Disasterland . . .
No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.
Construction is a beyotch. I started this post at least a month ago. . .
Construction continues.
Construction is fattening . . . :-S
Construction is dusty. Oh yes, it was this bad . . .
I'm crazed.
Using the guest bathroom is way different than using my own bathroom.
Not having a functional kitchen for about three weeks was very difficult.
Haven't been to WW in two weeks. It won't be pretty when I go on Saturday. It's quite possible that I have undone all my progress, but it is what it is.
I haven't shared any progress photos since mid-February . . . I'm going to try to do some before/after stuff for you. Hold on to your hats this is a photo-heavy post :-)
You've seen the before on the basement - here are the after shots. It still looks very much like this because I haven't had the time to get down there and move things around.
The work down here consisted of an interior drain tile complete with new pit and sump pump, new glass block windows, a new door, floor cracks filled, floor stained and sealed, the walls painted and sealed and the blobby mortar removed from the fireplace (and it painted and sealed). The majority of this work is what my cousn, ME, called "physical plant" work. The stuff you have to do so the house doesn't fall down around you. Most of it was stuff that the previous owners should have done. But they didn't. What it all means, is that my basement will never be wet again, and the foundation of my house is now stable again, which means I should not have "settling" cracks upstairs ever again.
Once this stuff was done, construction moved upstairs to my kitchen . . .This was my mid-80s white Euro kitchen.
This is my kitchen now.
Granite countertop, new cooktop, new cabinet pulls new sink, a faucet that I'm in love with, and backsplash that's so hot that I can't even tell you . . . Yes, I lost my pot rack - apparently I was the only person who ever liked it. And all the ceiling lighting is now mini spots. And I lost my ceiling fan, but since I think I turned it on maybe once in 11 years, it was no great loss and the ReStore was happy to have it. The big fluorescent upper tubes are gone, replaced with puck lights above and below. There is one missing in the corner where the corner cabinet used to be. Here is a closeup of the sink:
I have a rack now for the bottom of the sink. I originally wanted a farmhouse style sink, but the only way for me to have done that would have been to get all new cabinets . . . um . . . no. This is pretty much the same thing, just an undermount that doesn't come all the way forward.
And this is the granite. It's absolutely gorgeous but difficult to photograph well. The blue eyes look like labradorite :-)
So the kitchen is nearly done - just bits and pieces left, like the puck light and some work on the pocket door.
Here's my former yellow bathroom - original to the house, if I'm not mistaken, circa 1961 . . .
Kinda hard to photograph well. The vanity was quite low - made for a really short person, I guess. When I bought the house 11 years ago, one of my cousins dubbed this the Star Trek bathroom because it was completely wallpapered - walls and ceiling (yes, really) - in silver metallic. Ugh.
Here's how it looked after the demolition . . .
Here was the second linen closet in the hall:
Yeah, that's gone . . .
And so is my former bathroom door . . . that's a new pocket door.
The bathroom is still in progress. A couple of days ago, it looked like this:
And today, the ceiling and picture frame tile went in:
It's kinda so gorgeous I can hardly stand it :-D
One other wonderful thing that happened during these crazy weeks, was that my long-time suspicion about my hall floor was proven to be correct: Some moron had tiled over the existing hardwood . . .It was still under there, stained dark walnut (who DOES that to Red Oak?!) not much the worse for having had subfloor stapled and some concrete actually poured on it . . .
Discovered some old entryway tile under there, too . . .
Yeah, that's gone.
Here's the floor after sanding and one coat - they will finish it next week when the bathroom is finished. It's very close to the floors I had done 11 years ago.
They couldn't get all the concrete off without ruining the wood. I think it just gives it more character, myself. It's really, really gorgeous.
So - my guest room has been looking like this with all the stuff from the hall linen closet and some of the stuff from the bathroom.
And my living room is looking like this with all the stuff from the front hall closet:
Are you still with me??? Told ya, lotta photos . . .
The only oasis of calm in all this crazy has been my sunroom, and I'm having work done in there, as well. This is the room where I spend most of my time, and for those of you who have actually physically been in the sunroom, you know that it's usually full of creative crap. Projects everywhere, baskets of fiber and magazines and what have you. Well, I had to get everything out of it, so now it looks kinda like this. I say kinda, because I've moved the tables around.
The sofa is shoved over to make room for what the guys are working on in there, but OMG I cannot tell you how calm and serene and peaceful it is without crap everywhere. I'm going to do my best to keep it like this from now on.
Here is my built-in, built, again, in the mid-80s when everyone had a square telly . . .
