FINISHED!!!

It has been nearly a year (10 months) since we began tearing into the house.  As of last week we have completed all of the big tasks - the counter tops were all installed in the master bathroom and kitchen!!!  There are just a few little trim pieces around the house and a few touch up paint jobs that we have left, but for the most part we can say that we are done!  We can welcome the little Miracle baby into our "new" home in October.  Here are a few photos of the newly finished areas...

Master bathroom, new vanity, new counter, new mirror, and new light

Kitchen new counter top and new sink

Kitchen new counter tops

The laminante wood floors in the living room made the house really echo.  We found a rug on the internet that we really liked, and tied in with our western decor in the livingroom.  The rug definately defines the space a little better, making it feel more cozy. 

Living room nice and cozy with a rug

Up close of the rug

Bedrooms - Part II

Because we were able to get a great deal on the carpet we installed in the game room we also decided to install the same carpet in all 3 bedrooms.  So it was bye-bye brown carpet!

Dustin rolling up the old brown carpet in the master bedroom (notice the bleach spot)

Still rolling up the carpet

This was the room we were using as our bedroom while we worked

on the master bathroom, but not it is my sewing room (and storage room)

This room will also be used as a guest room :) 

The master bedroom (the quilt my aunt Anette made us for our wedding)

Stayed tuned for pictures of the nursery.  (We have to start putting it together first.)

The Game Room - Part II

The game room carpet was by far the most disgusting looking carpet in the house.  I told Dustin that if we had that carpet when the baby came there was no way the baby would ever be laying/crawling on that floor unless it was on a blanket!  So once we got all the furniture moved out it was time to cut it in strips, roll it up and throw it out, to make way for NEW carpet!

Dustin cutting the carpet into ~4ft sttips to make it easy to take out to the dumpster

 

Proof that that carpet was disgusting (the dirt that was underneath all the carpet!

And then the new carpet was installed...

 We chose a frize carpet (high twist long fiber carpet), after installation there were 

lots of lose strands (we filled up a whole vaccuum back with nothing but carpet

fuzz from vacuuming this room and the 3 bedrooms

My turn to vacuum (you can kind of see the baby bump)

Finished!!!

The Master Bathroom - Part II

Dustin did all the shower prep work, up to the point where it was ready for tile to be installed. Because this room is so small it was really hard to photograph the overall effect.  So for the true effect my suggestion is to come and visit us!

Dustin's Handy work with the floor drain of the shower (pre-tile)

 Dustin's handy work around the faucet and corner (pre-tile)

This room did not have a vent, so Dustin removed the existing light fixture and replaced it with a fan/vent/light combo.  Nothing fancy here, so I did not bother taking a photo.

We decided that we would hire some guys to install the tile as we did not want to mess with installing the tile on the walls.  Plus with Dustin working full time it would probably take about 2-3 weeks to complete vs. the 2 guys we hired had it completed in 3 days.

Tile on the walls (after day 1)

Tile in the niche

Shower completed (after day 3)

Shower completed (after day 3)

The sink area had some remaining work from when I last posted...  So here are some updates.  Initially we were both excited because we got some cabinets when Home Depot was having a sale.  They were unfinished, so were were going to stain them ourselves.  However when we bought them and brought them home we discovered that they were several inches deeper than the cabinets that had been there before.  And although they would fit, it would make that small space even smaller.  So we had to return them and then get pre-finished cabinets (which were much more expensive) because they were the only ones we could find that had a similar depth to the cabinets we pulled out.

The next dilemma that the tile had been laid up to the existing cabinets before, the cabinet that we settled on of course was not exactly the same depth or length, plus it had a cut out on the bottom so it looks like a free-standing piece of furniture.  This meant we would have to buy some tile to match the existing as close as possible.  

Patch job, the far left - about 2ft.  Dustin did a great job of continuing the triangle

pattern on the edge of the tile.

 

The other delima was that the sink was now about 12" over from where it was in the old cabinets.  So this meant Dustin had to re-do the plumbing lines.  Though I think this was a good thing to do anyway because the way the drain was originally designed it had a straight horizontal run of pipe (which from my knowledge of drains - that is not good). 

The new and improved drain (and supply)

 All sheet rocked in

Then we installed the vanity, then the base boards, then the medicine cabinet, then the light fixture, and then the towel ring.  We are now just waiting on the coutertops to be made.

Snickers posing

 

Putting the Living Room Back Together - Part III

The last month has been busy and expensive.  But we are nearing completion of all of our projects.  I think we can say there is not a room in the house that has not been touched.  The brown carpet in the living room and hallway leading to the bedrooms was torn out and replaced with wood laminate floors.  Here is a look at the finished product.

The Master Bathroom - Part I demo

Ending our nearly two months of just relaxing and enjoying life, Dustin began to tackle the bathroom after having a bad day at work.  He decided a great way to clear his head would be to "tear some stuff up".  Unfortunately I was still at work when much of this was going on and so I do not have photos of him in action.  The primary problem with the master bathroom was that the shower had been leaking for some time and had caused alot of water damage in several adjacent walls.  So our plan was to rip out the existing vanity which seemed to be partly rotted from water damage anyway, and rip out the whole shower.

