My Day(s)book :: Under Construction!

by | Jul 29, 2010 | Daybook, Home Improvement | 19 comments

Outside my window… the siding is almost complete!

I am listening to… the contractors hanging the sheetrock, beginning at about 6:00 am each morning.

I am thinking… about paint colors and whether or not we want to paint the new living room and dining room a different color than the kitchen.  At first we were leaning towards a goldish yellow for the kitchen and a khaki/tan for the living dining room, (though we are also considering some sage/greens), but now I am thinking about just painting the whole thing tan.  Oh!  I also need to pick colors for the laundry room (which will be filled with white appliances and no cabinets – they were cut due to our budget) and the bathroom.   The original rooms of the house and the hallway are all white with “Adobe” in Master Bedroom, “Bone” in the Master Bathroom,  a light green in the kids bathroom, another green in the girls bedroom, and “Honeysuckle” in the nursery.   If any one has a favorite color(s), I’m open to suggestions!

I am thankful… that we were able to find a countertop option within our budget, without having to go with formica or laminate. Apparently our kitchen will have a LOT of countertop space – 78. square feet to be exact! Although I would have liked to go with Quartz countertops, they were just way out of our budget. We will be going with a “Builder’s Special” on Granite. On all the “work areas” we will be using a pretty color called “Santa Cecilia” (isn’t that perfect!) with “Black Galaxy” on our island.

One of the easiest decisions so far has been our backsplash! We were refered by the Granite Store to another tile store and after answering a few questions and showing the lady our granite and cabinite colors she whipped together a backsplash that was perfect.   She didn’t have a sample of the little tiles for us, so I snapped a picture (though I think it looked much prettier in person):

I am hoping and praying… that Hubby will be able to get a little overtime this summer so we’ll be able to finish the flooring and fireplace in our entry and order the extra wall oven.  At this point it is looking like I’m going to have to choose between the two.  Bummer!

I am thinking…  if I have to choose,  I will probably choose to wait on the wall oven/microwave combo and finish the entryway and fireplace.  Especially since all of the brick has been already removed from the walls.   (This has needed to be done since we moved in 10 years ago and my Dad & Hubby “temporarily” secured the brick to the wall with flashing when it started to fall forward!)

Last week:
This Week:
When Hubby was removing the last bricks at the bottom, he found piles of dog food in between the walls?!  I’m guessing that it has been there a LONG time considering we have never even owned a dog! Isn’t that strange?  
We still have a few decisions to make on the fireplace. . . We’ve decided to replace the brick with stone, probably country ledgestone or limestone.  We still need to decide what color stone and much stone we’d like to use.  At first Hubby really wanted to stone the whole wall (which I think would be too much rock), then we thought about bringing it in 18″ on each side, now we are thinking about still bringing it in 18″ on each side and stopping part way up the wall and just topping it with a nice mantle to match our kitchen cabinets.  It has been a hard decision to make! 

From the kitchen… Last week the rough plumbing and electrical were completed and the insulation was installed.  Yesterday the sheetrock went up on the ceiling and the contractors are working on the walls today.  It’s all starting to come together!

Monday:

Wednesday:

From the School Room… I’m still trying to sort through everything that had to come down from my storage shelf, and did sell a few things on Cathswap…  What a mess!  Where ever am I going to put all the new school books that are starting to arrive?!

Living the Liturgical Year at Home… Despite the lack of a kitchen, we are still finding little ways to live the liturgical year at home.  Now if I could just think of something easy for the feast of St. Ignatius on Saturday, which is also Captain’s Baptismal Anniversary.

I am creating… a checklist of things that need to be done when we head to town in a few minutes after I post (finally!) this “day”book that I’ve been trying to find time to work on since Monday! lol!

Noticing that… this new little bathroom that will lead into our new laundry room will be so nice to have as our boys get older.   Especially since it is right next to their bedroom.

(There will be a pocket door (which was installed yesterday after I took these pictures) on this side – of the picture on the right- of the shower, closing the bathroom off from the laundry room.)

Around the house…   Note to self:  When dumping the dirty dishwater out the bedroom door, make sure a frog doesn’t hop in!  Otherwise you may wake up the whole household late at night, just after mopping the floor, when you spot him hopping down the hallway! 

One of my favorite things… paper plates.  🙂

A few plans for the rest of the week:

  • Order the Range/Oven and Hood (still trying to decide which model)
  • Pick up Paint Samples and decide on Paint Colors
  • Decide on Wood Flooring and order the Tile
  • Pick out Kitchen Sink and other plumbing fixtures
  • Move all the furniture out of the entry/living room (they will be working on the sheetrock in there on Saturday, and it won’t be too long before the carpet will be replaced with tile) 

A Picture thought I am sharing:

That would be the Sears Truck delivering our DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!!  I can’t wait to try it out!  I wonder how many things I am going to ruin as I get use to using one?! 

