Kitchen

In the end we decided to tear the kitchen down to the plaster and start over. We ended up taking up four layers of floor and having a lot more work then we intended. Yet, I am so so so happy we decided to change it. We love it now! Here it is...

BeforeAfter

Master Bedroom

We love our bedroom now. Hardwood floors, big windows and two closets!

BeforeAfter

Boys Room

The boys room was in pretty good shape other than the nasty carpet and horrible pink walls. Here it is complete with the Cars light switch cover.

Before
After

And the priceless face when Samuel saw his new room for the first time!

Bathroom

Here is the bathroom.

Remember this is a room that we entirely redid, even moved across the hall. To say the least, we like it better now!

BeforeAfter

Living Room

Here are the pictures of the living room..

Before

After

We now also have a fireplace mantle and our furniture. We will have to take some more pictures after I decide to clean sometime!

Almost Done

Ok, so a lot has been happening and I have not been keeping up on the pictures. We are planned to move in this weekend even though not all the finishing touches will be in place So...you will have to wait until next week for pictures of the "almost complete" project. I will post them one room at a time so stay tuned...

Drywall

We continue to make good progress on this place. We have finished the drywall and are currently working on refinishing the hardwoods and painting. Our kitchen is also coming along beautifully. The cabinets are all in and look sensational. I will have to get some pictures up soon. All our hard surface floors go in next week and then we will hopefully be putting on the finishing touches. We are finally starting to see the homestretch!

Here are a few before and after pictures with the drywall.

Hallway (before) Hallway (after)
Kitchen (before)
Kitchen (after)--sorry I don't have a picture from the same angle!
Front entry hallway (before)
Front hallway (after)Bathroom (before)
Bathroom (after)

Master Bedroom Closet (before)
Master Bedroom Closet (after)Fireplace (before)
Fireplace (after)
Utility Room (before)
Utility room (after)
One more thing to check off the list!

Additions

So we gained a few extras along with our house, kittens. For the first couple of days that we were there we would spot our curious visitors for a few moments before they would run under the fence. Being the animal lover, I gave them food and wouldn't you know now they love us!

Turns out the boys love them and have taken on the role of feeding them each time we visit. Samuel loves collecting their dishes, filling them with food, delivering them to the cats then watching them while they eat. Liam also adores them and loves cuddling with them. He will also chase them and peek at them through the fence. Mike might not admit it but he likes them too. He looks for them and has even been caught cuddling .

So here they are...This is Spook. He got his name for both his color and his temperament. He is a bit skiddish and is just letting us get close enough to touch him. We generally have to bribe him with food but he is starting to warm up to us.

This is Doodle. She is by far the friendliest. She started off a bit skiddish but now lets us pick her up and even lets both boys pet her. She usually appears within minutes of us getting there and hangs out int he field while we are working. Yesterday I left the back of the van open while I was unloading and guess who jumped in! Guess we will have to watch her!

So this is our latest addition. As we were leaving yesterday we spotted a second black cat about the same size as Spook. We have also seen another calico from a distance. I guess they are telling their friends about us. Maybe someday I can be the crazy cat lady! We shall see...

No, we have not given up...

I know it has been awhile since a post. We are working our tails off over at the house and I keep forgetting the camera. Most of the work over the past several weeks has been pretty boring anyway. We did get all new plumbing roughed in, our electrical roughed in, heating and cooling done, all the main floor wall paper stripped, the majority off the tile of the dining room hard woods, our new windows installed, and passed all inspections. So, we are ready for drywall. Once that is done we still have an amazingly long to do list but we will then be putting the house back together. Mike will be painting more than he will care to over the next several weeks but we are getting closer...

Scrape and Prime

Since the outside of the house has not been painted in 20 years it is about time for a fresh coat. We have been going back and forth with what we want to do and how much we want to do this fall, especially not knowing how long the weather will hold out for us. A couple of weeks ago Mike scraped and primed all the fascia on the house which he then painted this weekend. This was a must do so we could get gutters and downspouts put up. We also decided to go ahead and take it one side at a time. We figured we would power wash, scrape and prime as much as we could with the hope that we could then get all the bare spots sealed off before snow. We will then go ahead and paint next spring. We went ahead and started this weekend and found that a whole lot of paint is coming off. Here are a few pictures of the one side that got done. Wish us warm weather for a few more weeks.
Before scraping

Scraped

I will have to get a picture of it now all nice and primed. It is amazing how much better it looks already.

Septic

Well, this was one of the dirtier jobs of the house...the septic. We needed to find the old septic, have it pumped and then my uncle was going to put in a new pipe and such for us. Sounds simple...

Mike and dad went over to find the cover a couple of weeks ago. Using a drawing from the township they paced out the footage and started digging. First they dug quite a few feet down and found nothing. Figuring they were off they remeasured and started digging again.

Next they found a really old septic that had not been used for quite awhile...not what they were looking for. This is where I show up...

I look at where they are digging and think to myself 'I know I am bad at measurement but that does not look like 15 feet to me' but I shut up and don't say a thing for awhile. I then mention that it looks a bit short and lol and behold Mike gets a measuring tape out and realizes that yes indeed they are off a few feet.

They start digging again. Within a few minutes they hit concrete and are elated that finally they have gotten it. They dig and dig and uncover more and more of this block but no lid. Not what they are looking for.

After about three hours, yes it is 10 pm by now, they give up and decide that my uncle will bring his backhoe over and tear up the yard and find it himself. So that is what happened. Come to find out the concrete they are hitting is just that, a huge piece of concrete buried in the yard. Jeff finally finds the cover and is able to get the job done.

The boys thought it was great. The both got to ride with him and help put the dirt back in the hole. Now we have a new pipe and a clean septic. Happy pooping for us...now all we need are toilets!

Kitchen and Bath Fixtures

So as part of the process Mike and I get to go shopping. We just picked out all our bathroom fixtures along with our kitchen sink. Toilet (as if you couldn't tell)

Bathroom Vanity (version of a pedestal)
Bathroom sink that will sit on top of the above vanity

Hardware for the bathroom sinks.
We went with the oil rubbed bronze look to hold some of the old character of the house.

Shower hardware (also oil rubbed bronze)
Kitchen sink

Kitchen sink hardware (also oil rubbed bronze)

Still lots more work and shopping to be done!

Kitchen and Bath Demo

We decided to go ahead and move forward with both the kitchen and bathroom remodel. In order to save us some money we agreed to do the demo work and our contractor would then come in and put it all back together. We have spent a good number of hours there working on it and here are some of the before and now pictures. Hopefully within the next few weeks we will be able to post some finished pictures!

Bathroom
For the bathroom we decided to move the whole thing across a hallway. We tore everything out and then Jim (contractor) came in and took out the walls. The finished product will have a tub/shower, sink, toilet and linen closet.

Before

Now
(same window in both pictures)
Front Entry
Taken from the front door. The hallway into the house is on the right. The walls on the left are the bathroom.

Now

The walls are obviously gone. The hallway into the living room will run along the left side . The bathroom will sit along the right.
Kitchen
Before

Now

We were also very excited to find hardwood floors in the hallway, dining room and kitchen. There were four layers of flooring in the kitchen and two in the dining room that we took up. There is a lot of glue in the floors but we are hoping to be able to refinish them. We shall see!