Week Two!

Week 2 is over! This week the demolition continued! A wall came down and a subfloor was put in for the new mudroom. I picked out some furniture for the new spaces and bought a rug. I finalized the bathroom selections and bought a vanity. We settled on the equipment for the media room and had our TVs taken down in the family and keeping room so the fireplaces can be replaced and worked on. Now that I have chosen the vanity, I might need to change the tile floor selection. It might be a bit too modern looking for the vanity. Back to the tile store--ugh!

They pulled up the hardwoods in the foyer and dining room:

They will have to pull up a few of the boards on the left hand side of this picture to ensure that when the new hardwoods are laid that it will look like it was always there. Otherwise there would be a line of hardwood on at the doorway. There is some tool that allows them to just take one board out at a time.

We are going to put this refrigerator in our garage and give our existing refrigerator away. They are going to have to wait until they have more people to move it. They weigh a lot!! They will have to brace it into the wall in the garage. 

We decided to add a mudroom on to the garage space a month before the renovation started. As I saw the pile of shoes outside of my half bathroom I had a flash of what was to come as the kids got older. I told Steven that this might be my favorite part of the renovation--haha! They took down the wall between the house and the garage and it was so exciting to see what it will be like when it is opened up. They built the subfloor and will put fake walls up so I can see what it will be like with the built ins. We are hoping to reuse our 3 foot door that we already had there, but we might have to have a smaller door. Our project manager told us that it is nice to have 2 3ft doors in the house for moving furniture and big items in and out of the house. I had never thought about that before. 

Here are the before pictures of the door leading into the house from the garage:

Here are the pictures from this week:

Our neighbors went and snapped this pictures for us-can you spy Dean sticking his head out? haha

This is where the door will go. We will have new stairs built, but they put the old ones up for now.

This is how you will enter into the new space

Here are some more demo pictures from the week!

I assume this is for the pipes that will go in the bathroom above this space

The TV is down and the wall is open so we can vent the new fireplace going here. 

They were able to pull the surrounds off from the fireplace and we will reuse them downstairs

two of the spindles were removed. 

Holes in the ceiling opened up

I had originally picked out a bronze finish for the faucets for the new bathroom. but when I picked the vanity I changed it to a statin nickel to match the vanity pulls. I had a hard time picking a vanity because it has to be small (biggest it could be is 27") but wanted some storage in it. I found this one at Pottery Barn and was able to get it 25% off during their buy more, save more sale! I also bought a rug at the same time for the keeping room. I also picked out a toilet and bathtub. Exciting times....

So except the tile and lighting, I am done picking things out for the bathroom!

I also semi-finalized the appliances for the kitchen. A friend made the suggestion of changing our microwave to a microwave/convection oven. Her kids are a bit older than ours and said the older ones can make pizza or chicken nuggets in the oven and since it is on a timer and will turn itself off, she is comfortable allowing them to do it alone. What a great piece of advice! I have to find a 15" kegerator for the media room wet bar, but other than that, we are done with that!

The HVAC guy got to spend some time at our house this week. One our downstairs heating unit blower went bad. I felt so bad for the guys since it was in the 20's all week. But it got fixed and the house feels much better now! We decided we wanted to put the media room on it's own system so the sound doesn't travel down the air shafts and into the kids rooms. I would hate to spend a ton of money doing a bunch of sound proofing and then it is funneling into their vents while we are watching movies after bedtime. We had three choices: 1. a unit on the wall 2. a unit in the ceiling 3. a heat pump for that room. 

At first I wanted the heat pump because i thought it would look the best, but there are some issues with that-including the room is not big enough for that unit so we'd have to add other rooms to it, which would be unnecessary. also, i'd still have to have a big return in the ceiling. So we decided to go with the unit in the ceiling. I did not want a unit on the wall since it would be very noticeable. Steven had just put on in on another job so I was able to go by and see and hear how quiet it is. I could hardly hear it blowing. We are hoping to paint it so it will blend in better with the ceiling. 

                                                

                                               

I picked out some new furniture for the keeping room, and the new foyer space. I bought a rug for our bedroom and for the keeping room. I am going to order a sofa for the keeping room and the family room next month. I am planning on wallpapering the back of the 2 built ins in the family room to give it some interest and make the room seem bigger by pulling those spaces into the middle of the room seating area. I bought pillows for the family room sofas and the keeping room. Pink in the family room and a dark purple in the keeping room. 

I fell in love with this horse head. We haven't named him yet and I'm not sure where he will go, but somewhere in the house!

Week two has come to a quick end with a big snow storm coming. The framers were suppose to come on Friday, but doubt they will make it because of the weather. I am excited to see what they accomplish next week! 

A funny thing happened at our townhouse: I was putting the trashcans back in the garage and I went to open the garage and it wouldn't open. Well, the trashcan got caught on the latch on the outside of the garage. Kind of a weird story how it happened....but here's a picture of it hanging in the air.  I just hope no one saw me open and close the garage door 5 times trying to figure out why it wouldn't open all the way.  Then watch me come out, see it, go back in, grab my phone to take a picture, go back in to hit the button, go out take the trash can off the door, go back in to open the garage, put the trash can in the garage, then shut the door. It was a 10 minute experience. I felt like an idiot.... 