Okay. . . I am off to town with all 6 kids to try and make some decisions. . . (wish me luck!) Then it’s to the Rink for Hockey this evening.  It’s going to be a busy day!

19 Comments

  1. Amazing_Grace

    This is so exciting! Thank you for sharing! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Your contractor is doing a GREAT job!!! It is coming together so well!
    As far as the stone goes, I don't know… both are nice, but I think I like the limestone best. And if the paint gets to be too much just do the tan. You can always paint it again later when things aren't so overwhelming. Although a creamy yellow would be very nice!

    Reply
  3. Patty

    Wow! Look at that space!

    I really like the granite colors and the tile you chose. They'll go with any color you choose.

    Reply
  4. Kelly

    WOW! You *are* busy! At least you have walls 🙂 Hang in there. It'll be done soon. The school room/books are just overwhelming now because of the rest of the chaos in the house. Once that's done, the school stuff will come together.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    We are also remodeling and it has been fun to follow your progress too. It seems your project is moving faster than ours. And ours includes a schoolroom which I am anxious to have finished. I'm going with a bright and cheery sky blue for the laundryroom. I hope it will go well with the white appliances. God Bless!

    Reply
  6. Kimberlee

    It all looks so exciting! All the stress and chaos will pay off in such lovely living areas for your family. We have St. Cecilia granite too – my big girls do their school work at a high counter bar so we call it the 'St. Cecilia High School'. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    I wonder if a small animal hoarded the dog food in the wall? When we lived in the country, we used to have mice, despite our every effort to seal the exterior of the house, they still got in. The remodel looks wonderful so far. How exciting to get more space for your growing family.

    Reply
  8. Cathy

    Jessica,
    Its a wonder you don't have a headache from making all those difficult decisions. I would be so afraid I would choose something and then hate it once it was installed. But, your choices look so beautiful. And the amount of space is amazing.

    Reply
  9. Cathy

    Jessica,
    Its a wonder you don't have a headache from making all those difficult decisions. I would be so afraid I would choose something and then hate it once it was installed. But, your choices look so beautiful. And the amount of space is amazing.

    Reply
  10. Cathy

    Jessica,
    Its a wonder you don't have a headache from making all those difficult decisions. I would be so afraid I would choose something and then hate it once it was installed. But, your choices look so beautiful. And the amount of space is amazing.

    Reply
  11. Erin

    Oh wow!!!!! Stunning, and have you had the whole house re-cladded. Finally, a bigger house and lots of bench space to come, I'm thrilled for you!!

    Reply
  12. kimberly

    Jessica:

    All I can say is…WOW!! While I'm sure the whole process seems endless to you, I'm amazed at the rapid and beautiful transformation of your home! What a blessing this will be for your growing family and how very smart to take a good thing and make it better!

    Reply
  13. Sara

    It looks great! So exciting!

    We have something that looks like the ledgestone in our family room. It goes all the way up the wall to the vaulted ceiling. It's gorgeous, quite a focal point. If you can afford it, I think it would be great that way.

    In your backsplash picture, it looks like one of the little, square glass blocks is a dark tan? That would be a good color in the kitchen, dining and living areas, I think. And a lighter shade in the foyer.

    That's my 2 cents, but I'm sure you'll choose beautiful colors. The other pics I've seen of your house are lovely.

    Reply
  14. Anonymous

    Hi Jessica……It seems impossible to see all that has been completed already …the stone will be a change for your fireplace but you may well miss the warmth too of the brick color. When we redid our fireplace, we painted the brick white and added a gorgeous mantle and face in white and did a marble surround around the fireplace opening. It is awesome and so bright and clean looking and most importantly very reflective with light. Love it and never regretted doing this.
    Good Luck with your decisions!

    Reply
  15. elm

    Looks GREAT!!! If you need to get away from the craziness in the next couple of weeks – we'd love to have you all come play! Our company leaves this weekend…

    Reply
  16. Magdalena

    Wow, this remodelling is moving on so fast! Hope you can enjoy all the new space soon. Just wanted to let you know that I just closed my fourth qualified TPC show today – so I really hope you will get the promised bonus soon 🙂

    Reply
  17. The Wades

    All of that and you're still doing your master post! You continue to amaze me. I've missed your blog and hearing about your many adventures. Rose is beautiful.

    Reply
  18. mel

    The dog food might be getting stashed by a squirrel from a neighbor's place. My parents live in the woods and have two dogs…they found dog food stored in their car's air filter! 🙂

    Reply

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