It's a Boy!

December 6, 2012 at 2:50am. 9lb, 15oz, 20.75"

Mom and son are doing great! DD loves her baby brother, too. More later...

(yes, that's a 10-pound baby)

Demolition continues

Demolition continued last Friday, part of Saturday, and yesterday (Tuesday). The masonry chimney came down, which was pretty dramatic to us. It had once served an oil furnace, not a fireplace... and the placement wouldn't have worked for a wood stove, which we did consider.   

 Getting rid of the chimney and related framing gave us an additional 10 sf of space in the kitchen for cabinets and appliances. Of course we changed the kitchen layout on Saturday, almost immediately upon seeing the emptied space. I met with our contractor on Monday to look at everything and go over the changes, which is why there was no demolition work that day. The refrigerator will now go in the corner, there, instead of on the opposite side of that doorway into the living room.

One major bummer was the discovery that the pine flooring (underneath a couple of layers of vinyl) that we'd hoped to save and have finished... was full of nail holes and there were chunks missing in spots. I'd have been ok with some dings and holes... you know, "character," but we opted to have it pulled up and will have them put down oak to match the rest.

We cut most of the bathroom scope, but decided to go ahead with redoing the tile shower surround, which was of superb quality...








 



The previous owner (it could have been one of several, but we tend to blame the one before us) had green board installed on top of the plaster, then had tile installed over that. It's been uneven and terrible to try to clean ever since. The contractor removed everything, down to the framing, and will install new, "water-durable, mold-resistant," cement board and tile.

We still have to decide exactly how to deal with the window in the shower. Our contractor suggested replacing it with glass block or just blocking it from the inside. We'd rather leave it or take it out completely. I'm not a fan of the glass block or the high 'clerestory' windows in bathrooms because they make me think of bad cookie-cutter housing developments... "oh, look, there's the bathroom!"

For ten years we kept it covered with a translucent shower curtain (along with the awesome 'stained glass' blobs that are now disintegrating), which seems to have kept out the water. You can see the evidence of past repairs for water damage to the framing below the sill. We might still need to repair some of this old damage, but I hope better tile work and making sure everything is clean and sealed will help... I can deal with the shower curtain.

The only other thing we're doing in the bathroom is replacing the tub & shower valve. The existing diverter (from tub to shower) quit working years ago, which wasn't a problem when it was just adults taking showers. Now that we need to use the actual tub, we figured we need to get something that doesn't fall off in your hand. ;)












The contractor is getting the revised cabinets re-quoted and the additional flooring quoted. I'm waiting to hear on a window quote. I think they're going to start work on replacing the roofing soon.

We're more or less settled in the rental house, even with a couple of boxes to sort, consolidate, and put away. We even put up and decorated the Christmas tree (and two wreaths!) and DH put lights on the outside, along the roof.

DD turned 20 months old on Friday. She was keeping the hounds company in 'time out' while my MIL was making cookies. Both of ours are on the left, in a pile, and that's my in-laws' dog on the right.

It didn't hurt that he had a ball to chew, but our boy is SO awesome with DD... he lets her sit on him, pull his collar and tail (although we nip that in the bud as quickly as we can)... it probably also helps that she frequently shares food with him. He'll do anything for food, even her favorite bananas and clementines ('babee' oranges, she says). She has tried, at least once, to throw her leg over him and climb on while he was standing... I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes.






Tomorrow is my due date and I'm trying not to get impatient for this new baby to get here. The weather had been pretty cold and we even burned fires in the fireplace at the rental, but it turned downright spring-like over the weekend. I'll take 60s and 70s in December!

Progress! (exhausting progress)

First and foremost, demolition started today!

We applied for the refinance on our house on a Friday in mid-October and had the appraisal scheduled for the following Monday morning, so spent the whole weekend furiously cleaning and finishing up as many almost-completed projects as we could. Not the easiest task, especially with a toddler who wants to be involved and won't really nap. With great weather, and a little help from our favorite neighbors, we got a LOT done and the house was looking pretty good.

The appraisal didn't come in quite where we'd have liked, though, so we had to look at our quotes and figure out what to do next. Between the project, moving and almost doubling our living expenses for a few months, and my pending maternity leave (only partially paid), it adds up fast. We don't want to spend all our savings to make up the difference, either. Our contractor has been great and was more than happy to talk with us about some ideas and then rework his quote to cut some things.

We closed on the refi 30 days after we applied and then moved to the rental house the weekend before Thanksgiving. Technically, we just emptied what was left out of our house last night. We've been living at the rental for almost two weeks now and feel fairly settled in. Most of what's left to unpack is stuff to go through and mostly toss. Architecture students collect an amazing amount of paper and other materials, but the value of most of it is significantly diminished by our current lack of need for balsa wood and chip board. We can only save so much for DD to color on.

We picked up our awesome FLOR carpet (that we designed and still love) and will put it in the den at the rental. It's held up pretty well for 5+ years of daily vacuuming and steam cleaning several times a year, not to mention the wear and tear of two 60# dogs and now DD. We'll definitely have to replace some tiles before we move it back to our house, but I'm sure the dogs will like having more space to stretch out and shed at the rental.

I stopped by our house on my lunch break to see what's going on... there's a dumpster in the driveway and the kitchen cabinets are in the living room and the den/office/dining room (we used it as an office before, but will probably make it more of a dining area/den when we move back.)

Note the poor Bronco and the sad driveway...

No more cabinets!


You don't want to know what it looks like under/behind your cabinets.

It has been an exhausting and sometimes stressful process to design, draw, price and sort out all the details... but I'm really excited about it, now. The reality is we're not even done, we still have to finalize the cabinets and a few other details... and it will be weird not doing the work ourselves like we have for so long. I'm also 39 weeks pregnant today, so I have good reason to be tired... but I actually feel pretty good!

I will try to go by fairly regularly and take progress photos... maybe even with the DSLR instead of my phone... and soon with a newborn in tow!