Jessica and Bruce Home Renovation

Taveritine Tile

2012-01-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

We Spent many late nights this week installing the travertine floors. We got the area where the the cabinets will be installed completed. We still have to complete the travertine down the back hallway from our Kitchen.

Cabinet Install Day!!

2012-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well I think we have gained 5lbs having to eat out while our kitchen was torn apart for so long, because we have been eating out so much. It will be soo nice to have our Kitchen back. Granite still needs to be measured and installed. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can have a fully functioning kitchen. After countertops are installed, we will be doing a travertine backsplash and picking a new paint color. We can't wait until it's complete!!

We Found Obi Wan Kenobi!!

2012-01-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would ever have anything in common with Obi Wan Kenobi until now. Like Obi Wan was quoted saying "Why do I have a feeling you're going to be the death of me" to Anikan. Well that is exactly how this house has made me feel at times. We found Obi Wan when we were doing Kitchen demo today. So my thought is he should stay with the house, because at times this house has gotten the best of us. So I will be Gorilla Gluing him inside one of the walls. Maybe one day... the walls will be opened again and someone else will come across Obi Wan. Until then..."May the Force be with you, Commander."

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

Our 2012 renovation will start out with a kitchen renovation. Our home renovation should come to an end this year hopefully. After the Kitchen is renovated our next task is get the carpet installed in the basement bedroom and on the stairs, tile basement bathroom, install new windows in the basement, clean up the front and back yard, install a new fence complete all the finishing work that is left in our house. That is alot of work to complete. Let the work begin!!
Ready... Set... Work!!

Out go the old Cabnits!!!

2011-12-31T17:31:00.000-08:00

It now looks like this... without the cabnits....

Use to look like this.....

Today we said good bye to our old kitchen cabnits. We sold them on KSL.com for $450.00. I had mixed feelings about selling them, because I spent hours painting and antiquing them when we first moved into our house. So maybe we are about to make a full circle in our renovation. It was one of my first projects when we moved in and now it's one of our last projects. Outside of the Kitchen demo, the remaining projects are finishing work. Which the two of us have agreed we need to finish the remaining projects one room at a time. It's like eating an elephant. 1 bite at a time.

STADIUM SEATING FOR THE HOME THEATER

2011-12-28T01:31:00.000-08:00

The stadium seating is complete with under stair lighting. We still have plenty of finishing work to be done. But I must say it's starting to look awesome! Our home theater won't have a screen and projector, but will have decent size flat screen TV. This room is perfect room for the Sports fans! I hope to have it more complete to watch the Utes in the Sun Bowl. GO UTES!!

WIND STORM DAMAGE

2011-12-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Luckily our house is still standing. Northern Utah experience some very powerful winds described as hurricane winds. The Damage to our house speaks for its self. We lost raingutters, sofets, shutters, shingles, fences, trees.

Pillars Under Construction

2011-10-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

We spent most of the day working on our two pillars which will stand at the entry of our side walk. They will be capped off and have lights on top. When the motar dries the pillars will be washed and cleaned of residue. The cap that is on top is only temporary until we get a larger cap. We just put this one to keep stuff out of the middle of the pillar. The Brick that lines the sidewalk and that we are constructing the pillars out of is all recycled from our old sidewalk.

4 YEARS IN THE MAKING

2011-10-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

It is the weekend of our 4 year Anniversary living in our house. I can't believe it's been 4 years already! Even though our house is still very much a work in progress, the changes have only made this house better.Today's post is before and after pictures of what we have accomplished over the 4 years. How quickly I forgot how UGLY the interior of my house once was. Looking back at the pictures now, I am beginning to think I was nuts taking on this project house. I now realize that the definitions of home remodeling between men and women are vastly different. Most women think home renovation means "New flooring, New Counters, New Cabnits and Paint." Most of what women think of home renovation is usually hired out. Men who are handymen think home renovation means "Knock holes in walls, move walls, new plumbing, new electrical... etc." Let's just say living in this house.... their has never been a dull moment in the 4 years we have been here. We are always working on a project. We are hoping the housing market will pick up so we can possibly sell our house next summer and move back to the slc area.

Note: Not all pictures of Updates are at their current stage. I posted the pictures from previous posts I had on my laptop.

NEW Wood Floors. "Lion" green paint.

Old Blue Carpet and White walls.

Old Wood Burning Stove.

