Pretty Things and Dry Wall Dust

There comes a point in renovating, when a girl just needs to see some progress…pretty progress.  I am a mother of three boys, so I am plenty used to dirt, noise and chaos.  And as my previous blog post proves, I can handle an occasional dead animal hiding in the floor joists. But 10 weeks into this “renovate an entire house–inside AND out” and I am getting physically and emotionally tired.  I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. This kind of thing is not for the faint of heart.  While Jay and I are still glad we took this on, we also decided that we are never doing this again.

That being said, nothing recharges my renovating batteries more than a dose of progress! Perks me right up!   Our bathroom floor tile is now in place, and it is so pretty! Heck, we even have a potty in one bathroom!  Hurray!  And, it’s no ordinary toilet (mostly because my husband picked it out.)  It has a lovely blue light that illuminates the bowl at night. (Where was that 15 years ago when we had three boys trying to hit the target?)   It also has a “hands free” flashing  sensor.  You wave your hand over the sensor and wa-la!  (I am happy to report it is not motion-activated like those airport ones that scare you to death. (Maybe that is just my issue?)  Anyway, as far as toilets go, this one is pretty cool.

After a couple of dry walling challenges, we have all walls in place and the mudding and texturizing continues.  Covering up the popcorn ceilings has been a nightmare!  If popcorn ceilings have EVER been painted, they do not go away without a fight.  I’m kind of mad that  HGTV has never once showed some poor renovator struggling to remove that nasty stuff.  When you see those people skimming popcorn texture off– all nice and easy—it is TV magic, I swear.  Regardless, my dry wall guys — Carlos Streit and Juan Macias are making real progress now. BRAVO! Walls are important.  Without walls and ceilings done, you can’t do flooring or paint–and we have a bunch of both of those to do yet.

Speaking of paint…..We’ve got some pretty paint on the walls now.  I am loving the color “Filmy Green” from Sherwin Williams, though it is a horrible name.  Kudos and praise to Nikki at the paint store for all of her brilliant suggestions.  She’s the bomb and is saving me from my usual “paint it two or three times before I get it right” scenario. My shoulders thank you, Nikki. Below are a couple of the color combinations we are going with.

We’ve made great flooring progress also!  It is installed in two rooms now, and it will go everywhere else on the main level as well.  I’m happy to say, I love it!

Oh, and the kitchen cabinets are mostly in!  What a job Chris Baker and Richard Alcott did putting those together!  I have never seen so many boxes in my life.

We still have a few upper cabinets to install, but I am pleased with the two tones of gray,  Once we add that gorgeous white and gray Quartz counter top, and the glass tile back splash, it will be amazing.  Oh my!  It is starting to actually look like a house instead of a disaster zone.

As far as the outside goes, most of the ugly green siding has been removed. ( YAY!)  But in so doing, we discovered a few more issues. (BOO!)  We had some decent replacement windows in place when we bought this house, and we decided to keep a couple of them.  Problem is, the old siding and the former metal window wrapping was done incorrectly and the result was rotting frames and leaks. No one bothered to fix those original problems, so now we get to.

Chris Baker and his crew  are doing a great job, repairing those areas, and it has been tricky!  I am so grateful that we have experienced contractors who are committed to doing things right in order to avoid any future problems.  This renovation has been a lot of things — but simple is not one of them.

My husband and sons attacked the stucco removal over Thanksgiving break.  That was dirty, difficult and dangerous work.  I was freaked out for two days straight that somebody was going to fall off the scaffolding. Thank the Lord, no one did.

Kudos and love to my brave and strong Elliott men, who got it done, in spite of the fact that everyone was sick with respiratory crud.  Amazing work, guys.

 

 

 

 

 

Removing the stucco was step one in preparing those surfaces for some beautiful gray and white stone.  I can’t wait to see some of that go up.

 

 

 

 

We finally were able to install the steel railing this week!  Brett Waltemath (of Troyer Enterprises)  made this beauty.  I just love it!

 

Installing it was a bit of a trick, but it is solid as a rock, and my husband swears it could contain a velociraptor!  Let’s hope we never have to test that theory.

We still have drywall dust everywhere, but we are making progress.  The pretty things are encouraging my heart!   We’re gonna make it–and hopefully, be able to move in (sort of) by Christmas.  That may be a bit of a Christmas miracle, but ’tis the season!  And I believe!!