House Updates

So we are mostly moved into the new space. Here are some pictures of the great room. I have to say we LOVE it. We used it for Christmas and it was perfect. Very versatile! On Christmas morning we turned one of the sofas around so it was facing the tree. Perfect for Nana and Grampa watching all the opening madness! We even put our big expandable dining table in here and ate Christmas and New Years dinners. The last picture is of my scrapbook area. Yayy! Now I can scrapbook in the big room with everyone.

Here is one of our porch. I will post some of the bedroom/bathroom in the next week or so.

Update - Big Man's ears, house

Big Man is fine. We talked to our Ped who assured us what was happening was normal (for a complication). DH brought big man to the ENT who was able to clear the tube. Apparently it took 2 people to hold big man down so the dr could do it, but he is fine now. So far so good. Course he has a fever for the last two days with an unknown cause, but that is just par for the course. Hopefully it was caused by the annoyance in the tube, and now that it is cleared, he'll be better. Least that's what I'm telling myself.

House is getting there..its the little things that take FOREVER. Deck is totally done (and we bought a new cap for the hot tub - builders lost it on day one), porch should be done today (maybe?), still waiting on delivery of the glass doors for the shower. I have a punch list that is about 35 items, we'll see how it compares to theirs on Sunday morning when we meet with them. Last night we went shopping and found our bed. I LOVE it. You can see it here - is that TMI? Considering this sofa as well, although not sure how it will coordinate with the existing one. Wanted a patterned one to fit better, but we'll see.

Fall is finally here!

Almost Home Free

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Originally uploaded by MBooth_98

So..we are almost done. The bathroom is tiled (as you can see), the plumbing is now working, as is the AC. (oh yeah, and we replaced the ugly light fixture in this picture with a nice one) The only big things are the installation of the gas fireplace, the ceiling of the porch, and the soffits all around the roof. Pretty much everything else is cosmetic - touching up paint, closing holes in the plaster from the central A/C, repairing (replacing) the ceiling in the basement, couple moldings here and there. Possible final inspection next week..we'll see!

Random stuff...

I promise to post some new house pics this weekend -- the hardwood floors are down, and the great room is just about done - it looks great. Hopefully when we get home they'll be some progress on the upstairs.

Big Man is getting his ear tubes on Tuesday. I'm excited in that I think it will make him feel much better, but I'm not excited about watching them put him under.

I ran 2 3/4 miles today -- my longest yet, and I am now sure I can do my 5k next weekend - yay! If only my sneakers did not burn the ball of my foot. But having tried 4 professionally-fitted pairs, and having no luck, I am working with inserts that may help. I have stopped wearing my 10-year old shoes, which were killing my hips. These new ones kill my feet, but only while I'm wearing them (my feet are fine once they are out of them), and the rest of my body feels much better.

Things I hope to accomplish this weekend - 1) return pair of sneakers that don't work (will still have the one pair I'm stuck with from the last store to try and adjust with pads and such); 2) go to Home Depot - return tile samples and purchase PAINTABLE switch plates (which we asked for but the contractors didn't install), purchase paint for the downstairs bathroom, and look at medicine cabinets for the kids' bathroom; switch out big man's clothes for fall (and take out those that are too small); and finish marking clothes/items for Danis Duds consignment sale. We also have lessons tonight (gymnastics) and tomorrow morning (skating for K, swimming for B) and hope to go to Fall for Fairfax. The weather is supposed to be awesome. Maybe we'll even do some geocaching!

A Splash of Color

So they are painting the addition -- yayy! I LOVE the color. It is C2 paint- color Rickshaw. Looks great. They primed the upstairs today, but no color yet. Starting to think about shades on the windows. With 9 windows plus a french door, it will cost a small fortune! oh well... Can't believe we are getting close to finishing!

Alright, I've been told you can't see the color -- I think this picture helps:

Home Sweet Filthy Home

So we are in that part of the renovation that is making me CRAZY. I don't have a clean house normally -- there is lots of clutter. But it is not actually dirty. Now every surface is covered in some combination of drywall dust or plaster dust. Yuck. For a while there we were losing rooms by the minute. They needed to get into this space or that space to try and put duct work for the central air. It was hard to remember we were actually going to end up with more space when it was all done!

On the good side, we got to pick out paint colors and fixtures and stuff. They are using C2 paint, which from what I've read, is really nice. The big room will be taupe, the bedroom is blue and the bathroom is kind of sea green. I can't wait to see what they will look like. For now here are some recent pics:

Renovation Yuck

So we love how our house is coming along. We really do. But there is currently a film of dust and dirt covering pretty much EVERY INCH of our house. We Swiffer constantly to no avail. It is really gross. And for me to say that it has to be pretty bad. Its not like I live in a pristine home. Our house is full of stuff. Lots of piles of clutter around. But it is rarely DIRTY. It is now. Walking with your bare feet (as I almost always do at home) is disgusting. I am trying hard not to think about how much lead paint dust the kids are consuming. I am very glad to be going out of town again next week. Yayyy beach vacation. Bye Bye dusty dirty house.

