Home Renovations, 2020

Patrick the Contractor got started on Monday, January 6th. He's making great progress. In two days he's striped our master bedroom & bathroom of carpet, base boards and all the fixtures in the bathroom, gotten a great start on the pocket door to make our guest room & bath more private for our guests, and taken down the backsplash tiles in the kitchen as well as loosened the countertop so it can be removed and replaced with the new granite on Saturday. He had estimated 6 - 8 weeks but it looks like he'll be done by the end of January at the pace he's going.

Here are some pics of the work before being done:











The pocket door in process:

and tonight the backsplash is removed.....

Thanks for sharing the pics, Beth. Can't wait to see the "after" ones, too! Looks good so far and yes, seems fast!!

Light outlets going into the kitchen ceiling. Flush LED fixtures will make it look like it's time for a moon landing!

It's been less than a week and I'm so tired of people being in my house.

Drives me crazy that my table got used as a 'leaning post' for a big old piece of drywall ~ but if we didn't move it out of the area I guess they thought it was fair game. Thank goodness I got it well covered.

((sigh))

I empathize with you, Beth. Just keep telling yourself that they'll be gone soon and you'll be tickled pink with the results.

Everything is looking nice.

Today was a 'messy job' day ~ scraping the popcorn from the ceilings. But this contractor has it down to a fine science, obviously knows what he's doing.





It's a job you wouldn't want to tackle on your own if you didn't know what you were doing, that's for sure.

They've been on the job for 5 days and have accomplished so much ~ we're very happy with their work ethic. I'm going out again today to try again to find a paint color I want for most of the house. I've picked a 'barely' smoke color for the bathrooms and I want the rest of the house a neutral color that will be in the kitchen, living room & bedrooms. I've tried 2 so far and after I saw it on the wall with our couch/chair in front of it I didn't like either. So, try #3 will be today. Dane will be doing the painting. It's something he likes to do (or so he says.....) and since he's really good at it I'm fine with saving the cost of labor. All I have to do is clean his brushes and feed him. cheap! LOL

They installed my quartz countertops today.....it's just what I wanted! And my kitchen sink is like a baby bathtub!

Really nice Beth. Someday I would like to get around to new counters and floor in my kitchen.

Thanks, Norm. I'm afraid you'll all get sick of me posting pics of every little thing but.....

too bad!

Hahahahahaha! I figure if anyone doesn't want to see they can just ignore my posts.

We've been planning to do the renovations since we moved in 7 years ago. Dane let me pick just about anything I wanted. So I'm really excited to see it being done.

Today they came and did the 'knock-down' ceiling texture on the areas where they scraped the 'popcorn' off the ceilings. We have to wait until Wednesday before Dane can prime and paint to be sure they are completely dry & cured.

Patrick said he wouldn't be here until the weekend but he was here this afternoon to connect my new faucet.  I love the huge sink & faucet/sprayer.  Comin' on up in the world!  Woo Hoo!!!!






Backsplash will hopefully get installed on Saturday and maybe the master bath tile floor. They are coming tomorrow morning to install the shower pan in our bathroom.

BEAUTIFUL, Beth! I'd love to have quartz countertops and a farmhouse sink, too! What's your backsplash going to look like? Thanks for sharing, too!

You deserve all of this, as we all know how long you waited! I know what a mess it is right now but boy, when it's all done, everyone's gone and you can clean up, you're going to be in heaven!!!

Thanks, Michelle, we're thrilled with the way the renovation is progressing!

My kitchen backsplash is a subway style, white with just a hint of grey shading around the outside. I think it's going to give it some depth ~ at least in my 'mind's eye' it will ~ and I think I'm going to have him use a taupe-y grout to help tie it into the quartz and oak cabinets. Yet to be determined, however.

Dane's going to start the painting tomorrow. He has the master bath, bedroom & closet ready to go ~ went as far as washing down the walls in the bathroom today while I was gone with Lyn (we had a 'Get-Outta-Dodge' day). He swears he's looking forward to doing all the painting. He went to the paint store today and picked up $800 of paint. I sure hope that's enough!

I asked him if he wanted a Wagner Power Roller like he used on the whole house paint job he did in Ohio and he at first said, "No, I don't think I'll need it." But after he thought about all the ceilings he has to prime and then paint, as well as the walls, he changed his mind. It's not an expensive tool but it does make the job go way quicker. The paint is pumped into the roller and he doesn't have to stop to 're-load'. We had to drive half an hour to Apopka to a Home Depot that had one in stock so he could have it for tomorrow but he didn't mind at all.

I'll post pics as the job progresses.....

