Kitchen has been painted

The kitchen has been painted and the room is starting to look finished. The next step is the cabinets. I am not sure when that will happen.

We finally received the drain for the bathtub yesterday too. Now the workmen can proceed on installing the tub. You remember how the kitchen looked so messed up when they were working on it, well, with the bathroom being so small, it really looks bad right now. They have to dig up the old drain and move it over for the bathtub so there is digging and dirt. Wiring is going on for the lights, recessed and sconces. Outlets have to be moved. It has to be hard to work in such a small space.

They removed that door that wasn't moved and hidden from before. We now have an easy access to the main room. (We actually can't walk to the other room but we can hear quite well). It will be closed up but I was surprised how close we are to the other room. I am just glad we have a working bathroom. They wanted to demo the second bathroom this past Saturday until Dad told them to hold off. It would have meant no operating bathrooms. Whew, that was a close one.

We still have the laundry room floor to be done. The washer and dryer are sitting down lower than the main floor. I guess it was done in case the washer overflowed it would be contained? The garage is lower than the main part of the house so this was not necessary. We are having the washer and dryer moved and having that space filled in with concrete so the floor will be one level. The floor will be sloped to the garage so any water will go that way.

So once that is done, then the w/d will be put back, the cabinet we have for storage will be put back, and then the new flooring.

The flooring will be the last thing. We are replacing all the flooring in the kitchen, hallway, laundry room, and both bathrooms. We will have a simple design put into the floor in the entry way just to break up the color a little.

We are just can't wait to see everything finished.

Work has started

We have been living in dust and more dust all week since the project began. The contractor has been very steady and have had people here everyday doing things. I did send out pictures to everyone but I am not sure they were received. I have been trying to take pictures everyday. It is hard sometimes to notice the changes unless you are here. I will be so happy to be able to clean and have things back to normal. I know Chester will like that as he is always shut into the second bedroom during the day when the workmen are here. He really starts meowing near the end of the day as if saying "I am tired of being in here and I want to know what is going on".

Here is the room before:





Now the demo begins and the mess:




How quickly they were able to remove everything in the kitchen. Then they started to form the new wall and to open the wall up to the view.




The tile floor was removed from the kitchen and entry way.




We always have to do a search when we need anything as some things are in the main room and others are in the 2nd bedroom.




Wait until you see the end of the week progress! You won't believe it.

Tomorrow is the day

We have been working all weekend trying to get all our things removed from all the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. It is hard to find places to put things and still be able to have access to everything. It is so comical to prepare a meal as you have to stop and think where certain pots and pans and your spatulas are located and then where your cutting boards, knives, and anything else you might need for the meal. Once that is finished, you need the silverware and dishes. We have food items in one room and other things can be located in two other rooms. It just requires a good memory where you might have placed things.

I guess it could be a game. The matching game. You need the salt and pepper, now find it. Where did you put a cake pan? Was it in this box? No, try again. You just have to have humor with all the craziness of everything. We are still waiting on the delivery of our bathtub, kitchen sink and faucet. We think it will be next week. We are going out today and buying a new dishwasher, sconces for the bathroom, and some recessed lighting for over the island area that we will have in the kitchen.

Dad is stressed about it. He is feeling anxious about things and how it will look. I am too because I hope that the way I think it should look will actually turn out the way I want it. It will be a major change. It is the unknown and you do start feeling unsure of yourself.

If anything, we have 500 square feet of floor tile in our garage, 2 bathroom sinks, 2 bathroom sink faucets, 1 tub faucet and shower, 1 curved shower rod, granite ordered for our kitchen counter tops, granite for our bathroom counter top, tile we hope that has been ordered for the bath tub skirt and shower surround, and tile for the kitchen back splash. We also asked for the back splash in the bath room to be of the same granite as the counter top. I say hope because I did not talk to anyone at the contractor's office but sent an email with the information. I will find out Monday if things have been done.

Just keep good thoughts for us. I have to hold it together for both of us. Dad does not do well with upheaval in his life. This is going to be one upheaval, for sure. I will post pictures as time goes on and as I am able. Let the "fun" begin!

Update on my foot and remodeling

I did not realize that I had not updated from my last doctor's appointment. I am no longer in the boot and on the crutches. I was put into a running shoe with a lift insert. I use my cane to walk for any distance outside the house. Walking is going better but I still feel the pull on the tendon. I am sure that will get better over time. The doctor did not want me to drive unless I can brake the car without putting strain on the tendon. So far, I have not tried. I need to tomorrow as I want to try and get my nails done. I know that this does not sound like a big emergency but trust me, my nails are so long that I am afraid they are going to get caught and break off. Not a pleasant thought. It really hurts if that happens. I am hoping that I don't injure that tendon.