Porch, Ho!

So the house renovation is going really well. The back now has siding and a roof, skylights and most of the windows. This week they started working on the porch. Here is what it looked like two weeks ago (after they had pulled out most of the bushes and weeds and such):

Here it is now:

Isn't it so cool? The one and ONLY one good thing our idiot architect contributed to this project is the skylights on the porch. This will allow us to still have light in the front room of our house. You can't tell from this shot, but the triangle over the door goes with the one over the dormer on the left. I really like it.

As I am told happens with all remodeling, we are now officially hemorrhaging money. There is the overall project which we refinanced our mortgage to pay for (hey honey, after 9+ years of owning our house, we owe twice on it what we did when we bought it -- yay!); then we got a new hot water heater a few months ago to include the new bathroom; now we are upgrading the HVAC in the new space to provide for central air conditioning to the whole house; then we had them fix one part of the roof and realized it was probably just as big a problem everywhere and are having the whole roof replaced; we also have to move the gas meter from the front because of the porch. Everyday we look at each other and say "how many thousands of dollars did we spend today, honey?" never mind the fact that we have no grass or bushes or landscaping anymore... Oh well, its just money, right?

Movin' on up!

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Originally uploaded by MBooth_98

So see the previous post for where we were about a month ago. Demolition complete, but just a big pile of dirt out back. Then we had a foundation. By the end of this week we have this! Wow! We are getting very excited, as things are really coming along! Our contractors signed a deal for another big job they hope to start at the end of Sept..so they are motivated to move quickly. yayy! They say we will have a second floor and roofing by the end of next week. The weather has been great, so that has surely helped. Looking good!

Home Renovation - Part 3

The back is gone 2
Originally uploaded by MBooth_98

So..our living room is gone. Kinda weird, as that room is a BIG factor in why we bought the house at all. The concrete slab you see is where the floor of our living room used to be. Now our house ends at the kitchen (which is just behind the blue tarp). The part with the black tarp was a little loft area we had above the living room (which was down about 5 stairs). The slabs are still there, but will probably be gone by the end of this week. They are still about 4 days ahead of schedule. We have been through 2 complete dumpsters to date. So far it has not been too bad. We had about a dozen trips to the storage unit with different things. We have one room completely lost to boxes -- the den, but frankly it was just barely usable before. Luckily we had a friend (Duffy) staying in our guest room, so we couldn't crowd that too bad (although she did have several days of returning from work to a room piled high with stuff the contractors had put there). Right now it is still exciting to us. I'm sure it will get old shortly, but for now, we are still having fun imagining the new space.

Renovation Week One - ahead of schedule - AHHH

So our renovation was to start this week. The contractors were supposed to do "site preparation" Mon-Thurs, and demolition was slated to start on Friday. That seemed silly -- why do demolition on a Friday only to leave for two days. We figured they would start on Monday, so we would have an additional weekend to clear out our existing living room (which will be removed to make way for the big great room). We figured wrong. They tell us this morning (Tuesday) that demolition will start on Wednesday. Ha ha. The room is about 1/2 cleared out. Apparently we won't be sleeping tonight. We will be going back and forth to the storage space. Such fun. Also, Direct TV is coming tomorrow between 9am-noon to reconfigure the satellite. Hope its on the earlier side, or their wiring might be gone!! Oops.

On the plus side, I will not complain about contractors that are ahead of schedule.

Home Renovation (part 1 of MANY)

So in about a week we are beginning our home addition project. Well, we aren't -- our contractors are. While we were adept at completing our deck and our basement finishing, a two story addition with deck and porch were quite a bit out of our realm. Anyway, next week the contractors will demolish our existing Great Room. Nevermind that we bought the house largely on the basis of that room; its a goner. In its place should be a Great Room twice the size, and a master bedroom/bathroom above it.

Our existing upstairs has three bedrooms and one bathroom. With three kids, the one bathroom upstairs is just a killer. And while the girls LOVE sharing a room right now, I'm thinking that may not last forever. But the bathroom was definitely the primary motivation.

Anyway, we've been packing up and putting in storage much of what is in our Great Room to prepare to live without one for the next many months. We have also thrown out, freecycled, or donated LOTS of stuff. I would say at least 10 of the large green lawn trash bags worth. Its been very liberating.

I'm am sure the next many posts on this subject will be rants about the hell of renovations. But for now I am relieved to have gotten rid of so much junk, and excited that the work is about to start.