Day 4: The Remodel Continues

Hi there! 

Welcome to day 4 of "The Remodel." By day three I was definitely feeling like I was never EVER going to do anything like this again. Hanging cabinets, with just two people, most days, was not fun. Then came the worry about whether or not we were going to get the carpet in the living room up in time. After all, we didn't even have the room cleared out, let alone totally packed up, yet. So much to do in one day. I was losing my motivation...and my hope.

Que my wonderful sister. When she found out that we were changing our floors,she asked what we were going to do with all of our carpet. It was not old, at all, and we like to save as much 'moolah' as possible on these types of things. Plus, I abhor the thought of all that carpet and padding going to a landfill. So it was a win-win. She needed carpet for her daughters bedroom and other projects, and I need to be as environmentally conscious as I could. Speaking of being environmentally friendly, remember how I said in my first post that we were going to donate our cabinets and counters? Well, we still are, but amazingly, our neighbor stopped by with his dad from out of town who was visiting for our Harvest Fest, and wanted some of them. He took some to make a work station out of in his work shop. I had just put them on my "curb" like I said and, viola! Works every time. We will keep the three cabinets that fit above the stove, fridge and microwave for some other projects we want to do, and donate all the rest.

So, why was I having those feelings of regret about ever doing a remodel again? Ugh...yesterday, the day before and last night was exhausting. No joke. For a minute I was worried that all my lovey-dovey Facebook posts about how well Noah and I were getting along and how cordial and compatible we are was jinxing us. It seemed like a ridiculous amount of work was needing to happen...laying in wait. To destroy us and prove us wrong.

Well, it was tough, tiring, maddening at times, but we pulled it off. It smoothed out before we knew it. Luckily. Thankfully. And I am SO grateful. Follow along below for a pictorial play-by-play of the last couple of days...

These are our old cabinets. Custom made in 1989. I know this because when we were carrying one of them out it was stamped "Inspector 12 1989." Solid wood doors, heavy MDF shells. That is our sad attempt at lightening up the kitchen by painting the uppers. We never got around to painting the lowers because we knew that someday we would be replacing them. It just happened to take y-e-a-r-s.

Cabinets all down on the one side! Boy, were they heavy!

Our first cabinet is up! Whew! So far, we are getting along fabulously! Team Stein, all the way! And it wasn't really hard at all...

Second corner cabinet up, and it's partner. Not too bad. Except...why is it so hard to find the studs in these walls? A stud finder? Useless. While I was pretty confused and a little mad that they cut out the drywall behind the sink base before install (why...?) and replaced it with plastic instead of green drywall, I became totally ok with it when I was able to find the studs and measure over the 16" to find the next ones for the screws. Now, why didn't they do that when they put those up in '89? Because the didn't. Not all of the screws were in studs. A majority were in drywall. Then, they just screwed the cabinets together. Sometimes they put screws on top of screws. Noah had a real good time getting those out...

All during the daylight hours yesterday we hung most of the upper cabinets. MOST. (This pic is actually from today because last night I would have thrown the camera). It was nothing like the show "Renovation Realities", at all! Not snapping at me to "hold it straight!" or me yelling at him to "hurry up!" It was more like "I got it, Babe. You just do your tool man thing" and him asking "You got it, Love?" and "You alright, Love?" Then we had to run to the home improvement store because three cabinets were wrong. And we needed three right cabinets. And a fourth one that wasn't even there. Plus some green drywall, plywood, screws, shims, knee pads (for my date with the 500 staples in the living room) and I think that was it. Then it was back home to put the remaining cabinets up, pull staples and tack strip, rip up the damaged floor that we thought had black mold (it didn't!!!), fix said floor, put up drywall...oh yeah, and eat an egg salad sandwich because I hadn't eaten all day. It was 7:30...

Well, we got most of the cabinets up. We couldn't get the one next to the fridge or above the fridge up. We were literally so exhausted neither of us could keep it held up. By now it was 9:00. Noah had the plywood cut at the lumber department so all he had to do was cut out the section and screw in the wood. While he did that, I took to the staples. Fun. Do any of you have a dog? Our dog will be 11 in February. She doesn't know this. To her, she is 2. She acts like a two year old; puppy and human child. I couldn't get anything done without appeasing her first. I had to get her bed out, give her a rawhide bone to occupy her. Get her a 'baby'. She had to know what I was doing at ALL TIMES. I'm shocked she didn't get a staple in her foot. I swept as I went. I was exhausted just from her...