I see the doctor again next week. If I am doing better then, he will probably tell me to start physical therapy. The therapy will start slowly as he doesn't want the aggressive therapy just yet. What a long process this has been!

We went out this weekend to buy up the supplies for the remodeling. We bought 2 sinks for the bathroom, a new garbage disposal, 2 new faucets for the bathroom sinks, a new faucet and shower for the new tub, a curved shower rod for the bath, and we looked and looked at tile for the floor, back splash for the kitchen and bath, and tile for around the bath tub and shower. The only thing we finally settled on was the tile for the main flooring. I ordered 500 square feet of it today. It is in stock and will be delivered Thursday of this week. It amounts to about 2 pallets of tile. The kitchen sink and faucet is being priced and Dad has not received the quote yet. He asked for the price from one of his subs that he works with all the time. The bathtub was ordered through a sub and we are waiting for that to arrive.

We have done fairly well on getting our supplies. We are still short on some things because we need to get a piece of the granite that is being used in the bathroom to pick out the back splash and tile for the wall around the bath. We still need to get some lights, mirrors, cabinet handles, dimmers, and paint. Not too much! We also have to remove everything out of the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom as we will be getting new ones.

On Monday, the demo will start and both the kitchen and bathroom will be attacked. I don't know when they will demo the floor but I am sure that will be a very noisy and dirty job. I am not looking forward to it. Hopefully I will be able to drive and Dad can stay here while I go to my appointment. It will give me a break from the noise and dust anyway.

Dad is also the Inspector for the Election at the polling place that we usually work at and he told me he does not want me to work for a couple of reasons. One, he said it would be a long day and he was concerned about me and my foot. I am used to the long day as I have worked there before but I understand about the concern about my foot. There were times this weekend that I did not think I could make it because of all the walking. My foot ached!

The second reason is that he wants me here for the remodeling. I know that is important but I also know this election is important too. I am mad that I can't be there to help out. I know there isn't anything I can do to change that decision but I am still not happy about it.

Remodeling will begin

We just had a status walk through and it was decided that the construction company can do the remodeling in 30 days. They will start on October 20 and finish November 20-21. I am in for some loud noise and a lot of mess. The plan is to do both the bathroom and kitchen at the same time. I think Dad just realized that we won't be able to eat-in for a month. I just told him he will have to learn how to cook more on the grill. He wasn't worried about that so much as what are we going to do for breakfast!

We will have to see how things play out and whether they can keep the refrigerator going any. We will also have to wait until the last minute to get things for Thanksgiving. I guess we can get things that aren't needing to be cold but we will be in the lines at the store getting the other things like everyone else as turkey day draws near. We also have to figure out what extra things to get for Jennifer, Noah, and Madilynn, as they will be here too. (This will be a fun time) It will busy for sure.

This weekend and all next week, we will have to get all the faucets, sinks, drop down lights, paint, mirrors, grab bars, sconces, shower head, cabinet handles, etc., to have on hand when the contractor needs those items. We also have to pick out the granite for the countertops and the marble for the floor and tile. So much to do...

We also have to clear out the cabinets and put everything into boxes in preparation for the demo and remodel. What comes out, has to go back, so we will have to put back into cabinets once everything is finished. It will be different because cabinets are going to be located different so decisions will need to be made as to where things will be going. It will be like moving into a house and you remember how much fun that was trying to decide on things.

I just have to have good news tomorrow from the doctor so I can get moving again. There is so much to do and so little time...

Make lists, I need to make lists. Stay cool. Breath... I need to keep doing deep breathing. It will all come together. Patience, I need patience and calmness. Exciting days are ahead....

DECISION HAS BEEN MADE

We have made our decision about the remodeling and we went with Contractor number 3. He was one that we almost did not even talk to as this was the one that Dad wanted canceled and then made the appointment again.

We went to their business and actually saw their show room and construction area. Dad was very impressed with everything. He did not hesitate but went ahead and signed up for the remodeling. I was surprised a little that he did not think anymore about it.

The start date is up in the air. We will either start on October 20 with a finish date of November 20 or the project won't even start until the new year. We have to have a walk through and they will decide whether the project is one that can be started now. That should happen this week.

We now have to wait and see what that decision will be as we need to buy some things for the project but we don't want to now if they are not going to get started until the new year. We also need to clear out cabinets but for the same reason we don't want to do that if things are not happening yet.

