Living a "RENOVATION REALITY"

I feel like were were living the television show "Renovation Reality" If you have never seen it.. its about homeowners who get in over their heads pretty much. I think we have had a few of those moments... when we ran into some unexpected costs and problems. Well it wasn't until this last week, especially the last two days... I felt like I was living the renovation reality. The two nights before Bruce left we were up until 4 a.m. and back up at 7 a.m. The moment I felt like we were truely living in the reality.. was when were hanging Crown moulding at 1am in the morning. We were having many problems with cuts and etc. As many people know I am much a of perfectionist...so little mistakes can really bother me. Finally I just gave in, I was tired and to stressed. Nothing a little bit of painters caulk can't fix right??

Bruce's Deployment

Today Bruce deployed first to Chicago to meet up with this new unit he was placed with, then will head to Texas and then on to Kuwait. Well he almost didn't make it to Chicago today. The travel agent that was to complete his flight itinerary didn't complete the flight arrangment apparently. He ended up not getting on the flight he was suppose. He was suppose to fly out to Chicago on Delta, he ended up flying American Airlines. It delayed him leaving which only made it harder.

I will miss him terribly in this home renovation process. Things will slow down with school starting next month. It is my first year teaching as a certified teacher. Horray! I am excited!! Progress will also slow down because he knows how to do so many things...that I don't know how to do. I will be busy patching drywall and painting I suppose.

Family Room

Yesterday my brother and his friend Ryan came up and helped us get the wood floor installed in our family room. I don't know that we would have ever gotten it done with out their help. Putting the wood floors in the family room was a last minute decsion, so we had to rip out the carpet and the padding. We did a quick coat of Kilz primer for the stains and what ever bacteria may have been lurking in the carpet and sub floor. The walls in the family room all need to be resurfaced because we tore out the baseboard, upside down crown molding plus there were plenty of other holes from the previous owners. I am going to cover the wood with some cardboard until I get the walls refinished.

Master Bedroom and Bathroom

Well the Master Bedroom is not fully complete, but we decided to move our furniture in so Bruce and I could spend one night in the room we worked so hard before he left. Unfortanatley we were unable to get the Master bath finished in time. We did get the tub lifted into place Still have some touch up painting and door fram moldings to complete.

Master Bedroom Walk in Closet

Today we worked on the putting the closet together. Its not done yet. Some finishing work needs to be completed. Yes that is a mini fridge you see in the closet. Jessica hates getting up in the middle of the night to walk downstairs through the construction zone to get a drink of water. She has tripped and hit her shin to many times. So we will have cold water in supply in our bedroom just for her. When the closet is more complete we will post finished pictures.

Wood Floors in the Master Bedroom.

Tonight Bruce and I worked for five or six hours on the wood floors. They are looking good. We had two little puggies trying to help, but they were in the way more then they helped. I will add more pictures later.

Masterbedroom Paint

We got most of the painting complete in the Master. We have edging and touch up work to do. It is starting to come together. It will be really nice when it is Complete. We are adding a blue accent wall on the same wall that our bed goes against. I will post a picture soon.

Started Fire Place Surround

Today Bruce and I started to tile the fire places surround. Bruce felt confident we could tile this on our own. So far so good. We have approximately 21 Sq feet of travertine "waste" from the master bath remodel. We cut down to create our fire place surround. I love it.. so far. It will be great... and we will up date the fire place... with spending very little additional money. Reduce Reuse- Recycle as they say.

Fire Place Tile

So today... Jessica came across a large amount of tile "waste". We spent alot of money on the travertine. So Jessica wanted to use as much of the travertine as we could. Jessica ripped down the tile "waste" We discovered that there is enough tile waste to do a the fireplace surround. Jessica was excited.... she immediatley wanted to "pop" off tiles- LOL. It was not that easy... the tiles were glued to the wall, we ended up ripping out huge chunks of dry wall. So we took out half the wall . Go Figure... small projects turn into much larger projects. In a matter of a couple hours we tore apart the fire place surround... and re-dry walled. Maybe we will get the tile surround done sooner then later.

The Shower Grout

Today the shower was grouted. I really like the grout color that we picked out. :) It looks great!

Floor and Tub Surround Grouted

Pocket Box Borders and Shower Bench

Today the shower Pocket Boxes recieved their Pencil Border and the Shower Bench was tiled.

Shower Tile

Today the shower tile started to go up.... and I am really excited. I am so glad I decided to use the travertine inside the boxes. It looks so good and is my favorite part of the shower thus far. We will be putting "pencil" border around the boxes to give them a finished look. We will be putting travertine on the shower bench also. I am soo excited to see the finished product. It is so exciting that it's so close. Bruce and I ripped the border down with this little saw we puchased. We also placed the same flower border we used for the tub surround around the shower to tie the bathroom together. I can't wait until its finished it will be amazing!!

Aloha From Maui

We are currently on vacation in Maui! Taking a break from the renovation for a few days.

Masterbath Tile Tub Surround

We are making progress. We have the tub surround almost completely finished. They will be starting to tile the shower soon.

American Walnut Hand Scraped Wood Floor

This isn't a very good picture. When we get the flooring installed I will up load some better pictures.We have selected hand scraped American Walnut wood flooring.

The New Door Knobs

We slected these new door knobs. We had a house full of mis-matched door knobs. We have had them picked out for awhile but I never posted anything about them.

Heated Travertine Floor

Bruce installed the radiant in floor heating system in our bathroom.

So now we will have toasty warm feet when we get out of the shower.

Patriotic Office

While Bruce was in Texas for a month I was busy painting the office as a surprise. I still have some touch up work to do... and need to paint around the windows. We post finished pictures when we get the floor, baseboard and crown molding put up.

Out Goes the Parque Wood Floor

We ripped out the parque wood floor in the entry. We will be replacing it with travertine flooring.