Patio

Here are the before and afters of the patio. All the work was completed in two days. Too bad the weather has been complete crud since it was put in and we haven't been able to use it. We bought a fire pit and we have a little bistro set that we used on the deck of our previous apt. M used it last night to grill out for the first time of the season...here's to hoping it's more moderate this week and not either raining or 97 degrees!

Patio

So, I totally forgot that our patio is getting installed today. I heard a big rumbly truck driving down the street and looked to see what it was and realized they were stopping in front of our house! Crud! I didn't have any make up on and still had my jams on which is ok because it was just a tank top and yoga pants.

With all of the planning for M's birthday, I really forgot about it. And it's not like I planned anything major, it was mostly just forcing him to finally decide on his birthday meal and dessert, but I guess between birthday planning, mothering, working it slipped through the cracks.

I'll post our before and after pics...they think it will take them 2-3 days to do. We are excited and the timing is great, we're having some friends over this weekend to grill out and now...enjoy the patio!

Before and After...Bathroom Edition

These are the befores of the half bath...


























These are the afters.....

Half Bath Remodel....Day 1

Painting and trim touch ups are done....what do you think of the color? We really like it, feels warm and cozy and I'm almost wishing I chose this for our living room! But I'm sure I can find other warm and cozy colors when we actually get around to that.

Bathroom Reno Day #1...in pictures

A keen eye will show you our nosy cat who just couldn't stay away and at one point ventured onto the back porch and was found just sitting there waiting to come back in. He's all talk I guess.

Half Bath Remodel

This weekend, our contractor got started on redoing our half bath. Unfortunately, we will live with no half bath (and the contents of the half bath and the toilet, vanity, granite top, mirror are in our dining room and on our dining room table) until at least next weekend. My understanding is that he will be back to lay the tile and do the grout work. Then he needs a plumber to come in to do the toilet and vanity, then he can install the lighting and finish things up. This is going to be a longer process than I thought it would be, I was envisioning them coming back tomorrow and finishing up without really factoring in that he needs a plumber for some of it. Luckily, he put the washer and dryer back so I have laundry access for the week.

Today they demo'd the bathroom, there is no floor in there and they painted and touched up the trim. The new paint color is really nice, the bathroom looks small right now though. Not sure if it is the darker paint color or the fact that there is nothing in there so it just looks like this tiny space. I'll post more pics tomorrow of their progress.

Here are the before pics....

Weekend Recap

M's parents were down for the weekend...we went out to eat with them for the first time since A was born! This was a typical thing for us to do pre-A, we've all got a touch of the foodie gene in us, so we would try out different foodie worthy restaurants when they came down which all had to change when we had A. We had to resort to ordering in and the area we live in has crap for food. There is one great Indian restaurant which isn't that close to us and 2 pretty good Thai restaurants and that's it.

So it was a major milestone this weekend when we actually went out to lunch at a kid friendly chain restaurant (a major compromise for all involved) and went to brunch yesterday morning. Of course, A was good as usual so it was a nice time for all of us.

A continues to pretty much sleep through the night after doing only one night of the Ferber Method. She now will occasionally wake up and cry for 5-7 minutes, but then puts herself back to sleep. Last night, she was up for awhile just kind of babbling so I did go in and give her the pacifier but mostly because I was sick of listening to her babble because it kept me up, thinking that it was going to turn into a cry any second.

This week is exciting, I think the renovations will start on our bathroom. I have to make sure I take those before pictures and then some during pics. We finally decided on the paint color...Benjamin Moore 'Colorado Clay'. We were thinking of something a little more brown initially but M was worried that it was too monochromatic and it didn't have any flair. It was very stately looking but I worried the richness of it was too much for the small space. The Colorado Clay brings out the accents in the tile and the granite countertop and is a nice contrast to the vanity, which were the reasons that we were liking the darker brown color. This color is more vibrant, has the orange undertones I was initially looking for, and is lighter than the other color.

We can't wait for our contractor to get started!

Bathroom in the Dining Room

Just for now...thank goodness. K (contractor) picked up our purchases from Lowe's yesterday with his nifty large and in charge truck and brought them over. M was more than excited to open each box (he's saving the toilet for tonight) to make sure everything looks ok. It all looks really nice together, but we still can't decide on a paint color! We both like one that is kind of a darker taupe but wonder if it's too dark. It looks really nice with the wood and tile though. We also had a sample of a light tan-ish one but it looks too peanut buttery and they didn't have samples of any other lighter tan/taupe colors. I think this weekend we are going to head over to Ben Moore and see if they have samples. They always look so different on the wall, I'd prefer to see it up before choosing to have my entire bathroom painted in it.

K is planning to start next week on the bathroom, he assures me that I'll be out of a washer and dryer only for one day while the tile is installed and setting. Whew! I'll be sure to post before and after pics! Exciting!

