happyflamily

The exterior of the house is coming along well. There is still another layer of window trim to put on and the new porch still needs to be stained, but here is a before and after of the progress!

BEFORE:

In the remodel we ripped out the bushes, painted the house, removed the shutters and added new trim and put in a walkway to the sidewalk so that visitors don’t have to go negotiate the driveway to make it to the front door.

DURING:

AFTER!!!!

I didn’t want to post pictures of the work as we got toward the end, as I wanted it to be a surprise.  So here are photos of the rooms that are done.

If you want to see before pictures, they are here:

http://happyflamily.com/2010/04/15/our-new-house-2/

THE BATHROOM:

This is the view from the door of the bathroom.

Step into the bathroom and look at the tub…

We did all of the tiling ourselves, it is natural slate. The colors are so variable, from gold to green to rust to gray. We also hung pictures above the tub, including on of Lillian brushing her teeth in a bidet.

The lights above the tub and in the shower are on a dimmer for mood lighting.

The are two shower heads, one is a regular one and the other is a rain shower, coming directly out of the ceiling. Lillie and Sophie prefer to use the rain shower and then jump into the tub and play.

The bathroom fan is hidden in the light above the toilet. We also have warming floors, so that the slate will not be cold in the morning.

THE LIBRARY:

One of the rooms that we were all most excited about is the library. The girls chose to share a bedroom so that we would have an extra room. We all love it. The CD player is in there, so the girls can listen to their annoying children’s music as much as they like.

The sofa is a fold out and anyone who wants to is welcome to come visit!!!

BECKY’S KITCHEN:

I painted the entire kitchen white and minimized the cupboards and cupboard doors. Note, of course, my pink oven! We also replaced the light fixture, hung a pot rack and hung shelves for the dishes. The microwave is also a fan and we installed a flat cooktop in addition.

Oh, and we also got a new fridge, with the freezer on the bottom. Lillie only wanted to make sure she could reach the milk, which she can. However, she can also reach ice cream and popsicles.

CURB APPEAL:

Our home is a mid-century home and lacks the traditional architecture that makes a home beautiful. So we decided to add a covered porch. The men doing the work are simply wonderful, hard working and polite.

Day one… Ripped out the bushes, jack hammered the walkway and dug holes for the posts of the porch’s foundation.

Day Three… Work when so quickly, Day Two they poured concrete for the posts and after that dried, this was just one day’s progress!

Day Four… The roof goes up!

Day Five… the roof is in place.

As of this morning the shingles are on and the path is dug. Work to do includes trim and finish work on the posts. Railing will also be added and as a flagstone walkway.

Not a day goes by that a number of people don’t stop by and gush about the house. It is amazing what difference an 8  x 12 porch can make. We will remove the shutters that are only on some windows, and add a thick trim. The house will be painted in a few weeks.

This weekend is the big one…we are moving to the new house. Our first home.

We will have a little work to do before we can move in- painting, washer/dryer work, etc.  But we are going to work on it frantically and hopefully be ready to move in the morning.

Sophie and I have packed about 10 boxes. Shad and Lillie have packed none. Truth be told, we have almost nothing packed. However, with the exception of our garage, we have very little that we CAN pack.  We are going to spend a night or two with GranMolly and Gromper so that we can wash linens, pack stuff, etc.

Wish us luck, it’s going to be a big job, especially because we have not lined up much help. A few friends plan to “stop by”, but it may mostly be Shad and I. Memory building, right?

We laid the mosaic tiles for the shower floor.  We had to take the girls with, but they jumped in and helped. Sophie and Lillie started a “tile store” and made us ask for the shapes we needed. Sophie kept a list of what she’d sold to us and the whole process took a lot longer than it would have without the store, but it was also a lot more fun.

But alas, one grows weary of tile and the girls soon retreated to the living room to watch a movie. The green on the walls is one I picked out…

The bathroom as we are laying the warm floor…

The warm floor is on a timer so that we can make sure the floor is warm when we get up in the morning. So luxurious…

And finally Becky gets to lay flooring rather than rip it up. After checking out our options, we went for the cheapest option, with the intent to figure out what we really want and need in a kitchen floor and replace it later.

Last night we installed kitchen moulding. Tonight we will be working on finishing up the bathroom in preparation for the plumber and electrician and maybe installing more moulding.

Not all the work will be done when we move in, but no matter, it’s fun to stretch out the love, right?

As moving day draws closer (June 19th and 20th) we are scrambling to finish the bathroom, and the rest of the house for that matter. Here is the tile progress so far…

The biggest project this weekend was, however, the floor of the dinning room. In all of my life I’ve never gone through this much trouble for 100 square feet in my life. I think that having babies is easier than what I had to do to reveal the hardwood under years of bad choices by past homeowners. I had to take up two layers of linoleum (Shad took up most of the second layer) and was then left  with a layer of thick, black gunk. This glue had to be scrubbed off with paint thiner and scrub brushes.

The floors are done now and, like labor, I’m already forgetting how bad it all was. And then I take off my pants…

Apparently my plumber’s crack doesn’t give a lot of protection to the buttocks area.