Week Three

Here's a "before" and "after" shot (actually, a before and a "during") of one of my favorite changes that we're making. The first is the master bedroom, the day we first viewed the house, and the second is with the window replaced with the new slider leading to the backyard. Our contractor just put it in this week. He also installed a new front door, re-textured all the ceilings (getting rid of the popcorn stuff), and repaired a wall in the bathroom. We'll be putting in a small patio, leading to the main back patio, and we're also toying with the possibility of eventually turning it into an enclosed patio, or Arizona room, to increase the space for the master bedroom.

For our part, we're still in the demo and shopping mode... But SO close to putting it all together that we can taste it! This weekend, we steamed the wallpaper off the master bedroom, removed the last of the tile and tack strips, and shopped once again. The boys actually stripped the tile in the bathroom themselves, and they all came up in smooth easy pieces... almost like they weren't even glued to anything but each other. We went to Home Depot for the 1000th time, where we're actually starting to make friends with the salespeople. This time we bought all our tile and supplies (and made arrangements to have it delivered), ordered our carpet for the sunken living room, got bathroom vanity cabinets and faucets and toilets, and priced tub and shower surrounds. We decided that the one original feature we will be keeping is the tile in the shower and tubs. It's just a basic, white tile... but once it's cleaned up and re-sealed and grouted in a couple places it'll look as good as new (and much cheaper than any of the alternatives) After a lot of going back and forth, we hammered out all our flooring choices too. The main house, and both bathrooms, are going to be all tile - nice big 18" sand-colored ceramic tile. We're going to re-carpet the sunken living/family room with a neutral carpet. The bedrooms will all be wood laminate.

Now that the demo is just about done, and the big stuff is all ordered and/or bought, next weekend we can start putting Humpty back together again! Our plan for this week (God willing) is to get all the laminate & paint purchased for the bedrooms so we can get those ready to go next weekend. We're still waiting to hear from the tile guy, but hoping he can get in there next week. The weekend after next will hopefully be spent getting the bathrooms together (Our garage is stacked with boxes of vanities, toilets, counters, and fixtures.) Carpet should be in by the end of the month, and the granite and cabinets should be done by mid-November.

It's still coming along! Here are some of the latest pics from this weekend:


Create Your Own!