Decisions Have Been Made

We took a family trip to Lowe's today and made our final decisions on the vanity, countertop/sink, tile, grout and toilet. We got a bunch of paint color samples to ponder...I didn't want to get too matchy matchy with the tile, grout and counter top but the only things that make sense to my Type A brain are colors that are in the countertop. We chose a granite counter top called 'Desert Gold' which is a lighter colored granite with varying brown flecks, some black flecks and some that are almost a salmon color. I wasn't too keen on the salmon part but when we priced out the other options (of which there weren't that many) it made the most economical sense to just suck it up.

Our options for other colors were to do a special order which jacked the price up about $400 more and I still didn't love any of the colors. I think my problem is that it's hard to visualize what will look the best when all of these individualized pieces are in one room. We're basically taking a guess....

So anyway, our original idea of an orange in there is pretty much out, nothing in that tone seemed to make sense when we held the granite near it. The ones that actually jumped out were tans or taupes that actually complemented the salmonish color that I initially didn't like.

We chose a lighter colored tile with a darker tone grout so we were also trying to find paint that will complement both of those. We have it narrowed down to 6 different tan/taupe colors in varying hues. They're taped up in the bathroom now so we can see how they'll look in different light, maybe one will stand out....but they would all pretty much work with the granite and flooring so hopefully the lighting will help us make the decision.

We let our contractor know that we bought all of the pieces, he will go pick them up in about a week and then we will iron out exactly when he will start. With our luck, it will be the weekend that M's parents are coming down to visit!

Bathroom Reno

So our contractor can start on the bathroom in a few weeks...we just have to find time to buy all the stuff (tile, grout, vanity, vanity top/sink, hardware, paint). I called Restoration Hardware and of course, they don't carry the Dillon hardware in the oiled bronze in the store and there is no option to ship it to the store and pick it up to avoid shipping. So it looks like we will be paying $80 in shipping! At least, everything we need from there is 25% off until February 2 to make up for it.....

Bathroom Reno

Today we made some headway on the bathroom renovations....the contractor sent us the estimator but forgot to attach it, so we at least know it's done and it's on the way. We went to Lowe's and to another bath showroom to look at vanities and countertops. We went to the local place first and found this vanity. It's about $650 without the countertop, sink, or fixtures. It's solid wood.

Then we stopped at Lowe's to see if we could find anything similar but cheaper. Honestly, we don't care if it's solid hardwood or not. We just couldn't even find anything we liked looks-wise at Home Depot the other weekend which is why we tried the showroom. Any improvements we make in our bathroom will be great, anything to get the boring lowest end possible countertap/vanity combo that's currently in there out. So we found this vanity which is similar in color, we liked that it has the legs like the more expensive one instead of just sitting squarely on the ground.

We also kind of wanted to go cheaper on the vanity itself because we want to get these nice fixtures from Restoration Hardware. We're planning to get the fixtures below, the toilet paper holder, light fixture, and the towel ring (which is a square).

Then to finish it off, we will have to still choose the counter top and sink (I think we are going to go with a combo set from Lowe's), tile for the floor, and the toilet. I was initially against getting a new toilet, ours works just fine and isn't a toilet a toilet? But M prefers to get a new one since we are updating everything else. We looked and found one that has a cool almost crown molding looking top to it that I think we will get.

After all of that, we will have to finally decide on that paint color. Decisions decisions.

Home Reno

M and I are planning on redoing our half bath this winter...my head is spinning with paint colors!

We have long term plans to rip up the carpet in the living room and replace with hardwood and when we do, we will paint the living room, downstairs hallway, staircase and upstairs hallway. The idea is to do a taupe/brown/tan type color in the hallways and staircase and then do a darker shade in the same color family in the living room.

Then, because that won't jive with the bright yellow in the dining room, we'll need to paint the dining room. I like having yellow in there and I think it needs a light color because we don't get very much sun, but I think I would go with a more subdued yellow, more creamy.

My other thought was a bright orange in the dining room...crazy I know, but I love orange and thought it would look nice and crisp with our wainscoting.

Which brings me to my bathroom dilemma. Do I pick a bathroom color that flows with the current dining room color or pick something more neutral that will go with the future dining room color? My other dilemma is that I keep looking at taupes/browns for the bathroom but I shouldn't do that if I'm going to be using those colors in the halls and living room. Now I'm thinking of a creamy egg nog-y type color. It would like nice with our white baseboards and is neutral so it would blend with the room colors regardless of what they are, but is it too boring? My initial thought was to do orange so you can see this was a quite a leap...

We are thinking of a vanity kind of like this....I think M prefers the dark wood but I could be conviced to go with white...

ny thoughts readers of the blog?

No More Plywood!

Our contractor done us good...he laid all of the flooring in one day and we are ever so grateful! Here are the before and afters for the baby's room....
































Here are the before and afters for the office.

Incidentally, contractor #1 did end up calling us back after he dropped off the long awaited quote and we didn't call back. He wanted to know if someone had undercut him and M told him that wasn't the issue, the problem we had was the huge delay in getting the quote. If I'm not mistaken, it took us less than a month to talk to #2, sign the contract, order the wood, and have it installed. It took the same time frame to get the quote from #1.

