House Renovation UPDATE!

So the renovations continue!  We are now in our 6th week of renovations.  The entire demolition is done-- carpet, gone!  Doors, gone!  Walls are torn down, the old stairs are ripped out, I sold the entire kitchen on craigslist.  The revolting bathrooms are all thrown out other than one revolting toilet we left in for the workers to use (sorry, Hombres).  It felt so good to get rid of all that!  There is still a Jacuzzi tub in the middle of the living room (anyone want it?  It's going cheap!) but otherwise it's pretty much cleaned out!  A good portion of the grossness, ickyness, and general disgustingness of the house is gone.  You can still see it around the door frames and light switches if you look. And in the kids' bedrooms it's a lot more obvious, what with the holes smashed in the walls, yearbook signing on the skateboard wallpaper, and spaghetti/blood/booger splatters on the ceilings.  But mostly we don't nearly throw up walking through the house anymore.  So yay for that!



And since Christmas, most of the framing and sheet rock are done.  There are new walls, new stairs, a new powder room, a surprise pantry (more on that later), new lighting, new wiring, a new laundry room (-ish), a bigger shower, a brand new HVAC system (which cost about half the amount of the US national debt), and the pond out back has frozen over, providing endless opportunities for my kids to chuck stuff at it and see if they can break the ice.  (They can't.  It's now littered with balls, rocks, sticks, bricks, and shards of broken toilet tank.  Sorry for the piece they threw on your head, Aunt Jennie).  So, ya, it's lots of fun over there!

The cabinets have all been ordered and are in the process of being made.  This includes: a whole new kitchen; a mud room complete with lockers for each person and a bench, a storage center in the hallway opposite the family room for books, blankets, games, etc.; a storage center for the master bath which will be our medicine closet, linen closet, off-season storage, with a built-in ironing board station; and a master bathroom vanity. 

Next step: pick out pain colors.  Make that PAINT colors.  That must have been a Freudian slip.  Because picking the right paint color is stressing me out more than a road trip through the desert with 6 children in a station wagon.  Choosing the wood floor stain comes next.  Or maybe first.  I can't remember.  But that won't be nearly as hard.  We know we want to go darker.  And the floor guy is going to put down a few large swatches so we can see how they look.  Then I think the trim guy needs to come in and redo the missing trim.  And then I think they'll install all the cabinets.  And somewhere in there we'll pick out carpet and tile, but I don't know what order those go in and when they're needed.  And I have no idea what I want.  Sigh....lots of fun/stressful stuff coming up!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of what happened at the house between Thanksgiving and mid-December:

Wall between former formal living room (would-be music room/library) and former formal dining room (soon to be family room) going up...

Here it is from the other angle...

New stairs getting framed in.  (You will remember the old Falcon Crest version. You can still see the shape of it in the opening below. )

 

 

They cut a new doorway into this closet.  It was only accessible from inside this fourth bedroom, but since that bedroom is becoming our laundry room, we wanted access from the hallway.  

View from the top of the stairway.  You can see where the former strangely-placed picture window has been covered up and will soon be completely sheet-rocked over.  New windows will be put in at the top of the entry.  (And I have BIG PLANS for that chandelier!)

All that's left of the basement is the awesome ceiling.  Well, and the toilet and half a sink.

So long, Star Trek bathroom!  We will miss you. Well, my mom will miss you.  hahaha!

 They had to leave the curved wall from the old staircase there.  It was a support wall.  Oh well,  I guess it'll lend some character to the basement.

 

 

 

New master bedroom entry.  It was 2 doors, will be one large door to make space for the new basement stairs entry.

New shower enclosure.  It is 18" deeper and has a bench framed in across the back.  It will be a Euro shower with glass around the front and corner (oops, someone built in the frame in wood!)

Anyone have a Zamboni I can borrow??