The last 6 weeks

So, somewhat ironically, the reason I have not been able to post any updates is because I have been so busy working on the house.  But after a few threats from a few certain family members, to remain unnamed, I've decided to sit down in my exhaustion and add pics to the blog.  Five weeks ago, my husband had back surgery for a ruptured disc.  So, he has not been able to help with the house until this past week.  That being said, we are a little behind schedule, but still going to make it in the house by the end of the month, so that will do.  Lets see if I can even remember everything we have done since the last post.

Week 5, I finished painting the bedrooms and spent 2 days moving 2000 square feet of flooring from the garage, into the house.  No need to go to the gym that week.

Week 6, my father-in-law came over to help me build the wall dividing the old dining room (now playroom) from the new dining room.  Creating a fourth bedroom in the house (the playroom).  He also helped me remove part of a load bearing wall, to create a doorway going from the new dining room to the living room.  We had to build some temporary walls to hold the weight until we can put in the beam going across the top of the doorway.  I also finished removing all wallpaper from the playroom walls and painted the room.

Week 7, I painted the fireplace.  The kitchen cabinets are going to be a taupe color, so I painted the fireplace a lighter shade to match.  This week, I also used my new jamb saw to cut all door trim and baseboards so that the flooring will slide underneath without us having to take them all down.  My father-in-law came back this week to help me put the beam in the doorway and take down the temporary walls.

Week 8, an awesome friend came over to help install the flooring in my daughter's room.  The next day a bunch of guys from our amazing church came over to help.  We knocked out the flooring in 3 rooms in just one night! That helped so much.

Week 9, my father-in-law and I installed the flooring in the new dining room.  I finished the flooring in the master bedroom closet and the boys closet, then started on the hallway flooring.  Meanwhile, we decided to hire out the electrical with my husband still being out with his back surgery.

Week 10, electrical is done.  We now have all working lights and outlets, which makes things so much easier.  I began painting all of the trim and doors in the living room and hallways, white.  Once again, a great friend came over and spent her night helping.  Finally, my husband is feeling better and has begun working on the house again.  He did the plumbing for our kitchen and took out the existing windows in the kitchen so that we can install shorter windows.  For those of you getting upset with us for taking out those huge awesome windows, settle down.  We had to do it to be able to fit cabinets all around the kitchen.  He also relocated some duct work in a few different walls.  And now we have begun installing cabinets.  It is actually starting to look like a house now.  We are getting so close!

 Just wanted to add a picture of this cute little helper.  Hope he likes remodeling, because I see lots of it in his future.  :)

Single Tree Way House: Weeks 3&4

In the last two weeks we have been finishing up the demo and have begun putting the house back together.  I was out of town for all of week 3, so this left Brandon to do all of the work.

Week 3:
Since we are homeschooling right now, and not tied down to a school schedule, the kids and I were able to take the week off and go visit my family.  Brandon, however, stayed here to work and also did some work on the house.  While I was gone, he was supposed to work on electrical and plumbing in the kitchen.  Instead, he decided to take down the walls and put up beams by himself.  It looks great and he did a great job.  I'm not sure how he was able to do it all by himself,  but I don't think it was very good for his back.  He also took down the drywall between the front living room and back living room.

 




Week 4:
Now back from our little trip, it's time to get back to work.  I spent the week finishing up cleaning the floors.  This involves getting the carpet tack strips up from all around the edges of each room,  pulling up all of the staples from the carpet pads, and sweeping and vacuuming all of the debris from the floors.  I do all of these things to get the house ready to lay our new floors.  It also makes it safer for the kids to walk around the house.  This is the part of the job that is monotonous and seems never ending. I have discovered this time around that the large crowbar is my favorite tool when it comes to tack strip and staple removal.  Also this week, I painted two rooms and started working on wallpaper glue removal.  The wallpaper came off very easily, but the  glue is not.  I know what I'll be doing next week.

 

Single Tree Way House: Weeks 1&2

Demo Time!

One of my favorite parts of renovating a house is Demo day.  The first day that we get to go in there with a sledge hammer, razor blade and screw driver and start knocking down drywall, pulling up carpet, and taking down cabinets.  This part is fun.  This is the easy part (unless you are trying to save the cabinets, then it's not as much fun...ask my husband).  This is the first step of the renovation where the house begins to slowly transform from someone else's home, into ours.

In the first week, we ripped up the carpet.  This house was FULL of carpet.  And when I say carpet, I'm not talking about the thinner, lower cut carpet you see a lot of today. No, I'm talking about shag carpet.  If you have ever tried to cut shag carpet with a razor blade, then you will understand.  This stuff is about 2 inches thick. Okay, maybe not that thick, but it sure seems that way.  And once rolled up, it weighs a ton.  (and that is not an exaggeration)  Also during the first week, the kids and I starting pulling down wall paper.  Once again, LOTS of wallpaper.  The ceiling in the kitchen was covered in wallpaper.  Most of it came off in full sheets.  The kids had a blast pulling it down.  (free labor)

 

In the second week, we started tearing down walls.  We are taking out two of the kitchen walls and part of the wall separating the front living room and the back living room.  In order to tear these walls down, we had to move appliances and cabinets.  The original plan was to save the cabinets and use some for ourselves and sell the rest.  The plan was going smoothly until it came time to take down the upper cabinets.  Lets just say, there are no more upper cabinets to speak of.  (the sledge hammer came in handy here) We ripped down the drywall, opening up the kitchen to the living room, making the house feel so much bigger.

 
 
So far, so good.  I am just very happy not to be living in the mess this time.  (We are living in a totally different kind of mess)

The Eagleridge House

One of our favorite houses that we've lived in was our Eagleridge House.  It was in West Chester, Ohio.  It was built in 1987, and was a 3200 square foot house with a finished basement and two stories.  One of the negatives being that the laundry was in the basement and the bedrooms were all on the second floor! This house had a swimming pool when we moved in, but did not last long.  We had it pushed in a few months later.  The exterior was faux stucco and cedar trim, both of which were rotting.  We changed the exterior to fiber cement siding and new windows.  Inside the house, we replaced all of the flooring and remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms.  We switched the kitchen and dining room to make a more practical, open floor plan.  This was also the house that was on the DIY show, Renovation Realities.  That made for a very interesting week of remodeling with cameras in our faces and people watching everything we did, waiting for us to mess up so they can air it on national TV.  Remodeling this house, and even just living in this house, was all a blur.  It was a crazy 18 months, but worth every minute.

Here is the after picture of the exterior

Here is the before picture of the exterior

Before backyard

After backyard

Before front living room

After man living room

Before kitchen

After, now dining room

Before dining room

After, now kitchen

more kitchen

more kitchen

Before living room

After living room

After living room looking into dining room

Before loft area

After loft area

Before Fisher's room

After Fisher's room

Before Ella's room

After Ella's room

Ella's room

Before Beckett's room

After Beckett's Room

Before kid's bath

After kids' bath

Before Master bath tub

After master bath tub

Before master bath

After master bath

Before master bedroom

After master bedroom

Before half bath

After half bath

Before basement

After basement

Before basement bath

After basement bath

Can't find the before picture, but this used to be the cramped laundry room.  We turned it into a drop zone for the kids backpacks and jackets.