May 23, 2012 |
A long week it has been! We’ve filled a 40 cu. yd. dumpster, finished almost all of the demolition, removed lots of the old fencing, took down the makeshift backyard pergola that was conveniently 1000 lbs and attached to the house via a series of screws and nails, repaired a million nail holes, fixed the water damage under the sink with new drywall and new shelving, removed the pergola in the front of the house, replaced the kitchen window, installed new screens on every window and door, started painting, tossed the toilets, demo’ed every closet and shelf in the house, and started the major cleaning. But, it still feels very far from move in ready. Thursday the flooring gets installed!
I don’t have a great before picture handy, but we tore down that fence and filled the dumpster with trash from this area. I forgot about the chain link fence until just now looking at this picture… too bad that couldn’t fit in the dumpster.
Taking a well-deserved break – note the hackjob of a pergola is gone. Thanks Mel! The exterior is still pink, unfortunately. They did leave that sweet rusty fire pit – another refurbish project for the future.
And the painting has started. I’m a big chicken and don’t like to sit on the soffits.
Saying goodbye to 10 years of bad home ownership. A day later that sucker was completely full. I hope we don’t need another one because they are pricey to rent.
Tomorrow I have to rally and try and finish painting before the flooring guys arrive Thursday. I need some more friends with rollers.
May 21, 2012 |
I’ve hit the point now where the demolition never seems to end – hence my late posting of the happenings of day 3 and 4 of this long week.
We have a nice looking patch where a wall once was. Thanks Landon!
See the awesome “distressed” cabinets in the kitchen? That style doesn’t look so great when your house actually is distressed. Cannot wait to paint those. Try to ignore the stalactites of grease where the stove once was… the stove and the dishwasher got kicked to the curb. The dishwasher had a few too many spiders in it to be considered a “keeper”.
Before, the garage had been drywalled in and converted to a bedroom / filthy storage space (see below).
I have no use for a smelly bedroom, so the wall came out. They left the garage door and springs in tact, although the garage door will probably be replaced later this month because, like everything else in this house, it smells and is broken.
Voila! No more wall.
I also have this gem to deal with…
Who doesn’t love a pink door painted with roses? You can’t tell from the picture, but this door has been kicked in one or more times, so it and the door frame will be replaced in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful artistry.
May 16, 2012 |
I’m pretty happy with the way things are turning out. Today, the wall in the living room was completely removed, the parquet and most of the tile were demo’ed, and we started some general repairs and cleaning.
Thanks to my demolition crew for all of the help!
And, just because I can, here is a current before / after of the living room…
Tile tornado!
My whole body hurts.
May 15, 2012 |
I got the keys today – a strange feeling. There are still lots of parts of this renovation loan process that confuse me and today presented yet another challenge. I believed that when we closed on the house, funds would be released for the contractor to start work. This is not the case, and it could be another week before he sees a check. So, with an already tight deadline of needing to have the floors in by the 31st, there is this hurdle.
This being the situation at hand, there is plenty of cleaning and lots of side projects that need to be done. We forge ahead.
With friends and family assisting or being good company, we got a great start at removing the non-load-bearing wall that was in between the kitchen and living room. Quite a bit of cleanup happened outside as well (the “after” shots will have to happen when it is light out). I also got out most of the carpet, which should help the smell quite a bit.
Here are some before and afters from today:
(master bedroom)
(living room)and many more fun projects to come…