Construction is a beyotch. I started this post at least a month ago. . .
Construction continues.
Construction is fattening . . . :-S
Construction is dusty. Oh yes, it was this bad . . .
Stuff is everywhere.
I'm crazed.
Using the guest bathroom is way different than using my own bathroom.
Not having a functional kitchen for about three weeks was very difficult.
Haven't been to WW in two weeks. It won't be pretty when I go on Saturday. It's quite possible that I have undone all my progress, but it is what it is.
I haven't shared any progress photos since mid-February . . . I'm going to try to do some before/after stuff for you. Hold on to your hats this is a photo-heavy post :-)
You've seen the before on the basement - here are the after shots. It still looks very much like this because I haven't had the time to get down there and move things around.
The work down here consisted of an interior drain tile complete with new pit and sump pump, new glass block windows, a new door, floor cracks filled, floor stained and sealed, the walls painted and sealed and the blobby mortar removed from the fireplace (and it painted and sealed). The majority of this work is what my cousn, ME, called "physical plant" work. The stuff you have to do so the house doesn't fall down around you. Most of it was stuff that the previous owners should have done. But they didn't. What it all means, is that my basement will never be wet again, and the foundation of my house is now stable again, which means I should not have "settling" cracks upstairs ever again.
Once this stuff was done, construction moved upstairs to my kitchen . . .This was my mid-80s white Euro kitchen.
This is my kitchen now.
Granite countertop, new cooktop, new cabinet pulls new sink, a faucet that I'm in love with, and backsplash that's so hot that I can't even tell you . . . Yes, I lost my pot rack - apparently I was the only person who ever liked it. And all the ceiling lighting is now mini spots. And I lost my ceiling fan, but since I think I turned it on maybe once in 11 years, it was no great loss and the ReStore was happy to have it. The big fluorescent upper tubes are gone, replaced with puck lights above and below. There is one missing in the corner where the corner cabinet used to be. Here is a closeup of the sink:
I have a rack now for the bottom of the sink. I originally wanted a farmhouse style sink, but the only way for me to have done that would have been to get all new cabinets . . . um . . . no. This is pretty much the same thing, just an undermount that doesn't come all the way forward.
And this is the granite. It's absolutely gorgeous but difficult to photograph well. The blue eyes look like labradorite :-)
So the kitchen is nearly done - just bits and pieces left, like the puck light and some work on the pocket door.
Here's my former yellow bathroom - original to the house, if I'm not mistaken, circa 1961 . . .
Here's how it looked after the demolition . . .
Here was the second linen closet in the hall:
Yeah, that's gone . . .
And so is my former bathroom door . . . that's a new pocket door.
The bathroom is still in progress. A couple of days ago, it looked like this:
And today, the ceiling and picture frame tile went in:
It's kinda so gorgeous I can hardly stand it :-D
One other wonderful thing that happened during these crazy weeks, was that my long-time suspicion about my hall floor was proven to be correct: Some moron had tiled over the existing hardwood . . .It was still under there, stained dark walnut (who DOES that to Red Oak?!) not much the worse for having had subfloor stapled and some concrete actually poured on it . . .
Discovered some old entryway tile under there, too . . .
Here's the floor after sanding and one coat - they will finish it next week when the bathroom is finished. It's very close to the floors I had done 11 years ago.
They couldn't get all the concrete off without ruining the wood. I think it just gives it more character, myself. It's really, really gorgeous.
So - my guest room has been looking like this with all the stuff from the hall linen closet and some of the stuff from the bathroom.
And my living room is looking like this with all the stuff from the front hall closet:
The only oasis of calm in all this crazy has been my sunroom, and I'm having work done in there, as well. This is the room where I spend most of my time, and for those of you who have actually physically been in the sunroom, you know that it's usually full of creative crap. Projects everywhere, baskets of fiber and magazines and what have you. Well, I had to get everything out of it, so now it looks kinda like this. I say kinda, because I've moved the tables around.
The sofa is shoved over to make room for what the guys are working on in there, but OMG I cannot tell you how calm and serene and peaceful it is without crap everywhere. I'm going to do my best to keep it like this from now on.
Here is my built-in, built, again, in the mid-80s when everyone had a square telly . . .
y
Yes, I got all the CDs and DVDs and LPs out. And I cleared the wet bar, and the cabinet and the two drawers. Today, it looks like this:
Just waiting on its next coat of mud (probably two or three more coats, actually), and the new cabinets :-)
So that's the update from The Third Coast this evening.
I'm hanging in . . .
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