Crown Construction told us they will be doing both jobs at the same time which means it will be very noisy around here. The two jobs are the master bathroom and the kitchen. Demo will be the worse. I don't think there will be any jack hammering but I can't say for sure. We are having the whole floor replaced too. This is the laundry room, kitchen, hallway, entry, and both bathrooms. We may even put a design in the entry way to change things up. We buy all the floor tile and they will install. They did give us a name of a stone place to go to so we can pick out our granite for our countertops and hopefully we can get the rest of the tile there too.

It should be wonderful once it is finished but what a mess until then. The only other thing we would need to do is replace carpet in the bedrooms, ours in particular. It looks pretty worn. This will come later or until we (or maybe that will be me :-)) start thinking that everything looks so new, we have to replace the carpet because it looks so bad .... one thing at a time.

Remodeling Part 4

We received three unexpected surprises yesterday. We received a call from the third contractor lowering his bid, sort of, and the bid from the second contractor. We also received a call from the first contractor that we had cancelled saying there was a mistake in the address and please come to their office and see that they in fact do have a company.

The lowering of the bid can be seen in two ways. At first you think you are getting a good deal because they lowered the bid by about $5,000 but the second part is that you are needing to buy a number of the supplies for the job. We already needed to purchase the new bathtub (which Dad got from one of his sub's), sinks for the bathroom, faucets for the bath sinks, bathtub, shower, and kitchen. In order to get the lower cost, we have to now buy the tile for the floor. It is about 400 square feet and depending on what you pick out, it could cost you about the same as the money that was deducted. The quandary is that this company just seems to be giving us so much extra in work. We really feel they will give us a really nice finished product. The price tag right now though is around $42,000 (with us buying tile and the rest). Should we? We will still be here for at least another 5 years.

The third contractor's bid is out of the park! He was so high it was ridiculous. He had priced the projects as two separate bids and only took 5% off if we did them both together. Together it would run about $60,000. I don't think so....

The first contractor called us because they had received my email canceling them. I had told them in the email that we never found their office based on the address written on their contract. It was a store with mail boxes. Of course we were told this was a mistake. The story was that they had moved to a new office and had used this business as their address and mail facility until they got settled. They still continued to use the facility for their mail but failed to change their address on their business cards. We never received a business card! This was an address they wrote on a contract.

They always seemed to keep their address secret. Dad did get their address and we do have a meeting this Monday to see their office and meet the owner. We still are unsure about them. They were the lowest. They are also not doing all that the third contractor is doing. The third one has a different idea and layout for the kitchen than the first. The third one will be saying us some money on appliances in that we are not getting rid of our double oven but just moving it to a different location. The first design was getting rid of it and the range and having us buy a regular range. We did not want that after looking at them.

This whole process has felt like one of the TV shows we have watched where the owner received three different remodeling ideas and then they choose. Only we don't have the boards they provide with the ideas and all the fabric, etc. It is drawn out or talk about so you have to use your imagination to see it.

I will be glad when this process is over.

Oh, I almost forgot. We do have another person in this mix. He is an owner of a remodeling store that will be giving us a bid on the bathroom only. I am not sure about this one at all. This was a guy that came out and disagreed with me about putting in a pocket door because it would so hard to fix if it broke. He told me he was going to have to have confidence that everything would be OK and it would not happen. Gives you a lot of confidence to hire this guy, huh!

Remodeling Part 3

We had the third contractor out last night and we were given another totally different idea on how to change the bathroom and the kitchen. Dad was more relaxed with these two gentlemen than the first two people. Their price did come in a little higher but they are also doing more work than the other people are. The work too seems to be of better quality.

The biggest problem we had with the lowest bidder was we could not find their office. They had an address but it was a UPS store with mail boxes inside that you can rent. I was told they had a suite but that was not true. If they are hiding their office what else do you think they might be hiding. Dad asked me to cancel them this morning and I did.

We mentioned that we had a lower bid number to the company last night and they really questioned that number. They said it sounded like they might have forgotten something in the price. This made us uneasy. Can you imagine getting things torn up and having to come up with more money in order to finish the job because they 'oops' forgot something. Dad had a bad feeling about them from the start. He has been in the business too long without going with his gut on his decisions.

So we were very impressed with the third company's presentation. They told us they have their own company to make the cabinets, do the tile, finish the granite for the countertops, and do the windows. They have a large warehouse and a showroom. We will be getting a tour on Saturday.

We have to wait to get our bid from the second contractor which should be tomorrow. I wish it was today so a decision can be made now. We are getting close. The two guys from the third company were funny. They disagreed with one another but it wasn't in a way that they were angry with each other; it was a difference in opinion. One of them looked like Ron Howard. Both of them really liked Chester and Chester liked them. That must be a sign don't you think? :-) Stay tuned for the decision. It will be coming soon....