 Before

Before

Before - you can see the water damage caused by the shower

Before - nasty shower!

Before

Dustin said when he started ripping out the walls in the shower, about the only thing holding the tile together was the grout, because the tile backer board was totally rotted!  Once Dustin ripped out the vanity and the shower we were left with bare studs - many of which were rotted as well.

Left behind once the vanity was pulled out

Tearing down the tile

What was left behind once all the tile was removed

After the tile was removed

The shower was formerly framed with a dropped ceiling that was also tiled making you really feel like you were in a tiny box.  To make it worse it had a glass door, which you couldn't even fully open because it hit the toilet.  So I had Dustin remove all of that framing - when we go back in we will install a curtain rod and extend the ceiling of the shower to be the same height as the rest of the bathroom to make it feel like it is a little bigger.  

The next step was to remove the part of the studs which were rotted and add in new studs.  Dustin also took this a step further and painted Kilz on all of the existing studs to kill any remaining mold that might exists even after his bleach treatments.  He then framed in the front side of the base, and added a shelf (which we will tile in once we get to that stage - so we will have a place to put the basics like shampoo and soap).

 Rotted part of the studs removed

 Shower base framed in with new studs in place

Built-in shelf

We still have a ways to go on this project, but it is very exciting to have it started!

The Game Room - Part I

This is the ONLY room in the whole house that we did not scrap the texture down from.  For one it is in much better shape than the rest of ceilings on the house (being that it was not so thick and heavy).  Another reason being, when we were working on all the Sheetrock work of the living room, kitchen, and hallways, this was the one room we sealed off from the rest of the house in order to try to keep the dust out; we lived in this room alone for nearly two months with all of our furniture and unpacked boxes while we worked on the rest of the house - so we definitely didn't want to scrap down the texture.  This room was fully paneled with that lovely dark paneling we yanked out of the living room.  This paneling was in better shape though - it wasn't bowing out in places nor did it have gaps between the panel seems (this was the case in the living room).  So to save ourselves from another extended project of Sheetrock work if we were to remove the paneling, we decided to leave the paneling and just paint it to lighten it up.  (Unfortunately I could not find any of the "before" photos we took, so I resorted to some photos Dustin took when he was moving out to move to Houston, so it is kind of a disaster.)

Before

 Before

Before

After

(please excuse the tile backer board leaning against the couch)

After

(please excuse the tile backer board leaning against the couch)

 One of the challenges of this room, was the two side by side 8ft sliding glass doors (this huge because at one time this room actually was a garage).  All I knew is that the teal vertical blinds (see first "before" photo above) had to go.  I was stumped for awhile on what to do, because they do not make standard curtain rods that can span a distance of 16ft.  After many trips do different stores walking up and down the curtain aisles an idea came to me.  What I did was I bought two curtain rods that could span 8ft and removed the finial from one end on each rod so I could butt the rods together so it appears that it is one continuous curtain rod.  I bought the rods for $10 each, so it was MUCH less than what it would have cost to get a custom rod.  To achieve the look below I also purchased the following: 2 packs of 14 curtain clips ($5 each), 4 twin solid color flat sheets ($4 each), and 2 yards of printed fabric ($2/yard).  I measured the height I needed so the curtains would just barely touch the ground, the remainder of the sheet length I folded over and creased the seam by ironing it.  Then I cut the fabric into strips that measured the same height and sewed them to the part of the sheet I had folded over - giving a more custom look to the finished product. 

The curtains for the 16ft worth of window

I also made a curtain to go across the nook that contained the storage shelves, so we could hide all of our junk (especially because that is one of the first things you see when you walk into the game room from the entry hall). I used the same technique to sew this curtain as I did the curtains across the sliding doors to create uniformity within the room.  If you look in the second down "after" photo you can kind of see the window with the vertical blinds, using the same printed fabric I hemmed up the edges of a strip of fabric I measured to fit across the blinds.  Then using double-sided foam tape I tacked the fabric to the rail across the top of the mini-blinds - giving the appearance of a valence (without the need to drill holes in the wall or purchase another curtain rod).

Curtain covering the storage shelving

Snickers

Our little 18lb Yorkie mix, who goes by the name of Snickers, has adjusted quite well to life in a house (opposed to a one bedroom apartment), which includes his favorite area, the backyard.  Most of you know that this little dog provides us with tons of laughter, and thus lots of stories to share.  Snickers is always finding new things to be completely fascinated with.  Some of his favorite pass times include: chasing lasers, chasing kites, playing at the beach (chasing birds and foam bubbles), hanging his head out the car window, ridding in a kayak, treeing squirrels and neighborhood cats, watching for cows on long road trips across the country side, the newest addition watching the fire crackle and spark (this really gets him excited - though it worries me what would happen if we were not there to keep him from getting too close), and he will always be the ultimate snuggler.

Chasing kites

Playing with cousins

Playing in the sand - sandipaws

Testing the water

Riding in the kayak

Treeing a cat

 Mesmerized by the fire