4 day Blitz

I am TIRED.

Scott took a couple days off work so we could hit the project list hard and I am wiped out. Really, too tired to even blog but I thought I could share a few pictures.

Gutted kitchen and removed existing tile. The only cabinets we left were the ones around the stove vent because we figured we'll just paint around those instead of disconnecting the vent. Someday the kitchen will be completely remodeled, but for now it is getting just a minor face lift with new flooring, paint, and clean up.

Installing the entry tile. It was purchased from Lowe's and is a high definition printed porcelain. It has a border of small square tiles that runs around all sides except the stairs.

Moved the bed and bookshelves into our youngest daughter's room. Still need to buy curtains, blinds, bedding, etc. for her. We also put together bookshelves for the other daughter's room and both girls spent time this weekend trying to put away the stuff they packed up months ago when we listed our house.

We painted 3 closests (pantry, linen, and master bedroom) and installed hardware in the pantry and master bedroom closets. I want to pick up a couple more baskets and we'll add some sort of shoe storage on the wall you can't see on the right. I will start loading these up once the flooring is done.

The hardwood in the living room! I love it!!! It is a Rapid Loc Vintage Hickory. Sort of an engineered hardwood (hardwood top over substrate). It has a lot of character and the color is perfect. This entire room is done now. Next come the hall and the kitchen.

Almost as if to welcome us into the new home- the first flower of spring arrived yesterday. I think yellow crocus must mean happiness and luck live here. I'm sure of it. :)

Renovation ADD

We are scattered all over the place right now! Hard to give you a concise post instead of the blah blah ramble but since we really have so much going on all over the place I don't know how to do that. So here's just a brief update:

Studio is painted, wall cabinets hung. Can't do any more until the demo is done on the master bath because we are going to steal space from the Studio's huge closet for the shower in the master bath. It has now become my wood staining/finishing spot since it is the most dust-free room on the main floor.

Master bedroom is painted, all the crown molding is installed but still needs to be caulked and a finish coat of white semi-gloss over that. Looks really good! It is now a storage space until we're ready to do the flooring.

The flooring has been purchased and we got it for a steal. Had to travel to two different stores to get enough since it was a closeout for $2/sf, but it is a very pretty engineered hardwood in Vintage Hickory. I was looking at flooring that would be darker, more gray, but this has the main criteria (NO yellow or orange) and the price couldn't be beat.

Demolition on the master bath has begun! Yippee! This deserves it's own post however the quick version is the tub is outta there. Oh how I love the sound of smashing ceramic tiles...

The staircase woodwork has been purchased and as you can tell from the top picture, I'm in the process of staining and finishing it now.

We have a good start on the board and batten wall treatment going up the stairs. The kids even got in the action to help paint the wall.

The thing about child labor though...

Sometimes they color outside the lines.

Isn't it starting to shape up nice?

The rest of the hallway downstairs is painted.

The basement has been painted with a waterproofing paint. We haven't had any problems in recent years, but right after the house was built there were a couple times that water came into the basement. We are certain it is from the road runoff at the top of the hill behind the house, and it isn't likely to happen again since Scott created a dam to divert the flow from the culvert. He has hauled all our leaves and grass clippings into the woods to create a berm which has been really effective. Can't be too cautious, though, since we are going to finish off the basement to be our main tv area and entertaining space. It is just a dull boring gray color, no pics there.

We've drawn up the kitchen and are still stumped on a way to make it better. We do need to have a plan before we get too involved on the basement remodel, though, so we can plan for moving water lines, gas, power, etc. The time to do that is before we install a ceiling in the basement.

We're also playing around with layouts for the basement itself. We need to pack a lot into the space. Even though it is a big area, there are lots of odd things in the way here or there and it makes it hard to fit in a tv area, game area, wet bar, bathroom, possible bedroom and utility room. What I do know is that I want it to have a music theme, kind of a refined rock sensibility. So I'm looking at some non-traditional ideas for finishing the space.