Enjoy the snow!!!!

What's involved in our Project?

I've been asked a couple times what is exactly in our project. This question mostly gets asked by B. He hasn't even met Steven..what a trusting husband I have!

-Whole new kitchen. Everything is being replaced except our wall oven (new cabinets, countertops)

-New appliances:
Kitchen: Refrigerator, 2 new dishwashers, Range with Oven, Beverage fridge, ice maker, 2 sinks, 2 faucets and microwave.
Media room wet bar: dishwasher, kegerator, beverage fridge, sink, faucet

-Moving our dining room to the existing living room space and pushing the kitchen into the dining room

-creating a walk in pantry with office area in it, expanding the foyer into the dining room space

-replacing the staircase banister and spindles

-replacing the runner on the front stairs

-replacing the hardwood floors in the dining room and foyer to get rid of the cherry inlay and the different direction of some of the hardwood.

-refinish all of the hardwood on the 1st floor, front staircase and upstairs hallway

-build a media room where there was an open space in the 2 story family room

-new media room system-sound, lights

-build a full bath upstairs in the 2 story family room space

-build a wet bar in the media room

-move the closet in L's playroom off of his bedroom to make it more usable. Take down the wall of the existing closet

-replace the fireplaces in the family room and basement. Change the surrounds of the keeping room and family room fireplaces. Build new mantle in the family room

-Replace the ceiling in the keeping room with white shiplap

-Change the keeping room door to the porch to a window to match the 2 next to it

-paint the medallion in the foyer to match ceiling

-build mudroom off of the garage

-replace the carpet on the back stairs

-build laundry shoot from L's room to laundry room (if possible)

-add separate HVAC for media room and L's playroom

-build coffered ceiling in the family room

-take out the middle built-in in the family room

-change all of the door handles and hinges in the entire house

-Lighting: Can lights in the keeping room, change out the ceiling fan to a white one, replace and move the kitchen light to be centered over new table, can lights in kitchen, pendants over the island, lighting in the pantry/office, sconces in the new foyer area, replace existing lights in upstairs hallway with can lights, wire new dining room for light fixture, lights in the media room, lighting in new bathroom, new closet lights

We were going to put a bedroom in the basement and a wall up in a guest room closet, but decided not to do those 2 projects.

It has certainly grown in the past 3 years!

Week one!

Hard to believe the renovation is here and week one is almost done!

This week they took out all the cabinets, appliances, granite, took out the drywall and ceiling in the kitchen and part of the dining room that will now be part of the kitchen. Took down drywall in the basement to expose the supports to tie the load bearing wall in the kitchen into. Took down the drywall over the hallway in the family room. Removed the middle built in bookcase. Removed drywall over the windows we will be losing in the family room. Had lumber and support beams delivered. Ordered materials for the new mudroom. Picked out new railings and pickets for the front stair case with matching for the back staircase.

I finalized cabinets for the kitchen, media room wet bar, and office. Picked out 2 new fireplaces and 3 surrounds for the 3 fireplaces in the house. I will be checking on ordering a second family room couch now that we took the built in out in the family room we are going to add a couch to increase the seating from 5 to 8 in that room.

I am so happy with the work that Virginia Traditions is doing. Steven is amazing to work with and his guys are really nice and knowledgeable.

Last before shots on the morning of day 1: The calm before the drywall dust storm

porta potty truck greeting us as we drove away

Day 1:

Day 4:

In the basement

Basement beam they will tie weight into

middle built in is removed and room already feels bigger!

Day 5:

That's a lot of lumber!

This is where the new ceiling will hit the wall. The windows above the doors will be dry walled over. We will do a decorative piece on the outside.

The exposed ceiling will all be kitchen. The existing ceiling will be pantry and new foyer

In the basement

Looks so official!

Cabinets: 

We are doing white Cabinets in the kitchen. I had picked a plain shaker cabinet a while ago but changed the edge I wanted on our countertop and felt that a plain shaker would be too sleek looking to match the new edge. At first I liked the top one, but there were 2 issues. The way the cabinet is constructed it is not as strong as the other one and will separate at the corners. I could have it filled with putty but it would make me nuts and especially visible in white. The other issue, I was afraid I might get sick of the look. 

I decided on these cabinets but in Polar White (there are so many whites out there!) and will have different hardware. I felt that this looked better with the beaded inset of the cabinet itself. The door also has detail, but not too much. Still has the shaker look I wanted but not so sleek.

The office will be a Gray shaker cabinet. It will be a plain front, but I think the classic look will be a great piece in the pantry/office space. I plan to find a bright office chair to go with it. I forgot to snap a picture of that...

The bar in the media room was fun to pick out because it is only one cabinet. It is not a big bar and we have a dishwasher, beverage fridge, and kegerator to go up there. They will be shelves above to hold glasses and Movie snacks--movie candy anyone! I wanted something dark and gave some interest to the space. I decided on this cabinet and in this cherry color. I felt that it gave a masculine feel to it and would go with whatever decor we decide in that room.

Hard to believe so much work has happened in week 1! Can't wait to see what happens next week!