August 2012 - Rough-In & Sheetrock

 You might be wondering how were we able to cram all of our stuff into 800sf.  Well, we didn't.  We only moved the critical items.  Everything else was hurriedly packed into the addition, mostly into the new garage space.  But even that large space couldn't take it all so there was overflow into the addition including the future office space as shown here.

 Here is what the garage looked like.  If we could have stacked it better and taken advantage of the tall ceilings, we might have been able to fit it all in there.  But we moved in one day and that's not conducive to any sort of packing strategy.

 As the framing for the main house got finished, rough-in started taking place including the "soft" wiring meaning the audio/visual/data stuff which Phil was taking care of.  First thing he does is start putting up TV mounts to check the locations of where the wires should run to.  This picture is from the master bedroom looking towards the master bath.  Yes, that's one TV in the master and then another one in the master bath (on the left) facing the tub.  Truth is, he ran audio/video into EVERY room (except closets).

 Meanwhile, I was busy putting up the cut sheets for every item up on the walls so that everyone was on board on where everything was going.

 In the meantime, outside, the new porch was framed in.  And all the exterior windows and doors, except the front door which we hadn't bought yet, got installed.

 A picture of Phil's wiring plan.....

 Left to their own devices, the kids did whatever they wanted to keep entertained.

 Until they crashed.....

 Notice what's new....?  Yup, that's a new roof, y'all!

 That's our electrician, posing next to the A/V closet where all the lines from each room are terminated.  Each bundle has a blue painter's tape wrapped around it with the label of which room it serves.  The idea is to ultimately be able to control everything from this closet (which is off the family room).  Can you imagine all those lines were done by Phil, mostly during the times after the kids fall asleep?  And he will also be the one terminating them once the house is done.

 Another shot of our master bath... and no, I didn't draw some boobs on the ground.  Those are the locations of the double sinks with the center dot being where the drain should be based on the specs of the double vanity I had bought.  I shudder to think of what the next person that renovates and reveals those spray paint marks would think.

 Yeah, stop snickering....

 Finally, after all the rough-in was completed, we called the insulation guys back in to turn the place into what I imagine the inside of our stomach looks like after we drank some Pepto Bismo.  On the plus side, we can actually see what the rooms will look like now that we can't see through walls.

 The plumber drafted four guys to help him move the cast iron tub into the master bathroom.  Now why we didn't think to move that in before everything was closed in,.... I don't know, blame it on brain fart.

 Love it when they appreciate their food....

 And after insulation.... yup, you guessed it, drywall goes up and now the rooms really take shape.  Here is the living room (viewed from the kitchen) looking towards the foyer.

 And here's the master with the tray ceiling.

 And the piece de resistance, the great room with the vaulted ceilings.

 In case you were wondering, here's a view of how we lived in the back (shot taken from kitchen looking towards side yard, that's the front door in the middle but we didn't use it at the time since we used the patio door mostly).  Since I needed a desk, we pushed the dining table to one side instead of having it float under the chandelier.  It was actually pretty comfy living, except for having only one bathroom.

 And this is the side pathway all cleaned up.  That's the garage addition on the right side.  I decided to leave the oleanders to give this area less of a service pathway feel.

July 2012 - Phase 2 Construction

 It would seem like we started another project as work got underway within the main house.  One of the first big surprises, after the demolition cost, was the amount of dry rot and termite damage.  Fortunately, we had a framer that worked with us and really only charged us for material charges to repair and replace.

 You will start to see a lot of pictures from this angle.  It's taken from just outside the large set of folding doors to the backyard looking towards the front of the house.  It allows us to get the feel of the open space the best.  So, looking in, that is the dining room and then the kitchen.  To the right is the family room.  Enclosed in those walls in the upper right corner is the living room.  This is the only area of the house with vaulted ceilings.  It cost a bit more but it was well worth it as these are the three rooms that we live in 90% of the time.  New hardwood floors had to be spliced into this area as the old hardwood ended where the old kitchen began.  There was hardwood under the linoleum in the laundry room but it was damaged by the glue and it would have made tying into the existing hardwood even harder.  So we decided to cut the hardwood out up to the door to the hallway and made that the transition point between old and new.

One other last minute change was that we decided to extend the roof over the front porch.  As you can see from this picture, the old roof does this weird thing where the porch is only half covered by the roof and that just felt wrong.  Funny enough, it was something we never noticed until we had everything demo.  Maybe it was because we never used the front door except the first time we came through for the open house.  Again, a little more money spent but it makes the space feel more cohesive as you will be able to see from the final pictures.

 Another favorite angle of ours, this one from the kitchen looking out into the backyard.  The big doorway will lead out to a walkout deck.  A new wall was built between the kitchen and the living room (area to the left with the fireplace) and double french doors will be installed.

 In the heat of summer, we took the kids out to get cooled at the library fountains.

 And they got to climb the structures....

 And enjoyed the large aquarium.

 Speaking of framing changes, just one last one we added... we decided to do a tray ceiling in the master bedroom just to give it a little more delineation.  As it turned out, we were going to have to add a beam anyways to that room so our framer suggested we do this instead.  It was about the same amount of work.  Even with all the space stolen from the other bedroom and old hall bathroom, this bedroom was still only about the same size as the old master bedroom.  So this ceiling treatment would give it a little more delineation as the new master.

 Here's how the front look after all the changes (the new porch roof has yet to be framed).  Notice that all the windows, even though they are in exactly the same places, had to be reframed.  It turned out that the old steel windows did not have any framing supporting them so new headers had to be installed.  And see how the roof sheathing has been peeled back?  That's how far we had to go to repair all the dry rot (those are the areas where the gutters failed and water has just eaten away the wood).  And see the huge pile of garbage from all the demolition....?

 There's two equally large piles in the backyard.... *sigh*  It was not a pretty sight.

 Here's a shot of the new straightened hallway (looking from the new family room down).

 This is further down the hallway.  The doorway leads to the new hall bathroom.  The flooring tells you the old layout as the only part that doesn't have hardwood floors was where the old master bath used to be.  You can see how that is now where the new hallway ends and wraps in to enter the two front bedrooms, thereby shortening the hallway by 4' or so.

 A shot of the new master bedroom looking in from the bedroom.  Again, the section without hardwood flooring is where the old hallway bathroom used to be.  We stole some space from there to make this bedroom bigger.  We also added a sliding patio door that will lead to a private future patio in the backyard.

 More of the garbage gets hauled away... finally.

 And Avery showed up back from Grandma's house.... with a mullet.  Yes, that's right, a mullet.

 We tried to make it better by making the back shorter.  It didn't.

 We tried to use hats to cover up the horrible haircut.  It didn't.

 With this type of attitude, who cares what hairstyle she has?

 No, we still care... so we trimmed everything up hoping to make it better.  It didn't.

 One of the highly anticipated milestones was the installation of those big folding doors off the dining room where this big opening is.

 And it went up.... and had to come back down because someone had made one of the panels too big.  These are custom doors so each one is not manufactured until the order is in.  We waited over two months for them.  They had to be taken back down.

 And we spray painted the subfloor warning the contractors not to step on the sill.  If it warped, the doors will not operate correctly.

Imagine if anyone remodels later on and sees this note under the floors.....

Stress?  What stress?  Have a popsicle.