The tile guy is here today.  Almost has the master bath finished (had to stop so the shower marble guys could make some adjustments) so he's working on the backsplash now.

Here's a pic of the backsplash with a sample of the wall color.  The wall color looks grey in this pic but it's more of a taupe-y color, combining brown & grey. The grey in the backsplash really brings out the grey in the quartz and helps break up all the tan we'll have with oak cabinets and tan flooring.  I have been agonizing about if I picked out the right tile backsplash ~ now that it's being put up I think I'm really going to like it.



And here's a pic of the new Whirlpool microwave.  I didn't have much choice but to choose an 'over-the-stove' model but this one is only 10" high.  They're actually hooking up the vent to the outside, something the original big one didn't have.  Why anyone wouldn't do that when the house is under construction is beyond me.  But I'm sure the builders who put in our villa wanted to get in and out ASAP.



The size of the inside of the microwave.....

It's all looking really good, Beth! Thanks for sharing it with us, too.

Thanks, Michelle.  Everyone has different tastes and this happens to be mine. The floor tile is a porcelain tan-wood-grain that will be set in a herringbone pattern. That's why I wanted the detail over the stove to be set as an accent.

Here are some more pics of the tile detail ~ I can't wait for it to be grouted and finished up.

The floor tile in the bathroom was finally dry enough to walk in and take a pic.....

The shower stall is a cultured marble with flat panels ~ no grout to scrub. Glass doors and a teak seat, along with 'safety bars' will be added.




The floor tile was chosen because it's 'hair-and-dust' colored. It will be so much nicer than the white porcelain tile that was in there when we bought the house.

We're just painting fools here.....

Yesterday we had to cut-in and paint the primer on the new textured ceilings. Then, after 3 or 4 hours were able to put on the finish paint. While Dane was finishing up on one area I got started on doing the cut-in of the wall color. We're using the same color in both bedrooms, living area and kitchen. I hate making decisions ~ so I made a decision to only have a different color in the bathrooms ~ but they'll be identical. LOL

There's more painting to do but we ran out of good light. And we were tired. And it was time to take a shower and get something to eat......and since I had to go to WalMart anyway (oh, NO, there was only ONE roll of TP!) I decided on Chinese carry-out for supper. And as usual, there's plenty of leftovers for lunches to be warmed up.

While I was at the store Dane installed one of the ceiling fans in the bedroom. It looks like the propeller from an old WWII airplane. I love it! It amazes me how quickly he can put that stuff together and get it connected.

Today they started to install the "Luxury Waterproof Plank" flooring. I don't know about 'luxury' but I like that it's FLAT and I'll be able to actually take a mop to it when it's in need without any special treatment or cleaning solution. A sample of the size of the base moulding is leaning against the wall. It's not exactly like what I had in Ohio but it's better than the 3" cheap looking stuff that was used by the original builder. By the time the floor gets cleaned and the base gets painted it'll look 100% better.

today they worked on some more of the flooring and getting the base installed and ready to paint in the master bedroom & closet. The bedroom is still filled with tools & equipment but the closet is the most finished room in the house. All it needs is paint on the baseboards and trim. We'll get to that this weekend, I'm sure, along with some more painting in the rest of the living/kitchen areas.

They're ready to scrape the ceiling in the computer room and once we get moved out of the guest room and back into the master they'll tear into the guest room ceiling, guest bath complete gut and that will be the last of the really messy stuff. I'm so sick of dust and stuff all over. I'll be glad when it's finally finished ~ it's going fast but it's never fast enough when you're living in it.

Today they worked on getting the shower seat, shower head, grab bar & doors installed in the shower, as well as starting to set the toilet. They attached my kitchen lights to the outlets they had done last week ~ and there's enough light to work, that's for sure!










I will be so happy to have all the clutter stop. We move coffee pots from the kitchen to outside (so they don't get covered in dust when they're working), then we bring them back in at night. Same with a big box of 'stuff' that comes along with them. The refrigerator is sitting in the middle of the room, the stove is pulled 1 1/2 feet into the kitchen.....it's so nerve wracking. But, I'm keeping my eye on the light at the end of the tunnel. A couple more weeks and they should be done.

They hammered the rest of the kitchen tile today. Even though everything is somewhat covered it's still horribly covered in dust. My stove was covered until they had to move it to remove the tile under it. It is what it is.....

You can see how much mortar they have to hammer off the floor when they break up the tile:



They try to shroud the cabinets & countertop but I don't think it's doing much good:



My stove was under the plastic but had to be moved out to remove the tile under it:

Most of today was spent in the master bathroom. They set the toilet and installed cabinets. We have to wait until it's time to work on the guest bathroom for the marble countertop and sink.

Everything is looking really good, Beth!