All these projects make our focus pretty scattered. We need to finish the wood stair parts to complete the staircase but we need the flooring up to finish the stair parts. To pull up the old flooring we need to gut the kitchen and there is no place to store everything there until the utility room in the basement has been framed and drywalled. Do you see how this can make for a lot of mental fatigue? Half the time it feels like we are following a rabbit trail only to have to back track and follow another.

I'd hoped to be moved in by spring break, but I don't know... that might be asking a lot for a couple middle-aged weekend warriors who are still trying to balance family life with school-aged kids. Can we do it? Stay tuned to find out!

Flooring woes

The floor. One of the most difficult decisions at H2 has been what to do with the flooring on the main level. The existing hardwood is narrow planks and has not worn well. It looks more like it is 30 years old instead of 8. We spent an hour drooling over samples at Lumber Liquidators and another hour or two at various websites. I really wanted a darker handscraped floor, something with wide planks. Like this:

Virginia Mill Works Old World Oak Handscraped

Without the guarantee of a quick sale on our house, I came to the realization that we were being seduced by all the pretties. We could squander our savings to create something lovely or we could be practical and admit that if H1 didn't sell we would have to list H2 and see which one sold first. If we weren't going to keep it for ourselves, then I'd let someone else go through the expense of replacing the hardwood. Of course, this would mean more work, sanding and staining the current hardwood... and it would also mean keeping the tile in the kitchen. We'd hoped to unify the space with one flooring material but the reality of the budget set in.

We reserved a floor sander from the local rental company for the Saturday before Labor Day. I spent all day Friday pulling up baseboard and moving everything out of the dining room. We knew we needed to start there because if we were unable to clean up the black stain in front of the doors then we'd have to replace the floor instead of refinish.

Know that if I had a preference, it would be replace. But the difference of $300 vs. $3000 was pretty compelling.

I mentioned that black stain before. It was located in front of the french doors leading to the deck. We thought that it was caused from a wet rug. My mother-in-law kept the dogs' water bowl on one end of the rug and we assumed that the stain was the result of the pets spilling and dribbling water. Over the course of years, the constant moisture from the rug had caused a large black stain.

We were wrong.

My husband went to remove a piece of oak molding by the french doors and when he pulled it up, the entire threshold of the doors came up with it. It was completely rotted. He started poking the area with a screwdriver and the point went through the sub-floor like a hot knife through butter. This was not good.

I wish I'd had the forethought to get pictures of the next two hours as they unfolded. He started pulling up the hardwood and realized that the floor was rotted quite a ways back. He grabbed a hammer and tapped the floor... whoosh... a big hole straight to the basement. Clearly we wouldn't be spending the weekend sanding and staining the floor.

You would think I would have been happy about this, seeing as how it looked like I would be justified in getting that new floor after all. But emotionally, I'd been all over the map about this floor. I'd finally resolved to be conservative and practical and damn if the house didn't decide that wasn't good enough.
Since the hardwood was laid on an angle parallel to the staircase, my husband had to rip up half the dining room floor to replace the sub-floor. To replace, sand, and refinish all of it would now be closer to $1000. Still a difference, but all that work sounded a lot better when it was only going to cost me $300. I still don't know what we are going to do when it is all said and done.

You can see Mr. Handyman there standing on a ladder in the basement, working on replacing the rotted wood next to the joists. THANKFULLY, the joists themselves were just fine.

What caused this? We can't be entirely sure, but the logical guess is that the framing crew that installed the doors did a lousy job. Every time it rained, water seeped in under the threshold and over the years it created this huge soft spot.

Ripping up the floor, buying materials, cleaning out all the traces of rotted wood and fixing the hole with a new sub-floor took the entire holiday weekend. Nothing like putting the "labor" into Labor Day! But in the end, the Handyman reigned supreme.

SHA-ZAM
*note- he has warned me not to use this photo of him clowning around but I couldn't resist. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission, or so he tells me...