The Bigg Remodel

2010-02-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

After many months of anticipation we are moved in and loving our new space! There have been a few bumps in the road, but overall we love the design and everything is flowing and working well for our family. We are wiped out at the end of every day, but it is a good tired since the days are filled with filling up new closets, putting down rugs and filling up cupboards that we never knew we could fill so quickly.

Below are pictures of the spaces that we are now living in:

This the buffet in our eating area.
The shower that Merle spent hours tiling:
One view of our bedroom - notice the terrier enjoying the bed.
Another view of the master bedroom:
This is the view of the great room from the end of the entry hall.
I was standing at the front door taking this shot. The piano room is to the left.
Here is the piano room.
This is the view from the kitchen sink.

I just turned ever so slightly at the sink. Behind the closed double doors is a small office area that hold the computers and all of that gear. Notice that the doors are not clear glass. This is where we hide the piles. This is the view from the back door.
Another kitchen view:

We are in!

2010-02-08T08:41:00.001-08:00

We spent the weekend moving into the majority of our new spaces! Thanks to my parents (the Merry Maids) who gave up their entire Saturday to help us. We couldn't have done it without you. There will be more photos to come when I can locate the camera charger! The biggest highlight so far has been eating in our kitchen and spending time as a family in our great room.

We are back on.

2010-01-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

After much negotiation, I believe that work will resume today. Hopefully sleep will also resume for both adults in the house.

All Progress Stalled . . .

2010-01-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

Until further notice. Stubborn contractor, even more stubborn homeowners. Our contractor has decided that he would like to change the contract midstream, without our consent, and would like us to pay him almost 20% more than his bid. Hmmm, let me think about that, "No thank you." After we decided to not agree to this, he has decided to stop working. Hopefully he will see the light and show up soon, or we will have a new contractor put the finishing touches on our home. This is not fun for any of us, but especially those of us who have to live in an unfinished house. Have I mentioned that I prefer honest, upfront people?

Progress - stressful, but moving right along

2009-12-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

cabinets in boxes
entry floors
cabinet above the future cooktop
cabinets below the kitchen window and sink
Merry Christmas from our new family room!

(Sheet)Rock and Roll

2009-12-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

The Piano Room is taking shape.

This is the view from the new back door.
The piano room ceiling
Dining room, pantry and mud room entrance - Zoey is already begging in the dining room.
The Master Bedroom
The Kitchen
The Great Room

More Photos

2009-12-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

Cats that climb ladders are cute.Our back door is in.
The fireplace is in.

Coming Along Nicely

2009-12-07T11:34:00.001-08:00

The piano is protected by layers of quilts, plastic and plywood. Stella still finds it to be an awesome place to hang out!This is the pantry, mud room and the laundry is on the left.
The dining area is straight ahead.
Fireplace rough in.
This is the little office nook that will hold two computers, but will also be able to be shut off with French doors.

One Room

2009-11-28T19:52:00.001-08:00

The wall between the old and the new house has been removed. We have one big room. It is as cold as outside. Katie currently has to go "outside" to get to her room and I have to freeze to do laundry. It will all be OK and time flies when you're having fun.

O Holey Roof

2009-11-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

The trusses are in place and the sheeting will go on tomorrow - YEAH - We no longer look like we live in a tent city.

Home Sweet "Roofless" Home

2009-11-19T17:21:00.000-08:00

Read this from bottom to top. I can't quite get used to how these photos upload. Welcome to the scariest looking house on the cul-de-sac, for the time being!
Notice that there is no roof peeking over from the "old house" !The new board are building up the old walls to add height to our old ceilings.

Well they raised the roof today and the new trusses arrive tomorrow. The new and the old will be joined in a same sex union tomorrow. This is what our home looks like as of today. Today was the rehearsal and all went well.

Two sunny days later

2009-11-05T08:41:00.001-08:00

This is where the dogs will get to "go outside" after January! From our family room.The view from my new, huge kitchen window.
Family room.

Master Bedroom. To the right will be our bathroom, you can see a bit of the window.Southern Exposure. From this view you can see how they will be raising the room line and giving us nine foot ceilings throughout the entire house after they build up the exiting house frame before putting on the new roof trusses.

Wow!

2009-11-03T05:34:00.001-08:00

Progress from ONE sunny day!

Stella is not so sure about this.

Doesn't look too exciting, but progress is progress.

