Happy New Year!

There are 3 guys busy with nail guns, drills and saws running around trying to make this place mostly ready for my annual New Years Day Hangover Brunch. We've been moving furniture in so there will be places to sit. The kitchen is functional. However, the boxes will still be packed. As my husband so lovingly said to me last night: Well, honey, 6 months ago we just wanted to be IN this house.
Perspective.

I spent the morning giving the dog a bath (always needed before we have company) and cleaning windows. If you've been reading from the beginning, you know that's a big job:





I'm only 1/2 way done. My arm needed a break.

There's been quite a bit of progress this week. The bedrooms have trim, the dining room has trim, the garbage disposal is in working order (though the sink is backing up - plumber just pulled in! YAY!), bathroom vanities are up, Scott's medicine cabinet is up, outlets are tested and re-worked to be wired properly, some of our rooms and closets have doors once again and we can almost park a car in the garage since we've moved so much in to the house. Enough words....pictures!

My bathroom vanity (sink coming today, I think):


Scott's medicine cabinet and (now) working sink:


New entry way light is up....let me remind you of the old one first:


And, the new one:


And, finally....my bathtub is bubbling and all lit up. As of today I have a bathroom door as well. I'll be in that puppy ASAP!


We are SO excited to invite people in to our home tomorrow. We may not have paint on the walls and our stuff might be in boxes.....but that just gives everyone something to look forward to next year!

Photo updates

I struggle with posting photos as the items are finished and waiting to post all the photos of the room once complete. Not sure which is best....for tonight, an array of photos from the past few days....

Better photo of my tub. I really cannot WAIT to be in this thing. I have bath bombs ready to GO!:


Up close photo of the tile in my bath. Isn't it pretty?


It's a little bit ridiculous how happy I am with this cabinet. I seriously LOVE putting my dishes away. And look, there's room for food processor and kitchenaid mixer on that bottom shelf. Maybe even a slower cooker too! Oh, yeah!:


The original sink added in to Scott's updated bathroom:


The floating, bamboo vanity, hand made by Scott's pal:


It's quite hard to get a photo of a shower door. It's a sliding door but it slides on that poll at the top, between the two wheels.


It's constantly feeling more like a home and less like a construction zone. I tend to hang out in the kitchen since it's the most "done" area. It makes me feel happy.

Kitchen - Before and after

The kitchen is 95% done. Garbage disposal needs power. Trim needs added/repaired. Back splash needs added. Trim and a wall or 2 need paint. And we need to hang the window dressing. We do, however, have dishes in the cabinets, food in the fridge, fire on the cook top and water running from the sink. So, we might as well show you some before and after pics. Everyone's fav!

The day we bought it:


And now:


How far we've come! Since I haven't posted pics of the cook top close up:


First thing I cooked - sauteed spinach in sesame oil.

A quick trip down memory lane of getting to a working kitchen:














What an awesome Christmas present!

Bathroom Fixtures

The bathroom fixtures went in tonight. No crazy remodeling stories to tell that we can laugh about later. Just several hours of work ending with running water in my bathroom and in Scott's.

First, Scott's shower with 3 sources - overhead rain, wand and the regular shower head:


My sweet looking faucet on my tub:


And, the tub....the beautiful tub:


Tomorrow will bring the cook top. Maybe some trim. Maybe a shower door. Maybe some bathroom vanities. The possibilities are endless now that the bathroom tile is FINALLY done.

Floors Day 2

The bamboo floors are IN! Stranded bamboo. That's important. Stranded is much harder, doesn't scratch the way regular bamboo scratches.

