Some insight

In reviewing the process we are going through on the first floor, there are definitely some things to consider before jumping head first in....

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN....we are basically doing the first floor on a whim.  Our original scope of work was to remove one 5 ft section of an existing wall, redo the bathroom, replace the baseboards, paint and refinish the floors.  Where did we end up - a total kitchen/dining/den/bathroom gut.  We removed all walls, redid the bathroom into a powder room, added niches, nooks and closets.  The biggest change is the idea of redoing the kitchen.  This just fell into our lap basically - a wall came out and there was no turning back.  If this happens, you have 2 choices - JUMP in and act fast or STOP, regroup and develop a plan.

Make sure no mater what you do, stay within your budget - the stress from the reno alone can bring you down, add money problems and you may not make it out as a couple!!

Don't be afraid of ordering items on line. I saved $500 alone on my powder room fixtures.  I ordered ALL of my lights and door hardware on line, saving hundreds of dollars.  If you order early enough you will have time to exchange, etc if things won't work out.  You can order all supplies, finishes and decor on line nowadays.

Be creative in terms of resourcing your items - there are countertop fabricators, cabinet wholesalers, and building surplus places in ever city.  Check them out, walk their yards for supplies for your project.  I got a new glass/wood front door slab for $350 - normal price on average over $850 (even with my contractor discount).  I got my quartz countertops from a remnant yard at 40% less than normal industry prices.  It takes a bit of time and effort but again, you can get the high end finishes for much much less.

KEEP up with the dust for your peace of mind.  As much as cleaning and vacuuming a construction site can be a hassle, the peace of mind we have that dust is being controlled up and downstairs is well worth it.  Living in the house during construction takes a particular personality - on the one side you are in the thick of things, you can watch and control just about everything.  On the other side, you have no "normalcy" to balance the chaos.  Keeping the debris to a minimum gives us the false sense of control that keeps us sane!!

Most Important, remember to take a step back and admire your work...I forget to do that most days...I need to look at what we have finished through a less scrutinizing eye in order to be able to appreciate it all.  The process is over as soon as it starts - just like with having a baby - you forget the worst of it just weeks after moving in!! 

Day 280 something!

We are now all plastered up.  We decided to plaster all of the walls on the first floor since the existing had all texture on them adn patching would have been impossible.  I also like the idea of plaster verses sheet rock because the latter is sooo sensitive.  We have dinged and dented hte NEW upstairs in teh first 4 weeks of us living there.  It is terrible.  Plaster offers a buffer and is very durable.  Plus I like the juxdaposition of modern with old world wall texture.  The plasterer we used was a true artist adn does AMAZING work.

Now you didn't think this phase would go off without a hitch on my house did ya?  Imeanhow hard can it be to slap mud on a wall and make textures, right?  WRONG...I have a haunted house.  He spent 2 days applying th eplaster and he noticed some yellow stains showing through on one wall in teh family room.  Now we had brown walls so where teh yellowish spots came from is anyone's guess.  Anyway, he decided to redo the entire wall.  It looked great.  I left teh house and came back 2 hours later - the wall started "crying and bubbling" up like it was possessed with evil juices or something.  it was something straight out of a horror flick.  The plaster master is bewildered and has NO idea how to fix it.  So now we are sitting and waiting for it to dry completely before we make a plan of attck...check it out..

 The tears you can see and in the one below you can see a bump - but the wall is filled with them!!

Other than that - the rest of the walls look amazing>  Everything is so bright and white - nice and clean.

 The textureis called "medium sand" so there are "grains" on the walls..but note how bright it is now without our old darker wall colors!

 We have a truly bright kitchen now.  You can stand at the front door and see the backyard from the right and left!!  I LOVE that.

 Now we just have to pick out a kitchen.  Tilo and I spent this weekend looking at all options - of course about 3-4 weeks too late but what else is new or expected from us.

We are looking at Ikea vs,. carpenter made vs. a combo..these are 2 kitchens we love the look of..

What do you think?

Sheet Rock is up on 1st floor - we have a defined living space

So we are moving forward...sheet rock went up and we now have true walls.  It was a longer process than normal (did we expect otherwise on MY project?) because of the LAYERS of mud required to get the sheet rock flush to the existing plaster.

Next step is to re-plaster all of the new walls, patch existing walls and "tidy" things up to make the first floor look like it is all new. The cost to do this ranges from a few dollars to MANY - do we go with the artist type of plasterer or the fix it up type of guy??  We want it done right but there is a HUGE price difference. I went to look at a $5 million home the plaster artist just completed...WOW. Are we worth it??

