Reno. Pics 3 and Kitchen Design

Mike has removed all of the paper thin "sheet rock" from the walls of the living room and also the ceiling. He is going to add insulation to the walls and ceiling before putting new sheet rock up. He's been working at the house at night after dinner and helping get the girls in bed. He's been pulling some long hours. But his hard work will pay off. It already looks much more different than it did when we bought it. Our tenants that rent the other side are moving the last of their things today, so we can begin renovating that side of the house too!

Mike said this was on the back of the linoleum he took up from the kitchen. Their were two layers of linoleum!

One layer of linoleum pulled up, one layer to go!

Anyone need a stove?

We picked out our cabinets about 2 months ago, they should be installed at the end of october. This is the finish/style we chose. I'm really excited to see how it's going to turn out!

Our island will be this finish. I think it will make a nice contrast from the cabinets.

Mike has also been working on removing the carpet from upstairs.

All of the wood floors upstairs are in good shape, so thankfully we will be able to refinsh them!

Original hardwood floors!

These are windows I saved for some fun projects I have in mind! This is the downstairs bathroom that is right off the kitchen. It is soooo small, you have to step in the bathtub to close the door and get over to the toilet which is behind the door (on the right). We are going to convert this bathroom to a pantry!

Reno. Pics Pt. 2

Mike and our contractor have been busy working on this load-bearing wall that was once on the exterior. Mike completely removed all of the old wood siding, I thought at first about keeping it for possible projects but the wood was just not reusable, way too dry. The bracing that you see is to help support the floor joists while they installed the engineered header, which allows us to completely remove this load-bearing wall!

Below is a picture of the engineered beam they installed. It arrived a few days before it was installed. It took about 5 or 6 people to lift it and bring it in the house. But, thankfully the day it was installed, our contractor devised a way to help brace it while they lifted it up towards the ceiling (see the "ladder" he made)

Below is a view looking through the old exterior wall into the living room.





Installing the beam, our contractor and his son-in-law.

Close-up of the beam.

Studs were removed once the beam was installed. Don't the windows look great?!

Below is the view from our front door looking into the living room. Mike started removing some of the old "drywall" material that was there, it was really thin. The green is the original beadboard that was behind this drywall. We are trying to decide what to do, there are a few places where there is water damage on the beadboard, so we may have to drywall over it or at least partially.

Lili and I came by today to see the progress, it was extremely dusty. The floorplan is already much more spacious feeling and open! Where I'm standing will be part of the kitchen. The wall in the foreground seperates the living area from the kitchen/dining area.

Still more to come, Mike has been working on the living room celing today, hope to have pics soon!

Renovation Pics Pt. 1

Let the renovation begin!

We are adding on to the house to allow for a more spacious kitchen.

Minus a few windows

We have decided to keep the pitch of the roof. We think it will add some interest to the kitchen.

Kitchen window to be mounted above the sink

The porch floor had to be built up to the rest of the floor in the house.

Front door and new addition. If you think that your eyes are playing tricks on you and the door looks crooked, you would be right. The door isn't crooked, however the vertical corner piece of siding to the right of the door is. Our contractor realized this but we weren't sure how apparent it would be until the addition was closed in and the door installed. We will be making changes. This would not be a good first impression.....entering through a crooked doorway!

We found this beautiful door and I just loved it. We will put some nicer hardware on it, but I loved the look of it!

Inside the new addition (view from standing in front door). Mike removed the siding on the soffit above so that we can sheet rock the ceiling. He also removed the windows from the old exterior wall to the right. You can see where he's been removing wood siding. We will eventually remove this wall entirely with the exception of an engineered header and a few columns.

This shows you a little about the wall construction of this old house. When it was built the studs extended the entire height of the house. This makes for a very tricky renovation. If you can see the two layers of wood that are jutting out perpendicular to the wall siding, the top layer is the second level floor, the bottom layer is the ceiling of the first story. And then the stud continues straight from first to second story.

Another view. I am saving several of the old windows for a few projects I have in mind.

This week's project ~ new windows!

Upstairs windows.

All of the windows were custom made, we are very pleased with how they came out.

Window man doing his thing!

Something look odd? We are waiting to replace the a/c unit windows until our tenants are out and we install central heat and air.

We've been so excited about getting this ball rolling! I will post more pics as I have them. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement! We know that God is going to use this home for His Glory!

My girls....

Lili loves dress up ~ especially when sissy is at school and she has free reign in Emma's room!

Emma's really enjoying school, Friday was Cap Day, so she got to wear a baseball cap to school.