2009-10-31T15:13:00.001-07:00

The main plumbing stack happens to be located in Katie's closet. The only carpet in the entire house happens to be the brand new carpet in the basement covering the floor in Katie's closet. Hmmm . . . not anymore. The plumbing stack has to be revealed so that all the new plumbing can be put into the new addition and set in the floor of the new basement before the floor is poured. The cat is intrigued. Katie is inconvenienced. All of the openings around the new foundation and basement have been backfilled and the egress windows have been set in place. They chose to insulate and waterproof on the outside of the new walls!
The drain tile has been installed and some of the pipes have been set and are ready to be tied into the current stack. Now we just need a new basement floor! If we could get everyone to show up on the sunny days, or even just the dry days, I think that we will see some real progress this week!

Wanna Play Blocks?

2009-10-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

The blocks are up and the basement floor is next on the list. The orchestration of this project is amazing. Now that they have gotten started there is just no stopping these contractors! I don't want to jinx the project, but they just really want to get this exterior done before the snow flies again. Every day I come home from work amazed at how much has been accomplished.

The Digging is Done!

2009-10-17T15:21:00.001-07:00

Well, the hole got a bit larger than expected. As they were finishing digging, part of the wall of dirt between the new hole and the garage had a bit of a sand slide leaving no dirt between our driveway and the hole. It was a bit shocking. We will have to stay away and keep a couple of doggies from straying to a premature death.

All of the participating contractors pushed each other a bit and got the digging done and the footings poured. It really is amazing to see how large the addition is going to be in relation to the rest of the house.

Merle and the girls in the new basement!
We are now ready for blocks to be put in. Exciting changes here at the house.

The Dig

2009-10-14T14:13:00.001-07:00

These photos posted backwards, but this is both day one and day two of our dig. I can't believe the amount of dirt that needs to come out of our yard. Thank goodness, our excavator was able to find someone who needed to fill in a pool nearby, because holy cow that is a whole lotta dirt that needs to be moved. I'm starting to understand the toddler and pre-school boy fascination with diggers. They really are fun to watch.
Katie and I will not be looking into careers as excavators, but we do make the digger look better.

Laundry all weekend!

2009-10-04T07:47:00.001-07:00

This is where I did laundry all weekend. In about 4 months I will be doing laundry in our main floor laundry room with our new front-loading washer and dryer! No matter where it is done having all the laundry in the house clean, folded and put away feels wonderful. For some reason . . . I am a bit more excited to be doing it upstairs in a new laundry room!

Rain , rain go away come again another day . . .

2009-10-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, today should have been big digger day, but our warm dry fall was fouled up by constant rain. Hopefully they will be able to start digging the basement and foundation on Monday. Let's hope for a long spell of dry weather, so we can get a foundation poured and some action happening here.

Really?!

2009-09-26T07:47:00.001-07:00

So our closing goes off without a hitch. Until . . . we start talking about how everyone is lined up to start digging and tearing off on Monday. Oh wait . . . another hitch. You know how when you buy stamping supplies, spices or jewelry at a home party and you read the fine print and you have 3 days to cancel your order no questions asked - the rescission period. I guess we have that too. We don't want that - we have everything ready to go and pretty much did in June, but now we have to wait until Thursday or Friday just on the off chance that we change our minds this weekend. We are not going to change our minds! Our poor contractor has been put through the wringer on this one. Call all the subs and put them all off for three of four more days and hope that they are available. But hey we have the $$$ now.

Ceremonial Ground Breaking

2009-09-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Maren asked if she could start digging the hole. How could we really say no to that?

Katie got home shortly after this bright idea was hatched and "dug right in."

More Interior Shots

2009-09-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

These shots are of our 3rd bedroom turned TV watching area. The new family room should prove to be more open and will hopefully contain fewer doors. This area will become part entry way, part lesson waiting area and part hidden away desk/computer area.
This is the second shot of the current master. The window will multiply and become two and Maren will be happy getting a room that will be more "tween friendly" than the one below.

As cute as collecting pigs is when you are 4- 10 years old. Maren has turned it into an art form like no other. Just about every square inch of this room is covered in pink or pigs. Grandma Bonnie spent a lot of time making the pig curtains and bedding, along with the matching pajamas, but it will soon be time for Maren to move on. The bunk beds will be looking for a new home and our guests will have a lovely queen guest suite in which to stay. We can't wait to see you in February.