We did as much as we could and finally called it quits at 11:30, took our showers, and decided sleep was well deserved. We got to bed at 12:30 with the plan to get up at 6;30. The floor installers were coming in the morning and we had to finish getting all the tack strip up, staples out, tons of stuff out of the foyer, kitchen and living room...this is where the regret started to creep in. How were we ever going to get this done? Were we going to be scolded when they showed up? Did we do enough prep work? The guy who came to measure for materials said to have the bottom cabinets in. Oops.

This is the floor before Noah ripped up the bad lauan and linoleum. We were terrified we would find black mold under there. But it was just dry rotted plywood. Easily fixed. And fix they did. We will take out the worst section of the floor and replace it with the 3/4 inch sheets they delivered, but the installer and his son got rid of the rest of the floor in a heart beat today. My absolute new BFF's.

Yuck.

Here's the living room floor, staples and all. Now, a very important story needs to be told here. Remember how I told you my sister was taking my carpet? Well, she brought my niece and nephew, their boyfriend and girlfriend, three male buddies and an extra girl over to pull up that carpet and pad. But, first, they cleared out my front room of the remaining furniture, boxes, this-and-that's, and even loaded some of our furniture into my brother-in-law's truck that we were borrowing to take to a climate controlled storage unit until we put the house back together. I have several precious antiques I will not part with, and they must stay safe! I am forever grateful to those kids! Wow... 

We did get up at 6:30/7:00 and dove right in to those staples and tack strip. Noah beat me, of course. When the installers showed up, there was no scolding. He was very laid back and said we hadn't needed to put in the lower cabinets, after all. The day went smooth, and they've done a great job, so far. They'll be back again tomorrow to finish up. 

My new art form I am discovering. I call it "construction is a dirty job."

Oh ma goodness. I have waited 10 years for this moment. These floors are the most beautiful thing. Laminate gets a bad rap sometimes. It used to look, and sound, cheap and hollow with really fake looking wood grain. But, as picky as I am, I totally approve of this. The handscraped look is just what I wanted, and the grain is beautiful. I didn't want to use hardwood, unless it was bamboo, and we just could not justify the expense. These are 10mm thick, the thickest you can get, I think. And they are wonderful. 

And Sophers loves them, too!


All-in-all, this had been a good experience. No bickering between the Hubs and I; we make a great team. Tyer, too. He's really been pitching in. We are all either getting over colds (me), fighting a lingering one (Noah) or just starting one (Tyler). I think we are doing a bang up job. I've waited so long for this, I can't believe it's actually happening!

Ok...gotta go! There's a lot of work to do...We still have to replace a bigger piece of the kitchen floor, put in the drywall for behind the sink, and who knows what else.

Oh! Before I forget...I bought a dishwasher today! Our first one! I am SO excited!!!

Thanks for sharing in this with me. Your comments and questions are always welcome, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Until next time

Nanette

The Remodel: Day One

Hi friends,

Well, today the floors, cabinets and counters are getting delivered. I'm (not-so-secretly) hoping to get a little sleep in this morning before they do. I worked last night and I am still recovering from the "cold-that-won't-quit." As the day to getting into the nitty gritty of it all in this kitchen grows ever nearer, so does our anxiety. Noah has taken out one cabinet.

One.

Now, I'm not criticizing him. All the cabinets are detached from the counter, just the sink is left to detach, and we do need to wait until the last moment to haul all of the cabinets and counters out or else we wouldn't have anything to set the beloved Krueg on, or fix anything to eat or drink, and we'll be without that convenience soon enough. My point is: he has only removed one cabinet, a base cabinet farthest from the sink, along the wall adjoining the back room. It has no water source anywhere near it. At all. And, yet, what he found back there behind the baseboard scares me to death. Que mystery track here...
Dun...
      Dun...
           Dun.....


Black mold.

