Sunday, March 29, 2015

Week 7.5 Progress

One more day left! They're supposed to wrap up work tomorrow (Monday) so the cleaners can come in Tuesday morning and we can have a final walk-through in the afternoon. We can't push it back any further because the movers are scheduled for Wednesday, so even though there are lots of final details that are still unfinished, we just need it done tomorrow.

KITCHEN

It's pretty much finished, just waiting on the tile guy to fix a few tiles and the cabinet guys to make some adjustments. I feel like the pendants are hung too high, but Scott thinks it's fine.


Here is the dining room light.


LIVING ROOM

The carpet and track light have been installed, but fireplace still needs to be painted.


BEDROOMS

The three bedrooms other than the master bedroom have the same light fixtures. They're actually white, but they pick up the color of the walls in these pictures. The carpet is installed in all the bedrooms.


ENTRY

We love the entry way light! The hardwood has been installed in the entryway, and the stairs have the carpet padding on but not the actual carpet yet.


DOWNSTAIRS

The downstairs still needs lots of work, but you can see the new light fixtures in the main room and the hallway.



Crossing our fingers everything can be wrapped up tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Week 7 Progress

The work on the house is a little bit behind (mostly delayed by cabinets and carpet), but since we were ahead of schedule, I guess it's just finishing up right on schedule, maybe a little ahead but not as much as we had hoped.

The counter tops are in, but we've had some issues going back and forth with the cabinet company, and they'll be coming out to fix some problems and to replace the master bathroom vanity top that we weren't happy with.

KITCHEN

I took these pictures a few days ago when they had just started tiling the backsplash, but it should be completed by now.


BATHROOMS

The bathroom vanities both got their quartz tops, but since we went with the cheaper prefab tops (the ones that are already pre-cut to size and with sink holes), we really didn't like how the master bath's sinks were not lined up with the cabinets (they had to cut a hole out of the middle drawer separator piece to fit the sink in properly). The kids' bathroom prefab top got a crack in it while installing, and they couldn't find a new one for us, so they had to custom cut a slab for us and it looks so much better than the prefab.

(hallway bathroom on left, master bathroom on right)


You can kind of see how the sinks aren't aligned properly (and the sink bowls weren't installed well either, and the backsplash was a different color than the counter), so we are getting a new slab installed this weekend.


DOWNSTAIRS

The vinyl was installed downstairs and it looks (and feels) really good. There's just too much construction dust right now to see it properly though. A corner of the bathroom had a little bit less dust, so you can *kind of* see what it looks like.


The lighting throughout the house is pretty much done but I haven't had a chance to get pictures yet. We love how all the fixtures look! They are painting the millwork and doors tomorrow, and finishing up electrical and plumbing this week. Final walkthrough is scheduled for Monday, we're crossing our fingers all will go smoothly!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Week 6.5 Progress

Just about a week left to go! Cabinets have all been installed, and counter tops are going in later today (the guys came and got measurements this morning and went back to cut the quartz and will be back this evening to install). Millwork and doors are in place upstairs, but not downstairs yet.

KITCHEN

The kitchen looks like SO MUCH WHITE right now, but hopefully the counter top and appliances will tone it down a bit.


BEDROOMS

The bedroom doors and baseboards have been installed and are waiting to be caulked/painted. Lucy really likes her pink room. Every time we take her to the house, the first place she wants to go is to her room and she walks around admiring the pink walls.


MASTER BEDROOM / BATHROOM

We didn't want to obstruct the new bathroom window when the door is opened, so we opted for a sliding door because there wasn't enough room for a pocket door and it would have looked weird with one sliding barn door and one regular door (for walk-in closet). There wasn't enough wall space for two sliding barn doors, so we are just having one regular door and one door on a sliding track.


We like the look of floating vanities so we floated ours against the wall, but the space is so small in here that you can't really tell. We will probably add some hidden legs in the middle center to even out the weight because the combined weight of the of the vanity, counter top and sinks might be too much and could sag over time.


HALLWAY BATHROOM

The vanity is installed, and it's just a regular vanity set on the ground (as opposed to the master bathroom).


LAUNDRY ROOM

Here are our laundry room cabinets! We will also be adding a counter top on top of the washer and dryer, but we will just be using a cheap IKEA countertop so it hasn't been purchased/installed yet.


There's still so much to do! The flooring, downstairs doors and millwork (and painting all the doors and millwork), painting the fireplaces, building mantles over the fireplaces, installing all the lights, installing appliances, building shelves for the open space next to the stairs, and counter tops for the laundry room and under the master bathroom window. We hope they'll be able to get it done by next Wednesday!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Week 6 Progress

Our final walk-through is supposed to be this week, but our cabinets were delayed, which will be pushing everything back a few days. Originally we weren't in too big of a hurry to finish on time, but now that we sold our current house (a lot sooner than expected! after only 4 days on the market), we are itching to be able to start moving things over to the new house.