Interior Photos

2009-09-21T19:17:00.001-07:00

This is our current "master bedroom." When the project is done Maren will be moving in here. The window that you see will be gone and she will enjoy the hers and hers closets to your left. She will enjoy two new windows that will be featured later on your tour.
This bathroom was recently re-done by my very own handy husband. Thank you to the squirrel or chipmunk who decided to chew through the floorboard. I will repay you with lots of nuts later in your life!
Here you see our not so spacious entryway that seems to scream "GO AWAY!" I can't wait to show you the view in a few months. We will soon be able to greet you and hang up your coat.
This is our front room, which will soon be our dedicated music room. It is quite a nice room especially when my very own handy man is tickling the ivories!
An now, for the best feature of the house as it currently stands, the built in Easy Bake oven. It is what all young women with a minor in Home Economics dream of cooking and baking with at age 38. Not only can you not cook a turkey in it, you cannot fit a full size cookie sheet in it. Now this ladies and gentlemen is what we call "Living the Suburban Dream." Any takers before it gets replaced?

New Roof Line

2009-09-20T16:04:00.001-07:00

Here is what the roof line will look like when the addition is finished.

Before Photos Kitchen and Exterior

2009-09-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

To the left is our kitchen. The biggest reason why we are remodeling. There is no room for anything fabulous to happen here. We manage and this is definitely a first world problem, but we cannot wait to have a kitchen where more than one person can fit in it at a time!

This is our main entry to our house from which we dump directly into the kitchen. This will soon be our mud room and laundry area.

This is the South elevation of our house. The current windows are Maren's bedroom and our bedroom.

The front and back of the house will change dramatically. The entire roof will be removed, elevated and replaced with a new roofline so it will not look like a remodel, but a new house.

CLOSING DATE

2009-09-16T11:05:00.001-07:00

THURSDAY, SEPTMEBER 24 cannot come soon enough! Bring it on.

I can almost smell it - but what the heck is taking so long?!

2009-09-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

We were finally told that closing and digging will occur the week of September 21. I sure do hope that everyone is telling me the truth because I can't wait!

Our lovely contractor has informed us that he will be able to sell our old (2 years old) AC unit and save us some money toward our new, bigger unit! YEAH!! I love not wasting and saving money in the process. We also received our 3-D drawings of our new roof line. I so wish that I could figure out how to post them on here because I finally have some idea of what this house will look like on the outside.

C.L. also submitted the plans to the city for approval - let's hope that does not become another hurdle to overcome! This weekend Merle gets to move any plants that he cares about that currently reside anywhere near the back of the house. I'm so glad that I have a dirt loving husband!

The Players

2009-09-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Players in this Adventure:

Rachel: 38 year old wife, mother, teacher - I will be trying to work, manage and stay sane through this adventure all while driving children to activities and keeping all other players fed and dressed in clean clothing - not an easy task since our kitchen and laundry room are huge parts of this remodel.

Merle: 47 year old husband, father, teacher and musician - He will be working and teaching through the process. His main job will be to make sure that all of us will be staying on or under budget at all times. Even if we are on or under budget he will be worrying or talking about it constantly. The biggest hurdle for Merle will be figuring out how his NINE foot concert grand piano can continue to live in the home during construction, unharmed and under budget.

Katie: 12 (almost 13) year old 7th grader - Katie will be continuing her arduous schedule as a student, dancer and flute player through this. This construction process is a big pain for her, since last summer our construction project garnered her a large "teen suite" in the basement. The rest of the family may have to encroach on her space at times, therefore bugging her BIG TIME!

Maren: 10 year old 5th grader - Maren will continue her regular schedule as a "happy go lucky" 5th grader during this process. She doesn't really care what happens as long as she gets a bigger room and a much larger closet as an end result of this adventure.

Walter: 6 year old neurotic Rat Terrier - If we could hear him during construction he would be heard saying, "I think it's done now, yep it's done now. Please can it be done now?"

Zoey: 4 year old black Cocker Spaniel: Her mantra is and always will be "Where's the food? Hey guys, Do you know where they're keepin' the food now?"

Stella: 1 year old Brown Tabby cat - She just does what all normal cats do - eat, poop, entertain, explore and nap.

C.L.: General Contractor - General Saint, so far. This man has had to do more paperwork than ever before just to have the privilege of digging a hole in our backyard. He just wants to get this party started!

Off to Underwriting!

2009-09-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

I just got an email from our banker telling me that the appraisal is done and PERFECT and our file is off to underwriting! I cannot wait to see a big old BOBCAT in our backyard digging!

We are on our way.

2009-08-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well, today I hope that we tackled out last hurdle before our contractor can dig that big hole in the backyard! I met with the appraiser today. He seemed more than hopeful that our choices will get us that magic number so the house will be worth enough at the END of this process to make it worth what the bank needs it to be worth to give us the MONEY to get moving forward! It has been a long three months of planning, but hopefully our little rambler will be a larger rambler by Christmas!