Not a lot, and it was superficial enough for him to clean up himself with bleach and fans. We were told by a contractor that if it is not a large area we could test it with bleach by wiping it away and air drying it with fans (wearing a mask and gloves, of course). If the drywall stays "clear" and does not re-stain, then you are ok to proceed. If it does stain or appear to come back-call in a professional-STAT!

*Please note: we are not professionals. We are not giving you advice on removal of mold or any other hazardous material. Call your health department or local HAZMAT office if you have one. This is merely our experience, and we are not trying to "cut corners" to save money. Being safe should always come first. We got the advice of a professional, whether that advice was sound or not for us is our experience and I am just sharing that experience with you here. You, however, should always seek professional advice.

So, we have no idea where it came from. The 116 year old basement, maybe? If so, we are looking at a professional basement drying and waterproofing team along with mold removal. Can't wait to see how much that might run...First, we will move the stove and the other cabinets, one at a time and take a look behind the baseboards. It could have come from under the sink. There had been a leak under there when we bough the house. We had it inspected and nothing came back on the report, but the linoleum was tinged a slightly darker hue in front of the sink. Then a few years later we had another leak that we fixed, but could never afford to rip out all of the cabinets and floor and repair or replace any of that, as it would require a whole new floor, bottom cabinets and counter tops. Or, at least we never thought we could.

That's why I'm mostly writing about this remodel, now. If we had had the confidence to know that we could achieve whatever we put our minds to, we would have fixed some of the things that needed fixed and replaced years ago, before it got too far gone, costing us potentially more in the long run. If we had had the confidence in ourselves that we could manage a remodel like this, a little at a time, instead of becoming overwhelmed at the thought and instead  managing ourselves toward that goal, we could already be halfway there instead of living for nearly 10 years with the dream of a reno instead of the reality of one. I'm not saying we lived in shambles for 10 years. We put in new carpet, painted the whole inside of the house including changing out all of the trim to white, and cosmetically changed the bathroom a few years back, but that has all since become outdated to us. Now that we actually do have the money to do all the things we've dreamed, we are going to, especially if it helps us sell for top dollar later.

I am really hoping that this is not a major mold issue, because if it is, we must have a professional come in to contain it, and we would need to repair studs, joists and whatever else is affected by it. That is a cost I really do not want to have to cover.

Boy, I can't wait to dig into the bathroom...

Oh! The floors are here...gotta go!

YAY LOWES DELIVERY GUY!!

Hey, keep checking back for more, there will be a ton (I hope...IF I'm not run asunder by the weight of  "The Remodel" that is...Dun...Dun...Dun...)

Ok, well, I've got some work to do. Until tomorrow...

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Nanette

*Note: I received no endorsements from Lowes for anything said in this post

The "Long Awaited Remodel" : The Saga Begins....

Hello, everyone!

I know I have been away for a while again, but there is always so much going on in our lives, isn't there? I had so many things planned to get done before our 'whole house' remodel, but it sort of crept up on me and I didn't quite accomplish anything extra. 

But, we have been able to finally begin "THE REMODEL". We have waited almost ten years to really dig in to this house and get everything done that we want. I guess we were always waiting for the right moment. We really didn't want to go further into debt by taking out home equity loans, so we left much of the work that needed done to our own pocketbooks, or it just didn't get done at all. And that just didn't get us very far...

We had tons of excuses plans, though: 

"Let's wait for the tax return this year..." 

            "If we start budgeting now (January of 'whenever') we will have 'X' amount of money for this project or that upgrade."

        "THIS will be the year that we finally get it all done!"

But something else would inevitably come up, rear it's ugly head, and destroy all our home improvement dreams. Something unexpected would befall us, and...there goes the tax return from this year. Or a new necessity or bill suddenly arises, and there goes the budget. Time and time again this was our story. 

That, and the ever present doubt that it could ever "happen" for us. When you grow up with so little, watching your parents struggle your whole life, it plays a big part on whether or not you feel that you could be worthy, deserving, or even capable of receiving something so grand as a dream coming true; whatever that dream may be for you. Know what I'm talking about? 

