The list of things being renovated in the house:
--new roof
--new outside A/C unit
--new trim color outside and new gutters
--repair/replace all rotted wood on house trim, powerwash entire house, replace several rows of rotted wood on garage
--removing all wallpaper in many rooms and repairing sheetrock, cracks in ceiling, etc.
--painting all ceilings, walls, trim, doors, baseboards (baseboards being replaced throughout whole house)
--new everything in master and guest bath--including tubs, sinks, countertops, toilets, faucets, shower fixtures, plumbing, vanity in master, resize master tub area so deck around is smaller and shower is bigger so I can have a bench--woop woop!
--all new flooring everywhere (replacing w/ wood, tile in wet areas, and carpet in bedrooms)
--new kitchen--keeping cabinets and painting/glazing them, but that's about it. New countertops, appliances, sink, faucet, garbage disposal, reworking the bar so you can actually sit at it, adding beadboard.
--all lighting fixtures inside out
--removing dated 'decorative' molding all over walls and columns
--new fireplace hearth/surround, backdoors (2 of them) replaced
--widen the guest bath doorway--was so narrow I couldn't hold a child and walk through at same time
--replace several closet doors so they slide instead of open like a door, re-size master closet entry so new doors could be installed
--adding wainscoting in formal living area, new hardware throughout house like door handles, etc.
--replace hinges in all doors and plantation shutters, replace all A/C vents
-I'm sure there's a few things I'm missing
The house built in the 90's is getting a total facelift--and draining my account. I knew it was going to be costly going in, so I made sure I got a great price on home to allow for all of these changes.
As with any remodel there are bumps along the way--even though we are not moving a single wall.
Here are some pictures of the flooring saga.
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| First stain too light--zebra effect. |
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| New Stain Options/ Color samples on the floor. The two boards in the picture were the original sample choices that the floor underneath was supposed to look like (one on right). |
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| Floors ALL sanded down again to get rid of stain color chosen in above picture. Looked nothing like it as you can see from the corner that they missed of sanding. I couldn't bear to take a picture of how bad they looked when the stain was on all the floors. |
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| Fourth attempt at color and the left is pretty much what we had the first time and the right is too brown/black, not a nice rich brown. |
I've basically thrown up my hands and handed it over to the designer/specialist lady who is helping me. I told her last night I've lost my patience and just need her to step in and handle. Because every time something new is done w/ the floor I have to run over there and look at it to decide what to do. Since I have so much time on my hands. It wasn't just the stain, but a few issues w/ the install itself--they needed to replace some boards as the joints weren't flush, etc..
The designer does this on the side (helps people choose things for new houses/remodels) as she actually has a flooring business of her own. Why didn't I use her company, you might ask? I did ask her to bid out the job but it was soooo much more than the current general contractor. What's crazy is that the guy doing the floor is a professional floor guy and has worked with my contractor for years. No idea why it's been such a problem.
And that's just a slice of what I've been trying to manage on top of working, traveling to Colorado for work, and taking care of my babes. So many decisions, selections, choices, it is just flat out overwhelming. The designer is helping BUT, I'm learning a lot as I'm going along....as an example, we picked out all the plumbing fixtures....well, I did research on the brand and found some troubling reviews on how they make the faucets, tub spouts etc i.e. they are making things out of plastic material, even tub spouts...who knew!!....I just didn't want that so I decided to change up all the plumbing and start over.
I've spent countless hours researching brands, materials, how things are made, etc.. I have become an expert!
If you've made it this far, congrats. I know it isn't super exciting reading material, but once I started updating on the house reno I got carried away, I guess. It's been all consuming during the day, after work, and weekend hours.....
Monday was the first day our weekend nanny became our full time nanny. Things are going okay so far, I think. I get the sense that she is a routine kind of person and wants to have that in place. Fine by me. My daughter hasn't cried while I left for work, so that is promising. She certainly still says "I don wan you go work" over and over, but when I have to go, she settles into her cur.ious geo.rge show and her morning bottle. Now, she threw a pretty good tantrum this morning while I was still here....she woke up that way, but thankfully settled down. My son had a rough night last night and was up every 3-4 hours....me too.
It is teething, for sure.
I mentioned the other day that he had two teeth growing in....well, to correct that his lower right tooth popped through first....followed closely by his lower left tooth. They are now visible but he really fights when I want to get a picture, so I'll just keep trying.
It's been very busy and thankfully our old babysitter has come about 3 times now to help out in the stretches where I needed someone. It's also been great having company at home w/ the kids. Even though I am back in my old city, I just haven't seen a lot of my old friends. None of them have young kids, either.
Hanging in there......
Oh wait, on to paint color!
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