NEW Stadium Seating for the "Home Theater" The wood floor has now been installed on top of the platform for the stadium seating since this picture was taken.

Old awkward Family Room Space

NEW!! Basement Office (Picture taken Prior to the Completed Painting)

Old Yucky Basement Bathroom

NEW! Totally Gutted the old Bathroom and Upgraded to a Full Bathroom.

This Bathroom isn't completed yet. However it is now painted and is ready to be tiled.

Old UGLY Orange Carpet and Old Laminate Floors

NEW False treads and new tan carpet. NEW Travertine Floors.

OLD Laundry Room! Ugly Yellow Laminate Counters and Laminate Brick floors.

NEW Craftroom/Laundry Room.

OLD- Mauve Pink Carpet and Green Bead Board fit for a girl.

NEW! Blue Bedroom with a Fire Fighter Theme fit for a boy.

OLD Austrian Pines once Stood in our Backyard

Old Railroad Ties, Old Wood Fence and a Basketball Standard.

NEW Cement Patio and NEW Tan Vinyl Fence

OLD Overgrown Bush

Overgrown bush is gone!

OLD Master Bathroom and Closet. Featured. A shower. 1 Sink and a Toilet.

NEW Double Sink Vanity with Granite Counter Top

NEW Large Shower

NEW! Master Bath Features Double Vanity.

HEATED Travertine Floors and Tub Surround

Jetted Bath Tub

Large Shower

NEW Master Closet!

NEW!! Guest Bathroom with new Tile, Granite Counter tops and Upgraded Vanities. This picture only shows one vanity, but we now have 2.

OLD- Tile fire place. BLAH!!

NEW! Travertine Fire Place and Mantel and New Engineered Wood Flooring!

Old Master Bedroom- Ugly Orange Carpet.

NEW! Master Bathroom Features Engineered Wood Floors.

OLD Kitchen

Newer Version.... but still more work to be done in the Kitchen.

New Floors and Counters are in desperate need.

Old Ugly Powder room .... NOW a walk in pantry.

NEW!! Walk in Pantry

Old Pantry..... Now 3/4 Bathroom

New 3/4 Bathroom

NEW! Dinning Room Engineered Hardwood Flooring.

OLD Dinning Room Orange Carpet

OLD Small Bedroom

NEW!! Patriotic Temporary Office

Old Grandma Blue Door and White Posts

NEW Black Paint on the front door.

Built into the garage. We added a mud room.

New Cement Concrete Sidewalk lined with Recycled Brick pavers from the original sidewalk. The sidewalk is now lined with Pavers on both sides since this picture was taken and is complete.

New Sidewalk is Complete

2011-10-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

We finished our new side walk this weekend. We recycled the pavers from the original side walk to line the new side walk. The next project we will add columns with lights at the entrance of our sidewalk to our house. The boxwoods will be re-located and we will be adding pathway lighting along the our sidewalk. Pictures will be added soon!

New Closet System

2011-10-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

We installed a New Closet System. Our closet seems so much more organized. :) However the mini fridge had to be relocated to the basement. I am sure over time I will get use to the fact, I can't get up in the middle of the night for a cold water. The mini fridge will be a great addition to our newly remodeled basement though.

Wood Floor Nearly Complete!

2011-09-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

We spent all weekend working on the wood floors in the basement. The only thing left to complete is the stadium seating for the theater. Next weekend we will install the cabnits and possibly install baseboard and mouldings.

Installing Engineered Hardwood Flooring

2011-09-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

We started to install the engineered hardwood floors we bought on super clearance at RC Willey.

They look really "golden" in these pictures. I don't think they look so gold in real life. Hopefully we can finish installing the flooring next weekend. I would really like to get the cabnits installed soon, so we can clean out the garage before winter hits.

STADIUM SEATING

2011-09-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hop Scotch anyone? When we pulled up the carpet pad we discovered the previous owners had painted a hop scotch on their basement floor. It will soon get covered with engineered wood flooring.
To hide the fireplace hearth, we are building a platform over it to create stadium seating in our basement family room. I can't wait until we can start installing the wood floor.

The Man Cave

2011-09-17T16:37:00.001-07:00

Bruce is finally getting an "office" but Jessica calls it his "Man Cave". It will be a place that will be a place where he can study and do all his computer stuff. Jessica Picked out the blue for an accent wall.

