flooring? check.

Due to some sort of Christmas miracle - and a little hard work - we got all our wood flooring in on the first floor! Some before(ish) and after(ish) pics are below. We still have lots to do down there, but doesn't it look more like a house? Our vision is really starting to take shape.

bosch, i love you

We finally have our washer and dryer installed! Sayonara suds and duds (the joint we've been frequenting to clean our clothes lately). We just ran the first wash cycle which has to be done with no clothes inside and couldn't resist making a little movie. You know how washers are usually super loud and annoying? Well, I am in awe over how quiet ours is. So quiet you'll think there's no sound in our little video. Everyone, run out and buy a Bosch washer now (we went with the 300 series). You'll wonder if it's even on. Plus, it's very environmentally friendly so you can give yourself a big ol' pat on the back for helping Mother Earth.

what a difference some flooring makes

We made some serious progress on the flooring today. Two people with no flooring experience laid down a ton of wood in a short amount of time thanks to Kahrs' genius Woodloc system.

P.S. Kahrs, I love you as much as I love Bosch.

it's getting closer

Check out our kitchen! It's actually looking like a real life kitchen, right? We have a lot of finishing work left to do (i.e. there will be no white sides on the cabinets, and you won't be able to see under them, either). And we also need to hook up the range, dishwasher and get the sink working. But in order to get the appliances into place, we need to lay down the floors. So that's next on our agenda. We'll be taking Christmas off from Carver. But our 9:30 PM Christmas Eve dinner consisted of food heated by a microwave. A first, but I think it will all be worth it.

the island

The island is starting to take shape. We got everything positioned so we'd be able to build out the base. Once the base is built and the cabinets are screwed down, it will look a little more like an island.

the search for a door

I seriously thought finding an entry door was going to be a piece of cake. I mean, we knew exactly what we wanted so what's the big deal? It's just a door. But doors can be really expensive, especially when they are custom ordered and not something that's just stocked on the floor at Home Depot. And what we were looking for surprisingly seemed to be a custom order everywhere. I figured it was pretty generic and would be easy to find: a full lite door with white lami glass (for the obscured look). We had almost settled on a door we would have to buy sight unseen from a manufacturer in the midwest. But after reading some bad reviews, C was worried. So yesterday afternoon, we took a little trip to the showroom of a door manufacturer that had the door we wanted on display. They actually produce the door we want in bulk, making it a lot less moola. We'll be getting it primed so we can paint it, a still TBD color, but we're thinking a navy blue with grey undertones since we'll be painting the exterior a dark grey. Between new house numbers, a mailbox, an entry door, lighting and some gardening, our exterior should start to shape up a little in the next month. But let's get back to the kitchen.

it's beginning to look a lot like a kitchen

We put in a 12 hour day and for once it feels like there is something to show for it! Most of the time we've put in to date has resulted in lots of behind the scenes amazing work that has laid a great foundation for carver. But, I'm all about how things look. Not in a superficial kinda way. Just in a nerdy designer way. And my friends, our kitchen is starting to have a personality behind those beams and blank walls. Painting is finito in the living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room. Three words to describe the color we chose: stark. white. modern. Nuff said.

the base cabinets waiting to take their places

looks like Ikea building to me (which, by the way, we are SO impressed with)

the drawers all nestled in their pretty little homes

optimus primed

Sorry for the title. C made me do it. Everything is primed and ready for paint. Since we chose a super white paint color, the end result shouldn't look too far off from this color. For primer we went with Benjamin Moore's no VOC line, Natura, and for the paint we are going with their ultra low VOC line, Aura. Since kitchens and living rooms are such high traffic areas we wanted to go with a really solid paint that would have a long life and great coverage. Our research led us to Aura since it seemed to have everything we were looking for. We'll probably go the no VOC route in all the bedrooms.

finished shower

As promised, here are the finished pics of the shower. We had the chance to regrout the original glass blocks this past weekend while we were grouting the tile in the laundry room. Now we're onto building our cabinets and painting all the new drywall.

installing windows

Even though our windows are all snug and cozy in their (and our) new home. I thought I'd share the exterior shots of how much you have to tear up your stucco. Our fabulous drywall friends will be restuccoing around the windows, too.

drywall smells

They guys are well into the drywall, and our walls are looking incredible. But I didn't realize how much drywall would smell. For some reason my nose refuses get used to the stench. Oh well. Small price to pay for some killer walls!

PASSED!!!

Passed sheetrock inspection, they'll be done by Friday. Which means we'll be painting and building cabinets after that. We are not too far from having a kitchen!

