Progress

So... What's up in the Wardle house lately?!

A LOT! Thankfully...

In my last post, I shared with you a photo of what would be a downstairs bedroom/bath area. Below is a picture of the same area, with framing. This happened at least 3-4 weeks ago (September 12th ish). If any of you have ever been through a re-model, or new home build, you'll know that during the last few weeks we've undergone a lot of plumbing and electrical work - which means the basement pretty much still looks just like this!

And while it feels like the basement looks the same, its amazing what work has actually been done. So thankful for the electrician and the plumber...Their work is like the veins in our bodies, without them we wouldn't properly function. So while the work they've been doing is going to eventually be covered up by sheetrock and some paint, the work done by these guys has been amazing. Thanks Gary and Terry and crews :)

 

This photo (below) is of Brian's "Man Cave," as I like to call it, opened up, ... The New Contractor, took out that hideous hole in the wall which I previously shared. We've come to discover the 'hole' was actually done by the previous contractor to remove an existing electrical feed, which has really caused some (additional) headaches these past few weeks. Not nearly as big of a problem as a few I will share later in the post.

Man Cave, as of October 1, 2014

Ah and here I am -demoing -(*Sunday, Sept 21st) our bookshelves in the living room. We are personally taking (a few) things out this go around. We have to save where we can, since this is the second time most of this work is being done. If you look in the left portion of this photo below, you will see one of the 3 fireplaces in the house. Rather it be luck or misfortune, we have torn out both of the fireplaces in the upstairs living room/dining room.

Demo Shelving September 2014

Let me explain. After the first contractor was gone, I (may have) complained, about the smell of gas in our house. BUT - (and Brian would want me to be honest about this part too) - I also HATED the living room fireplace. It was NOTHING we had planned originally.  The New contractor agreed to do a pressure test on the line and check for a leak.... and as (MY luck) would have it, there WAS a leak. As a result we HAD to take out the living room fireplace. The line connection was within the walls of the fireplace and the only way to fix it (and stop the leak) was to remove one of the walls. Since we would be updating one, we opted to update both. And for our safety, updating these gas lines in a 50+ year old house was the right thing to do!

This picture (below) is the current state of my living room. We won't be setting anything back up in this room for a while. Have I mentioned at one point our house was completely done?! See the picture after for what this room looked like prior to gas leaks!

Living Room Fireplace September 2014

Little Mattie, taking a nap July 2014.

And now for Bad New Part 1:

After the demo of that bookcase, Brian and I took Hank down to the river for a short training session/playtime in the water. When we got back home Brian continued to train Hank in the back yard - to dry him off a bit. I went inside, and I could hear water dripping.

Some of you have heard me tell the story before about our basement flooding (but it was raining when that happened) so no, this was different. It was dripping. A lot of dripping.  

I immediately walked into the dining room, knowing I was closer. And there it was.... the light fixture in our entry was Leaking! HOW IN THE WORLD?! I ran to our patio yelled at Brian "come in here" -- he was not quick enough, because I walked back in the living room and could still see him picking up Hank's gear....he thought he'd take his time I guess... I ran back to the patio, this time "GET IN HERE NOW" (screaming). This time, he came running. I guess seeing your wife OK, didn't resonate anything was 'really wrong'

- He had a few choice words himself once he got inside.... What happened was this: earlier in the week our basement A/C unit was installed. In the grand scheme of things, something (or someone) moved a line that was connected to our upstairs unit, and the line was broken. It flooded the living room on Wednesday of that week. This time, (we aren't pointing any fingers here) the line (which we thought was repaired) had come loose, and over the course of time, flooded the upstairs. Again, luckily, or thankfully, it was only in a small portion of the house. We are still determining the fix for this problem. I am sharing a picture of the bubbles that formed that day. (Yes, these are full of water, and would eventually be all over my entry way!)

And now for Bad News part 2:

This one is just sickening. Get ready for it.... You ready? We are now officially taking out BOTH of the upstairs bathrooms! So both bathrooms? Why is that? Well, since the guys have been working downstairs we have all noticed a bit of water here and there (coming from upstairs). How is that? That is because the ONE and only shower we are allowed to use right now has a leak! AND it also wasn't properly waterproofed. I think I'll end up doing an entire post later about our bathrooms.

