5.15.16

Well, we're making progress, at least.

We picked out new flooring.  The majority of the house will be cork, but the entryways will be a wood-look tile.  Here's the samples near each other:

OK, I think I might actually like these better than our original bamboo choice

Here are the images from the website or store, to get the idea of how it looks when installed: 

The flooring is all ordered and supposed to arrive this week.  Installation was originally scheduled for June 6th, but we said that was not acceptable.  So somehow they found time for us the week of May 23rd.

We also found a rug that we like:

We got curtains and put them up, but the curtain rods we ordered bent under the weight of the curtains.  Not heavy curtains--just flimsy rods.  But we have newer, sturdier rods for them now.

We're starting to put things back up on the walls.  Here's the photo ledge:

The painter suggested all black frames, so I might start collecting some.  Can't afford to buy 25 at once.

We painted our formerly-wood toned key caddy and shoe caddy black:

And we're preparing for the outside stuff.  We plan to use the stones from our old patio to make a walkway to the front of the house.  The guys pulled them all up yesterday because the patio company is coming tomorrow to start demo.

The side of the house with the useless step and sidewalk are what will be pulled up tomorrow.  Not sure how long it'll take for the rest of the work (patio and step and repair on our front step).  They're also bringing dirt so I can finish my raised garden bed from mother's day:

5.5.16

For those of you on Facebook, you know about our flooring issues.  For those who are not (and to document for my posterity :)), here's what happened.

We ordered beautiful distressed bamboo flooring in February.  This is what it looks like:

We so fell in love with the floor that we designed our entire kitchen around it (including the cabinets and countertops and paint).  After a series of mishaps, they finally delivered all the flooring and we needed to bring it into the living room so it could acclimate to our house before installation--which was THREE WEEKS after it arrived and after the rest of the kitchen was essentially done.  Not happy.  BUT the floor installer showed up on Monday (5/2) and scheduled two days to install it all.  We're getting the full kitchen, living room, hall, and closets (3) all re-done and all in bamboo.  Or so we thought...  

If you've thought about using bamboo flooring, here's something you should know: it acts like a sponge, absorbing and bleeding water depending on the humidity level of the house.  So if you will be installing bamboo, you must have a whole house humidifier.  We don't.

Also, nail-down (or glue-down) hardwood floors require a perfectly level subfloor.  60 year old houses don't have a perfectly level subfloor.  So you'd need a floating floor.

Yes, we had chosen glue-down bamboo.  Completely incompatible with our house.  And we tore up everything in every room and moved our furniture and emptied the fridge...  And we still have no floors.

Today at least the company we bought the materials from came to pick up the flooring and all the other installation products.  I'm a bit frustrated that their salespeople don't know enough to explain the issues with bamboo to their customers.  But I'm refraining from saying anything else until I know how they will fix this for us.  We went and picked out alternate flooring materials and (unbelievably) they required the floor measure guy to come back out again to re-measure for the new floor.  We still don't have a quote or know if the materials we've chosen will be acceptable or not.  And therefore they haven't been ordered and we don't have an install date.  And our first floor remains empty, echoey, and lonely.

BUT everything else is coming along well.  I turned an old blind into a roman shade:

Try not to notice that it's a little short--I won't often have it down all the way

Here's how it looks rolled up.

The painters finished today and I cannot be more excited about how it all turned out!  :)  The lighting might not be that great, but the whole first floor (plus both stairwells) are combinations of brown, teal, and off-white, with white trim.

Looking up the basement stairs

Service door

LOVE how the cabinets look against the teal

This makes me so happy.

Patio door (with new curtain just installed today) to the right

That brown makes me swoon

Love the pantry set-up (they have slide-out shelves)

looking out of the kitchen into the hall

A nice touch the painter suggested--painting our wood tone photo shelves black

Love this combo of colors in the built-in

And I am way too excited about how the stairwell going to the second floor turned out.  Photos don't do it justice

Looking down from the second floor

As I said, we put up the patio door curtain today.  Greg also spent time the last week replacing all our off-white (and dirty) outlets with white ones.  He will do the same with the light switches this weekend.  Everything looks so nice and sparkly new!

