned up and whitewashed to perfection.

View from the front door.

The beginning of column removal.  That's a little SW Colonnade Gray you see in the bottom left-hand corner.  It has since multiplied.

Polly pocket door.

Our First Home

On November 19th we listed our house.  Of course, as anyone who's listed their home knows, I have about a million and 1 different emotions associated with this fact.  The house has seen us become husband and wife.  It's seen 3 different cars and 4 different jobs between the two of us.  It's where we brought Lola home.  It's where we brought Emery and Brynn home.  It's where we've all grown and thrived for the last 5 years.  To say that we love it wouldn't do it justice.  That isn't what this post is about though, so I'll leave it at that.

We settled on listing the house in mid-November because the market has softened considerably in our area amidst interest rate hike chatter and oil prices plummeting.  We were under the impression our new house would be ready at the end of January or in early February.  (Foreshadowing for the next Home Sweet Home Reno?  Si.)  We also learned that there was some new regulation in residential real estate that can make closing take 45 days to 60 days.  The combination of these facts made us think we needed to list stat.

We were all beyond shocked and counting our lucky stars when we listed on a Thursday and went to work on Monday with a signed contract in hand.  Our real estate Guardian Angel must have known trying to keep this house show-ready with 2 toddlers in the mix was likely to result in the purchase of a 1-way flight to Mexico.

As I've documented on the blog in the past, when we moved into this home we had all kinds of grand plans.  I had visions of completing fantastic DIY projects and writing about them all here on the blog.  While I have documented most of what we've done in some form or fashion, we certainly didn't get to everything we planned to.  I had really hoped to "finish" each room and then give it it's own post.  To no one's shock, I haven't ever considered a room finished enough to do that (except Brynn's).  I've come to realize though that selling your house is a pretty good pencils down moment.  So, what better way to pay homage to the home that has taken such good care of us than by showing how it's grown and changed.  Kick your shoes off and take a trip down memory lane with me, won't you?

THE FRONT

Before.

After.  We painted the door red.  Ryan re-shaped the beds by the house and added the pavers lining them.  We completely re-landscaped with the exception of the wax trees.

THE FOYER

Before.

After.  Unfortunately this isn't from the same angle.  We painted the foyer (SW Harmonic Tan).  We had the inside of the door painted white.  It was black.

THE DINING ROOM

Before.

After.  We painted.  Above the chair rail is SW Bracing Blue and below is SW Cottage Cream.  Oh, and we had the chair rail painted so you could actually see it.  Your girl loooooves herself some chair rail.

THE OTHER TV ROOM

Before.

After.  We actually did nothing in here.  Oh, actually Ryan hung a TV which is not pictured.  :c)

THE LIVING ROOM

Before.

After.  Ryan & my Dad spent quite a few days mounting the TV and hiding the accompanying cables/wires.

After.  Oh, and we painted.  A couple of times, actually.  :c)  This color is SW Cottage Cream.

More after.

THE KITCHEN

Before.

Before.

After.  We had the door painted white.  

After.  We also painted the walls SW Foothills.

More after.

Apparently we have a lot of pictures of the kitchen.

THE MASTER BEDROOM

Before.

After.  We painted the walls SW Mannered Gold.

THE MASTER BATHROOM

Before.

After.  If you're thinking- man that looks similar- you are correct.  The bathrooms are #1 on my list of self-proclaimed failures.

BRYNN'S ROOM

Before.

After.  Ryan & my Dad hung the fan.  Ryan added chair rail.  We painted (colors I don't recall the names of.  Similar to SW Butter Up though.)  I cranked out that stencil.

THE PLAYROOM

Before.

After.  Ryan & my Dad hung that chandelier.  We painted SW Morning Fog.

EMERY'S ROOM

Before.

After.  Ryan & my Dad hung that fan.  Ryan & my Dad added chair rail (wasn't joking about my affection for it).  We painted SW Baize Green above the chair rail and Behr color I can't recall the name of below.  I decided stencils were hard and ordered Lottie Dottie decals from Land of Nod.

THE GIRLS' BATHROOM

Before.

After.  We painted Martha Stewart Sandpiper.  Another area I consider a total failure of mine.  I can count on one hand the number of times this bathroom has been utilized in our time here.

THE BACKYARD

Before.

Before.

After.  As you can see this is where we did the most work.  Ryan & my Dad removed a lot of landscaping. 

We added the pergola and a flagstone patio.  We gave up on growing grass under that tree and put some bark mulch down.  We added a flower bed along the garage.  We spruced up the bed under the master bedroom window.

More after.  We love you, house!