work in progress

the contractor started a little later than expected cos the job before ours extended. he came in 2 days ago and already has done so much - all the walls are down and the floor's been pulled up. we are getting the pocket door delivered tuesday and i'm picking up the tiles on wednesday. mike and i are going to ikea on sunday to get the sink/vanity and i think he will have all the materials he needs.

we also asked him to finish extending the door that we started which is  a nice bonus.

it's nice to have someone to do the dirty work for once although it's proving to be very expensive. so far he's costing us $7,500 (including constructions materials) which if I GC'ed this project myself, i probably could have saved about $3,000. But then our baby deadline is fast approaching and we really don't have the time to teach ourselves how to renovate a bathroom so i'm ok with it. i'm trying to keep our budget to $10k but i think the reality is it will probably cost more like $12k. i'm not keen to stint on fixtures just because we are hitting the budgeted amount either. my philosophy has always been we either have time or money - in this case, i don't have time since mike and i have been working so much.

anyway, 2 weeks of this disruption and hopefully we have ourselves a new bathroom and an entrance foyer (carved out from the bathroom - the bathroom becomes smaller but it will be infinitely better laid out). if all goes according to plan, i will have my 'nesting period' after this job is done to organise and rearrange. i'm really looking forward to that...

Next phase: Bathroom

We got back from Italy today to be greeted by all the numerous bathroom fixtures we bought before we left. The contractor begins on Monday (2 days from today) and we have the new tub, toilet and some sink fixtures although I doubt he will get to it for a few days. He will have his hands full with the demo work for a few days I think.

We found a decent 4 foot soaking tub which is tricky since 5 feet is the standard tub size. We have also picked out the tiles we wanted so all I need are measurements from the contractor on Monday and I can order the tiles. I am still debating the sink situation - for now I know we will have 2 but I don't really know much more how I am going to utilise the 48" of space I have left after installing the tub and toilet.

I got a dual flush Toto toilet, i love Toto toilets. They are so distinct and a great selling item when looking at a house. This one also looks easy to clean since it has no curves.

I am nervous about this renovation work to be truthful. The contractor speaks very little English and although he came highly recommended, Im not sure we will be able to communicate as much as we could with the other one. This one is half the price however which sorta made my mind up. Plus the other one, I felt was a little sloppy.

Anyway so fresh off the plane, Mike and I moved our bedframe and our mattress downstairs to the basement where we will sleep for 2 weeks while we don't have a bathroom. I figured it was easier instead of walking down the steps 3x a night to pee and in case I have late call times, I won't have workers barging in on us and this will ensure some modicum of normality while we are renovating. We also bought a new bedframe and that is getting delivered Wednesday which means we can leave our old one downstairs with our spare mattress for when my sister or other guests come. It's all part of my bigger plan.

We also moved the desk to the bedroom and leaving the baby's room pretty clear for staging all the toilets/fixtures/tubs etc. Once all that is removed for the reno work, it will be an empty room which we can paint and decorate for the baby. That's the plan, anyway. Right now, the master bedroom and baby room are in shambles. I have one full day tomorrow (Sunday) to get it in decent shape before I go back to work full time until Dec 18.

Finally a hallway closet!

Chip & Ann came this weekend to deliver a mattress we bought in Doylestown, PA as well as the crib mattress. Since we had their truck, I also used the opportunity to pick up the closet door from the lumber yard. While Chip & Mike framed in the door, Ann & I organised the basement - something I have been dying to do for a while.

With the advent of this hallway closet, I now have managed to clear the bedroom a lot and it's starting to not look like the sty it's been looking like the past month. I can even see floor! Amazing what a little closet can do for you.

We will probably finish up the kitchen tomorrow, install some doors for the new pantry and Mike needs to cut down some shelves for me and I can finish the interior organisation of the kitchen completely. I am quite pleased with the progress we made this weekend. We are even going for dim sum with some friends and visiting a friend's new born baby who is about 2 wks old.

The contractor came to quote us for the bathroom and it came in a lot less than we expected - $5,000 not including materials. His English is much worse than Alberto (the other contractor we usually use) but he came highly recommended. We are going to see if we can do it mid October. It means losing the bathroom for 2 weeks but we have the basement bathroom we can use still.

The idea we can renovate everything before the baby comes is very appealing - if I have to work 5 days a week until I birth to do that, that's what I want to do!

painfully slow steps

didnt get much done this weekend cos we had a family reunion to attend and mike had to work on sunday. i joint compounded the inside of the closet but didnt get the paint so i will have to paint next week when mike's away for work.

we did buy a new range hood though when we were in PA a nice Zephyr Savona from the same family friend we bought the oven from. we also managed to dash into Ikea to pick up the missing parts for the pull out pantry that is the final piece to the kitchen cabinet situation. once i get this and the fridge cabinet put together, the kitchen is then fully assembled. i might take a crack at it next week when mike's away. he usually deals with this stuff but i can't wait anymore!

we also looked at new dishwashers. hopefully there's a cash for clunkers program for appliances and we can turn in our old dishwasher for a brand new Bosch one i have my eye on.

"old hands"

Mike's brother Chris came over on Saturday and the boys built out the closet in the hallway while Shelly & I went to Buy Buy Baby (another story in itself). They did well and today, I am joint compounding behind the fridge while Mike takes down the doorway from the hall (to replace the entrance in the kitchen - we now enter through the dining room). It's an improvement in a few ways - now the entrance and exit are not one straight line (bad feng shui) and we can 90 degree the fridge and have a proper kitchen.

We are only taking one stud for the doorway for now and test driving a 32" wide doorway for now giving us the option to widen the entrance later. It is the way people come into the house at first so it might need to be wider & grander. But i'm rather wary of taking down walls now cos Mike always wants to take every wall down and I never have any place left to put furniture. We practically have a loft in our hands.

We are going quite methodically and making good progress which seems to be predominantly due to us being so much more experienced now. We make less of a mess and kick up less dust and it goes so much quicker. Quite amazing, really.

Hopefully by tomorrow, we will have a new high pantry and a rough opening in the wall. I dont expect to finish any walls till later but we're leaving a lot of weekend projects in our wake and eventually I fear we will run out of weekends before the baby comes!

What next?

We haven't finished the kitchen entirely - lots of cosmetic stuff including window painting, moulding, floor moulding. We havent installed the under counter lights or backsplash. But with a 3 day weekend coming up for Labour day, we decided to go ahead with the rest of the construction. That is, we are going to construct the hallway closet and make a doorway into the dining room.

We figured a 3 day weekend was too good to waste and Sarah's baby will be coming and that might slow down our demo/construction work substantially as the baby's room is directly above the kitchen. The other things we havent completed are all weekend projects and we have plenty of those in the coming year.

We sorta have an idea of what we need to do and Mike is picking his brother's brain to get the details. Our idea is to frame the closet and install a transom window above the closet so as to let some light from the kitchen into the hallway. It wont be much but it's better than nothing. I wont be able to use such high storage space anyway.

Another project...just when I was getting used to having the house in order. This really won't be as bad since we can seal off the dining room and still have the working kitchen/living room. I also will get my high pantry assembled finally - the lack of which has been stalling my kitchen interior organisation. The dining room has very little furniture - bar the table and chairs nothing else. We can use the table as a work table which we have been doing. So all in all, it's not a bad project to take on.

I had to cave

No backsplash, hood, undercounter lights, window molding and floor molding but here it is!