We're Almost There!

The electrician has to come and put the lights on the outside of the house, and then the outside will be done! The tile guy will start the backsplash on Tuesday, and hopefully I will have a kitchen for Christmas. Tim will be replacing the trim around the openings to the foyer and the dining room with white trim, and all the baseboards will be white as well, so there is still some work to be done, but we see the end in sight! On the outside of the house we are planning to have columns built and stone put around them, and hopefully extend the porch out a bit, but we didn't like the contractor's plan for it, so we will be looking into that in the spring.

On Monday the granite will go in and the stove and island should be in place then too!

The refrigerator panel is coming on Monday, and the microwave will be built in to that space. The stove is still in the middle of the floor! The masking tape hanging from the light fixture is there because one of the cabinet guys kept hitting his head on it!

Here is a pantry where the desk used to be. The wood floor has to be fixed and the whole thing will be sanded and refinished in January - can't wait for that smell!

The kitchen is still a work in progress, but we are getting there!

Here's a close-up of the stone. The hole in the siding above the stone is where one of the outside lights go. We bought new lights for the exterior, but the electrician has not come to install them yet.

The stone is finally in!

The stone guys made a tent and used heaters in order to put the stone in during the cold weather.

Progress

Here is the front of the house when they were getting the scaffolding set up. They have started to put the siding up on the front now, but I will have to post a picture of that next time since I haven't taken one yet!

It's difficult to tell from this picture, but all of the cabinetry is out now. We have made all of our final decisions regarding stain color, cabinet hardware, etc. so now we just have to sit back and watch it all come to fruition.

Here is a picture of the east side of the house. We had the gables and the windows all trimmed in white. That's Lindsay's room with the windows open - fortunately she was teaching while they were painting!

The painters were here painting the insides of the new windows. It was in the low 20's outside and they had the windows open a crack. I can't wait to see our next heating bill!

Three sides of the house are now complete! The back and both sides are done, and they are now working on the front. It will look a little better when they get all their stuff out from under the deck!

Remodeling the exterior and the kitchen, a.k.a. Chaos

(Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the post and read up)
The living room with the vent hood liner for the kitchen in front of the window!

The contents of the kitchen cabinets are now in the dining room

The contents of the desk in the kitchen are now on the kitchen table.

The demolition has begun! Today the desk and upper cabinet, the pantry and the cabinet and counter next to the refrigerator were removed along with all of the upper cabinets.

Progress!

The roof gables are all being trimmed in white also.

The windows and doors are all being trimmed in white, and we bought a new garage service door which will have to wait to be painted until spring!

The exterior remodel is moving along, but they are still not even half way there. One side of the house is complete, and they are working on the back. The front and the side facing East are still only covered with the Hardie wrap.

I forgot to take any "before" pictures before the new windows were put in, but otherwise nothing has changed.

The kitchen demolition started today so I thought I'd post some before pictures.

They're here!

Just as I posted the pictures to the blog the siders drove up and I think they are going to do some work! Yahoo! By the way, the kitchen demolition starts on Friday, so I will put up some pictures of that when it happens.

The Remodel Continues...

The last bit of blue left on the house are the downspouts for the gutters. They are either going to be replaced or painted to match the siding color, but it will be awhile until they get to that.

Here is the siding that would be being put on the house if the siders were here working, but they aren't! Next to it is the beautiful blue dumpster which needs to be emptied, but maybe the dumpster people don't work in the rain either.

This is where the siders would be standing and cutting siding if they were here today, but they aren't. It rained early this morning, and I guess they don't work in the rain. It's not raining now.

They also did this yesterday. Don't worry about the white areas on the siding - it's cement dust from when they cut the siding pieces, and it will wash off.

Yesterday the basement windows were trimmed and the siding was started. They spent 9 hours working on it yesterday with the exception of a lunch break, so I think it is going to take awhile to get the entire house sided!

In case you were wondering... this is what it says ALL OVER THE HOUSE. They should pay us an advertising fee!

Here the cabinets are down, and the window casing is on. The windows are primed, but the painter has to come and enamel them and the casings - he isn't scheduled to show up until next week.

The window was put in over the sink in the kitchen, but the cabinets around it had to come down in order to put the casing on.

The siding and the brick are all off the house now, and all of the windows have been replaced. The octagonal window is gone and framed in and sheathed over, and the rails are down on the porch.

Exterior remodel

Day 3 - the sheathing required some repair so that was done, and then the octagonal window to the right of the front door was removed. It was then reframed and sheathed . The brick under the first floor front window was also removed and the sheathing was covered in plastic. On Monday the front windows will be removed and replaced and they will continue to remove the siding from the rest of the house.

Day 2 - the brick was removed from the sides of the garage, and the siding was removed from the garage stalls and the second floor of the front of the house, and then the house wrap was put on. They covered over Rachel's window because they knew she was away at school.

Day One - the dumpster wasn't ordered on time so it didn't arrive until late afternoon, and not much work was done because of it. The exterior lights on the garage and next to the front door were removed.

Before the remodeling (taken this summer)

Farewell to the Blue Bomber

Goodbye, old faithful!

After almost 16 years of faithful service we decided it was time to say goodbye to the Blue Bomber, which we bought when Rachel was 3 1/2 years old! We donated it to the Vietnam veterans, and the guy who came to pick it up said it was in really good condition and should make some money at auction for the vets! Lindsay used the car the most in recent years, so I took some pictures of her saying goodbye! We realized when we were feeling sentimental about donating the car that we were making the right decision staying in this house and remodeling. The remodel of the exterior of the house and the kitchen should start the first week of November so stay tuned. I will be posting before, during and after pictures if you are interested.