Hawkins Homerama Est. 2013

WEEK 7: Getting So Close.... The good news for this week of work is that we have walls... the bad news is they just aren't put up yet. All of the new material got delivered on Friday so Randy and his crew are set to start first thing Monday morning. YEAH!! They are scheduled to be done in a few days. SO take all of the mental pictures you can in your head because this will be the last time you get to see the house all torn up!  This week things have really started to come together and you can start to actually see somewhat of a house again. We have started to be able to remove of the 'junk' laying around the house, like tools, boxes, things we need during the demo phase. I always say an organized home is a happy home.   Stacks of 8' sheets   Stacks of 12' sheets I spent my time this week covering our hardwood floors with cardboard to keep them protected while the guys drywall. If any drywall mug gets dropped on the floors you have to go back and scrap the

Week 6: Bathroom Surprise! Hi everyone! This week's blog starts off on a complete high note..... that beautiful pink tile in the hall bath, you remember? Well it has finally decided to retire. Yup! pink tile is no more and honestly it was a little bittersweet to see it go. I had a tile guy come out and give us some estimates on painting the pink but when we ran the numbers starting from scratch just made more sense. So we did some crunching in other parts of the budget and we are going full steam ahead..... even if we have to have Ramon noodles for dinner this next month ;) I will probably kick myself down the road for saying this to the world wide web but shopping is exhausting. This week I selected all of the tile (kitchen floor & back splash, hall bath floors, walls and tub and the master bath floor & shower). I still need to find some accent pieces for the kitchen back splash because of course the tile I am obsessing over is $50 for a 6x6 square. Woof. That obvious

WEEK 5: All the Guts & Glory So this week started and I have to admit that I wasn't too thrilled for the work's line up. However today I learned it is the little things in the life that give the best surprises! Week 5 was all about the roofing, plumbing, electrical & mechanics. Not fun stuff but oh the most important. You have got to get all the guts working right and most efficient so your house can stand the test of time. Exterior: Thankfully the exterior of the house and the yard was in fairly decent shape. The landscaping was kept up and the windows were new. And even better the roof was in good shape too, a few pop ups that needed some fixing but all in all it was good. We knew from our inspection that the attic needed some new vents and some more insulation because it was hotter than hell up there. My brother Eric and cousin Jon Michael with Joseph S. Bowling came in and did their magic. 2 new ridges were installed to allow more are ventilation, new flashing

WEEK 4: HOLY WALLPAPER! This week started with a layer of wallpaper and continued with another layer and then another and then another and another. At first glance there were only a couple rooms that had it: kitchen, dining, hall bath and the master. Of course you only see the top and then you peel back flowers, stripes, Navajo patterns, swirls and even grass cloth. Yes grass cloth from way back when it was cool to have textured walls. Whoever said wallpaper is coming back in style needs to come visit the Hawkins Homerama. Word to the wise if you do choose to wallpaper in your household, pay it forward and don't wallpaper over wallpaper. Always start with a nice clean slate :) Matt and I along with the very much appreciated help of my mom and dad got all of the wallpaper down. Well at least the kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a layer or two in the master and dining until we had to make the decision to drywall over top of those 2 rooms. We tried water + fabric softener and a couple dif