Basement Paint

2011-09-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Jessica Slaved away at Painting the basement the past two weekends. She has high hopes they can install the wood floor 2 weekends from now. She is crossing her fingers. The color of the paint is called Lion. It's a green/tan mix. We are trying to keep a neutral color pallet, incase we do decide to move one day. We don't plan on repainting this house anytime soon. Jessica selected this color because how well it went with the brick and the engineered hardwood floors that will be installed. How do you like the black accent wall in the picture above?

Brick Work

2011-09-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Above: Bruce working on cementing the Bricks.

Picture Above: From the Steps of the House looking towards the street.

Picture Above: From the Driveway looking towards the house.

Over Labor Day weekend... We Worked really hard! We are using the old brick pavers to customize our new cement walkway. We are recycling the pavers so the only additional cost to this project is cement, mortar and time. We completed one side this weekend. We will have to complete the rest of this project next weekend. I think it's added character to the house and it makes it appear to be custom and expensive. For a Professional to lay the bricks it would have cost us $7.50 a linear foot.

New Basement Drywall

2011-08-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

NEW Cement Patio!!

2011-08-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Our New Patio was poured today. It looks great. Now that it's complete we need to fix the sprinklers and get the rest of this back yard in shape.:) It will one day be a great backyard for a little family. :)

OVER GROWN AND DEAD IS OUT!!

2011-08-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

We have been working really hard... cleaning up the front the yard. We ripped out the overgrown shrubs in front of our house. Which really helped open up the front of the house.

Kaboom went the Housing Market.

2011-08-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family... it looks like we will be in Layton at least 6-8 more months. When the stock market crashed it had big impact on the housing in our area. The comps we were looking at dropped in value 15-25k. So we would never get what we need out of our house. So we will be looking to list the house in the Spring, which is probably a better time to try to sell anyways. Not many people want to move in the fall/winter unless they have too. So we are not going to rush to try to get this house on the market by Labor day. We will continue to work on it... and make it the perfect home for a family.

Basement Update

2011-08-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

New Plumbing added... for the mini kitchen we are adding in the basement. (Pictured Above)

New Full Bathroom (Pictured Above)

(New Office Pictured Above)

Well it's been awhile since I have updated you on the basement progress, but for a good reason
because there really hasn't been any progress. Bruce has been working full time, going to school full time and when and where he can..... he works on the house. But the basement is starting to get some attention again.. YAY!!! Jessica spent hours getting Drywall bids to do what we would consider a very small drywall job, but never the less we don't want to do it. We have done so much drywall in this house already and Jessica hate's it. Some of the bids nearly $2,000. If we did it ourselves materials it would only cost us $220.00. But Jessica wanted to hire it out because time is money. Jessica finally found a drywall guy under $1,000. Horray!!! Bruce has some plumbing and electrical work to finish this weekend. We hope the dry wall guys will be able to start Monday. :) Here are some pictures of the framing of the new office and bathroom. We took the awkard layout of the basement family room and created an office.

Backyard Renovation Underway

2011-08-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

The picture above. Where the new patio and retaining wall will be going.

The Orange line is where the cement stairs will come down from the new patio.

Our new retaining wall. Soon it will be supporting a new cement patio. It will be great to have a place to entertain friends and family

NEW Basement Recessed Lighting

2011-06-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

To update the lighting in the basement we installed recessed lighting.

BATHROOM DEMO

2011-05-22T20:56:00.001-07:00

Bentley and Ryobi didn't want to be left out of the Bathroom Demo.

Ok... this Ugly Bathroom is on the way to the dump. We will be taking part of the closet from the bedroom and making this a full bathroom. The closet is we will be taking is seen above.

Basement additon of a Mini Bar

2011-05-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

In this area we will be adding a mini bar to our basement.

Basement Familyroom Makeover

2011-05-22T20:45:00.001-07:00

We will replacing the carpet with wood floors, painting the walls and up grading the lighting. We will be tearing up the carpet over memorial day weekend. Stay Tuned for updates.

MUD ROOM IN THE WORKS

2011-03-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

We built into our garage a mudroom. We needed a "Doggie Room" a place where our doggies could go when we are away. It's taken about 4 months to get it to this point. We still have some touch up work to complete and mouldings.

3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN OUR HOME

2010-10-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Over the last three years we have worked really hard on our home renovation project.

Our Hardwork is paying off!

2010-09-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Jessica's dad came up and helped clean up the yard. We are so thankful for all his help!

