A New Project

Am I back? Maybe...

We've started the back bathroom remodel...I guess this means you might be hearing from me again soon!

One flooring project done...another underway. + exterior progress!

As I returned home yesterday after work/school, I witnessed the last piece of hardwood floor being nailed in! Betty and Larry donated another day to the project and after the floor was finished, we got started on the tile project for the front entryway!

Well, we may not have siding on the house yet, but the new soffit and fascia is good to go!

I think it looks pretty nice!

Progress!

The siding has come off!!

And the house has been wrapped...new siding should hopefully start going on in the next week

Don't think I ever posted a picture of this back space!

This is the view from inside the house (kitchen, to be exact) with the new exterior door in!

Flooring!

The cat's world has been turned upside down for the last few days.

After I returned home from work on Friday, my dad finished leveling the floor in the living room, while the rest of us worked on laying the subflooring in the bedroom, where the floor didn't need to be leveled
My dad and Jesse, assessing the situation...

Pretty ugly underneath that carpet

Looking at the basement...from the living room

On Saturday, Betty and Larry came down to help us out. We're sure glad they did, we definitely wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without them. My mom got to work preparing this "Thanksgiving-like" feast for us. Where did we eat? on a table fashioned out of saw horses and plywood, of course!
Subfloor
The first few rows had to be nailed in by hand...

Sam found a new place to nap

Jesse, using the flooring nailer

Larry, perfecting the art of laying hardwood flooring

Bedroom...finished!

Flooring project is well underway...

Forgive the picture quality, it was taken with my phone....

So there's no turning back now. Things were going very smoothly until we got into the living room where the house was added onto. Where the original floors were was now a mess of uneven, pieced-together flooring and leveler underneath the carpet. So last night we started stripping it all down and hopefully today will finish doing this and then leveling it all out the right way.

Opening up our entryway

Not too long ago, when you first walked in through our front door, you were greeted by these two closets, a slight feeling of claustrophobia, and if there was more than one person walking in at a time, everyone had to wait outside for the person in front of them to get further into the house, or into a different room.

Another view...

So we got rid of them...


Jesse also got to work ripping out the dark, unattractive tile (see picture above). This last week, along with Larry and Betty's help, Jesse has been getting the space ready for the new and improved tile we picked out!

Next weekend, my family will be coming up and we will be laying the new tile, bamboo hardwood floor and many other fun projects! Hopefully we will have new siding and gutters soon too!

Demolition!

I go away for one weekend and I come home to this!

Maybe a month ago, we cleaned out our weird garden shed that was built into the side of the house and George (plug: Superior Home Remodeling) came out and framed in that doorway.

Then, when I went to San Francisco at the beginning of January, Jesse, Betty and Larry got to work on tackling it from the inside.




I can't believe I missed this chance to use a sledgehammer to take out all of my bottled up rage and frustration! (haha, kidding)

The next week, Larry came back down and Matt came over too to help put up the sheet rock.
This new space will be used for a pantry and linen/coat closet. There is definitely enough room if future owners wanted to use it for a study or something else even! We also special ordered a beautiful pocket door for the closet and just found out that it's waiting at Menards for us to pick it up!

Lester even got to help with the demolition!

Next up, more recent developments including: more demolition (I get to try my hand at destruction this time!), flooring and more!

Snow!

So this post is super late. In fact, I took these photos during the holiday snow storm. But oh well, better late than never!


Behind that fence is the concrete slab that I park my car on. To keep this area free of snow, we have to start way back by the alley and shovel all of the snow back to the fence and onto this pile. I think we should have built a fort in it!

Jesse can carry a lot more snow than I can!


Along with this snow, cold, rain...our not-so-clean gutters got all clogged with ice and since we should be getting new ones soon, we decided to take the gutters off completely. Oh so much fun!

Big Update!

Big update! (kind of)

The most exciting news is that our custom-made gate arrived! Now we can have lots of canine visitors :)

The fun started a couple of weeks ago, when Larry and Jesse dug through some concrete to get the post for the gate put in.
I stayed away from the drilling and raked the lawn instead. (have to admit, not my favorite part of home ownership, although it was quite the workout :) )And now I present to you....



THE GATE!
Thanks to Larry for making friends with our neighbor Joe who has a company Crown Fence & Wire Company. And of course, thanks to Joe (who does not read this blog and therefore will never see this) for making such a nice looking gate!Yesterday, we bought Halloween candy...I'm hoping for a few (nicely behaved) Trick-or-Treaters this year!

We Passed Inspection!

Yes, that's right, we passed our house inspection! This is so huge, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. This inspection was necessary because we bought the house "as-is" and took responsibility for a couple of pages of repairs that had to be made within the first 90 days of taking ownership of the house. So now that we have passed inspection, everything else we do now in terms of renovating, can be done more on "our time."

We have also chosen a contractor and have decided to re-side the house with James Hardie fiber cement siding (http://www.jameshardie.com/). Still deciding on a color, any suggestions?

We will also be getting the gutters replaced and that weird back room torn off, also may tackle the kitchen at some point. The goal is to have this work all done by November-ish.

A productive weekend...

I can't even believe how productive this weekend was. (well in terms of home renovations it was.... I STILL haven't touched my homework). Betty and Larry came on Friday morning. When I got home from work/class, I walked into an empty (locked) house, with two gaping holes where windows used to be in the living room. However, by bedtime Friday night, we had two brand new beautiful windows!
On Saturday, my dad joined the party. This time, by the time I got home from work (I know, it really doesn't seem like I help much, does it?) there was another new window in and one more hole waiting for the final window! Also, my dad had a good deal of his plumbing project done!

Currently, as I'm writing this, we have new windows in the living room and a new window in the second bathroom. Just as exciting, we have an actual functional second bathroom! After some unexpected surprise leaks and other things, my dad got all of the plumbing working and now the toilet, bathtub and sink all work!