I hope to hear about flooring installation tomorrow.  And I hope it gets wrapped up quickly.  The patio and outdoor work will hopefully be started in two weeks.  We just might have this project done in time for a graduation party...

4.28.16

Now the fun stuff is starting to happen!  :)

The painters started this week, so we began to pull up the carpet and tack strips.  It looks like this wood parquet flooring is going to be a real beast to get rid of.

Painting is still in bits but you can see the colors at least.

In the kitchen, with all the neutrals we have, I wanted to go bright.  Unfortunately, the first paint I picked was a bit TOO bright (and a little obnoxious).  We toned it down and I love the new shade:

I cannot tell you how much I love this! 

Little different angle which shows the appearance in the light

This corner looks cool, too, I think.

OK, this may be my favorite view of all.  I absolutely LOVE this brown, which is what I chose for the living room.  The painter suggested I put it here, too, so the kitchen isn't quite so teal.  This with the white trim?  LOVE!

Here's some of the teal connecting the living room with the kitchen (and the brown on the right side wall)

More brown (swoon)

And the formerly-red walls are now a lovely white.  Looking for opinions on what to do for new curtains, though, as these off-white curtains look awful with the white walls.

Today the cabinet installers come back to fix all their boo-boos (I'll list those after).  Like I said, the flooring goes in next week, and painting should be finished next week as well.  It won't be long until we have a house again!

4.21.16

I'm not home yet, but Greg kindly sent me post-electrician and plumber pics:

New stove! Microwave still to be installed.

New dishwasher

New light over sink (it's LED)

New faucet

Check out that plumbing! (If you'd seen under our sink before, you'd understand. :)

First use of the dining peninsula

I'm hours away from seeing it in person.

4.20.16

Though I'm out of town at a conference, stuff was done at the house today. 

Greg ripped up carpet and moved the flooring into the living room.

And the countertops were installed today!

Tomorrow is electrical and plumbing, so I should return to a functional kitchen! :)

4.12.16

I haven't written for a long time because there hasn't been an awful lot to write about.  That, in itself, has been the cause of great frustration.  I am refraining from posting contractor names until this whole project is done, so that said contractor(s) have a chance to make up things to us.  And we're working with numerous contractors and so far only one of them has been bad...

Suffice to say that we're in a long, drawn-out, frustrating holding pattern, waiting and with nothing done on the project for essentially three weeks.  I can show you little things like our new appliances:

We didn't want them delivered until they could be installed, but apparently you can only hold off
delivery for 30 days, so they're sitting in our garage.

Look--it's our flooring.  When will that be installed?  May 3rd.  That's also sitting in our garage.

Not only sitting in the garage, but sitting in the entrance to the garage
 so it's nearly impossible to enter the garage.

And we finally got a patio company to call back, to visit, and to give us an estimate.  Well, we got two.  We decided to go with the second one.  They won't schedule us until they receive our downpayment.  Not sure when that'll happen, but we bought mulch to surround the new patio whenever it comes.

Super great deal on mulch so we stocked up

I know I shouldn't complain.  I feel unbelievably lucky to be able to do a remodel.  This is the remodel we've been waiting for over 15 years (since we bought the house and said we'd get rid of all the pink stuff).  My complaints are so minor in the scheme of things.  But I'm sick of doing dishes here:

And my makeshift countertop in a kitchen with no outlets, so we have to run an extension cord from the living room:

And eating on a card table in the living room:

And using plastic bins for makeshift cabinets--also in the living room:

It was fun for a little while to camp in our own home, but I am *so over it*!

New photos next week, as the countertops, electrical and plumbing SHOULD be done by the end of the week.  Fingers crossed.