Day 101

I don't really have any progress pictures to share today because most of the work going on at the house right now is plumbing and electrical, but work is still happening every day. The electrical is close to being done, and the plumber is continuing to work as well.

Ben met the hardwood floor people at the house to discuss re finishing the floors. Almost the entire house has beautiful original hardwood, so we want to keep all that we can but it will need to be sanded and re stained. The kitchen was vinyl when we bought the house, so they will be putting new hardwood in there and then refinishing the entire house all at once. Hopefully you will never know where the old ends and the new begins.

 

So, in lieu of progress pictures, I thought it would be fun to post some of the kitchen designs! We met with the cabinet designer again last week and finalized our cabinet colors. I have decided that I want to have the perimeter cabinets in one color and the island in another. I was initially going to post the color choices on here, but decided to wait until they are actually installed.

 

We will be having a custom range hood built, so it will go on the wall above the cook top.

The opening straight ahead goes into the family room.

We are going to make a few small changes to this wall. We do not like the look of the 3 rows of cabinets on the right hand side. If you look at the picture above, you will notice that the last cabinet is actually just a false front and has shelving on the other side. The door you see is the garage door, so we thought it would be a good spot for keys, mail, etc... We are going to re work it a little so it isn't just a solid block of cabinet faces.

The center, upper cabinets (between the wall ovens and refrigerator) will be glass. You can tell by the lines in the drawing that they are different. I though it would help break up the wall and be a pretty place to store good dishes.

 

 



The microwave in the island will be a drawer microwave. We love it because it is hidden away and wont have to sit on the counter top.

 

 

 We also got the laundry room design finished up. I am so excited about this room! The desk at the end of the room will be my own little office and where I will keep all my craft things, sewing and vinyl machines.The door on the right leads to a hallway and the other wall (that is non existent in this picture) will have a door that goes directly into the master closet.

 

We are both still loving this entire process and almost always agree on what to do. Hopefully I will get more progress pictures up soon!

Day 92

I took an unintentional blog break over the past few weeks! We spend most of November traveling to NYC and Atlanta and I have not had the chance to give a house update.

 

We had the best time in NYC! We went to see UK play and were able to spend a few days just being tourists. This is the second year that we have made this trip and it is always so fun. This picture was taken in Central Park, in the pond outside of the Boathouse.

 

When we got back from vacation, we went right into the Thanksgiving holiday! I wanted to share this picture from Thanksgiving day with my favorite babies.

 

Work has continued at the house even though we have been gone. The electrician has been working to get all of our can lights installed and electric wired for all the light fixtures. We walked through the house and picked out where we wanted each of the lights to go.

 

A few days ago we went to the house and the majority of the cans were installed and turned on. It was the most exciting day of the renovation for me so far! The house had no overhead lights so I felt like I could really see the inside for the first time.

 

This is the view standing in the kitchen, looking towards the back wall. The sink will be under that window.

 

 Another view from the kitchen. The family room is the dark room on the left. The cans were not done yet in that room. The room on the right of the framed wall will be Bens office and the peach colored room you can see is the dining room.

 

 View from the kitchen into Bens office. This wall will eventually be covered up with cabinets, the refrigerator and double wall ovens.

 

 View of the dining room front he front entry way. I cannot wait to paint over the peach and take down those window treatments. The room straight back is Bens office.

 

When we first started researching appliances a few months ago, we learned that the best time to buy is black Friday. Thankfully the home improvement stores start honoring the lower prices the week of Thanksgiving, so we did not have to fight the crowds! Mom and I went the Tuesday before and purchased all of the kitchen appliances and the washer/dryer. We are to the stage when I get to pick out everything and I think it is so much fun!

  

We have also spent the past few days researching what to do about our *now* outdoor fireplace. I may have mentioned this before, but the previous owners had a see through fireplace going from the family room to the addition on the back of the house. When we took out the walls of the addition, the fireplace was still there, but is now outside. While we think it will be really neat, it also presents a set of challenges.

We have to have a chimney sweep come and look the the flow of the fireplace. The concern is that if it doesnt flow correctly, then we could be using it outside and walk back into the house to a black living room full of smoke. If we can determine that the flow is good, then we will have to buy a custom fireplace door with an air tight seal and lock. I am hopeful that it will work out and we can use it both inside and out!

Day 72

We found out that Sherwin Williams is going to be having a 40% off paint sale this coming weekend. Great news for us, since we are buying enough paint to do the entire interior and exterior of the house! However, its not nearly as exciting when you do not have a clue what color you want to paint.