Thought so...;)

So, when it finally came we were a little hesitant to really dig in. We sometimes get so afraid that if we want something too much, it will be taken away from us. That's how we used to live, anyway. Now we understand that things don't really work that way. You don't have to be afraid to dream. The only thing standing in your way is you. You can accomplish all you want if you really put your mind to it. I know you're probably tired of hearing stuff like this, especially when it's you who's 'down and out' and the speech is coming from someone who seems like they have no idea what you have been through, and like they've got it all together and they look like they haven't had a hardship a day in their lives...so how can they ever give you advice?!

I have felt this way a lot in my life. I never realized until I really started blogging that it is all just smoke and mirrors. I've read a few great bloggers out there who have shared this wonderfully vulnerable secret with the blogosphere. We're not all perfect. We don't have everything together. We clean and design around a mess to take pictures, and we're not swimming backstrokes in a large kidney shaped pool of money. 

Well, most of us aren't.

But a lot can be said for overcoming all of that and learning to deserve instead of fear; to feel worthy instead of worthless and hopeful instead of hopeless. It took a lot of time for me, but I did it. I deserve nice things. I deserve a serene space to live. But, I want it to inspire me to do good things. I always want to remember those who are less fortunate and work hard towards helping to work towards a solution to make the world a little nicer for everyone. It's important that we all feel gratitude for the blessings we are given and pay that forward any way we can. Because everyone else in this world deserves just as much as I do; just as much as you do.

Whew! That's an awful lot of talk just about a house remodel, huh? But it's not just that. It's about anything you have been longing for and too afraid to dream about coming true. For us, it was remodeling our house. We thought it would never get to happen. We still wonder at the process of it all. We still sort of drag our feet, just in case it "falls through" so we avoid getting disappointed. Well, that's not good enough anymore. I want this, I've planned for this and I've worked hard for this. I will have this, no one is going to take that away from us and we are ready to accept the challenge.

That being said, we're diving right in. 

Feet first...

Disclaimer: Don't try this at home. I don't recommend it. I didn't recommend it here, in my own home. (smh)

This picture (above) is my wonderful and agile husband of 12 years (17 all together). And I'd like many more of those years with him. Which is why I was appalled (and a little entertained) by his approach to removing these huge solid wood shelves in our kitchen.  They were there when we bought the house in 2005, and were probably put up in the late 80's/early 90's when they remodeled the house and put on the addition. They were screwed into the studs and one screw did NOT want to come lose. It's head was stripped, and it wasn't budging. I looked up and that man was grunting and mumbling under his breath (I won't tell you what he was saying). Don't worry, I admonished him, as I was capturing this moment. (I had to have something to show the ER Doc if we needed to explain any broken bones.) 

He survived and we ended up pulling the shelf off the wall, snapping the screw head clean off. Paint was also the culprit, but that one screw was holding the whole thing up there. As it came down, towards my head, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. 

Also not recommended: standing under said shelf and pulling down towards you with a lot of help from gravity. Thank goodness we're strong, and I have the reflexes of a Puma! No harm no foul, but rest assured...lesson learned!

The Beginning: Without having anywhere to go with all of our "stuff" we had to start where we could. Eager to get goin', Noah wanted to see what was lurking behind the wainscot in the breakfast nook of the kitchen. As we have lived and loved in this house, improving where we could over the years, we have found so many things that were going to be harder to fix than we thought, which has been a major contributor to our delay in getting anything done. We were just too afraid of what we would be getting ourselves into. I don't have a picture, but an example is this wainscot alone. Because the walls in the kitchen (the wall in the pic above was added in the addition) are not 'square', they could not bring the chair molding and bead board all the way to the door frame. On one side. The opposite side is square.
Of course it's square, it's the original back of the main house built 116 years ago. Furthermore, they cut the chair molding to fit over and around the window frame instead of under it properly.



(Hoo-Wee! Look at that lovely linoleum!)

Thank goodness, there was only a couple of 2x4's that they nailed the beaded board to. All easily removable and easy to patch and paint. We would have loved to salvage this obviously reclaimed bead board, and it is definitely one good thing they did when remodeling the first time, but it was quite damaged; not from the removal, but it was really used. So, off to the ReStore it went. We want to salvage, sell and donate as much as possible during this reno. I can't stand watching DIY shows where they tear into a perfectly decent kitchen and just sledge hammer and smash their way through the cabinets that could be removed carefully and donated to the local ReStore or Habitat for Humanity. Sell it even, or, in the case of our little town, list it in the free paper or just set it on your curb. Someone will come and get it for you! Keep these materials OUT of landfills. :)




Ok, now for the fun stuff. Here are the choices I've narrowed it down to for some of my finishes. For certain, for absolute sure, we are using the floors and the counters. The flooring is a hand scraped look laminate in roasted chestnut. The counters are Formica in the Ouro-Romano and will have the Ogee edges, (both found at Lowes). We are making this a very affordable remodel that will ensure that we will make our money back when we sell in 5-10 years.