Patriotic Office - Crown Moulding will soon be added to all rooms. !

Firefighter Bedroom

Carpet was installed in 3 bedrooms, the hall and on the stairs.

We decided to put False treads on the stairs to follow current trends in today's housing market.

Bruce figured out how to construct the treads.

We purchased a granite vanity counter top for the Masterbathroom.

Let's put it this way.... it was a long process. Over the long weekend, we Took 4 Truck Loads of debrie to the dump.

Well after working really hard over the last month. We had several things that had to be completed.
1. Vanity Top and Sink installed. (MasterBath)
2. Toilet Installed (Master Bath )
3. Rail Road Ties and other Debries removed from back yard.
4. Bedrooms Painted.
5. Carpet Installed. Upstairs Hall and Bedrooms.

This house has really come together for the first time in nearly 3 years! I can't wait to do the 3 year anniversary.... before and after photos. I am falling in love with the home we have created.
Sometimes a little vision and some TLC can go a very long ways.

The Race Against Time.....

2010-09-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

We have until 9 a.m. Tuesday morning and if it's not done.... well it's not done.

Just look at the mess of drywall dust we are swimming in.... and it all has to be cleaned up. Along with the rest of the finishing work. Time is running out..... and my handyman is sawing logs. 4:15 a.m. I told him to go to bed for a couple hours... because we need no "shoty" handman work at this point. I hate doing things more then once... I would rather do it once... and do it right the first time. While he has been sleeping... I have been working. I cleaned the Kitchen, did some touch up painting in the living room and Master Bedroom, and moved some furniture. Along with a few other little things.

New Carpet!!!

2010-09-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes you appreciate carpet more then living nearly 3 years on sub floors. It is really nice to have carpet again!!

Granite Vanity Top

2010-08-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

The pictures aren't the best. The granite is a mix of cream and brown with a little bit of black. Slowly our Masterbath is coming together. It's been under construction for nearly 2 years. We've had to buy things as we could afford them. So it's been a bit of a process and it is nearly complete.

Baseboard and Door Casings

2010-08-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Baseboard and door casings are installed. We have some caulking and painting to do still. In addition the crown moulding needs to be installed. We have less then 2 weeks before our carpet will be installed.

Knee Wall Constructed

2010-07-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well for those who don't know what a Knee Wall is... like myself. A knee wall is a half wall. We looked into getting a new banister made, how ever the lack of money and trying to get this house put back together faster we have time to save the money we needed for the banister. We used the savings we had for a fence and a new washer. So for a approximately 50 dollars we constructed a wall. We will then cap the top of the wall with a niced finshed piece. We will put in a nice iron railing on the lower end of the stair case.

New Sub Floor Installed

2010-07-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

Today we installed new subflooring in the upstairs hall and the small bedroom. I am hoping that carpet will soon follow. Maybe the end of September... if I am really lucky maybe sooner. :)

Laundry Room Wall Cabnits

2010-07-24T21:52:00.001-07:00

Laundry Room Wall Cabnits are being installed. The Laundry room still needs some additional finishing work, but it should soon be complete.

Welcome

2010-07-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

We are having our house appraised in the morning. I looked on a few websites about how to prepare for an appraisal. One of the suggestions was plant some flowers. So I did just that. I went to Lowes found clearance pots and bought some flowers. Remy is the welcoming committee.

FENCE

2010-07-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

We lost our old fence to a wind storm back in April. With a dog it is really hard not to have a fence. It means we have to get fully dressed to take him out in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

Well we are so lucky to have neighbors who would split the cost of this fence. The fence is nearly complete. We have 3 more sections and this side will be complete until we have enough money to install a double wide vinyl gate.

STUMP MUNCHER

2010-07-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

It took 4 hours. But all 5 Tree stumps we had in our back yard are now gone. This morning Bruce rented a stump muncher. No more tree stumps in our back yard. Next remove railroad ties, then trench for a new sprinkler system. Diamond Rental has made about one thousand dollars off of us in rentals over the past 3 years. That cost is minimal compared to what we would have had to pay a professional to take out the trees and remove the stumps. So in the long run it is money in our pocket.

Fence Posts are Installed

2010-07-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July weekend we spent ripping out railroad ties and over grown shrubs, in addition to installing the fence posts to our new fence. We will finish installing the rest of the fence this weekend. We are so lucky to have such great neighbors who split the cost of the fence with us.