Anyway, another 7am wake up call this lovely Monday. But, FIRST....Ryan had to put the sub floor in:


I should have been documenting this stuff all along but at the end of the day Sunday, we were short 1 piece of sub-floor. No problem! Lowes is 5 minutes away. They were out. Seriously. ONE piece. Anyway, Ryan put it in this morning while the flooring crew worked on the hallway and guest room:



And then the guest room was done:



I wasn't able to get a photo of the floor in, what I'm calling, the yoga room. But it's pretty too. Here's the master bedroom 1/2 way:



And the master bedroom finished:



Finished minus one threshold. We had some extra but had a mess up in the hallway. Cut a new piece. Perfect. Cut the first piece for the threshold to Scott's bathroom. Didn't fit. Cut it again - PERFECT. Put the nail in: it split. So, we'll need to order another piece.

The joys of remodeling.

Update on the bathrooms: Touch up grouting and caulking happened today. Touch up caulking happens tomorrow, I believe. Once that happens: hang the vanities, hang the shower door, add the shower controls, put the toilets and sinks in, hope the plumbing works. That's a joke (sort of).

Update on the kitchen: I was going to wait and post all of the kitchen photos at once but I *THINK* I'm going to be even more busy the rest of the week trying to go through our belongings and move in around the rest of the construction. So, I'll say that the counter tops are IN. The sink and dishwasher are being worked on currently. They MIGHT even work before I go to bed. The cook top is still on the agenda. Ryan says no later than Wednesday night.

The first piece of the counter top:



It was just a tad too long. The shorter piece was quite a bit too short. Awesome fabrication guy was able to take them back to the shop, fix both pieces AND bring them back in the same afternoon.

The sinks in (that's Jeff, the plumber):



To keep with today's theme: The sink had to be pulled out once we saw the hole was properly cut. A clip caught the laminate and pulled it up, causing a hairline fracture. Lots of sad faces happened. Options were considered. Heavy sighs. Long pauses. Then Jeff thought - if we move the sing down more we can cover the rip. BINGO. Happy faces. Jeff just drilled the hole to add the faucet. Now he's on to drilling the hole for the air switch for the garbage disposal. It goes on the other side of the sink.

Here's the laminate we chose:


And.....for something that is now FINISHED! The bar top is DONE (obviously the mirror won't remain there but we are storing things wherever we can these days).



Oh, & we had our first fire in the fireplace....YAY!


Long post but it might be the last you hear from me this month. Maybe.

OOOOH! One last picture...just as I was about to sign off Jeff had the faucet in place. Look at that....

Bamboo Floor Beginings

Today at 7am the floor crew arrived. By 9am 1/2 of the living room was done. Amazing.

Here's what it looked like when we bought it:


The dining room during the demo:


And, the process today:
After 2 hours:


After about 4 hours:


And at the end of the day, looking from living room into dining room:


and from dining room into living room:


That's Morning Star Stranded Bamboo. It doesn't scratch up like the softer, not stranded bamboo. It's BEAUTIFUL if I do say so my self!

Snowy days....

With the lack of progress on the inside....here are few pictures of what it looks like outside right now.

The view from the floor to ceiling kitchen window while I ate my oatmeal 2 days ago:


Soon we will no longer have to clean the snow and ice off the cars because we'll actually park in the garage instead of the garage holding all of our earthly belongings!:


Tomorrow.....FLOORS!!! Well, in the front part of the house, at least.

Christmas Tree Saw?

Very little progress this month as Ryan finished up another job. Figured I'd just make you laugh by saying I'm going to to put garland on the saw in my dining room instead of having a Christmas tree this year.



Or maybe the saw in the master bedroom:


There has been some progress on Scott's bathroom:

Last time you saw it, only the floor was tiled.

Bathrooms got behind, putting flooring behind.....and here we are. Late next week we should be showing signs of bamboo flooring!

Handles and more tile

In an effort to have one more post this month than last....I offer a few more photos.

Our kitchen is so close I can taste it. Noticeable changes: we have handles. Look a bit closer and you'll see the door has trim too!




(someday we'll even take the plastic off the dishwasher and refrigerator).

On to the bathroom....mine, to be specific:

Remember, this is what it looked like when we bought it:


And, as of today:


Another view:


The bamboo flooring is still in boxes but it's screaming for some attention. Soon....very soon.