C, the plumber

Check out some of C's amazing handywork on the main line plumbing. Business consultant by day, plumber by night. I'm such a proud wifey.

43 years of gunk in the old pipes, yuck

almost there

By this time next weekend we will be moved into Carver! Our couch will be in the garage for a little bit and our kitchen stuff will remain packed in boxes for hopefully an even smaller little bit. But, we did clean shop downstairs. I met a new friend the super powerful shop vac. Usually I'm all about my Dyson, but it's just too precious to ruin on sheetrock debris. So, this weekend I got down and dirty and really cleaned the dust left behind from demolition and demolished the former closet upstairs (the new laundry room). Just when I thought demolition was done...but C assured me this was the last of the rock lathe we'd have to ditch. C finished moving the closet door under the stairs and worked on getting the lighting and electrical boxes set up within the walls. This week, we'll probably be upgrading the electrical box and wiring the downstairs with new electric (while packing for the big move). Once that and the plumbing is done and we get the go ahead from The Inspector, we will be good to sheetrock and dry wall. Not bad for less than 3 weeks of work, huh?

brand spanking new pipes

reframed old door

new closet door, this is where it should have been in the first place!

gutted new laundry room. C will need to work some of that reframing magic.

don't tell my dyson, but I am in love

some lighting

out with the dirty, in with the fun: designing the kitchen

The order for most of the fixtures for our kitchen are in. Sigh of relief. As I might have mentioned before, we decided to go the Ikea route for our kitchen cabinets. We chose a high gloss grey and the entire kitchen will have a gradient effect: black slate floors, grey gloss cabinets, lighter grey concrete countertops. And, if we decide to put upper cabinets in they will be white high gloss and all the paint will be stark white.

They also make some highly recommended appliances so we bought a pretty large black 5 burner range through them. Gotta have a big beautiful range these days...We also purchased our dishwasher there so we can hide it behind one of the cabinets. And I'm so in love with the giant white farmhouse style sink, it's a beauty and at a great Ikea price.

We still haven't decided 100% on the fridge but have been researching like crazy. Love the Liebherr models but not in love with the price tag. And, the hunt continues.

Here's the schematic from Ikea's kitchen planner. The upper cabinets are TBD, especially since the ones on the very right would require us to knock out the window that was in the former laundry room. But we do need a place to put the pesky microwave and haven't quite figured that one out yet. We want to get everything we've already bought in and then make the next round of decisions. After all, we are going to have enough on our hands with about 80 boxes being delivered in about one week. I love putting things like this together so I am beyond excited and up for the challenge.

Lastly, totally recommend going to Ikea to order your kitchen. Kitchens shouldn't be ordered at midnight on a Friday after consuming a few glasses of wine. The nice people there think of things that you just don't.

bye bye demolition

We reminded ourselves today that we only closed on Carver a week and a half ago. Wow, time flies when you're having fun? We have sure been busy. Here's a list of our weekend accomplishments:

1. All the studs are cleared of nails, staples and screws. I lost track somewhere around 1,381, but there were a lot.
2. All the trash is now happily in the giant dumpster in our driveway.
3. All sheetrock that was supposed to be removed is, with the exception of the funny little wall in between the living and dining room since we are still consulting the big guns on whether or not that is a support beam.
4. We started pulling down the beams that framed out the old laundry room right off the kitchen.
5. The half bath is completely gutted.
6. C got to work on moving the storage under the staircase closet door to the other side of the wall (facing the dining room).
7. C also played with that fun tool and tore up the tile flooring through the kitchen and half bath.
8. We, well really C, removed the painful last part of the parquet flooring that would not come up. I'm just glad that he finally realized I wasn't just being a wimp. Those pieces did not want to budge. Sorry parquet, we won the battle.
9. The war wounds around here continue to escalate. My legs are bruised, scratched and mangled. And C's hands feel better when he pretends like he is cupping a hammer. He has 5 blisters and his fingers are super swollen just like almost one year ago when he tore a ligament on our wedding day.

We have lots of fun in store for the coming week. We are starting the plumbing, we have a consultation with Pella, and we are going to layout our kitchen design with painters tape to see where we are netting out. The fact that we are at the point of the latter two is really exciting to me. It means that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we can get to the fun part of putting everything back together. How we want it. Done right. And, with supplies from 2010, not 1967. Although, the demolition has been quite fun and it feels like a huge DIY accomplishment. We are living in HGTV, rather than just watching it. I just hope that Mike Holmes would be proud.

closet door's current home (please don't judge the staircase railing, it's changing)

closet door's new home

gutted half bath

the completely gutted kitchen/half bath

one of many war wounds

giant trash bins, demolition hammer and permits ... oh my!

The permits to begin work are secured. The research on costs of a giant dumpster for our driveway (classy) has started. I even figured out the cost of renting a demolition hammer to get the pesky kitchen floor up and scrape down the concrete floors in preparation for our Kahrs flooring in the living room and dining room and black slate tile in the kitchen and half bath.

This is going to be C this weekend.

Image via This Old House

we put the labor in labor day

Day 3 of all day demolition labor day weekend and I seriously don't know how there are people that do this for a living. Between yoga and running, I think I am in pretty good shape. But after this weekend, my body has been put to the test. 9-10 hours of hauling sheet rock (and some super heavy rocky stuff under the sheetrock called "rock lath"), pulling down sheetrock, pulling up super stuck parquet flooring and yanking nails from walls (etc.) sure puts your endurance to the test. And literally, that's been our life all weekend. We get home and are too tired to move, but move onto construction research projects and a little HGTV. Romantic. What lighting scheme are we going with outside? How does a wall heater work and how do you move that darn thermostat? "Stuck" + "ceramic" + "tile" + "floors." Um yea, that's what's been in my google bar tonight. As crazy as the past few days have been it's actually been a lot of fun. And, at least the entire downstairs is going to be pretty much brand new. Plus, we are learning all the dirty little secrets hidden inside those walls. They fused a galvanized pipe to a copper pipe!? The nerve.

The pictures are blurry because the camera captured the sheetrock dust in the air. Nasty.

demolition full day #1...ouch we ache all over

The kitchen and dining room. Sheetrock removal, check. Old school cabinets, see you later. Parquet flooring and baseboards, bye bye. Tile on the floor, we're not gonna lie, we're kinda scared of you. But look out, we're gonna get you...