ONE Major Decision Made

FINALLY!  We've decided what the floor plan is going to be.  We decided to go ahead and make a true master bedroom and add a second full bath to the main floor.  You can click on any of the images below to see it a little big bigger.

Here's what we've got now (at least a close version of this)

This is what we were going to do initially....

And this is what we're actually going to do!!

(including the garage..we just didn't put that on our drawing)

This part will eventually get done ;)

I think we'll be happy with all aspects of the new floor plan.  We've put a LOT (probably entirely too much) thought into it.  Hey...I'm the queen of doing that!  Some would call it wasting time...I call it over analyzing everything  :)  I'm still waiting on about 4 more quotes for cabinets and then I'll narrow it down!  I should have 2 of them tomorrow...and hopefully all of them by Wednesday!  That's our next big decision...then it's on to the HVAC.  Exciting, lol!!

Sunny Sunday

Well, we got more some more done today!  Finally we were able to break out the brick wood boxes on the sides of the fireplace in the basement.  Yeah baby!!  Kade started with a chisel, and I finished with a sledge hammer  :)

Remember, this is how it looked before we got a hold of it

Why is it that using the sledge hammer is so much fun?

Oh look, it's Kade being organized again :)

 

This little section that was in the back corner of one of the boxes was really testing our commitment, lol.  We worked on that dumb stack of 6 bricks for probably 2 hours (at least that is how long it felt...I'm not really sure how long it was)  The rest of the box was put together with mortar...it came out really quite easy...this section was put together with CEMENT!!  Go figure!!

FINALLY!!  It took Kade, Dad and I all three to get it out!  That's insane!

Look at how it came out...piece by little freakin' piece!

Here's all of the tools that it took to get it out.  I probably could have left out my hammer...I'm pretty sure I only swung that one or two times...it was useless.  It was mostly the medium chisel and the 5lb. maul that got the job done!  Oh...and some elbow grease!

Doesn't that look better?  Well...it will when we get the old soapstone stove out of the way and we get the walls painted (or drywalled)

Here's my reminder...this is what we're doing it for!  I was so happy to see the sun shining this weekend!  It really helps with the motivation!!

Tomorrow we'll be making our final decision on the floor plan.  It's that time!!

Behind on Updates!

It's been a busy week and I haven't had time to do any updating of the blog since last Friday!  Can't let that happen again!  I'll try and remember what we did this past week  :)

Saturday, Jan. 21
We took the day OFF!!  Woo-hoo!  Our friends The Harmans had a SOLD OUT bluegrass show at Lewis & Clark College with Special Guest, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.  It was great!  The break from manual labor was welcomed with open arms  :)  Here's a pic from sound check!

Sunday, Jan. 22
Cleaning Day!!  We pulled a zillion nails and swept, vacuumed, etc.  It's amazing how long doing that can actually take.  I do like to have a clean work zone though (at least as clean as possible!)

Monday, Jan. 23
Planning, planning, planning.  Worked on kitchen layout.  Still trying to pick out lights, sinks, etc.  Ugh!  I am the research QUEEN!!  Seriously...I should have considered a career in research!  Still having trouble making ANY decision at all.  What is wrong with me?  Monday evening we finished pulling up the orange carpet in the basement...it is finally GONE!!

Tuesday, Jan. 24
I went on a vanity hunt.  No luck.  I'm hoping to find an old dresser or buffet to use as the bathroom vanity.  I love that look.  I went up to Carlinville and Divernon, stopped at 5 or 6 different antique stores..nothing.  I did find a vanity that would be cute for a single sink...but we were hoping for a double.  Right height and everything...cute!  I might have to go back and get that one......

I also went to Wills Milling in Carlinville...I LOVE that place!  They're going to come out tomorrow and measure for the trim & doors.  These are the styles that I like.....at THIS moment, lol.  Not the trim though...I'm thinking something a little more plain.

 

Tonight we worked on pulling up hardwood floor again!  Who's idea was it to salvage the hardwood flooring to reuse in the basement??  Oh yes, that's right, it was ME!!  Now we've only got one bedroom left!!  THE END IN NEAR!!!