6 hours of sheetrocking

Carver was just buzzing with excitement all weekend long. It all started with the sheetrocking early Saturday morning, while C and I finished installing the last and largest window. Personally, I felt like we were living on a real life episode of Holmes on Homes. We are ridiculously happy that we hired these guys. What they did in 6 hours would have taken C and I at least 6 straight days and would have probably resulted in a divorce. Sometimes, there are people that can just do the job better (and faster) than you. Especially when we're talking a major gut renovation like this one. First, let's take a look back at the old kitchen.

sheetrock all pretty and stacked

sheetrock (even prettier) on the walls

look, we have a ceiling! (check out those windows, too)

I might have laundry in a just a few more days. Oh, the excitement.

And I'm being serious because laundry is my fave chore.

let the sheetrocking begin

We're cheating. We hired someone to do our drywall. After endless research and bids we decided to bite the bullet and hire a company that we think is going to do an amazing job. We came to the realization that maybe we'd just do a mediocre job on something that is really important. Our walls. Sure if we were just doing a small area we'd probably try it out. But remember, we have LOTS of space to drywall and old walls that we'd like to match with the new ones. These guys are going to match up the remaining walls with the new drywall including the massive wall on the staircase. I haven't shared that wall yet, but it has a popcorn ceiling-esque texture. Not cute.

We've chosen to take on the bulk of the work on Carver ourselves and have thoroughly enjoyed it and saving lots of moola. But you have to pick and choose your battles. And this was one that we decided wasn't worth fighting. And trust me, in light of all this, we still have plenty to do this weekend around Carver.

They are loading in today. Getting all the sheetrock in place tomorrow. And hopefully we'll have an inspector come on Monday to make sure it's all secured. We might have picture perfect walls by next weekend. Meaning a kitchen is in our very near future.

remember that funny little wall?

Well it's gone and it looks better than I imagined. Everything just feels so much more open. Which we love.

funny little wall that separated the living room from the now opened up kitchen/dining room

viola, no more wall!

three months

Today marks 3 months since we closed on Carver. We've officially lived there for 2 months. Wow, time flies when you're having fun! Right after graduating college my dear friend Nicole received a readable graduation gift "The Go-Girl Guide: Surviving Your 20s with Savvy, Soul, and Style." During our celebration cruise to Mexico we both read it and one thing that stuck through our 20s and will probably stick even when we are well out of our 20s, is to measure important life choices/events/careers, etc. in three's. So let's say you aren't so sure about that new job right off the bat, you need to give it three months to really sink in and settle. It has actually been a super helpful tool in life. Anyway, enough about that. I want to dedicate this post to measuring all that we've accomplished in the past 3 months. Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough, but really it's a lot.

1. We closed on our first house that we are making a home. In a neighborhood we fall in love with more and more everyday. Where my runs consist of incredible ocean views. 'Nuff said.

2. DEMO. Wow, what an accomplishment. The body aches. Waking up with your hand clenched like it's a hammer. The nifty goggles and face masks.

3. Changed out most of the windows.

4. Designed our kitchen and got to work researching and buying all new appliances.

5. New plumbing in the entire house.

6. An updated electric system complete with redoing the entire downstairs and installing lighting.

7. An unexpected shower remodel.

8. An unexpected new toilet remodel, too.

9. Turning a regular old closet into a laundry room.

10. Knocking down some minor walls and changing the position of the closet door under the stairs.

11. We packed up our apartment and moved. Ouch again.

12. Setting up Carver to make the upstairs feel as organized and as much of a home as possible.

Bedroom 1 = bedroom, living room, dining room

Bedroom 2 = makeshift "kitchen" and lola's sunroom

Bedroom 3 = storage

Garage = more storage

13. Gutting most of the plants and trees from the backyard and planting grass for the bean.

14. The many hours spent researching by watching HGTV and web surfing.

giving thanks to carver

We used the long weekend to tackle some large projects and start on some smaller ones. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

new window on the left, old window on the right - plus R-13 Insulation in the walls

new vinyl window (Milgard Style Line)

old aluminum window
using one of our small cars to do heavy lifting (that's sheetrock)

25 pounds of drywall nails, let's get this party started

insulated laundry room

sheetrocked laundry room

This week will probably bring more sheetrock installation and fixing the stucco we had to break through to install the windows. And we are 100% passed on inspection so we can close everything up!

transporting glass and public apology

We've had to get really creative since we don't own a truck or anything that resembles a truck. And yes, the thought has crossed our minds to buy a truck just for Carver. Usually we drive small german automobiles. And since the seats fold down in my coupe, it has been a rockstar at transporting things like copper pipes. Luckily, we were able to borrow a larger german automobile in the form of an SUV to transport our 36"x78" piece of tempered shower glass. It still cuts it close. I've been holding off on finished shower pics until everything is in place. So stay tuned and don't worry, we have been able to shower. If you are in the LA area and ever need custom glass, 55 Glass is amazing and SO well priced. Heart them!

Also, I'd like to publicly apologize for my 11.17 post about failing inspection. Drama queen over here made it sound worse than it is. We are able to get to work patching things up. Looks like this long weekend is going to be all about sheetrock. C already loaded the open walls with insulation. Forget the turkey, I just want to sheetrock.