EXCAVATOR

2010-07-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today Bruce rented a mini excavator. We attempted to pull out the stumps, but we will have to rent a stump grinder for those. We did accomplish some of what we set out to do and a little more. We did get the railroad ties removed,we got rid of the basketball hoop and we pulled out some extremely overgrown shrubs in the back yard. The mini excavator cost 150 dollars to rent, we used it all day long. We may now be future skin cancer patients, but at least we got rid of the ugly railroad ties, basketball hoop and overgrown shrubs.

Masterbath Shower Fixtures

2010-07-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

Jessica found out the hard way oil rubbed bronze is the most expensive finish, hence the reason it has taken some time to finish our masterbath. One of the valves is missing in the picture because it was scratched, so Jessica sent it back to Kohler. Jessica refuses to spend 300.00 and have a scratched fixture. So we are awaiting the arrival of the new valve.

Say Goodbye To The Railroad Ties, Tree Stumps and Baskeball Hoop.

2010-07-01T19:57:00.001-07:00

Tommorow we will start ripping out the railroad ties, stumps and basketball hoop in the back yard. We will then begin to putting up a new vinyl fence once we have done the demo.

Rabbit Palace

2010-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Bruce made this rabbit hutch for my mothers Rabbit. This rabbit will never want to go back into its classroom cage again. I call this the Rabbit Hilton.

Uptairs Guest Bathroom UPDATE!!

2010-06-23T15:24:00.001-07:00

It's been awile since we have updated our blog. Bruce is home from Kuwait. We are starting to get back to work on our home renovation project. Above is the bathroom that we have been working. I can't believe how much larger this bathroom feels. We will be adding a second vanity on the other side of the cabnit.

Fireplace NEARLY complete!

2010-01-02T03:31:00.000-08:00

I had to share the picture of our nearly finished fireplace. We still need to paint the wall behind the clock, spray paint the vent covers on the fire place and find some corbles that will fit our mantle. Other then that our fireplace is complete.

Living Room Wood Floor is installed!

2010-01-02T03:28:00.000-08:00

Well it took over 6 hours to install the wood floor, but its installed! YAY!! We finished the floor at 4 am this morning, so just about a half hour ago. It looks great!

HaPpY NeW YeAr!!

2009-12-31T23:54:00.000-08:00

I hope 2010 will be the year we finish off the flooring on the main floor and upstairs! Living with primarily subfloors for over 2 years has been hard. We have been under MAJOR renovation for just over 2 years! So now that most of our large remodel projects on the upper 2 floors are complete the house is starting to feel like a home. Our last and most expensive remodel will be the Kitchen. So we will have to save up for that expense. Bruce has been home on RNR from Kuwait and has been a big help to finish up some of our projects that were left undone prior to his departure.

Mantel

2009-12-31T12:43:00.001-08:00

Bruce built this fireplace mantle- I was impressed! I didn't know that he was such a great woodworker :) It's hard to see... it needs a coat of paint. I told him when he gets back he will have to make us a new one for the living room. :)

Tile Work Grouted

2009-12-31T12:39:00.001-08:00

Bathroom Floor Grouted. I need to upload a better picture. This will have to do for now.

Shower Grouted.

Fireplace Grouted

Jess learned an important lesson grouting, never grout with dry skin. The grout literally eats holes through your skin and has VERY sore fingers because of it!

2009-12-29T23:26:00.000-08:00

Bathroom Floor Installed! YAY!! Bruce is becoming a pretty good little tile guy. But he hates doing tile work. He will love his "vacation" in Kuwait to get away from the tile work.

Dinning Room Floor installed and New Light is Hung

2009-12-29T18:04:00.000-08:00

Today we installed the dinning room floor and Bruce hung the new light. Our house is starting to feel like a home.

GUEST BATHROOM TILE

2009-12-26T12:59:00.001-08:00

Close Up Picture of the decroative tiles... in the shower.

Today Bruce put the tile on the shower walls in the Guest Bathroom.

2009-12-24T13:28:00.000-08:00

We wish you a Merry Christmas! This is a very special Christmas at our house. It's the first year we have actually had a Christmas Tree up since we have been married. Second Bruce has been deployed to Kuwait and he was able to come for Christmas.
Jessica's Christmas wishes are coming true this Christmas. Bruce is home for the Holidays on RNR and he is even helping her put the house back together on his RNR. Bruce says "he gets a year long vacation in a sand box" so he is happy to work on the house when he is home. He has been a great worker!