We are also using #2 to replace our basement door and look at some siding issues on the back of the house. We're just waiting for our door to come in. I'm much less enthusiastic about that and so glad the flooring was done first. I swiffered the walls today in the baby's room and the office, next up is the hallway. Then I'll clean off the baseboards (we're talking loads of sawdust people), and then finally clean the floor and we can start to reorganize and move things back in.

Flooring in a Fortnight

It ain't pretty......but this is the last time you'll have to see it. Tomorrow (finally) the flooring is being installed. This is the sad state of affairs on the second floor of the Y residence post carpet removal. The two spare bedrooms have been carpet (and stuff) free for the past two months (we didn't think it would take this long to get going with a contractor but I'm sure you knew that from my previous posts) but M left the hallway carpet down till today. Not pleasant on the tootsies!

I'll most certainly post the after pics, after these eye sores I'm sure they will be the apple of your eye. Yellow is the baby's room and red is the office.

Liftoff!

Ok people...the moment we've all been waiting for....the flooring is being installed this weekend! So far, I'm in love with this contractor. We had our issues with his payment scheduled but he was willing to restructure it because of our concerns. He has been wonderful with communication and actually uses email! He came over for the contract signing and to get the first payment on 5/28 and said it would take about a week for the wood to come in. He called to let us know the wood was in and that he had made arrangements to have it delivered on the morning of 6/8/10. Last night he emailed to say that he had arranged for him and the flooring guys to come over this weekend to start AND finish the floors!

This is great timing, we have the in laws coming to stay with us next weekend. I'll take one last before picture and post it...

Contractor Update

So, after some tinkering with the contractor's contract, we have finally hired him and the wood has been ordered (allegedly). We had some issues with the payment schedule, he basically wanted the finaly payment to be only 10% of the total bill. We didn't really feel comfortable with that, it is a pretty small job so that last amount is under $1000. Where's the incentive for him to finish? In the end, we doubled the amount we'll pay him at the end. We are paying 50% up front at contract signing which will serve to cover the materials and then another chunk after day 1 of work (it's only supposed to take 2 days).

The pic is of the wood we are getting. It's Bruce Red Oak Seashell stain. The planks 3 1/4", we have 2 3/4" (I think) downstairs and liked the bigger planks bigger.

We signed the contract on Friday with K, he says it will take one week to get the wood and then it needs to acclimate in our house for a few days before the installation. After that, it should take 2-3 days to install. Finally! I think I'm more excited about reclaiming my bedroom and putting things back in the babies room and the office than having nice new flooring!

Clinching the Contractor!

Oh happy day...a contractor contract is in the works! We finally got a quote from #1 but it was past his fourth deadline that he set. While we were waiting, we spoke and met with contractor #2 who came recommended from a friend in the area who's using him for a much bigger job.

He undercut the first guy by a few hundred dollars but the more important thing for us was that he had the quote ready when he said he would and he primarily communicates through email. He has been very responsive, another positive note is that the person we know who is using him found him through recommendations of people in his neighborhood that used him. They also have a great website with a portfolio of their work as well as a list of references.

We had to do some finagling with the contract, initially he wanted the final payment at the end of the job to be only $500...we didn't feel that was enough of an incentive for him to actually finish the job so it will now be $1000 at the end. We will pay him one chunk when we sign the contract and then another chunk at the end of the first days work (it's only supposed to take a few days to do this).

He is planning to stop over next week to have us sign the contract and has apparently already got some flooring samples for us to look at. He said that he can actually start the work of the job within the next two weeks and it should only be a few days.

I'm so excited that we have a rough idea of when this will get underway..I'm sick of having an ugly upstairs! It's been that way for about 2 months now, it's time to get back to normal.

Contractor Update

Well, #2 just called and is sending over a contract with the quote to M sometime tonight. M was just saying earlier that he was doubting this guy would get back to us but I told him that I thought he would. We were going to give him through tomorrow and then we were going to call. This is a breath of fresh air that he called us before we had to chase him down. After we review the contract (if we decide to go with him), he's going to start bringing over samples of flooring. He says that he can beat our first quote but only by $200.

I personally thought it was strange that he would ask how much we were quoted and stranger that M told him, look what happens when I leave the room!

To be continued....

Contractor Saga Cont'd

Ok, so here we are at Thursday, the self imposed deadline (third times a charm) for contractor #1. No Quote!

At least we have plan B paying us a visit on Saturday morning, this ball needs to get rolling!

Contractor Saga Cont'd

M got the name of a contractor that a coworker, who lives not one mile from here, is using to do lots of repairs on a home he just purchased. M left a message this afternoon and the guy already called us back, he'll be coming on Saturday morning to assess the job.

Don't get too excited yet, contractor #1 also called us right back. Speaking of #1, M called him this afternoon to ask if we should be expecting any quote at this point. He is now saying he should have it to us by Wednesday or Thursday. In theory then, we'll have this quote ready to go so we can compare with #2 (assuming we don't have to beg and plead with them to give us a quote).

We were told they weren't the cheapest quote, but the coworker felt that his portfolio and references were the best. The nice part is that they have an extensive website complete with pics of all the renos they've done. They also have testimonials and references (with phone numbers) right on their website.

Hopefully this goes well and we can actually get started.