Renovation Update.... Main Floor

Sorry it has been FOREVER... I know I have totally slacked on this whole blog, but trust me, I was VERY BUSY!

Let me give you a little insight as to what as happened.

We closed on the house officially on April 14th. We gutted the house that weekend. Four whole floors, GUTTED down to just beams. It was goodbye electric, goodbye plumbing, goodbye windows, insulation, goodbye well EVERYTHING.

I seriously thought we would never live here, I thought we would never get it done. Now remember when you look at the pictures, WE meaning Pat & I did 99.8% of the work. A few friends & family came to help here and there. My brother in law was a life saver with showing Pat how & helping him with the electric. We did hire someone to do all the taping & spackling ( we hung the Sheetrock)
 But basically we did it ALL... No contractors, no crew just US.

Sooo here are some before and afters.This is the front of the house....

We are still in the process of doing the siding, painting the new trim, and waiting for Hubby to install the new front door but you get the picture...

We put in more and much larger windows!!Which is what we seem to get the most complements on!

Living room /entryway before
We removed the closet, tile, rug, well everything
all the sheetrock, insulation, electrical,
Everything is new
(Except the front door, but we are getting to it
the one we have is functional so we are ok
with it for right now)

Livingroom/ entry way now

Kitchen Before and after, still have to do back splash & trim but getting there

Kitchen / Lower level and basement entrance
Don't mind the stairs, hubby just rebuilt those
yesterday. I will post pics of those too

Still have to add the island too...

Below is a pic of the livingroom before, not the best comparision pic but its what I have

We had already vaulted the ceilings at this point but
 you can see the process of the gut. The randomly placed
stained glass window is gone too.

From the kitchen, I have since made & hung curtains
I guess I will have to take more pictures.

Diningroom  before

How the 3 rooms meet

Diningroom after ( still not finished)
Actually it is now but again needing to take more pics

Well that's the first floor in a nutshell I will post the upstairs tomorrow!

COMING SOON....

So we are set to start renovations on MARCH 20th!!

Did you hear me... I said MARCH 20th!!

It has been a very LONG process getting to this point but trust me it will be all worth it once we get in there. So until the 20th... We will be resting because after that it will be non stop renovations for who knows how long!

Hooray For Ebay!

So our biggest purchase for the house is windows...

As you know there was fire & the firemen had to break most of them to get the house ventilated... So we needed to replace them ALL. We luckily didnt have to find exact fit replacement windows, especially since we plan on changing the amount of windows and the outside of the house this summer.

That led us to ebay... Pat loves Ebay. I really have never ever bothered with it. But he found us 20 windows range from 6'6 in height to regular size, all from one seller, all only 1 year old. Pretty windows with the lattice in them... They are silver line not andersen but that is ok for now.

See we were concerned with getting the energy efficent tax credit & we might still but with the money we saved on the windows its ok if we dont get it... We budgeted for $3,000 for windows but thanks to ebay we got all the windows, some even brand new in the package for $680.00...

Hooray for Ebay!

A Gorilla on my Chest

So we are right now in the planning phase...

This is supposed to fun right? I have to start by saying our new house is deceptively HUGE... So for me the planning of the decorating feels like a huge gorilla is sitting on my chest.

We start talking about what we want in each room & my head starts to spin... then throw on flooring, window placement, to vault the ceilings or not to vault, rip out this wall add tiles, counters, paint colors, contemporary, modern, country... I thought I would love this portion & dont get me wrong, I might, but right now I feel short of breath thinking of all the decision that lay ahead for us.. I think watching HGTV & DIY is making it worse, because` everyday we are like oooohhhh we want that too... LMAO.

We have decided that the first things to get done are the kids rooms... and the bathroom upstairs.. Oh and the kitchen... Oh and the .........

I will feel better in a week when we are tearing out walls...

Progress People!!

Finally the laywer call us back.. I am sure that call cost us 500 but still a call finally...

So Monday, we have to refax the contract & then hopefully this week we are well on our way. By next week  ( fingers crossed) we should be able to get in there. Then I can take all my first time homebuyer frustrations out on the walls.

Side note**

Addicted to HGTV... Never really had a need for it before this, but now I cant stop! Its like crack to me... And I have subscribed to every single magazine having to do with decorating you can imagine...

Hurry Up & Wait...

So Weds came & went.. Nothing was signed... Their lawyer called our laywer... Blah... Blah... Blah.. Legal garbage... Wording I dont understand hence the lawyers... It will be corrected, hopefully this week we will sign. We are not taking a mortgage out on this house. It is a private sale, paid in cash. So it is not your typical "closing" if you will. Its our lawyer vs theirs... and theirs is a LOT slower than ours...

We are understanding though that the current owner is very emotional when it comes to this house because of what happened. We have not dealt directly with her because she cant stand to go there or even talk about it, which again is 200% understandable... but she has people in the community that are helping her do this. People who are very slow to approach her regarding this because of her feelings. Again I understand, but I just want to get this done already.. And the sooner she is rid of the house the better it will be for her too I bet.

So basically Pat & I are on edge, very anixious, very nervous... but all we can do is hurry up & wait & wait & wait & wait........

Get out the the Pens...

We are signing everything Weds!!! We can be in tearing out walls in a matter of days...DAYS!

I cant tell you how freaking happy our moods were tonight! We have been so on edge lately, so anxious to get this thing going!

And our lives as we know it are about to change... Free time? Whats that?  We have a house to renovate people!!

 Picture Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover with the mega phone... That will be me for the next few months..

Oh I wonder where I can really get one of those, I dont think Pat would enjoy it... That makes me want it even more now... Dare me?