Wednesday, Jan. 25

Met with the guy from Wills this morning...should get our quote on doors/casings/base molding, etc. soon.  The weather was so gross again.  I am so not a fan of rain!  Kade had to work late tonight so all he and I did was walk around the house and talk about where things are going, etc. (so I guess we would call that more planning, lol)  Dad did get something done though, he worked at the house all by his lonesome and pulled nails out of flooring.  Gotta love his OCD :)

 

Here's his "work station"

Thursday, Jan. 26
ENOUGH WITH THE RAIN ALREADY!!  I think I'd rather have snow...how gross is that??  Kade had to work late again tonight.  I went up and moved doors/trim out of the very last bedroom that still has hardwood floor in it.  When Kade finally got home we sat and worked on plans...we MIGHT be making a slight change to our original floor plan.  Dad worked on pulling nails out again.  I don't know how he can stand to do that for so long!!  It would make me crazy!!  He does seem to like those jobs that take a million hours to save $3  :)

Friday, Jan. 27
Guess what I did today....research shopping, lol!  I went to Staunton, Shipman, Jerseyville, Godfrey and Alton!  Whew!  I found something really exciting though (finally some good news!)  At our current house, when we remodeled the kitchen I found a big one bowl white sink that I LOVE.  When I went to find a sink for the new house I couldn't find ANYTHING that I even kind of like.  (go figure!!  I swear I'm not picky...I just know what I like!)  So I decided to stop in at Lowes because I haven't been to the Alton store in a few months, I thought maybe they'd have something different than the Glen Carbon store...and guess what I found.....

 

Wooooo-Hoooo!!  A one bowl white sink!!  And at a good price compared to what I was afraid I was going to have to "settle" on!  So finally a decision made  :)  This is the sink that we're getting!!

I didn't get home until after 7, so we had dinner and worked on plans some more.  Gotta get those plans right, lol.  We HAVE to get our final layout done this weekend so we can start putting our walls back up (or tearing more out)  Did I mention that I am really tired?  Tired of sitting and planning, researching, etc.  I'm ready to get this show on the road.  I'm sure I'll feel better when we've actually got a plan set in stone!!  We have to quit thinking about better ideas!

Saturday, Jan. 28

We got quite a bit done today.  We got the old kitchen cabinets hung in the garage.  Did a little organizing out there.  What a mess!  We're going to have to get another dumpster I'm afraid.  We've got too much stuff to squeeze in to this 20 yard dumpster...it is packed to the top!  I am also proud to say that ALL OF THE HARDWOOD FLOORING IS REMOVED!!!  DONE, OVER, THE END!

When we started...

About 3.5 hours later!  This was our fastest room yet!  I'm afraid my speed will no longer improve though....if I ever say that I want to salvage flooring just punch me in the face at that moment!!

My spine is really starting to ache now.  I've GOT to go to the chiro this week...wowza!  I also need to make all these decisions so that I can go to bed at a normal hour.  I've been up till 2 or later almost every day this past week.  Let's face it, I'm TIRED!! (and probably crabby!)

Almost done with Demo!!

Wow, this icy weather is GROSS!!  We sure didn't want to even drive 1/2 a mile away to go work on the house  :)  But we sucked it up and went anyway!!

Tonight Kade and my Dad got the bathroom plaster all torn out!  Yeah!  Hope nobody wants to use that potty now...you're only going to have a little bit of insulation keeping you out of sight of anyone coming in to the house, lol!  That's ok though, there's a functioning bathroom still in the basement that we haven't touched.

Ok, so we still need to pull out the tub & toilet...we'll probably do that on Sunday.  I still can't figure out a layout for this room...it's a good size...but the door is in a weird place so it's just feeling kind of crammed in there.  The closet that we took out was HUGE, probably 4' x 3'.  This week I have GOT to make some final decisions on what we're using and where it's all going!!

While Kade & Dad worked on the bathroom I pulled up the carpet from the stairs going to the basement...what I thought was going to be an easy job turned out to be 2.5 hrs. of me pulling, scraping, using the crowbar and hating every minute of it.  Let's face it, I'm not as young as I use to be, lol.  So this probably wasn't the best project to do when my back was hurting, but it had to get done!

