Have you guys been keeping up with progress of our first fixer upper remodel? No!?! Well why do I have a micro-blog series about all the projects going on then? Go ahead, check them out, I’ll wait.
As you can see, I haven’t started a kitchen remodel micro blog yet but I figured I’d pop on here and give a quick update on all the progress (or lack there of) of our fixer upper as whole.
For those of you who are new around here, let me do a quick recap. We purchased a fixer upper for ourselves to move into… but that was over a year ago and the home isn’t much farther along than it was when we bought it (okay okay, I’ll give us a little more credit than that…)
A lot of the hold up can be attributed to the time it took to renovate the 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment above the garage (check that out here) and to the fact that we over improve everything we do – so everything takes exactly 1.76 times longer than it really should.
The bottom line is we reallllllyyyyyyyyy want to be moved into the house within the next few months. But with Mr. Stone Head’s remodeling business taking off – we’re spending tons of valuable DIY time on boring office work and other business related tasks.
So in between answering emails, designing t-shirts, yard signs and thank you cards, and figuring out how the heck to hire people, I have been hard at work painting all the trim (which was BLACK and has needed 4 coats of paint so far and may still need touch ups), spackling and the ever dreaded sanding. But there’s only so much one girl can do by herself!
And I’m not sure if it’s the paint fumes or the holes in the bathroom vent pipe (which have now been duct taped,) but I’m starting to think this house has ghosts. But that’s a story for another day.
Master Suite Addition Update
In the master suite we just got a passing grade on our framing inspection! This means we can apply for our plumbing permit and get both bathrooms (and the kitchen) roughed in! Which ALSO MEANS we can finally (finally finally finally) get our house roofed. We were trying to hold out until after the plumber poked our new vent pipes up through the roof so that we could have an extra tight seal. I know you can pop them through after the fact – but if we don’t have to why should we?
The inspector is allowing us to apply for the master suite remodel and the plumbing on one permit – which means we have to figure out where all the plumbing will go, where all the electric will be run, how many and where every outlet is located, how big our windows will be, where we’ll put our knee wall… basically everything.
Once we have our plumbing permit we can get our plumber to rough in the whole house. This means we’ll have the green light to start the big projects – like tiling the bathroom, hanging cabinets in the kitchen and getting the roof done! The master suite is going to be put on hold so that we can get the entire downstairs in move in condition – and once we’re moved in, we’ll finish remodeling the attic into a master suite (in all of our spare time.)
Kitchen Remodel Update
Small changes have been happening in the kitchen – but all the small changes are starting to add up to something big! We had to install new drywall on the ceiling because most of the house is plaster and it was starting to crack and “spider out.” We also taped and spackled all the cracks on the walls, ripped up the flooring, sanded and painted all the trim – and now I’m getting ready to prime the walls and ceiling!
We plan on putting up beadboard around the walls of the kitchen and refinishing the hardwood floor (and at the time I posted this, that’s what we’re in the middle of RIGHT NOW). I’m getting stoked about the kitchen because of two things : 1. We already have the cabinets so I feel like it’s going to come together quickly and 2. Said cabinets are being stored in the garage – and they take up a lot of room, so I’m kind of excited to see the garage floor again.
Bathroom Remodel Update
The plans for the hall bathroom have changed so many times I can’t even keep track (which you can read about in the bathroom micro-blog series mentioned above!) First we were expanding it back to it’s original size, then we weren’t, then we were – and that’s where we’re at now.
We’re replacing the tub with a shower and converting the second closet in the adjacent bedroom back into bathroom space – which is how the bathroom was when the home originally built. Once we finally get to finishing the bathroom in the master suite, we’ll add a tub up there so the house won’t totally be lacking one. The downstairs bathroom will still be small but it’s going to feel HUGE compared to how it was when we bought the house.
The bathroom has had hardwood floors but they unfortunately got ruined when a previous homeowner left a leak go for too long – so we wound up ripping them out and putting down a new subfloor for our future tile!
We also framed in for the new shower and even took a few extra minutes to add a shampoo nook (because we all hate those over the shower-head racks, #amiright.)
So as you can see, a lot has been happening and changing around on the fixer upper remodel- even if it doesn’t feel like it when I’m in the moment. But I have a feeling that all this prep work is going to pay off all of the sudden and the house is going to seem like it’s magically ready to move into overnight (fingers crossed.)
I’m getting excited because some of my favorite projects are ranking higher and higher on my to do list – Fun things like refinishing hardwood floors throughout the whole downstairs and painting the walls and ceilings and adding beadboard to the kitchen and bathroom walls! So stay tuned and be sure to check out my Instagram and Facebook for real time updates on the fixer upper! (Like, if you’re reading this post soon after I wrote it, you can probably check out Instagram stories for some real time updates on how the hardwood floor refinishing is going – I’ll give you a hint, it’s not going so smoothly.)
