Hot Mess on top of a Hot Mess

Taking down all the insulation and beams has caused a hot mess!! There is drywall, old insulation and wood beams all over the place. The garage is full of garbage. We no longer have our dumpster, so I’m curious to see how this is going to be removed.

On top of this hot mess, drywall starts today! We are told drywall is the worst part of a renovation. It’s very dusty and loud. It was recommended we leave the house and go on vacation during this phase. Well, as luck has it, drywalling started during a week where we can’t leave. The kids have their school orientations this week. They are new to the district, so I dont want them to miss out.

We decided to tough it out and stay! This will be a journey not for the faint of heart and I happen to be a faint-hearted person. I hope I can handle the chaos and mess. I’m so ready for this hot mess to turn into something beautiful or at least something livable at this point!

One thing always leads to another!

Today was a perfect example of one thing leading to another.

We decided to add more recessed lighting to the family room ceiling and smooth the ceiling out. For some reason, the family room is the only room with a rough ceiling. The contractors thought it would be best to remove all the drywall on the ceiling and add new. As they removed the drywall, acorns fell from above and huge pieces of insulation was missing. Apparently squirrels must’ve had fun in the attic over the past 30 years. Now we have to add more insulation to fill in the holes.

In addition to that, our family room had beams that now need to be removed. The old drywall was laid above it so we need to take it down to get new drywall.

This leads us now to make another change. We have to add a new beam to our remodel list. Good thing we already have a carpenter as part of the team, designing our island, stove hood, mantel and floating shelves. We will just add that to the list!! Ugh…

Now you see how one thing leads to another.

Fingers crossed drywall will start Wednesday.

Living in this hot mess is starting to get more challenging. I’m still living in a house with only 25% electricity, no livable first floor and eating out way to much!!

On a positive note, I don’t have any dishes to wash. The other positive is, we have yet to see any mice, squirrels or other woodland creatures sneaking through the joists and wall studs. We are hopeful we never will since we are blocking points of entry.

Stay tuned to more exciting progress coming soon!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my last update. The rennovation hasn’t been very exciting these last 4 weeks.

The walls came down then we added a few more electrical changes and framing changes. When you add changes in a rennovation, it slows the next step down. We had to wait for the electrical workers to fit us back in their schedules. Then that change threw off the drywallers schedule. We can’t drywall until electrical is complete.

Once electrical was complete, we were ready for the drywall but were told those workers were now on vacation. Now everyone is back in town and drywall was suppose to start tomorrow.

Well that got pushed until Wednesday because once again one unexpected pop up delays the next step.

Stay tuned….

Finally! The walls are down!!

The foyer wall is down! A coat closet was added next to the front door. The hallway wall was widened. The wall entering the family room was also widened. It finally has an open feel. Now we need to finish up electrical, drywall, floors, etc…. Probably at least 4-5 more weeks to go. House still only has 25% electricity. Each time I try to cook on the toaster oven in the basement I blow a fuse. It’s very hard to cook at home. Thank goodness for Keith and his grill!

Fun and Flood!

We had fun Sunday meeting with the designers taping off where future base cabinets will be, future island, banquette, lighting’s, etc. I could start to get a better feel of what the new set up will be like. It felt exciting!! Little did I know trouble was lurking ahead…

All was going well until 3am. I hear all this noise downstairs. I walk down the steps and to my surprise, I see Keith in the laundry room with the back door open, dumping large buckets of water into the backyard. I see a pipe sticking out of the wall shooting water all over the place. The floor is covered with water. I ran down to the basement and the ceiling was raining! The house was flooding!!!

The cause of the flood….Well since we discovered we have old asbestos floors that needed to get removed, we decided to go ahead and update the laundry and bathroom with new vanities. Keith removed the old laundry room tub that was connected to our water softener. I guess the water softener purges gallons of water every so often. Well it decided to purge water, with no place to go or drain, early 3am Monday! Poor Keith….

After all that happened and got resolved, the demo team and electricians came out the next day to continue the project. Electrical is a hot mess!! There are so many wires and new routes needed. Keith tells me on my way home from work to buy side dishes for our dinner because we only have electricity in our bedroom and Alanna’s room. After working an 11 hour day at Children’s, the last thing I want to do is figure out side dishes with no electricity. We ended up at KI for dinner. We are SO getting our money’s worth from that meal plan. I’m also SO burned out on fast food!!

Mouse Update!

Keith continues to be in obsessive battle mode. He’s tracking mouse routes and entries constantly. We have yet to see any mice since that awful evening but if one does decide to enter, they will be sorry!! Keith’s plan of action blew Terminx’s $10,000 treatment plan out of the park!! He’s discovered special rodant repellent foam and blocker. It also blocks fire. Keith covered our whole attic in it and every nook and cranny between our walls and ceiling. He’s also been following behind the contractors, and any hole they create between the walls, Keith sprays that foam. Keith also as you know, set 70 traps. One unfortunate mouse in the attic ate from the trap so we know his days are numbered.

Keith also pulled out odor weaponry on the mice!! I discovered this as I pulled into the driveway yesterday to the wonderful smell of mint. Keith is walking around the perimeter of the house spraying a solution. He tells me it’s a repellent that rodents hate and makes it hard for them to breathe if they get close to it.

In addition to all this, Keith came home Sunday with my back trunk full of pink insulation. He said he’s putting in new insulation in the attic and replacing all the old in the house where mice entered. Keith is winning this battle!!! Bring it on MICE!! We dare you to come on over!!

To be continued…

Fun Stuff!!

The designer dropped off these samples while I was at work today. I need to pick a quartz counter, subway tile for herringbone backsplash and a decorative tile for a statement backsplash to use over our floating shelf buffet.

I’m leaning towards the items in the 2nd picture but designers are coming tomorrow to discuss.