 

Saturday mom and I decided that we were going to get the color figured out. I knew I wanted something either in the cream or grey family, but that is about as far as I had gotten. We made our first trip to Sherwin Williams and bought 3 exterior paint samples, 2 creams and 1 grey. The grey was called "worldly grey" and I loved the paint swatch. I honestly thought that was going to be the color. In the end, I learned that it really doesn't mean beans what color it is on the swatch. I was shocked at how different it looked on the brick! Here are the first 3 that we tried. The worldly grey is in the middle and a color called "stucco" is on the right. I can not remember what the left color was called.

 

 

It is hard to tell in a picture, but all 3 were ugly! The right was too creamy, the left almost looked white and the grey that I thought I loved, ended up being almost blue! Major strike out on round 1!

 

We loaded back up in the car and decided to drive around Chevy Chase (an older neighborhood in Lexington with a lot of painted brick homes) and see if we like any. My dad came along for round 2. Ben was in Casey county and missed all of the fun, I am sure he was devastated, hehe. We drove around and saw several we loved. I even looked up the phone numbers of some houses and my dad called them to see what color they used. Unfortunately no one was home at all the numbers we tried.

 

The real highlight/funny part of the day for me, came when my dad spotted a color he liked and my mom walked up to the house with a paint deck trying to match it! The color in this picture looks super dark, but it really was a pretty grey. Notice I am taking the picture from inside the car.

 

 

 

We ended up back at the paint store and got 2 more colors. We got one stroke into one color and knew it was not good. Then we tried the last one we got, called "grey area." We knew immediately that we loved it! 

 

 

 The color mom is painting is the one we really like.

 

 

 

The problem is, I am an over thinker and started wondering yesterday if we really made the right choice. I think I just realize that this is probably one of the biggest house related decisions and needs to be perfect. I have followed Darby Sticklers blog for several years and she did a complete home renovation a few years ago, including painted brick. She used a Benjamin Moore color called "Clarksville grey" and I decided I wanted to do a test spot just to double check myself. I went after school yesterday and got the sample. When I put it on, I was shocked to see that it was nearly identical to the color we picked! I am going to go back today to see it in the sunlight (it was getting dark when I went yesterday). Hopefully Ben and I both will get a chance to look and pick.

 

This picture is so dark, but the color on the right is the clarksville grey" and the "grey area" is on the left."

 

 

 

 This is the paint swatch for the "clarksville grey," it does look slightly different here, but you really can barely see a difference in person.

 

 

This is what it looks like on Darbys house (main house color, not trim). Photo courtesy of www.flythroughourwindow.com. Also, this is a good picture of exactly what we have picked out for our front door. You can tell just by comparing the paint swatch to the house that they look so different, even though it is is the same color! We also have a black roof like she does, but our trim and windows will be white. Our house really needs shutters, so we are going to add those in black to match the roof.

 

 

We have until Monday to decide. Ben and I leave for vacation Thursday and do not get home until Sunday night. Hopefully we will know for sure what we want to do by Monday!

One other funny thing I wanted to be sure to post is this picture. When I walked in the house last week I could see the direct sun coming through the family room ceiling! The house had 2 skylights that we both hated and decided to removed when we put the new roof on. It was just funny walking in and being able to see the sky from the inside of your house :) I am happy to say that the skylights are covered up now.

Day 68

It seems like things are really picking up at the house! There are so many different projects going on all at once and so many decisions to be made. Ben had said when we first started this project that there would be a point that things would really start to move fast, and I think that time has arrived!

 

We met with the kitchen designer again earlier in the week to go over the plans. I am so in love! I need to scan in the design to share. We are getting a lot more cabinet space than I ever dreamed we would be able to fit. I have obviously been thinking about the kitchen a lot, because last night I had a dream that it was finished and I hated it! Yikes. In my dream it was nothing like I am planning on doing. I woke up very glad that it was not real : ) The designer also came up with plans for both the master bath and laundry room. All of this is starting to make it seem more real, and I am loving the process! Although I am sure Ben is ready for it to be over already becuase he has been working at the house nearly everyday and so hard. I am so thankful for his sacrifice to work. I know he enjoys helping and his hard work is really helping the budget.

 

I went by yesterday and took a ton of pictures. When I pulled up, they were putting the roof on! We are going to be painting the brick in the Spring, probably a grey or cream color (still trying to decide) so we are going with a black roof.

 

This is a picture yesterday when they first started actually putting the shingles on.

 

 I drove by this morning and took this. They got nearly the entire front done! I am really pleased with the way it looks. I can't wait to get the new windows, gutters, door and paint on it.

 

 

I also took a picture of the back patio and garage after they got all the large chunks of concrete out. It is so muddy in the back of the house.