BEST HUSBAND AWARD!!

2009-12-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have the best husband. He has worked so hard on the house within the last 5 days he has been home. We have worked long days and late nights. He has not complained... he has worked really hard. THANKS HONEY FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!! Needless to say we are not bored over RNR. :)

Picture on the Marble Wall

2009-12-23T20:59:00.001-08:00

Jess was showering the guest bathroom one day... and discoverd a "swirl" in the fake marble wall that looked like a "guine pig" with hair straight out of the movie grease.... winking at her. Look a the picture and see if you can see what Jess saw. Good enough reason to remodel the bathroom... when you can see pictures of animals staring at you in the bathroom. LOL

GUEST BATHROOM RENOVATION

2009-12-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

GROSS!!! The previous owners tooth brush in the sink drain. We discovered this grusome discovery when we ripped out the sinks and vanity today. NASTY!!!

Remy is not happy that we started tearing his bathrooom apart. Remy loves to hang out just inside the door of this bathroom next to the heater.

Bruce made the comment today that we should go on Renovation Realites... and Jess joked that the show wouldn't have "what not to do" because Bruce knows how to do everything the right way 99% of the time. We have exactly 14 days while he is home on his RNR and we are tackling some big projects. Bruce decided we could get our upstairs guest bathroom done in the time he is home on RNR. Jess became a little hesitant about the bathroom and said "are you sure we are not getting in over our head?" So We started to take the engineered "plastic" marble tub surround off. If you know our experience with doing any project in this house... their is always a hidden mess. Sooo...hidding behind the plastic crap was rotten dry wall. So we ended up pulling it out. Tonight we are going to replace the dry wall with cement board and red guard the walls. It will have time to set for 24 hours.

Family Room Painted

2009-12-23T20:43:00.001-08:00

Jess fixed the dry wall and painted the family room Spartan Green while Bruce was away. The house is coming together... and its really starting to feel like a home.

The New Fire Place

2009-12-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Fireplace is nearing completion. The But its getting closer. It will be awesome when we complete it. All of the travertine on the wall is "scrap" from our masterbath travertine. Bruce figured out how we could get the most cuts out of the scrap and Jess ripped down the tiles.

Entry Painted and Travertine Installed

2009-12-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

Jess fixed the drywall and painted the entry Spartan Green. Bruce being the awesome husband that he is layed 18x18 (walnut blend) travertine on his RNR. The house is really starting to come together!

2009-11-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Prepwork then mudd the family room.

Living a "RENOVATION REALITY"

2009-07-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-30T13:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T02:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

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

Floor and Tub Surround Grouted

2009-07-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Pocket Box Borders and Shower Bench

2009-07-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

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

Shower Tile

2009-07-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-08T18:45:00.001-07:00

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

Masterbath Tile Tub Surround

2009-07-02T22:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T08:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

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

Red Guard

2009-06-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

I just recently learned how to red guard a shower. It's really simple honestly. It's like painting. My ADD kicks in full speed ahead when I am painting one color for to long. Luckily I buckled down and stuck with it because my husband was also helping.

Masterbath Tile

2009-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well here is a picture of the master bathroom tile I have picked out looks like. The tiles shown in the picture will be on the bath surround topped off with the border.

We will have 18x18 tiles on the floor. Our shower tiles will be a darker brown porciline tile. We will insert travetine into the the pockets of the shower.

Shower Pan in..

2009-05-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

Today Bruce worked hard on getting the shower pan in. The most important part is that it was done the correct way the first time...LOL!!

Cement Board going up...

2009-05-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today among the other projects Bruce has done he has also been working on hanging cement board in the shower. We are making lots of progress thanks to all of Bruce's hard work.

Shelves in the closet...

2009-05-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today Bruce put shelves in the closet. We re-used old shelves and cut them to fit. So I guess that is our part of being "Green". Most of the materials we can't save because they are totally out dated or they are hammered. Jessica did the painters caulk to help pitch in putting the closet together. Jessica's math skills would not help with the construction process.

Almost Ready to be primed and painted...

2009-05-23T11:42:00.001-07:00

Today Jessica has been working on sandinng and doing some prep work to get ready to prime and paint the small bedroom which we will use as a home office.

Master Bath Drywall Going Up!