Paint is finished and touched up, and hardwood has been installed in the dining room and kitchen. The hardwood will also be installed in the front entry, but they are doing that after the kitchen is done (they don't want to scratch it will all the traffic coming in and out.

KITCHEN

Cabinets were delivered on Friday, and installation has started (in the pictures below they were only set in place), but are not complete yet. Our appliances and counter top get in on Monday.


LIVING ROOM

Here is the gray accent wall!


DOWNSTAIRS

We are installing wood-look vinyl downstairs in the hallway (entrance from garage), laundry room and bathroom, because we needed something that could be good for a high traffic area and that is water-friendly, but the cement subfloor was uneven so the floor guy spread self-leveling cement to even the floor out. Once that is fully dry (24 hours), our vinyl will be installed!


OUTSIDE

I haven't posted any outside pictures of the house, but it sits on a quarter acre lot, and most of the front yard is covered knee deep in English Ivy, and all the "grass" is basically moss. There were a lot of overgrown trees and ugly shrubs that were not taken care of in the last 13 years of being a rental property. Scott and I decided to save the money from hiring a landscaper to clean up the yard and do it ourselves. We may need to get a tree trimmer to trim some of the trees in the backyard that have branches overhanging the house because those are too high for us to do ourselves.

We've almost filled up a whole dumpster full of yard waste and we are not even close to being done yet. We haven't touched any of the ivy in the front yard, and there are still a ton of shrubs and juniper we want to get rid of, but we need to save room in the dumpster for construction garbage. All that cutting and pulling is really hard work!


The doors and millwork are currently being installed, and they should finish cabinet installation today or tomorrow, with countertops and appliances tomorrow. We are starting to see everything come together!

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Week 5.5 Progress

The painting is almost complete! They still need to do another coat in areas and they need to touch up the edges. We are really loving the colors. The entire house is Benjamin Moore Moonshine which is a soft gray color that almost looks like light greenish blue in the different lighting. My picture taking skills really aren't the best so sorry that the color varies so much from picture to picture.

KITCHEN

Our hardwood has been delivered and is currently acclimating to the house's humidity/temperature before being installed. Many of the areas in the kitchen will be covered with our cabinets and backsplash so there are areas left unpainted.


DINING/LIVING ROOM

I tried getting a good picture of the living room's gray accent wall but the colors turned out weird, so this is probably the best representation of the color of that wall. The fireplace will be whitewashed and the the gold fireplace doors will be painted a gunmetal gray. We had originally planned on painting those black but that might be too stark of a difference between the black doors and the white fireplace, so gray will probably look better.


UPSTAIRS HALL BATHROOM

Here is our tile! The flooring tile is actually the same color as the shower surround but it's striped, and the shampoo niche is using the same tile as the floor (just smaller mosaic tiles). We love that the shampoo niche is hidden on the left hand side so looking into the bathroom you won't see messy shampoo bottles. I guess we'd probably have a shower curtain blocking it anyway.


KID BEDROOMS

Lucy's bedroom is such a nice soft pink. Our contractor was worried that it was TOO soft of a pink, but we think it's perfect. Peyton's room is really, really bright though. Hopefully that will be toned down once we have the white closet doors back on and the white base molding around the room.


MASTER BEDROOM

The master bedroom is painted the same color as the fireplace accent wall in the living room and we love it.


The bathroom tile is actually the same as the other bathroom, but this is probably a more true representation of the color. The bathroom walls are the same color as the rest of the house but it just looks darker in that picture.


DOWNSTAIRS

You can see the original color of the wall to the right of the electrical box (they haven't sprayed it yet).



LAUNDRY ROOM / DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM

I love that they were able to frame up the exposed dryer vent pipe so it's not a giant metal tube snaking up the wall. I originally really liked the color of the tile on the shower surround but now it looks a little off with the warm tones competing with the cooler gray tone of the walls. Maybe we'll paint that bathroom a different color down the road. Maybe just white?


They'll be delivering the cabinets on Wednesday, with installation on Thursday and Friday, and the countertop installation on Saturday. Our new appliances are set to be delivered on Friday, and our new lighting fixtures are all ready to be installed except for the entry way pendant which will arrive on Thursday.

We did run into some issues with the flooring downstairs, because we knocked down the wall between the laundry room and the hallway, the cement flooring has a bump where the wall used to be. Since we'll be installing vinyl flooring, we need the cement to be completely smooth or else you'll be able to feel the bump through the vinyl, so our contractor is going to get some self leveling cement to make the area smooth before our vinyl is installed.

Less than two weeks to go!

