House update

We still have no regrets doing the reno, but it's taking a toll on the family!  Now I know why I said I would never renovate a home with toddlers...it's exhausting.   Everything is taking much longer than we expected.  Since we are doing this on a tight budget we didn't hire a general contractor.  I'm doing most of the planning, scheduling, and purchasing, and Zac's doing much of the actual work.  After his day job he will go out to the country house every night and work till 9 or 10.  Which means I'm home with the children all day and night.  I love being a stay at home, but I'm not the best mommy when I'm with my rambunctious 2 and 4 year old boys 24/7.  I know I haven't been as patient, and I think they are acting out more since daddy's not around much.  Thankfully mother's day out starts back this coming week this because each week has gotten progressively worse.  We are really feeling the stress of our upcoming deadline, but thankfully Zac and I haven't had any blow-ups at each other.  We have 31 days till we have to be completely out of our house...yikes where did the time go?!?  As you will see in the pictures below we are no where near ready.  It's crazy how life works sometimes.  As soon as we officially started the reno life got insane. The week we had our first and only open house all of us got the stomach bug, Zac got hit by a lady that totaled his car and jacked up his back.  We also had 2 weddings in OKC and 2 weekend out of town get-togethers that were planned and partially paid for in feb/march that all fell in the past 5 weeks.  Thankfully we have had some help from family and friends.  Without their help we would be in some serious trouble come October. We did hire the plumbing and some of the framing, garage door to be installed, and a guy to replace some of the broken windows. Even with all the craziness we are still happy and thankful to have bought the house.  We are just ready for it to be over!  :)  So here's our progress...

Front entry - new sheetrock on ceiling, wood floors exposed, one of large window panes replaced

office/sewing room - 3 glass panes replaced, board removed -still need to scrape off tile - built in drawers sealed off to expand the master closet 

Living room - exposed subfloor-Obviously there is a large patch in the middle and by the hearth.  I think we may try to use some of the kitchen floors to fix the patch in the middle, but go with the new part by the fire place.  Hopefully everything will look fine once the glue is all scraped off and floors are redone. 

Extra room -was probably used as formal dining- exposed wood floor.  It is different than the other rooms, but in pretty good condition.  Furnace was removed.

Main bath - new plywood put down on floors, everything re-framed (lots of water damage), new sheetrock, plumbing redone.  The window will be smaller to make room for a recessed medicine cabinet.  I'm ready for a working toilet, but we still need to lay tile first.  Zac had to totally redo the electric and install a vent .

kitchen - Big rotten spot removed and filled in with plywood, the structural beams underneath had to be replaced as well

We are going to keep most of the existing upper cabinets but get new doors.  A friend from church will make our lower cabinets and upper cabinet doors.

Dining nook - completely gutted, reframed, new sheetrock, and we used the wainscoting from our entry way ceiling to make an accent wall in here

Mudroom/Laundry room - removed wood paneling, sealed concrete call, new plumbing for washer and a sink, removed flooring, completely redo electrical (thieves had stripped it all), new sheetrock, replaced windows - it was much cheaper to buy windows wholesale and just have our framer install them

Stairs to basement - Left - enclosed the bathroom sink area  Right is the cellar - it's still really creepy and needs a lot of work.  Right now the craw space is completely exposed so I really want to close that off.  Basement had to be completely re-wired since it was also picked clean and what was left was old knob and tub

Removed the pink tile in the basement bath and fixed the shower lines

Here is where we will put the vanity.  Basically you will walk in the bathroom door and the sink will be to the left.  Go straight to the shower or go right after the door to the toilet.

Boys room in the basement.  We are keeping rafters exposed since ceilings are low.  We sealed the concrete, and put one coat of primer on the ceiling but still needs a lot of work.  Plumber capped off and removed the furnace.  2 glass panes replaced.

A's room - did same as the boys plus removed the carpet

We've cleaned up the outside a bit and secured the garage.  We still need to replace the wiring that was taken in there.  Thankfully one of Zac's friend is an electrician so he has come out a few times to show Zac what to do, check the work Z did, and do whatever parts Z can't do.  3/4ths of the gutters have been replaced, but that needs to be finished and a French drain installed to prevent any more water damage.  There is still more sheetrock that needs to be added, more mudding to do (that's been my job), texturing added, and the whole house painted.  I forgot to take a picture of the master where the closet was widened and the wood floor exposed.  There are still lots more to do, but we are trying to stay focused on the essentials.  We are definitely in survival mode so if we seem distant and flighty it's because we are!  After this weekend we have nothing else planned so we can spend the next 4 weekends really working on the house.  I hope I didn't sound like a downer.  We really have been blessed throughout the process.  Will share more of how God has gone on before us through all this in another post.  We can definitely see His hands at work in this process and through others who have helped us.  Here's to a productive next 31 days!

 

Side note the thieves (four of them) came back about 10 days ago, but thankfully we had the alarm installed.  They didn't get anything other than a good scare.  Hopefully that will be the last of them!