2009-05-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend the goal is to get the masterbath drywalled and mudded. So it can be painted and tiled the month of June. Horray!!

Jessica Graduated 5-2-09

2009-05-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

Jessica is finally done with school and that means she will have some extra time to help on the house. The past few months her life has been stressful with school coming to an end.

Dinning Room Primed.

2009-05-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Jessica spent the day priming the dinningroom. The plan is to paint the lower area black. While the upper part of the wall will be painted gobi desert.

Framing in the NEW Masterbath!!

2009-05-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

Adding the works to the masterbath. We will have a built in t.v. and shelves below.

Above is the shower with bench and built in shelves.

Above Bruce working on the tub deck.

The picture above is area where the toilet will go.

So Long farewell...

2009-04-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Good Bye to the last of the orange carpet, ugly bathroom cabnits, and a few of the ugly light fixtures left in our house. It is amazing how taking these things out... adding new paint and new light fixtures can really make a diffrences in the feeling of our house. It will be super when we get flooring put in our house. We are getting closer to that day. WAHOO! I just can't wait... it may be even possible that I get flooring in my updated master bedroom this summer. Sweet!!
pics coming soon.

Bentley's Kingdom

2009-04-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

King Bentley's Palace. Jessica Still needs to complete the painting... however Bentley is able to go in and out on his own using the "pet door". Remy and Oreo really like the pet door also, however they don't like the fact the door has a remote chip. Bentley is the holder of the magic chip. with out Bentley.. they can't go in and out all the time.

Nearly Complete...Bentley's Dog room.

2009-04-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

A dog room made for King Bentley. Well it will pretty much be his palace once Bruce is done with it. He will have a dog ramp up to his dog door. About a year ago Jess found some laminate woodfloor 7 dollars a box. She scored 60 Sq Feet for 21 dollars. Originall shehad planned on using the floor under a water table for a future playroom. However no kids in the plans as of now... so we used it for Bentley's room. Its starting to come together. The desk in the top picture will be used to create part of the ramp. We are reusing the vanity from the master old masterbath. We figured underneath would make a great spot to place his doggy bed. We will post pictures when it is more complete.

DEMO Basement Bedroom and Bathroom

2009-03-28T22:46:00.001-07:00

You are looking at the Bedroom and Bathroom....NEXT on the demo list. We discovered after we ripped out the ugly carpet- some major mold issues. We then came up with a new plan- to demo the bathroom and make te batroom a full bath. So we took an odd space out of this bedroom and made it a walk in closet. We added canned lighting and the ugly carpet went to the DUMP. With the addition of the walk in closet that will temporaily be Bentely's room. The closet in the picture will soon become part of the bathroom. Doing this we will be able to increase the number of full baths in the bedroom to 3 full baths and one 3/4 bath. However the bathroom will probably not be finished in the near future. Likely it will be a project after Bruce returns from his deployment.

Bentley's Room

2009-03-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Bentley's Mess

This project wasn't on our list, and frankly the basement was a project we hadn't planned on starting for awhile. Our Pug Bently has been tearing up the house while we are at work. Bruce is sick of coming home to a mess of torn up magazines, papers and etc. So he decided to take part of a bedroom in the basement and make it into a "closet" which will become Bentley's room where he will eventually have a "smart" doggy door installed on one half of the window. Well it turned into a bigger project then had thought, because I of course wanted him to install canned lighting in the room while he was knocking holes in the walls and putting up walls. My thought is may as well do the job completely in the room, rather then just do part of the job. He was a good sport and worked really hard to add the canned lighting to this room. You will notice we ripped out the lovely "carpet sample" flooring. I am not sad to see that ugly carpet go.

$25 Bucks!!

2009-03-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Who says $25.00 dollars won't buy much?? We got the really nice glass door from a business down the street from my parents for only $25.00 dollars. We totally scored on that deal. The closet doors in the right of the picture are for our foyer closet. Because Bentley has been eating the heels out of our shoes. Naughty Pug!!

A Fresh Coat of Paint and NO orange carpet makes a huge difference.

2009-03-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

We have finally finished painting the living room. Horray!! Bruce will be hanging the new light fixture in the room this week.

HUGE WASP NEST

2009-02-28T20:56:00.000-08:00

Today when Bruce opened up the floor boards to do the plumbing for our new Master Bathroom. He discovered a VERY large wasps nest. This is only what we could see on the one side of the floor joist. Terminix will be out Monday.