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Week 5 progress

Technically, it's only week 4.5, but we'll just round it up to 5. In the last week and a half, all the walls have been drywalled and textured. Painting has started today! Here are the colors that we picked for the house, and we are crossing our fingers that it will look good:


All the paint colors are Benjamin Moore. They were originally going to spray the entire house one color, but we decided to add an accent wall to the living room and paint three of the bedrooms which costs us extra, but should be awesome. All the walls other than those mentioned will be painted Benjamin Moore Moonshine, which is a soft grey, and all the doors and trim will be painted Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. It's a soft white (why are there so many shades of white?) that our contractor recommended. Lucy's room will be Soft Pink (I really wanted a lavender room for her but she insisted on pink, so I tried to pick a very light pink that won't be too baby-ish down the road). Peyton's room will be Barely Teal, with the cubby hole painted Tropicana Cabana. The master bedroom and the living room accent wall (the wall with the fireplace) will be Galveston Gray.

I originally wanted the bathrooms to be different colors as well, but I want to wait until everything is installed and finished to see how it looks and then decide later on (and paint it ourselves).

Also during the last week and a half, they've tiled our bathroom floors and shower surrounds (kitchen backsplash will be done after cabinets are installed next week) and it looks really good, but since they were texturing the walls and ceilings in the bathrooms, they taped off all the tile so I couldn't get any good pictures.

KITCHEN

A gas line has been routed over for our new gas range, and the vent hole for our hood has been installed. The old sliding doors have been replaced with nice french doors (with the blinds between the glass! so cool).


LIVING ROOM

Nothing too different other than the walls looking ready for paint. You can see in the 2nd picture how the wall next to the stairwell has had two feet shaved off and looks so much better than the before pictures.


BATHROOMS

I couldn't really get any good pictures of our new tile, but you can get a peek of the hallway bathroom tile on the left. The right picture is the downstairs bathroom (the flooring downstairs will be vinyl so it's not installed yet).


STAIRWELL

Remember that wall at the bottom of the stairs? I never got a good "before" picture of it from this angle, but you can see how much more open the space looks without the wall from Day 5. You can also see our new storage shelving frame. We can later order a custom cabinet door if we find we don't like the open shelving.


DOWNSTAIRS

It's ready for priming and painting!


They'll be painting for a few days, and then the hardwood floors will be installed, and cabinets soon after that. We are so excited!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Week 3 Progress

We've gone to check on the progress at the house multiple times over the last two weeks, but since they were working on things such as electrical and plumbing, there weren't that many cosmetic changes. Now that the framing is complete, the new drywall will be going up this week, so we wanted to get some pictures before that happens.

KITCHEN

Doesn't look like much has changed since our Day 5 pictures, but they've removed the hanging light from the former eating area and added four recessed lights, and an additional recessed light above the sink/window. The wall that used to be in between the kitchen and dining room is now completely gone.


DINING ROOM

The walls around the dining room are all gone, so the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all one big open space! We love it.


LIVING ROOM

Once again, it feels so nice for the area to be opened up. They were able to shave off about two feet of the wall next to the stairs... but I forgot to take a picture of that. They've installed a light on the wall that will eventually be a track light with four lights on it.



HALL BATHROOM

They were able to reframe the wall to get rid of all the rotten wood/siding, install a smaller window (we didn't want the water leaking in from the window frame again, and had considered just sealing up the wall, but thought that it should still have some natural light, hence the small window).


HALLWAY

Nothing much has changed since Day 5, other than an additional recessed light and two cuties running around.


BEDROOMS

Seeing the kids in Peyton's new nook makes us realize how high it actually is for them, and how dangerous it could be even with the proposed stepping shelves. Peyton was pretty disappointed to find out that the "window" to the hallway will be drywalled up. We might consider putting his bed underneath, but then we don't want him to break his bed by jumping down on it too often.


MASTER BEDROOM / BATHROOM

The master bedroom originally had no overhead lighting so they installed 4 recessed lights. We are planning to paint the room a darker grey so having enough light is essential.


As for the bathroom, they've installed the bathtub and redid a lot of the plumbing, including moving a pipe so we could install our window. Originally this corner behind the door and tub was just going to be some storage shelves, but now that we are adding a window, we are going to put a small countertop there, and we can either use it for my makeup table with a chair, or we could stick a laundry hamper under there.


FRONT ENTRY

The wall at the bottom of the stairs is completely gone! It opens up the space so much. The end of the weird ledge will be closed off to make some storage shelves, so it won't be as long and awkward.  We considered widening the stairs since it's hollow beneath the ledge (why, builders?) but that would be pretty costly and a small ledge isn't that big of a deal.


DOWNSTAIRS

They've framed in the strange stair step wall and scraped the popcorn ceilings downstairs.


They've removed the wall and door for the laundry room, so now the end of the hallway looks a bit wider. In the below picture it shows that they opened up that wall at the end of the hallway to see if they could remove it, but it had a large support beam so it has to stay. The laundry room is on the right.


It looks like everything is ahead of schedule, and our contractor said they will be able to complete the last week of March instead of early April. Exciting!