Mount Hope Remodel: done by Christmas?

Ummm...not quite :).  Progress continues to be made, and every week we look back and see pieces being put into place.

The week before Christmas the kids stairs were carpeted with the same carpet that was laid on the stairs going up to the master on the other side of the house.  This particular carpet looks really good on the stairs!

The front entry ceiling was completed!  After two weeks of work, the final stain color was added and thanks to the work of many, the look we wanted was achieved.  In addition, the front entry rooms were faux painted, and they turned out fabulous.  These two things were finished on Tuesday, just a few hours before a Christmas party we were hosting for a group of about 40 folks from Cargill.  Nothing like a party to speed up deadlines!  Amazing the transition this house went through in 72 hours...boxes were moved upstairs to the kids' rooms after the floors were dry, a few more pieces of furniture were moved into the house and we even managed to hang up some Christmas decorations and of course, the Texas tree :).

The day after the party the solar well was put out at the pond, so during the day water runs to fill the pond.  It has been fun to watch the water level increase daily!

Being a old home, the closets in the bedrooms are nothing like closets built in homes today, so we worked with our trim guys to put in a better closet situation in Peyton's room.  Chad put in a desk area and added some cubbies and a hanging area to go along with the drawer built-ins for him.

The electrical guys came back out and worked a little more on finishing all the electrical work in the bedrooms, including hanging ceiling fans and one more light in the kitchen area.  Work began on the guest bathroom - electrical done and walls were started.

One thing I've said before is how I never realized the number of decisions that need to be made in building or remodeling, and I have to say it again...drawer pulls and door knobs!!  Who knew there were SO MANY CHOICES!!! And when you are trying to match old drawer pulls, the task becomes more daunting.  But we did it and are on our way to being able to open drawers with pulls instead of fingernails :).

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is looking forward to a Happy New Year!

Remodel Madness...

Even though there are days I really don't want to make the time to take pictures and keep track of our remodel, when I look back through the early photos of all the work that has been done I'm glad that I have.  Some days it feels like the work will never be done, so looking through the progression of work truly helps us realize we have come a long way.  There's still a good bit of finishing work to do, but every week we are closer to being settled.

The ceiling was finished!  After a few experiments in stain color, we found a combination that worked and we love it.

The painting continued!  The front rooms and hallway are starting to fill in with color and warmth.

The pond rock was delivered!  A number of dump trucks filled with tons of big rock pieces arrived at the house and a border around the pond began.  It was quite a sight to see the trucks dump out such a huge amount of weight! 

The kitchen counters were finished and delivered!  These four pieces have been quite the adventure for our concrete countertop guy.  He used a heated drying process on the first set, not realizing that heat would discolor the new type of finish he used :(.  So then after re-pouring all four pieces, the store he gets his stain color from did not have the color in stock that he needed.  Bless his heart - he drove to Topeka to get the color from the company, then back to Wichita to put it on so it would be ready to deliver by Friday.  He's a rockstar - they look awesome!!

The wood floors on the main level of the house were stripped and stained!  We could not be happier with how these turned out, particularly since the various rooms had floors with more than a few layers of carpet glue, scratches, discoloration and patches. And to go along with all the other crazy adventures in this house remodel, our wood floor guy was pulled over on his way home late on Friday night because he drove a white truck...the same color as a suspect they were looking for.  After questioning him for over an hour, they finally let him go home.  We'd better get this remodel done soon or no one will want to come work here!

Mount Hope Remodel: Another Week, Another Wall

There were a lot of hands working at the house this week, making more progress on our remodel journey. Early in the week the “demo guys” returned and gutted the guest bathroom.  After the wood floors are refinished downstairs we will begin the update of that bathroom and the guest room next to it.  I look forward to showing pictures of that update – we have some very fun ideas to turn it into enticing “guest quarters” for our friends and family to come visit!

But back to this week’s progress…our dedicated painter, who powered through a couple days of a cold, finished painting in the kitchen.  She gave the tired-looking cabinets a fresh coat of white paint, and also gave us some great accent green on the walls and in the back of the cabinets.  

I spent some time this week staining the kids’ vanity doors and cabinet fronts.  I never realized how long it takes to prep, stain and finish cabinets!  I think I need to invent a quick-drying stain J.  I know the kids are ready to have their bathroom to use.

Chad also worked most of the week finishing up the window and baseboard trim.  This house had a variety of trim and baseboard sizes and shapes so our goal was to make them all the same. 