So, the decision is for the back splash tile. There isn't a lot of wall space to cover so we will be able to splurge here. The real question is the color/texture. The white Moroccan tile above goes very well with everything. It really makes the counters pop. We definitely want to paint the bottom cabinets (uppers and lowers are coming unfinished) one of the two grey colors on the paint strip above. The problem is that I want our uppers to be a crisp white. We have a soffit above all of the uppers and that will get painted out and covered in a wainscot and crown to blend well with the cabinets.

The problem: Our trim is a little off white/creamy white called Fleecy. If we go with the White tile, it would be half as expensive, a little cleaner and more crisp, but we would have to re-paint out all of the trim. Throughout the whole house.

If we go with the marble chevron tile (which I ADORE), we can leave all of the trim alone, and just paint the upper cabinets and soffit trim Fleecy.

The problem: not much of one. Not even cost, really, even though this tile is twice as expensive as the first. We can stick to the exact same grey wall color and cabinet color, and this tile still goes with the counters, as it has just a hint of all the same shades of grey and browns in it. BUT...is it too "busy" for the counters? Is the chevron pattern and all the coloring in it too much?

I think we will get the walls painted, the floors in, the counters in, the bottom cabinets in and then hold up the tile to the counter and decide then. :/
(FYI: Appliances are all stainless, so that should not be a problem with the bright white issue)

What do you think? For my FB friends, I know I have already quizzed you tirelessly on this, and I had great feedback, but what about those of you out there in blogland? What do you think?





Some of you may be wondering "Why are you going so cheap?!" Or maybe you're not, because you would be doing the same things...

This is our reasoning behind our "little" major remodel:

Hardwood floors and granite or marble counters, though it is really very nice and would be lovely, are just too expensive and we really want to recoup our money when we sell. And we will sell. Eventually. If we were in our "forever home", we might very well get all the bells and whistles. Though, being who I am, I have a hard time with throwing away money on the material when I could be using it for something spiritual. And that is not an admonishing statement for anyone else; if you work hard you have the right to do whatever you want with your earnings. This just happens to be me: no better than anyone else, no worse. Also, we are doing the entire house. Bathroom, bedroom, craft room, laundry room, den. Furnishings, too, in most cases. Plus, many outdoor projects like a deck, patio, new driveway...it goes on. We want to make our budget stretch. Like I said, we've waited a really long time...

Anyway...
Though our neighborhood is great, we are all in moderately sized to quite large houses with a variety of historical homes of all different price points and want to ensure our best profit when we move on. Will hardwoods sell a house? Sure. Will Granite attract buyers? Absolutely. Will we be able to list our house at a price that reflects high end finishes? Not likely. And I'm just fine with these finishes, and putting the rest of my money elsewhere.

We have been waiting nearly ten years to start this and make our house a real home. Don't take that the wrong way...money and material things are not what makes a house a home. Family, love and great times has that job. But, I believe your environment should truly be your sanctuary and instill in you all the feelings you long for and need to live a serene and relaxed life--giving you refuge and rehabilitation from the outside world. A nice interior to your home, where you can surround yourself with the things that matter to you, will inspire you to live your best life. If you have inspiration all around you, in each of your spaces, imagine what you can accomplish.

That is our ultimate goal. We've waited so long for it. It isn't necessary to spend a bundle to accomplish this, either. No need to "Keep up with the Joneses". Comparisons will always get the best of you. Do what is right for you, your family and your pocketbook.

Remember...you're building a sanctuary, not regrets.

Thanks so much for reading, and please keep checking back for updates. The storage Pod gets delivered Monday (what a great Birthday gift for Noah!) and the majority of the work will start Sept 20th.

We can't wait!!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Nanette