diy – Bones to Beauty

A little bit more done, Atrium style

I had a quick trip back to Nebraska the end of week and flight delays on Saturday, means I did not do a thing this weekend to help Chad. While I was gone, he started the shelves for the Atrium. They are installed and painted, now he can build the bench underneath for shoes. I am also showing a picture of trim (at the top of the landings) as there is a purpose for this. Right now you would say “huh” but trust me, for what is to come, the trim was needed so it will look polished and professional. Going to keep that a secret! Hopefully next weekend I will be able to reveal it.

A little bit of paint and plumbing

Chad took Thursday and Friday off this week, so we (ok he) got a lot done this weekend. Thursday and Friday were his time to paint the new additions and the chimney as we did not paint the chimney when we painted the rest of the house. Saturday was a demo day in the bathroom and Sunday all about plumbing getting routed for the tub and shower. We have more plumbing to run on the shower wall but waiting on the shower pan to be delivered. We need to make sure we have the wall where it needs to be and can center the shower head appropriately. You will see where we have not taken down some of the 2x4s as we will be moving those, but again, a waiting game on the shower pan.

I did get the samples for the shower over the week and believe we know which one we are going to go with. We have the flooring in the master picked out and only need to make up my mind for the tile in the bathroom for the floor. I have two that I am going back and forth on, but I was told I need to make a decision soon…so thinking that is something I’ll figure out this week.

Forgot to mention this – there were 3 areas that had holes like this. Tell me, do you think this is a problem? YES!!! So, these holes are now sealed up. Critters be damned…you must stay OUTSIDE!

Shower progress

I know I said things would stop and go this year due to the wedding (which is fine) and that was this type of weekend. We had only 1 day of housework as 1 day was all about wedding invites. (meaning watch your mail) Basically, very happy to report both things are progressing well. LOL!

The shower ceiling has insulation, lights and start of sheetrock. We cannot build the outer shower wall until the shower pan kit arrives. Should be here on Wednesday (fingers crossed). The shower should be 4×7 but we need to have the pan down and built before we can do the wall (to ensure it is where it needs to be). I have some sample tiles for the shower and some samples for the bedroom wood floor on the way. I know seems weird as I need tile for the bathroom but need to know what I’m putting on the shower walls and bedroom floor so I can make sure the bathroom tile flows nicely with both.

You will see in the pictures, we still need to tear down the walls (as it still has the windows) but wanted to get the shower ceiling put in before tearing the walls down, otherwise it would be impossible to keep it cool.

We have the skylight covered at the moment, which will not stay, so if it looks funny, you are correct.

Had to include my new office clock! Ciera and Dylan gave this to me for Mother’s Day as my wall clock broke. This is perfect and it even lights up!

Organized bathroom chaos

First, there is a method to our madness… so as you start to read about the bathroom remodel, we do have a plan but so many things depend on something else being done that it will seem like chaos to anyone not hearing all of our side conversations. Trust me, there is a plan so stick with us as the ultimate vision (at least in my head) is absolutely gorgeous.

The new tub is here (not in) but so that we knew where to move the drainage from the side wall (under what was the big window) to the center, we had to get the tub (it is a middle drain). We were hoping there would be a template on one of the cardboard sides and unfortunately there was not. We were not super thrilled about this knowing we could be off an inch one way or another (from side to side) we are good with longways. You will see in the picture then that we have the actual drainpipe buried but we put a 4″ pipe around it which will allow us to move the drainpipe from side to side as needed. Genius! (the only reason Chad keeps me around as I like to think outside of the box).

Since that needs to cure AND we have to tile the floor and still need to move the plumbing to the back wall, we could not sit idle. Ok, really, we had to move to the next step as we need to run electrical and cannot move the plumbing for the shower until electrical is ran so we can close the ceiling…otherwise that area of the house would be HOT. We installed the shower fan/vent and happy to say, it has an automatic dehumidifier in it so that will be super nice as long as being able to change the color, brightness and will play music. Super fancy, lol! We also got the back wall all insulated and the cement board up. We did go with the jean insulation as it has worked really well in the kitchen expansion.

I did have to chuckle this weekend as Elise, and I were talking about shower heads and I did admit that is one thing that is stressing me out. I don’t know what I want so I end up just not looking. I did tell her I won’t worry about it until Chad tells me or rather asks…where is it. Well…that happened this weekend as he wants to start prepping in his head. I guess that is on my to-do list for this week (figuring out what I want). Suggestions? Let me know!

Busy couple of weekends!

We have been back at it and feels like we got some good accomplishments done this weekend. That kitchen and all the tile were a killer, but that is behind us, we had a couple weekends of wedding stuff, but a couple weekends of great progress. To catch you up, we are now ready for the master bedroom, master bath and naturally, that means we need to move walls. Make sure to stay tuned as it is gonna get exciting!

Where the shower is going to be, we tore down all of the siding and opened up the ceiling. We also pulled out the old swan window and were able to take the old tub out that window opening. Since that all got taken out/down, we got all of the outside new siding up and new windows in. Chad is taking a couple days off the first week of June to paint, so the outside will be complete and then we can spend the summer months inside.

This is going to be the new shower area – so before

We will be removing these windows as this will become a shower wall.

I couldn’t find my pic of the tub area before…. this was when they had it on the market and trust me, this is photo shopped as it NEVER looked like this!

This is where a swan picture window was – it needed to go as well as the tub and all the floor around it.

No more tile…at least for few months!

I can say, I’m happy to report all of the tile in the kitchen, hallways, atrium and entryway is DONE! We have some grouting left, but it is finally all down. The grouting won’t take long and then we can do the finishing touches. Then we will be onto the master bedroom and bath. We have water lines to move again but should not be as bad as the kitchen. There will be some walls getting moved and we plan to do some unique things with the front windows, but all in all, we don’t think it should take that long. The kitchen was definitely a killer!

