Are We There Yet?

With one more day to go before we move into our place, we are regretting not renewing our basement apartment lease! 

The house is still a wreck and not ready for us.  What was supposed to be a two bedroom, two bathroom, and kitchen living situation has turned into a one bedroom, partial bathroom, and no kitchen living environment.  With no kitchen and barely a bathroom, we are considering moving in with a very nice and tolerant friend of ours for a few weeks! 

The good news is that the floors have been finished (but not stained) and the guest hall bathroom is coming together...



Repaired hardwoods in kitchen. Used to be vinyl- YUCK!




Just took this picture yesterday and we are supposed to use it tomorrow!


We also received our kitchen cabinets and appliances; however, they still reside in the living room...

Cabinets in the living room- NOT where they should be!

With all of the progress, we unfortunately came back from the Holiday to find out that the basement had to be dug up as the drainage system was constructed in the wrong direction!  I think we are immune to these hiccups at this point.


Our moat




Hera likes the holes!


Many of the holds up are based around the Inspector not coming before the Holiday as planned.  Our contractor is working hard to get them in there as soon as possible but we are at their mercy.  Until the Inspector comes, they can't finish the master bathroom or kitchen. 

We have high hopes the Inspector will come by the first week of January and the remaining renovations will progress at a swifter rate!

Little Changes, Big Results

With the displacement of our lives and a new puppy testing our patience, Todd and I have been trying to enjoy the small things in life.  We went to see Jim Breuer at the DC Improv and had an amazing time with great friends!  We also translated this into the progress of the house.  Although we don't have several room changes to report, the master bathroom has changed significantly!  However, we are still trying to hang on to any hope that our house will be livable by December 30th. 

Many of you have asked what exact living conditions we are "roughing" while living in a basement apartment.  We actually aren't unhappy and I like that it's easy to clean even though it's cramped.  However, I have also given you more of an idea with pictures below.



 

 



Small bed, TV, desk area I created, and couch





Quaint but comfortable



 Luckily the apartment was fully furnished so we "stuffed our stuff" into one unfinished room of the house....

Now to show you the changes to the master bathroom.

Our shower!  The picture doesn't do it justice. Bigger than expected!



Toilet area straight ahead, shower and closet to the right



Vanity area to the left and toilet area to the right

 We are very excited to see more progress throughout the next few weeks.  The crews have been working hard.  Also, the kitchen cabinets come on December 14th and the new windows will be installed on December 22nd; therefore, we will have some major changes to report soon!

With Christmas fast approaching my next update might not be until 2011.  We wish you all Happy Holidays and a Great New Year!!



What Goes Down, Must Be Built Back Up!

We are getting close to Thanksgiving, must leave our condo on 11/29, and still can't move in to our new place.  Although it is coming together, it is in no shape for us to live.  We are now wishing we wouldn't have got so lucky with our condo renting so quickly.

There are some positive changes though and I'm excited about the progress.  I'm not sure there are much updates and I suppose that is a good thing.  We haven't *knock on wood* ran into anymore unexpected expenses.

I won't bore you with words.  The pictures below should speak for themselves!

Addition/Office Before

Addition/Office During Work

Addition/Office Almost Completely Dry Walled.
Need to wait on floor to ceiling windows for the wall pictured here

Bathroom Before

Bathroom Half Way Done- New Dry Wall and Window

Wall Between Two Bedrooms

No More Wall!  Our Master Bath is Being Framed Tonight!

Downstairs Guest Bath

Downstairs Guest Bath and Maze of Pipes We Found!

No More Wall of Pipes!!

Closets That Made Todd's Mancave Feel Small

No More Closets!  (Just Sherri)

Small Entry and Bulkhead Above Fireplace Before

Entry Widened and Bulk Head is Gone!

Closed in Kitchen

Nice Open Kitchen!

Dark and "Avocado" Living Room

Much Lighter and Airy Living Room

If you thought buying a house and completely gutting it was a stupid idea, we also would like everyone to know we have a new addition to the family....

Meet Hera!

 We've been looking to adopt a dog for almost a year now and have been very smart about our choice; however, it just so happens that the right dog came into our life at the wrong time.  We didn't let that stop us.  We highly suggest adopting a dog when you are ready and if you live near Arlington, VA you can visit their shelter at http://www.awla.org/

We hope to have many more updates within the coming weeks!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

The "In-Between" Period

Many big decisions have been made and are being made this week but actual changes to the house have been minimal since our last post.  Marcello, our electrician, came in and told us what a mess we had with the entire house.  Since most all of the walls are down, he is working diligently to repair all of the wiring.  We were also told this is a great time to bring in the cable company so they can put all of the wires behind the walls too.

We finally settled on the kitchen.  When I say the kitchen, I mean everything- appliances, wall cabinets/countertops, island cabinets/countertops, floors, backsplash, and all of the little pieces!  It was a great project to complete but now we have to wait 5 weeks for all of the materials to arrive.  However, we are getting hand-made, wood cabinets from Hagerstown, MD.  It was great that we could use a local vendor that makes everything by hand.