I was also able to take some pictures of the inside yesterday. When I walked in, Ben was cutting a hole in the drywall to create a new door to our dining room. With the way we are changing the floor plan, we needed a new door put in to have easy access from the kitchen to the dining room. The new opening really makes the room feel more open already.

 

This is the view from inside the family room. The dining room door is on the left and the kitchen is straight back.

 

This is the view from the front door, when you walk in the house, the dining room is on your immediate left and Ben's office will be just past that. Also, the pool ladder is a nice touch :)

 

 

Ben has also been making little changes that are making a big difference around the house. When you walk in the back door, we will have a mud room of sorts with lockers and a bench. Originally there was a wall that divided the space from the kitchen. He decided to just take out the small wall and make it so that the mud room was more open to the kitchen. I love the change. Its just incredible what a difference doing something small like that makes!

 

This is a picture standing inside the kitchen looking at the back door.

 

When you walk into the house, to the right is a narrow hallway to the bedrooms. The original door did not go all the way to the ceiling, making it feel small. Ben took out the drywall above the door all the way to the ceiling and will make it a cased opening. It makes the room feel so much taller and with 8 foot ceilings, every little bit helps.

 

 

Getting closer every day!

Day 64

Concrete is the word of the week!

 

I think I have mentioned this in another post, but the garage and front porch were both sinking when we bought the house. I obviously do not know much about concrete work, but it is my understanding that the sinking was the result of poor craftsmanship when the concrete was first put in. The existing concrete needed to be busted out and brand new needed to go down.

 

This is the video I got on my phone last week. Yikes!

 

 

Here are some other pictures of the progress.

 

 

This is the garage floor, it was sinking to the back right corner (if you are looking at this picture).

 

 

We decided to go ahead and take out the existing back patio as well. It was not visibly sinking, but it did have a slight slope to it that was causing any water to run right into the house and flood the basement when it would rain hard. The easiest way to fix the problem was to re pour the back patio. We are going to take the opportunity to tie in the concrete to the new back patio, so we are working on a design right now. We will probably wait until the spring to finish this project up.

 

 

There has also been a lot of work going on inside the house that I have not gotten pictures of. Walls coming down, walls going up, etc... I am going over after work today to try and get more pictures.



 

We also got to meet with the kitchen designer last week! It was a lot of fun picking out the layout of the kitchen. The designer is going to come up with a 3-D animation for us to see what it will look like. He is also going to do the same for the master bathroom. I cannot wait to see them both!

 

The roofers are coming at the end of this week (if the weather cooperates) and we are getting ready to order all the new windows. Once we get the new roof on, windows in and concrete poured, we will move all of our attention to the inside until the spring. We will be painting the brick (if I could ever decide on a color!) in spring as well.

 

 

Day 58

Things are starting to pick back up at the house. Gavin was released from the hospital and is recovering at home now. He still has a long road, but we are so thankful that he is going to be ok!

 

I stopped by the house on my way home from work to take pictures and try to catch the blog up. While Ben and I spent most of last week in the hospital, we did have someone working around the house peeling wallpaper and doing other things. He got 2 rooms of wallpaper down and took up some old tile flooring. I did not remember to get a picture of those things, but will try to do that.

 

Yesterday they worked on the roof to the addition. We have someone coming later this week to repair the structural part so the existing shingles needed to come off. Once the shingles are off and the roof is repaired, then the roofers will come and put a entirely new one on.

 

 

 

When they were up there together, I kept saying "are you sure you are safe??" It made me so nervous! I was expecting one of them to fall through it. I am happy to say that there were no injuries : )

 

 

I also went inside and took some updated pictures of the kitchen renovation.

 

This is what it looked like before.

 

And this is what is looks like as of yesterday.

 

As you can see, the wall that was dividing the kitchen from the breakfast area has been taken down. It really opens things up!

 

This is the wall that was dividing the kitchen and former dining room. We have decided to push back the wall a few feet in order to expand the kitchen. The refrigerator, ovens, and more cabinet space will cover the wall when we build it back. The former dining room will become Bens new office. If you look past the office, into the room with the large window, it will become the new formal dining room. The room was the formal living room, but we would not utilize it that way, so turning it into a dining room made the most sense.

 

This is the ceiling in the kitchen currently. I nearly died when I walked in and it had been taken down. Bens comment was "well, it may have fallen down, with my help." Ha! It's a good thing I completely trust him!

 

Day 51

Just wanted to check in and let you know that things are still coming along at the house, but it may be a few days before I can get a real update up.