For now, take a look at our space - this should help you "visualize" our final interior layout...

 This is the open kitchen/den (computer room for us).  That knee wall will house the base cabinets with cooktop and stove.

 These cabinets will get pushed against the right wall and the fridge will go there as well.

This is the NEW pantry that will offer lots of storage for things PLUS Tilo's sterio equipment.  The hall leads to the family room - no doors there any more.

 This is the other end of the hallway. Below is the closet that is in the hallway.

 Here is the powder room - it will have a raised ceiling for a chandelier..

And here is the family room with the 2 openings that got raised to the ceiling.  We will have 9 ft barn doors slide to the center of the FR wall to keep the room "open".  We are also installing a new frosted glass front door to keep the light in the room.

 And finally the sunroom with the newly exposed brick above the windows. 

Tomorrow is the WORST day - they will sand all of this mud to create smooth ceilings and walls.  It will create a dust that is deadly!!  I have our upstairs securely taped off but the basement is a free for all for dust collection.  I will be cleaning the next days to try to work through the disaster. After tomorrow things should settle down and we should be able to take down our zipper separation and live somewhat "normally" upstairs.  

For NOW however, this is the wall that separates us from the rest of the world and yes our fridge which sits down stairs in the dust bowl....

 Doesnt it look like fun???  More pics to come this week....

"Designing within Reach"

SO we are moving along with the first floor -  a bit slower than I would like but my workload, combined with Viola's middle school transition and Tilo's traveling has us moving along at a snail's pace.

Demo is FINALLY done.  We took down the wall between the dining room and eat in kitchen, then we thought another wall should come out, and THEN we decided the refrigerator had to move so more wall could come out.  NOT recommending to do ti that way!  It is really better if you can think the process through beforehand and stick to the plan :)!!  It was tough though because in our neighborhood, size is everything.  We needed a BIGGER kitchen and we have finally achieved that.

Insulation has now gone in.  What we found out through the demo process is that we have NO insulation in the exterior walls on the first floor.  Funny thing is on the second floor we had insulation in EVERY interior and exterior wall!  Insulation is key to energy efficiency so I had my sub come in and put insulation in any open cavity they could find.  When we removed the existing kitchen backsplash, the sheet rock also came off opening up the wall cavities on most of the kitchen walls.  We then stuffed batt insulation up and down in those cavities.  Hopefully we will see the difference in our power bills.  We also insulated between the 1st and 2nd floors for soundproofing.  These things make a difference in the "feel" of the home.

Sheet rock will be installed this week, then we head into interior trim, hardwoods, cabinet/countertop installs and painting.  Now is crunch time for me as ALL design decisions have to be made.  I am struggling because my tastes do not exactly match our budget.

First decision is countertops.  Granite is the most common matl used, the newest is Quartz.  Quartz is an engineered product made from natural quartz.  it is super durable but also expensive.  You can buy "remnant" pieces from most fabricators but I need almost 50sf.  I have found one place with enough "random" pieces of a quartz by Zodiaq but I am still not 100% sold.  This is a HUGE investment so it needs to work with our taste and for resale.

The colors I like are "Biana Carrara" by Zodiaq and true Concrete by Dex Industries.  Have a look...

 This is the Bianca Carrara with dark cabinets - we would do dark gray cabinets..

 This is a concrete countertop which I love, just not sure about the resale value. It is an up and coming tread for sure....just need to evaluate it!! What do you think?? Let me know!

Then we have the backspash to choose - I am actually leaning toward solid panels of glass...AM I crazy??

It will add size and brightness to the kitchen and honestly I am a cleaner anyway and it is a whole lot easier to wipe a smooth glass surface than a tiled surface!!

Once we have those decisions made, it is cabinet color - we are having our maple cabinets painted and new door fronts made. Then it is paint colors - EASY white on white, hardwood floor color - going with another "custom color" - light gray!  YES we are asking for trouble after having to redo the floors upstairs 4 times!  But my hardwood floor guy seems to think he has the process down now so the color shouldn't be an issue!!  Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Last stop - FURNITURE.  we sold everything on the first floor before we started so we need to replace it all!!

Will post some pictures of insulation and sheet rock on Tuesday.  You will be able to envision the space once the rock is in place!  Thanks for following!!