We also finalized on our hall, guest bathroom for the upstairs and our master bathroom.  The guest bathroom will be a blend between ceramic and glass mosaic tiles while the master bathroom is white marble throughout.  One thing I have learned from all of this is that tiles are not cheap, especially the glass tiles!  We were trying to keep floor and shower materials/tiles between $3 to $4 a square foot since this really is an investment property.  We come to find out quickly the tiles we were immediately drawn to were $15 to $30 a square foot!  We had to really get creative and start finding places that sell on the cheap.  Home Depot was a great alternative to the expensive stores; however, we also used the clearance items from the upscale stores.

On the note of bathrooms, I picked out vanities for two of the bathrooms which I'm very excited about!



For our Master Bathroom- great storage for a floating cabinet




For the downstairs guest bathroom


We now need to finalize on flooring for all of downstairs and my upstairs office.  I love using Build Direct and Simply Floors.  They have some great prices and you can order samples!  I'm waiting on a few samples before I make any final decisions on the remainder of the house.  I'm also going to use Ikea kitchen countertops to create a built-in desk.  I think this is a great way to save space and money! 




Stained darker this will make a great desk and size is customizable!

 Last post, we found out we had to completely remove old piping from the downstairs bathroom.  It was completely clogged and non-functioning.  However, this $4,000 unexpected expense has allowed us to redesign the layout of the bathroom which is a blessing in disguise!  I keep telling myself to always try to see the bright side of the unexpected expenses.  It doesn't always work. 

So now that many of the flooring and bathroom materials are chosen, I decided to move on to a new project- furnishings!  I started exploring our options and put together some of the "working" ideas for the main living area below...

There is still  so much work to do but we are hoping to have everything finished by the Super Bowl so we can throw everyone a big party in our new place!!

Big Decisions, New Plans, and Alterations

After much deliberation and looking at several samples, in several patterns we finally settled on the cabinets for the kitchen and countertops.  You would be surprised how many different options you have and how the slightest change in wood grain or pattern can alter the entire look of the space!

We decided to create some interest in the kitchen by having our island cabinets and countertops a different color than the other cabinets and countertops.  Speaking of the island, we also got some disappointing news. 

We originally thought we could completely remove a wall in the kitchen; however, a structural engineer confirmed we need to keep a small support beam.   After my disappointed face showed all to the contractor, we started discussing new options to incorporate the beam into the island.  It's still an ongoing discussion...

The kitchen drawings will need to be revised for the support beam in the island but so far we are very excited!!

Since we have picked out the finishes in the kitchen, we now need to choose tiles for the backsplash.  We also need to choose tiles and vanities for our master bathroom.  There are thousands of options when it comes to tiling but since this is an investment property we are looking for clearance items or mid-grade finishes.  We are looking at the below options currently...



Exactly what we are looking for in tiling! These cabinets are very close to the ones we chose also!




Nice, simple, classic- perfect for the master bath and a great buy too!




Back up options for kitchen backsplash




Love the metal tiles- great spa look for the master bath!

 Another positive note is that we rented our condo in no time!!  Due to this, we met with Jim last night and he confirmed that our December 1st move in is still possible.  That is so hard to believe when we look around the house as there is still so much work to do.    It's always good to know we have great friends in the area who wouldn't mind us dropping by for a few weeks- you know who you are! 

Many more updates to come over the next few weeks so wish us luck and pray for our sanity to stay intact!

Week 2 of Demo

After spending a weekend traveling and visiting family, we came back to find several changes in the property.  The most exciting change was the wood floors being exposed.  Although there is some damage and much patching to do, they look great compared to that green carpet!!

We plan on staining them a bit darker

The first floor living area was claimed by Todd as the "man cave."  We were disappointed to hear there was a cement wall that was keeping us from completely opening the doorway; however, we still got some space and widened it a bit!

Before

After.  We still need to remove the closet on the right

The upstairs guest bathroom no longer has it's striped wallpaper and small vanity area.

Bright but not modern

Don't worry- we aren't keeping the toilet either

Let's not forget the first floor bathroom which in my opinion will almost be as good as the master suite's bathroom.  I can't wait for our guests to have their own bathrooms and beds to sleep on!  On that note, as you have probably been told always expect something to not go as planned when renovating.  As you can see from the pictures below, we ran into some heavy duty piping.  It is upsetting our original floorplans for that bathroom.  Fortunately some of the pipes can be relocated.  Unfortunately that is going to be a costly expense.  

So sad to see the flower wallpaper go. Mmm not really.

Half way there!

Our final big accomplishment or should I say, Jim's accomplishment, was getting up that painful pink tile that was covering the first floor. 

Concrete has never looked so good!

Also some other improvements were cleaning out the addition which will become my office and lounge space.

Before

After

Extending the first floor guest room

Tomorrow we meet with the gentleman who will be finishing our hardwood floors throughout.  Once we choose the stain color, we will finalize the kitchen cabinet color.  I'm looking forward to seeing the final kitchen floorplans and ordering the cabinets as they are still expected to take 3-4 weeks.  We actually brought in two different kitchen and baths contractors.  We think it is always a good idea to work with several vendors when first starting out.  We not only get to compare prices but also response time and our overall comfort level in bringing them repeat business.  

We are still highly motivated to move in by December so keep your fingers crossed we keep this on schedule!