 

Hmmm...wondering what I'm going to do to these stairs now.  I was hoping to put some walnut treads on and some white painted risers. Not sure it's going to work though.  I guess we need to take the rest of that cedar off of the walls so we can really look at what we've got to work with!

 

Gerrr...I was getting mad at the carpet at this point, lol.

Finally!  I got it done!  Just after 8 p.m. and I was feeling weak from not eating dinner yet, lol.  Low blood sugar?  I think so!  I think my body is entirely too dependent on all the sugar it gets from me drinking coke and eating candy all the time!  :)  I'm looking forward to a day off from manual labor tomorrow!  We're going to watch our friends, The Harmans, play in concert at Lewis & Clark College.  A very welcomed break!!  Since we started working on the house we haven't seen hardly anyone!

So when we were heading home tonight down our long twisty paved driveway Kade knew he needed to be careful.  We immediately started sliding around, finally got going, headed down the hill toward the lake, made it just fine, up the hill we went on the other side...around the corner and OFF the driveway!!  We just slid right off of there like it was nobody's business, lol.  Not a big deal, just something that we need to prepare for in the years to come!  I'm sure that will not be the last time it happens!  Hopefully it just never happens at the bottom of the hill by the lake!

Well, We Almost Had a Fire! (and I'm not talking about in the fireplace!)

Nice, huh?  Kade took down the old ceiling fan in the basement family room and this is what he uncovered!  We are lucky!!  Not sure exactly WHY this happened, possibly from a light bulb that was too big??  Doesn't matter now though...it's down and we are safe from that hazard!

So after Kade got the fan down he came in to the basement bedroom....he was tracing electrical wires...and here he found that all of the outlets for the big bedroom upstairs (our bedroom) are in a stinkin' junction box.  Ugh!  Hopefully he's not going to have to pull down all of the insulation from the ceiling and rewire the entire house!! (but I do know how he is...a little OCD on his electrical work)

 

Here's Kade giving the junction box the look of death ;)

 

While he was messing with the electric I started pulling out the beautiful (NOT) orange carpet!!  Got the bedroom done.  Will try and get the rest out tomorrow night.  I'm ready to be done with the demo!!  We're getting close now...all we have left to tear out are the wood boxes beside the fireplace, the orange carpet in the basement family room and the plaster/fixtures from the main floor full bath.  If we weren't trying to not tear everything up this would have gone a whole lot faster!!

No Manual Labor Today!!

Whew!  We had a much needed break tonight.  Actually, Kade had to work late...didn't get home until 7:30 then we had to eat dinner, so we decided tonight would be a good one to take off!  I didn't get my post up last night, so figured maybe I should do that before I can't keep my eyes open tonight! (and that is going to be VERY soon!!!  It's already almost 12:30 in the morning!)  So, last night we pulled out the rest of the basement ceiling.  Had to take down almost all of the cedar too!  I see LOTS of drywalling in our future...

Basement Bedroom before...

 

Basement Bedroom after  :)

Basement Family Room before...

 and after...We really know how to make a mess don't we??

I was starting to get REALLY stir crazy today and I had to just get out of the house for awhile!!  All I've been doing is researching products and trying to decide what I want, ugh!  So I went to have lunch with Kade and run some errands.  We were out of just about everything!  What can I say??  I haven't gone to the store in probably a month!  We did go to Lowes and I checked out a few things...lighting being one of them.  Another decision that I just can't make, lol.  I found a couple different styles that I like for over our island...

 

These aren't from Lowes...but I LOVE them...and I will make them to put somewhere!!  I've got a bunch of old insulators from Kade's Grandparents I could use....how cool would that be??

 Love these mercury glass pendants too....ahhhhh!

I thought these might be cute over the windows in the kitchen...

Why does there have to be so many options????  And why do I dwell on making the decision for so long??  Geez-louise!!   One of these days I'll make a decision!!

Since I was looking at lights...figured I should look for some for the new 1/2 bath too...thought about one of these...maybe I could use some of that cedar that we pulled from the stairs to the basement and use that on one of the walls in there too...hmmmm

Can't decide if this last one is cute or cheapy looking, lol.  I think maybe I need to print all of these things out and lay them on the floor and look at them side by side with other things...such as THE KITCHEN CABINETS that I still haven't picked out  :)