Our master bathroom (which yes, at one point) was entirely finished.

Master Shower before Brian Demo - October 12, 2014

And now... Is now entirely torn out! ALL of it! Brian and I did the demo ourselves this weekend. (Sunday, October 12th).

Chuck told Brian and I to expect 3-4 weeks before we could use it again. And when that happens, we will then demo the guest bathroom. (No picture to share here) Trust me guys, we removed a portion of the wall in the guest bath, and water Literally Sprays out when the shower is turned on. This is Great news we found this before any walls or ceilings were put up in the downstairs. Yes, as a result of this issue, it is slowing down our progress in the house, because work has been diverted from down there, to Back upstairs.

Picture below is our master bath, after 2 hour with a sledge hammer (trust me that felt great) and several rounds of wheelbarrow rolling in and out of the house.

Neither of us were really happy during the process - but Both agree, this was a lesson we learned the hardest way possible - Never let family offer help. Just don't do it.

We've now spent double what we ever dreamed

Master Shower after (2hr) Demo, October 12, 2014

  

So there you have it, our lives (in the house) as of lately. I plan to do another post very soon, because I have a Part 3 Bad news, that starts sometime this week! And its only something we can laugh at...we hope!

  

Update

 When I started this blog, I thought, wow, I could post daily...nah, maybe once a week with the amount of work we have going in the house. But here I am, its been over a month since my last post and Honestly, there hasn't been much work done! --- Remember my last post, and I mentioned the bathroom ? Well, yeah, that still isn't done.... the tile to finish was on back order.

So what have we been doing for the past month - ?? We have been interviewing contractors - 5 to be exact - to finish our house but mainly take over the basement.

As a side story, when interviewing for a new contractor they have a lot of questions (at least the first one did) and I learned the hard way - just tell them what happened.

So contractors 2-5 the moment they walk in the front door, I gave them a 10-15 minute "here's what happened, has happened since then, and how we plan to handle it - this go around" --- believe me they were shocked about most of what I said, but ALL thanked me many times for just being honest. I'd like to say we interviewed, but this time was A LOT different - I did the first screening for at least 4 out of the 5 contractors we spoke to.  

Brian let me set up all the interviews so that I'd know who I would feel comfortable with working in our house, and in the big picture, I'd be the one making a lot of the design decisions, so we had to find someone who fit ME! And this go around we only interviewed people who were highly recommended, have worked in LR for years, and had a reputation in town (a good one). We knew we wanted to hire someone that we could go back to later on and hire them for other jobs.

Like I said, I screened, felt out the potentials and then had Brian come for the second conversation and the bid revealing should they come back with one.

So, back to the bids - Some were reserved because they knew we had fired our previous contractor (and he'd left with our money not entirely completing the work); given that reluctantly they question how much we'd already spent on the basement. So again, some were scared to give us bids because they didn't want to offend us. And probably some thought we'd never be able to afford the work that we really needed done down there.

A few gave us straight up answers and while we might have been inclined to hire one of those, we just couldn't afford it because we didn't have that much money anymore (construction loan)... However, God is good. He brought along Chuck.... Chuck is our new contractor for the house. I feel so blessed to have him for this job. He's licensed, and has all the credentials one would need to make us feel better about hiring him this go around. We even went and looked at a few houses he's worked on to reassure ourselves he's the man for the job.

That being said, I'm here today for good reason! Now that we've given Chuck the OK -we start demolition on the basement tomorrow! YA! Bright and Early Friday morning a crew is coming in to demo a few things and start framing the bedroom and bathrooms.

So I wanted to share a little preview of the entire basement. All the picture I am posting today are the current state -although it's been an evolving mess/nightmare over the last 6 months.

We still had a ton of crap down there (storage while upstairs was being worked on)...and building materials were just scattered about over the last 2-3 months.  It took Brian and I a few shots at cleaning it up, but I'm happy to say we did it!

Below I'm sharing a picture of the laundry room. Yes the ceiling is already torn out, thanks to Brian! 

Seriously, Can't wait for this room to be finished! I get a sink and new cabinets! Plus this room serves a dual purpose its going to be the cool spot for the dogs to hang out during the day. They will have access to the back yard via the new door being installed in this room.

