3 Week Update

Well after 3 weeks we still aren't living in the house.  They have finished the floors and most of the baseboards and crown molding.  They also added the drywall where the wood paneling was and to the kitchen ceiling.  They still have more sanding and painting to do and hopefully they will be able to start on the cabinets by Wednesday.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Our new header and post.

 The cutest construction worker.

 Finished floors, baseboards and crown molding.

The wood panel wall.  This is such a small change but seems so drastic to me after looking at the ugly paneling for 8 years.  I love it!

New recessed lighting in the kitchen.  I got an email about my pendant lights for the breakfast bar yesterday.  For those that don't know - they came damaged back in the beginning of December.  I went through the return process and was then told they were backordered until January 20th.  I sent them an email on the 23rd asking for the status and was told they would ship on the 30th.  Now I got an email saying they are backordered until February 15th!  Very frustrating.

 New beam and post with drywall.

What a difference a day makes

Well we've officially begun renovations!  It's amazing how quickly a house can be demolished.  If only they could put it back together as quickly!  We've got one week under our belt and have already encountered our first hiccup.  I think we took it in stride and have made arrangements to work around it. 

So far they have removed all the tile, popcorn ceiling, crown molding and demo'ed the kitchen.  Part of the wall in the kitchen has come down but it is load bearing and the posts are exactly where we didn't want them to do be.  We did a little reconfiguring to the layout and a new support beam and post should be put in on Monday.

Please excuse how dark some photos are - I only get to see the progress in the evening and the electricity isn't always on :)

House all cleared out...

 So that's where all the furniture went!  All the bedrooms look like this...

 No more wood paneling.  This will be the new TV wall.

Good-bye 80s drop down ceiling.  It didn't seem like the drop down was concealing any duct work - I guess it was purely decorative :)

 My nemesis wall...

 A sneak peek to the tile that they are hopefully starting to install on Monday.

New Features

Here are shots of some of the finishes.  The cabinets are a slightly off-white raised panel style. Sorry no pictures!

We got all of our appliances during the Labor Day sale at Lowes.  They were delivered about 2 weeks ago and are sitting in the garage taunting me.  I can't wait to use them.

We went with a counter depth fridge.  A little less space but more of a built in look.  Maybe it will make us eat less if we can't store as much!  Doubt it.

This is the countertop - Cambria Quartz in Darlington.  I hated this picture online but loved it in person.  None of the colors seem to be accurate in pictures.  It's more taupey-grey than it looks.

 Main backsplash tiles (I swear these tiles match the counter in person - at least to my untrained eye).

 Accent backsplash tiles.  The lightest color is the same as the main tile.

This is a close-up and farther out shot of the floor tile.  12x24 with a linen finish.  Colors are hard to see since this was taken in a dark store with a cellphone camera.  This was a difficult decision since the tile will be in about 900 square feet of living space but I had the interior designer (who majored in colorology?!) help pick it.

Finally, here are the lights going over the breakfast bar.  This was one of the hardest decisions to make.  I ended up going a little over budget here but I got them for 23.5% off :)  so I couldn't pass that up.

We still need to pick hardware, stools, etc.

More to come in about a month!

Out with the old

Eight years after moving in we are finally remodeling our 1980s kitchen!  Out with the laminate cabinets and green tile counters, and don't forget the original 1968 fish scale floor tiles (even the contractors said they had never seen anything like them!).  The remodel officially starts in the beginning of January but we have been picking out all the finishes since August.

As a reminder here is the old kitchen...

We will be removing the drop down ceiling in the kitchen.  This means that all the popcorn in the entire house is being removed as well. This might be Bill's favorite thing about the remodel.

The layout will essentially remain the same except the dishwasher will be moved to the other side of the sink to allow for more efficient use of the corner cabinet.

 The microwave will be above the range. 

Good-bye topiary!!! This pantry will be replaced by a built-in cabinet pantry.  Over the years, many people have commented they think the door is cute but I never get any takers when I offer it to them.  Here's your last chance!

We will be removing as much of these two walls as (financially) possible.  The counter along this run will extend into the Florida room to create a breakfast bar.