Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Renovations and Movers

It has been a crazy few days around here but I wanted to post a quick update. 

On Friday, with the exception of installing the vanity and the plumbing for the sink in the bathroom, Dan and Mimmo finished their work on the lower level. The vanity should be delivered at the end of this week so I hope to have a finished bathroom early next week. We spent the weekend hanging hardware for drapes, arranging furniture in the family room, cleaning and getting everything ready for the movers to arrive Monday.

The living room. Please excuse the half-dressed window! I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in this room for window treatments.
 
The dining room. That chandelier is going as soon as I can find its replacement.
Looking out from the dining room and into the sun-room and backyard. Dan and Mimmo have already started to remove the trim around the windows in the sun-room in order to install the replacement windows. 
There is water damage around most of the windows in the sun-room and the framing around three of the windows is so warped that the windows cannot completely close. We are going to replace all of the windows with windows that do not open and re-build the frames. The termite infestation affected this room as well so Mimmo and Dan will need to do a lot of work to repair/replace the drywall. 

A preliminary set-up of the family room. 
 
Kevin was happy to watch the Redskins' game (and their first win) from the comfort of a proper chair. Unfortunately, the Giants are still 0 in the win column. Ugh. 

We are thrilled with how the accent tiling around the fireplace turned out.
The movers arrived first thing Monday morning to deliver all of the items that had been in storage - some for as long as 8 years!
 
  
I can't even begin to tell you the state of chaos that our home is in. It is definitely a true test of my patience to live with boxes and furniture piled high in each room. 
More than once, I have said to Kevin, we have lived without most of this stuff for the last 8 years, why do we even need it now? It is very tempting to just put all of the unopened boxes out for the garbage collection. 

To add to the craziness, Dan and Mimmo began the third phase (and last!) of the renovation work yesterday morning.

In a matter of minutes, my family room was dismantled. Easy come, easy go. 
We are replacing the hardwood flooring in the entry way and re-painting. There was quite a bit of termite damage in the sub-flooring from an infestation about 10 years ago so a lot more demolition work was required than we initially planned on. 
The carpet on the steps to the lower level will also be replaced with the new hardwood. With the removal of the carpet from these stairs, the sun-room is the only room left in the house with that dirty and disgusting carpet and that should be removed next week. Yay!
We are extending the hardwood flooring into the bathroom and will also remove the wallpaper (and will paint) and replace the fixtures. Unfortunately, since this bathroom used to be a closet (well before our time), the plumbing was not installed properly and needs to be corrected. It is not a major job because it is only a half bath but it still is more work.  
Under the wallpaper, we found another layer of wallpaper and paint. 
 
 
 
I was so excited when Dan and Mimmo began to remove the wallpaper in the kitchen yesterday. I love how clean and open the kitchen looks now. 
 
 Fortunately, the drywall is in great condition and won't need many repairs.

We are sitting here waiting for the movers to arrive with our shipment from Thailand. Courtesy of the U.S. Government, Kevin is home with me this week. While we are so disappointed in the events that resulted in the shutdown, I am making the most of having him around to help with the movers, re-arrange furniture and unpack. 

Have a great Wednesday!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

All picture proving that, You remake your home decoration. I want say, Choose the matching countertop and sink for the vanity cabinet. Vanities seldom come with the top surface or sink included. If you've selected a standard size vanity, the tops should be already available - just find one to match. Sink options vary from one piece ready-to-mount tops including the sink, to under-mount style sinks, and even to vessel type sinks that protrude through the countertop surface or rest on top of it. Uber-Movers.Com

mover said...

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Elizabeth said...

Half-dressed window, huh? I like how you described it. Haha! Anyhow, your window looks beautiful. The color of the frame accentuated its size and style. It was huge that it springs too much light to the area. You really have to put a window treatment there to balance luminance and privacy.

Elizabeth Hoffnung @ Roof Pro