Finishing touches to expect over the next couple of weeks: install and paint the trim, build the atrium benches, scrape the hallways popcorn ceiling and re-texture and paint. Then onto the FINAL room!!!

Remember from a LONG time ago where we found that one side of the atrium had an interior flowerbed? This was the same on the opposite side, so getting this removed and re-concreted.

Atrium tile – both sides look like this.

Little bit of life and a little bit of tile..

I think this year is going to be full of go-go-go with the continued house remodel and Ciera & Dylan’s wedding, there isn’t going to be much down time. I’m not complaining, just being honest that things are going to seem like it is slow, but that is because life is more important than the house at the moment. Please be patient and I’ll make sure to update the blog as much as I can, just know it is going to be at a much slower pace right now.

The last you all knew tile was down in most of the kitchen, it is now grouted, one of the hallways are completed and we tore out where the original ‘bar’ was and have it framed. We did not put up the walls as we can do that later and have kept the old sink in there to use for all of the remodel clean up. However, we needed to get this framed so we knew where the tile should ‘sit’. This is going to become a closet and wine storage, so walls and a door were needed.

I’m also adding a picture of a gator. This gator resides in the creek that backs up to our neighborhood. The city tries to relocate them, so it is special when you actually get to see one this big. Starting in April they will be replacing the bridge that we saw him by, so I’m sure they will find him and relocate him. Sad, just because he is cool to see from afar.

You can see in this picture where we framed the old bar area

picture a full wall and frame around the door – this will become a closet and wine storage

Normally doors are pretty easy to hang. This door was not pre-hung so took a little more time (more than we like to admit) as we had to router where the hinges would be, etc. I do have a really cool door handle but that is still sitting here. Chad is putting it off as he is not wanting to mess it up (have to drill/cut out all of that) and with it being glass… I think he will put it off until as long as I let him.

Imagination Land

We have actually made good progress on the kitchen and the pictures will give you an idea of what the finish product will look like. I titled this one as Imagination Land, as you do have to do some imagining to visualize the final product. Why? Because what you will see is a temporary sink and countertops (plywood with dry erase board on top). You will see concrete floors as that cannot be laid until the countertops are in (you cannot get quotes for the countertops until all of the cabinets are in). We still have one wall (by the fridge) that we have to put in upper cabinets, but I’m 1 short…so yeah that is gonna be a week or two out. When you look at the pictures, think of very glossy black granite countertops with a sliver back tile backsplash where the stove is and a beautiful black stainless-steel sink. The pantry is ready to be stocked! YES!! but you will see the toaster there – giving you an idea of what should be on those countertops. I think I want to add a shelf above the cabinets (about halfway up) and put those snacks (that we all know I love – thank you Little Debbie) in baskets.

Enjoy going back to your childhood and using your imagination. It will be hit and miss for postings for the rest of the year as I don’t know what time schedule the countertop folks will have and then the tile, toe kicks would follow. I did promise Chad we would just stop and enjoy life for the rest of the year…so just know we are on a break (so to speak). We will definitely be back at it hard first of the year as we will have 1 room left and I so want that pool to start to be in April – May 2026!

If you look to the right, you can see one cabinet and that is where the “bar” area will be – again imagine

Not our first rodeo, Home Depot!

Before I explain the heading, first a big thank you to Dylan and Ciera for the help on Saturday. This weekend was full of pulling up the tile, grinding the mortar down and getting the rest of the kitchen demolished. We did want to get the drop-down ceiling in the kitchen down too, but that did not happen as….wait for it… the rental peeps at Home Depot are idiots!

We rented the title jackhammer/cart to get the tile off and that went as expected. I then told Chad and Dylan to go rent an electric cement grinder so we could get the mortar off faster (we did this for the porch). Well, lesson learned, I should have went with them. They got suckered into a floor grinder that is supposed to be for mortar, but not really great for old school 1980s stuff. We tried that until I realized this was not going to work down the hallways at is MESSY. We ended up returning it Saturday evening and Sunday back to Home Depot we went to get the electric grinder.

I think now we will be cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, but the hard part is done, and we can now move to mudding and installation. Yahoo! I’ll start with the before pictures with the tile and then after pictures.

What we should have got at the beginning if Home Depot were not idiots.

Remember they tiled under the front door – they did the same with the garage – yes, Chad did fix this temporarily as no critters!!!!

We have walls!

The kitchen expansion is making progress as we now have walls up (as in real walls). We were able to finish getting the ceiling insulation installed, sheetrock up and lights installed. Our cabinets were also delivered, so there shouldn’t be much to stop us now. I do have to order the pot filler and range hood, but that does not make a kitchen functional, so I think it is ok that I have not figured out those 2 things yet.

You will see in the one view of the sheetrock our non-OSHA approved way to get 2 sheets up on the upper most part of the ceiling. We got them up and no one got hurt, so calling it a win. The other picture, you will see that we still need sheetrock up on the one wall and the higher part of the one wall. We need to router out a groove in the one wall for the internet cables (so we needed to ensure we take our time…anyone who knows me well, if my internet goes down, I’m not a happy person). The other high wall, right now has the temporary water line to the refrigerator, so that needs to get drained and moved – again something we need to take our time with as no ice probably comes right after no internet in my world. It is one of those ‘ugh’ things as that is not where the fridge’s permanent home will be so do I need ice, yes, is it a pain in the butt for Chad, yes…

Chad is on call again next week for service calls, the shop and service truck, so we will we see what we can accomplish. Hopefully soon he’ll only have to be on call for service calls only as he had 2 guys start this past Friday and another starts the 15th of August. Then maybe just maybe, we can get this stuff done.