One big highlight of the week was the start of the front room ceiling!  There were large cracks in the ceiling so we worked on an idea to patch and cover them with beams.  We hesitated at first, considering the cost of bringing in treated wood beams from the east coast, and also how heavy they would be to hang. So then our contractor came up with the idea of actually building the beams – constructing the four sides of the beam literally on the ceiling itself, making them hollow inside.  After they are finished building the beams, they will distress them a bit and we will stain them.  Inside the beam squares will be long wood pieces to finish the look. 

 

Even though there are days of frustration with how long we have been digging through boxes to find our belongings when we need them, looking back over this blog to track our progress certainly helps us realize we have truly come a long way.  We still have a longer road to go down than we would like, but perhaps we need to look at this like the tortoise and the hare story.  If we had zoomed through everything as fast as possible without taking time to really plan, budget or regroup along the way, there would have undoubtedly been mistakes and regrets.  So far so good…as Proverbs 21:5 says, “Steady plodding produces prosperity, hasty speculation leads to poverty…”

 

Another week of construction...

Even though it was a short week we still saw some progress toward that light at the end of the tunnel.  Our devoted painter put the finishing touches on a few rooms, primed a lot of cabinet doors and started painting in the kitchen.  Our trim guys worked a lot of hours trimming out the new windows upstairs in the kids' area, as well as putting in new baseboards where needed.  The kids' tub was refinished is ready for the shower door to be installed this week. Yes, refinished - who knew one could do such a thing?!  So we successfully avoided ripping out a decent tub that had two small cracks and was the wrong color for the bathroom by having someone come refinish it.

Obviously when the plastic is removed it will look a bit nicer, but how about the color change! It matches the white toilet a bit better than the cream did :). 

My favorite success of the week?  The workout center is 90% complete!!!  We still need to paint inside the closets, put some air in the stability balls and find a few more pieces of equipment that are in a box somewhere, but other than that it is done.  Kansas Sealant put in an awesome epoxy floor over the weekend and we are really happy with how it turned out. So to all my Fresno clients, come on out!  :))

This week we look forward to having the kitchen finished so we can move in all our dishes, as well as all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts stained or painted and installed.  Who knew that doors and drawer fronts were done separate?  Learning something new every day.

Another week in the Mount Hope construction zone...

Another productive week at our house!  Here are a few more pictures to document our remodel journey…

The refrigerator/freezer is finally installed and functioning!  This was a bit of a challenge…the fridge was delivered but the delivery guys weren’t equipped to set it up.  So thankfully two of our contractors were here and helped get it out of the boxes and set up, leaving the trim kit for John to attach. So that evening as John tackled this job we quickly realized a problem…when the store sent over the specs of the fridge, they didn’t include measurements for the trim kit.  This was a problem because the cabinet that was built to fit around the fridge/freezer wasn’t big enough to fit the trim kit.  So instead of being able to fill the new fridge, we had to figure out how to tackle this new glitch.  After some discussion, we all decided the best idea was to knock out the plaster behind the fridge to buy us an inch of space.  It’s amazing the difference 1” makes – who would have thought? So after making yet another mess in the kitchen, the fridge/freezer are in and filled – and they are awesome. I never thought we’d all be so excited about a refrigerator!  

The wood floors upstairs were stripped, stained and are finished!  Andy did a fantastic job and we are really happy with how they turned out.  Now on to the stairway…after it’s done we can get the kids’ rooms painted and set up.  They are ready!

Along with the floors, the kids’ bathroom is almost complete.  Concrete counters are in, toilet and sinks installed, and all but the grout is done on the tile.  The shower door will go in last after they refinish the tub next week.   It’s nice to know we’ll have another bathroom soon!

More lighting was installed this week as well. The front room entry light is beautiful (although I’m thinking it will look better after we make another trip to the hardware store for more light bulbs!) and the kitchen is much brighter with under the counter lighting and recessed lights over the fridge cabinet.  Lights are up in our bathroom and the kids’ bath.

Bell Glass & Mirror brought out all the bathroom mirrors, the master shower door and a BIG mirror for the workout center!  A very patient electrician spent some extra time moving light fixtures in the master so the mirrors would fit correctly J.  And even though John isn’t thrilled with the fact that the master shower door needed to be installed with a left-handed door, I personally think it’s great! 

Our friends the Forester's flew to Wichita this week to share in the construction chaos, and even joined in.  We finally decided we didn't need the cool (okay, freezing cold) breeze blowing in around the deck door, so Dave helped install some weather stripping.  It was so chilly it took a blow dryer to help solidify it in place!  I never knew he had such other talents than just being a great dentist!