Lots of Activity at the House

This has been a busy week at the house. We’ve met the plumber, electricians, inspectors, painters, contractors and the lawn guy. We finally picked out both the interior and exterior paint and the inside of the house is being primed this week.  We still run into a couple of plumbing and electrical issues but they are being worked out, nothing major!  The flooring should go down early next week then on to the final stretch. The project end date is expected to be August 30th give or take a week or two.

 

New Pics of the Newly Installed Kitchen Cabinets and Countertops

We are getting close to having a new kitchen. Check out the pics!

      

          

Pick Your Favorite Pendant Light

Time to choose the pendant lights for the kitchen! 

Which style would you choose?

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Plumbing in Master Bathroom = Hot Mess

Renovation Issues No. 2… No. 3… No. 4 and Potentially No. 5

I have nothing to say for the weekend warriors except if you don’t know what you are doing, leave it alone because for those of us that have to come in to fix it, it’s not pleasant and you are only hurting my wallet.

We had a suspicion that the plumbing in the master bathroom was installed incorrectly by the previous owner, but never in a million years did we think it was going to not only be an installation issue but the pipes he installed were made for sprinkler systems. What?  and they are not even connected to each other. Really?  come on….

Renovation Issue No. 2  Follow the white outline and you will see that the pipes lead to a deadend and do not connect with each other.

     

  

Renovation Issue No. 3

Another issue occurred as they opened up the walls. At one point we thought it would be nice to take down this wall to open up the space and wondered why the previous owner decided to leave it there in the first place. Well, the wall is there for a reason. An old school cast iron drain is located inside that wall and to remove it  would have cost us a small fortune. So to be creative and work around this out-of-place wall (thanks again weekend warrior,  another one of your grand ideas didn’t work) we are going to cut an arch out of the wall to open it up as best as we can.

 

It’s  a good thing Roger (my contractor) opened up the walls to check out the suspicious plumbing because the mistakes were up front and center for all to see.  But that’s not all, surprise renovation issue No. 4 was that the water line was broken and  if any water was actually running throughout the house we would have qualified to be on an episode of DIY’s Disaster Renovation. The good news was the plumbing had been turned off for over a year.  Now I can wipe the sweat off of my forehead and I don’t have to make any emergency calls to the insurance company!

But, there is a potential renovation issue No. 5.  The previous owner (weekend warrior) installed some very nice shower tile in the same master bathroom but we have no idea how and what type of plumbing he installed. So do we need to replace any part of the shower tile? 

Will they stay or will they go? check back for the answer….

Needless to say the plumber is having a good time with this one!

The Flooring Search Is Over, Yeeeeessss!

Here’s a pic of the floor sample we picked out. A sample of the kitchen cabinet and countertop are on top of it. Not an easy pick as it took about 2 months to decide on the floors. There were so many options to consider and being in Florida made it even more difficult–humidity, sand, moist concrete base floor– you name it. Laminate was far from my mind, I originally thought we were going to go with tile because it made the most sense but after talking with a few flooring experts in Florida and standing on tile for a while laminate proved to be a better fit. We chose a good quality laminate because I had concerns of durability and maintenance. The color is not too light and not too dark and works well with the age of the home (1974) and style (natural beach). 

Where’s the Wall?

Renovation Issue No. 1: Bedroom #1

The wood paneling in the first bedroom had to come down but I expected to at least have some drywall underneath it, right? wrong…only some cardboard looking stuff glued together with asphalt (used to glue mirrors to walls back in the old days) Whose idea was that!  now I have to drywall the entire bedroom. Mo’ money, mo’ problems…

Before Demo                                                      After Demo

        

        

                                                        

It’s Demolition Day!

We officially began the demolition today. For phase 1, the old kitchen cabinets, sink and the wall separating the kitchen and the living room will be removed and the wood paneling and the wainscoting in the bedrooms will be taken down as well.  I am so excited because I finally get to see how the house is going to progress from one phase to the next. More to come….

The Dead Palm Tree is Gone But…..

Ah landscaping, definitely not my thing…….

We hired a landscaper to come in and cut down the dead palm tree and remove the dead palm leaves that were all over the yard. The weeds along the fence are finally gone and the hedges and bushes are no longer listed as the worst in the neighborhood. Right now, we will leave the grass alone until we fix the sprinkler system and the rest will stay as is until we are ready to plant new hedges and lay down some mulch.  Not much to say for curb appeal at the moment but one of these days we will go from the worst yard in the neighborhood to the best. Bet on it!

What to Do With Old Terrazzo Floors?

Someone asked me the other day why not keep the old terrazzo floor instead of covering it with laminate. Well, we tried because I thought it would be a simple buff and shine job but after having a professional weigh in the original terrazzo would require a lot of work. The floor had cracks, it was chipped and with over 1565 sqft of terrazzo to fix, it would have cost around $5 per sq ft to refinish (for a professional to do it)  so it became too costly.

For more information about Terrazzo Floors go to: What to Do With Old Terrazzo Floors? | eHow.com.

How Much Should You Spend on a Kitchen Remodel?

I found a good article “How to spend on a kitchen remodel” and thought I would share it with you. 

According to Angie Hicks, of consumer group Angie’s List,  the average kitchen remodel, if you plan on living in your house for a few years, gets you about an 85 percent return on your investment. And when you think about a remodel job, you can do a job for even a few thousand dollars by freshening up some paint, even door handles on the cabinets, all the way up to several thousand dollars if you are thinking about a full remodel. To see additional kitchen remodeling tips from Angie’s List click on the following link.

What to spend on a kitchen remodel.