 

We got a call Sunday night that one of Bens best friends was in a 4 wheeler accident. We have been spending the majority of our time at the hospital spending time with Gavin and his family. Please pray for Gavins total healing. He has a broken pelvis and is currently in the ICU. We just got word that the doctors had a very successful surgery today to put pins in his pelvis. He is on the road to healing but has a long way to go. He is looking at 6-8 weeks before he can walk and then several months of therapy following that. It has been a reminder that your life can change in an instant, make sure you hug the people you love extra tight tonight.

 

God is so good, all the time.

Day 44

A lot of work has been going on in the master bathroom this week! The existing master bath is super small. This is a view standing inside the bedroom looking in. If you look closely, you will notice the toilet has a bit of a lean to it. Fancy!

 

 Here is a little closer view. As you can see, it was in bad shape. The wall behind the toilet was covered in mold and had rotten wood.

 This was the master closet. It actually wasn't terrible, considering how small the main part of the bathroom was but we still decided to take it out.

 

We knew when we bought the house that we would really need to expand the master bath. We could renovate it at its current size and that would be ok for us, but if we ever go to re sell it, people would want a bigger bath. There is a bedroom that comes right up to the current master bath that we decided to sacrifice in order to expand. Initially I was worried about losing a bedroom, but that is why we decided to add a full bath in the front bedroom by the kitchen. This will allow it to still be a 4 bedroom house, which is plenty, and the guest room is separated from the other bedrooms. We are taking the "sacrificed" bedroom and using half of it to expand the master bath and the other half will be the laundry. The laundry was on the opposite end of the house, it is where we are making the new full bath.

 

Here is the bedroom before. We will be putting a wall up just to the left of the window. The left side of the room will be the master bath expansion and the right side will be the new laundry. I am excited because we have plans to have a door going right from the master closet into the laundry, which will be so nice!

 

They have worked for several days to get it all ripped out and here is their progress! I was having a really hard time visualizing how large it would be, but I am thrilled! It will end up being the perfect size.  This picture was taken in the former bedroom, looking into the master bath.

 

This is after they got it all cleaned out. You can see where the wall used to be.

 

The next big question is how to lay it out. I am having such a hard time picturing what I want. The good news is that it is pretty much a big square, so the possibilities are endless. I just have to make some decisions!

 

We met with the concrete person on Sunday after church, he will be re pouring the front porch, garage and back porch. Ben is also still collecting bids to put a new roof on and new windows in. It seems like they are making great progress every day!



Day 37

Demo continues at the house...I always stop by the house after work to see what has been done and almost always walk in to a wall being ripped out, tile being pulled up or ceiling coming down. It is fun to see the progress!

 

There is an office off of the kitchen that we are turning into a guest room. The other side of the house currently has 4 bedrooms, but we are removing one of them to expand the master bath and put in a laundry room. I really didn't want to lose that bedroom, so we are converting the old office to a guest suite. It has a half bath off of it right now that we will be turning it into a full bath. It will be the perfect place for guests because it is in its own area, away from the other bedrooms. We have affectionately called it "Aunt Anns" room for Bens Aunt :) 

 

The walls in that room were covered with a grass cloth that looked horrible. I keep saying it looked like they had a cat locked in the room and it clawed the walls. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was so stringy and half was torn off. When we started to think about ripping it off, we realized it would likely just take off pieces of the drywall with it, so we decided to just go ahead and take out the drywall. In the end, it would be more expensive to patch and repair what was there versus putting up brand new.

 

 

 

This is the view from inside the bedroom, into the half bath. Like I mentioned, this will end up being a full bath when we are done. Its not huge, but perfect for a guest.

 

This is a view from inside the bedroom.The door is looking out into the breakfast area. Just as a side note, these before pictures were taken right before we closed, so you are seeing the previous owners things. If I were to take this picture again, you would look out and see the wall studs because the entire kitchen has been taken out.

 

This is after the drywall was removed. The room you see on the right is the current half bath. I was standing in the doorway when I took this. One other thing, if you look on the right hand wall, you will see a white box. This is where the old washer and dryer hookup was (on the other side of the wall). We are removing those and putting the laundry on the other side of the house, but we will use the existing water lines to put in a shower for the guest bath.

 

 Another view from the doorway

 

 

The other BIG project that we have gotten started is removing wallpaper. Mom and I started work on the former dining room on Sunday. The old dining room will end up being Ben's office. The room has at least 3 layers and it appears that the first layer was put directly on the drywall, with no primer. Ay yi yi! I am really wishing it was in the budget to rip out all the paper and just put up new drywall. We worked all afternoon and didn't even get half of one wall done.

 

This is mom when we first got started. I forgot to take a picture of what we got done, but you aren't missing much. We were able to get down to the last layer but it doesn't look like we can get it off without ruining the drywall, so we may just have to pain over the one layer. Wallpaper is now a dirty word in my vocabulary!