Remodel details

This weekend is going to be a big weekend of packing up the house in preparation for our house renovation. Hopefully the kids do their part with a double nap both days this weekend so that CP and I can get a lot of packing done.

So why are we doing all of this packing and moving? Well, last summer we started this process by meeting with a contractor that our friends used. We met with an architect to discuss what we wanted to do to the house, we started to pick out bathroom tile, countertops, appliances, sinks, etc. We tried several different ways to get everything we wanted into the project but sadly, everything that we wanted was simply too expensive. 

Finally earlier this month we had something that we felt with comfortable budget-wise and met our needs for right now. Here is the plan:

Remodel the second floor bathroom 

This is our only full bathroom in the house. If you having been reading for a while, back when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Izzy, we decided to fix it up at least a little bit but removing the wallpaper (even the stuff on the back of the doors), removing the gross sliding glass doors on the tub, and painting. The bathroom is still a mess what with a BLACK bathtub that shows soapscum the first shower after I have cleaned, a vanity that is probably from the 70s, and tile that has seen better days. The contractor has sent over pictures and just looking at them gets me excited for a new bathroom. We still will only have one full bathroom for the entire family, but it will certainly be a lot nicer looking.

Remodel the first floor bathroom

This is just a half bath so it's not that big of a deal. We did already remodel it after moving into the house but it was an inexpensive fix so that we could use it for the past couple years. (For instance the flooring was a brown/yellow laminate and the subfloor was ruined because there was water damage. Too many overflowing toilets?? YUCK.) The walls are not even framed so we are keeping the new vanity, mirror, accessories, and toilet but actually framing the room and taking about a foot from the kitchen near the toilet to make the room slightly bigger.

Remodel and bump out the kitchen

This is one of the things I am most excited about. When CP and I remodeled the kitchen after first moving into the house, we did a lot of work ourselves and knew that it was temporary. We had new countertops and appliances put in (none of the appliances worked!) but spray painted the metal cabinets to save money. This time around we will expand the kitchen so that we have an eat-in island, CP will get a fancy Wolf stove (6 burner!), two sinks, room for a bigger fridge, more cabinets, etc. It's going to be awesome.

Demolish the current sunroom and add on a bigger family room

Note: the sunroom is no longer this blue color. When I was in the hospital giving birth to Izzy my dad decided to paint the room white (which was pretty awesome).

The sunroom was the first room that we fixed up after moving in the house because we knew that we would spend a lot of time in there. It had nasty carpet and wood paneling EVERYWHERE.  The room has been great but it is about 10 degrees cooler or hotter (depending on the season) than the dining room right next to it because it has no basement beneath it, no room overhead, and while it has insulation from when we put new siding on, it is not enough. The foundation is cracking so we are demolishing the entire room and building a newer, slightly bigger room.

Dig a new basement

We have a current unfinished basement that unfortunately has no ceilings (but lots of pipes, ducts, etc.) and is only 8 feet tall. We also have asbestos tile on the floor. We contemplated trying to drop the floor a foot, move duct works and pipes into the ceiling, but it would have been expensive and not worth it. Instead we are digging a new basement under the family room. We will have to use the stairs and walk through part of the old basement to get to the new part, but we are excited to have a play space for the kids and hopefully put a tv and treadmill in the new space as well.

So yeah, a lot of stuff getting done to the house in a short three months. We had hoped to add a fourth bedroom upstairs, a master bath, and a small washer/dryer upstairs, but the cost was getting out of hand. In the end, we decided that we would put a sleeper couch in either the basement or the new family room and that for now, we would deal with everyone sharing the bathroom upstairs. Maybe when the kids get out of daycare and we feel like we have won the lottery we can start to save up for the rest of the job???? We'll see.