Skip to main content

Week 8: And Then There Were Walls

And then there were walls..... you would think that Matt and I just hit the lottery. No more studs, holes, hot air, exposed insulation, this house is starting to turn into a home. The hangers for the drywall started on Tuesday and man is that some interesting work. Due to our lovely existing plaster we weren't able to remove it like typical dry wall sheets so we were left with a few holes in the walls and in the ceilings. In this situation they had to lay either1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" thick drywall to meet up flush with the existing then either mud those together or lay another layer of drywall over all of it. Both the bathrooms and kitchen/dining got the double layer treatment. The entry, hallway, new bedrooms and their closets had the single layer. The finishers came in on Thursday after the hangers were done and got through the first layer of mud that night. This stuff takes a day or so to dry before they can sand out and mud a second layer. Lucky for us since it is a holiday weekend they wont be back till Tuesday to finish the job. Like I have always said this construction/remodeling always takes longer than you think, ALWAYS.

So that brings me to my original timeline of 6-8 weeks for this remodel. 8 weeks from the day we got the keys would have been this weekend and the weekend I was fully convinced Matt and I would be living in our new happy home. Jokes on me haha. However we did add on several projects that were not in my original timeline of work so I guess you could say that if we didn't gut out the basements and all 3 bathrooms we probably would be moving but I am oh so glad we did it they way we did.

We got a few more deliveries again this week: our new kitchen sink & faucet, bath vanity lights, tp holders and towel bars. I also picked out new door knobs & deadbolts for all of the doors on the main floor. I went with a satin nickel finish on those to compliment the kitchen hardware and appliances. Now that was the fun shopping and then I had to do the not-so-fun shopping. I got the project of doing a walk through to calculate all of the electrical outlets, light switches, vent & register covers to replace. A word to the wise, always go through the house and make a list for these because you will never remember how many 1's and 2's switches even if you think you don't have that many because you do (I just realized I didn't get a cover for the outlet on the kitchen island). I also had to measure all of the vents because majority of them were not standard sizes. Make sure you remove your current covers and take the inside dimensions of the duct, both length and height, because that is how they are sold.

I shouldn't complain to much about my task of the week because Matt had the pleasure of working with my brother Aaron to cut down some trees and bushes. Thank you Aaron for all of your hard work!
 
We had a really pretty crepe myrtle on the side of the house that was unfortunately over grown up on the roof and gutters so it had to be taken down. The boys also cut back the magnolia tree on the other side of the house so we can actually now access the gate to the backyard from the driveway.

 Before: Over grown Magnolia & brush
 
 Before: Over grown Magnolia & brush
 
  After: Cleaned out
 
 After: Cleaned out

The second best part of the week was having our cable installed back in! We had our electrician drop all of the cable wires since Direct TV was going to charge out the wazoo but it still took the technician about 5 hours to wire up 4 rooms. Matt was very pleased that he now will be able to catch all of college football while we work :)

Kitchen: We now have the ceiling and walls put up with the electrical outlets and piping for the appliances. Next up is painting & trims then we can lay the tile floor. In this high traffic area I picked out a 18x18 porcelain tile which is a bit more durable then just ceramic tile.

 After: New Kitchen walls. The pipes in the middle are for the island sink & dishwasher

 After: The LVL beam doesn't seem as large with the drywall over it

Main Entry: The stairs now have a covered ceiling and the half wall complete. I am happy I kept the wall, it gives a good space separation to the downstairs. I am going to dress it up with some trim and wainscoting and top it off with a wide counter.

 After: Can you tell it is dusty in the house?

  After


Hall Bath: The tile work is complete here! I choose to use the subway tiles in here to keep the design in order with the house. I love the look of the larger over sized tiles that are seen everywhere today but I just felt that it would make the room look out of place compared to the rest of the house. Our plumber went ahead and hooked up the bath tub hardware. I went with a dark oil rubbed bronze finish for this room since it will be what all of our guest and the bath that our future kids will use, it doesn't show finger prints like brass or chrome does. Once we get the bead board installed we can put in the vanity and fixtures.

 After: New tile floor

 After: New subway tiles and hardware


Master Bed & Bath: This room got the full drywall treatment in here due to that awful grass cloth wallpaper we just couldn't get rid of. Our walk in closet is enclosed and you can now see how much of the second bedroom's space we actually took to make it. The bathroom also got the full over lay since the walls will simply be painted. The tile work is completed in here too! We are so very proud of the shower, it turned out so beautiful and the details just set it off. I went with the classic chrome finish in here because I wanted to reuse the existing sink faucet that was in the old pink bathroom. I just loved how old school it was so I decided to keep it and match all of the other fixtures to it.

 After: New bedroom walls

 After: New bedroom walls
 
 After: Master shower

 After: Master shower
 

Bedroom 1: The drywall is up in here for the new closet and new washer/dryer closet.

 


This week we are chugging right along with our painting starting on Wednesday. I have had the paint colors picked out for weeks now and cant wait to see some color to start going up!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! Go Cards!!
 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hello and welcome to our Blog! I decided to create this to document and share our journey of purchasing and remodeling our first home. Matt and I were married on October 6, 2012 and became proud owners of our forever home on July 8, 2013. Our brick ranch sits on a corner lot of a beautiful tree lined street housing 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, living, kitchen, dining, family, finished walkout basement and two car garage. This marked all of the checks on our list and has room to grow for many years to come, we still pinch ourselves. A special shout-out to our realtor Jonathan Hayes, who made this place ours. The house was built in the 1950s and hasn't seen much of any major remodels or updates since then. It has however been well cared for and loved by a great family since the 80s who had a hard time saying good bye to it. We actually had to call them on day 1 to figure out how to unlock the garage man-door :) They came no questions asked to give a helping hand and are ex...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 12: Kitchen Dream Come True

Hello everyone and welcome to the 12th week here on Heady Avenue.  It is hard to believe we have been working on our house for just about 3 months. Technically October the 8th will be three months to the day since becoming new home owners. We have accomplished quite a bit in a short amount of time and honestly still wonder how we made it all happen. Of course with the help and support of our parents and other family members this dream became a reality.  And this week all of our wildest dreams came true. It was an emotional week which might seem a bit silly but it truly really was.  Bright and early on Thursday morning Christmas came about 3 months early for us. At the crack of dawn two large trucks pulled in our driveway and started on the most important room in the house: our kitchen.  Of course this is where the main part of the demo took place (and majority of the budget) so to be able to walk in the door and see actual parts of a finished room was breathta...
Post a Comment
Read more

All of the Blood, Sweat & Tears

Literally. Blood, Sweat and Tears. All of that and so much more went into this rather large journey of ours. And it was worth every single second. All of the late nights and early mornings, the long weekends full of work and no play, all the band aids and ibuprofen, the trips to and from & back again to Home Depot and Lowes, the laughs, the arguments the tears. It was all so worth it. The time, patience and talent we gave to this makes every inch of our new home so special. There is a story to tell about the floors and walls, plumbing pipes and vents, lighting fixtures, bath tubs and toilets. You name it we did it. And it all would not have been possible without our family. Thank you to Matt's Grandpa for lending his knowledge and expertise throughout each phase of the remodel. Thank you to our parents for their continuous support and helping hand and a place for us to live during it all. They too all endured the blood, sweat and tears and without their help there is no way Mat...
Post a Comment
Read more