 

Moving right along... This is a view of what will be the new bathroom and bedroom downstairs. We felt with nearly 2200 square feet in the basement, we'd be silly not to add the bed and bath. This area of the basement is rather large, what you can't see is where I'm standing will be an open concept office/ sitting area. Really looking forward to seeing this space evolve over the next few weeks!

On to.... THE MAN CAVE. AKA Brian's room.

I thought to myself this morning actually --- whether this is "Brian's Room" or not, I want to Want to go downstairs. Does that make sense? Its been a hard few months for this newly married couple -- we both dread going downstairs

1. we know its a disaster, but

2. it brings a sick feeling to your stomach when you see how much money was spent down there, and yet none of it was done.

3. the parts that were done have all been 're-done' and paid for (yes, a second time).

So that pit in my stomach when I walk downstairs, I look forward for it to go away soon~

a

After much debate, (actually no debate - we both agree we never wanted this done) see that cut out in our wall below --- well we're just going to take the whole wall down.   Originally someone suggested to Brian that we make a bar there- that plan just wasn't meant to be. And now that the wall will be coming down I've designed him one kick ass bar! but minus that hideous hole in the wall.

This picture (below) is to a broom closet  -- and actually has been the only spot in the house were we've encountered real 'water damage' - thankfully, THANKFULLY our new landscaper (Clark) and his crew came to the rescue and sealed our foundation and the pesky hole where the water was coming in! Again, thankfully this was taken care of so we can rest assured no water will damage all the new work being done in the house.

Hi Hank :)

For those of you who know, yes, I am leaving one room out of the mix for now. The media room/swimming pool...but that's because I just can't bring myself to go in there for a little bit.

And, because it's the last thing on our list to be worked on.

Below I leave you with our lovely stairwell. These stairs are the LAST of what is left of the original house. And in true fashion, they will be the last to go -

I hope you've enjoyed this little rant, narrative, rambling about the happenings in our basement. Trust me, I have a good feeling about things this go around, and know it will all be okay!

The Kitchen - In progress

I wanted to share one of the first rooms in the house where we really made big changes. My two options were the kitchen and master bath. You see, lately we've had a lot of issues with this renovation. I will try to keep my disappointment with those issues to a minimum. We have literally turned into those people you see on HGTV, or DIY that have problem after problem. Some are with the house, and some, unfortunately are with the work we've already had done on the house. 

I decided NOT to post about the master bathroom - because today my brand new shower was torn out while I wrote this post. I listened to hammering and banging all day, and the poor guys re-doing my shower felt so bad for me. They kept telling me they expected me to cry at any second over how bad our problem really was every time they updated me on their progress.... Needless to say, and I'll post more about that problem later - the key is to make sure you hire someone that knows Exactly what they're doing; and that they do it right the first time!

As for the kitchen, its not nearly as bad of shape, we started the remodel and began kitchen demolition in March, let me show you the kitchen before-

Yes, 1980's all the way! What you're seeing is indoor/outdoor carpet with sponge painted wallpaper. Everything still worked, but we just couldn't see ourselves living in this kitchen. (Actually I told Brian, the only way we were even going to consider buying the house, was if the kitchen was the first thing to go!)

Unfortunately for us, the demo came while we were (I was) planning a wedding. So you can see Exactly what we were doing (while) planning a wedding, here's the demo underway...

That was not fun....

As you can see, we took a wall down and opened that bad boy up. Of all the things we've done in the house, this was by far the BEST decision we've made. And trust me, we've made a few, Very Bad decisions while working on this house. But hey, that's only making us stronger right?

People come over and comment on the amazing new kitchen, and while yes, it IS amazing, it's not finished. It's August and only Brian and are fully aware of what (doesn't work) and still needs to be done. 

A few details about the kitchen, we put in hardwoods to match the rest of the house. Our friend Kyle and his crew did such amazing work and we are so thankful that he suggested these floors. And Thankfully I have a Really sweet husband, he let us get new Viking appliances! We had custom cabinets made, those are still a work in progress. The guy who made them did a really amazing job, but there were a few hiccups that we're still trying to address. (I need a new piece for over my range, it was too small for our hood) and the hardware is not on yet. 
However, Unfortunately the biggest problem we've had has been electrical and plumbing issues (I won't go into the details, as I said earlier, I have to keep some of the frustrations to myself) But...if you could just imagine having a brand new Viking range and not being able to use it...well...that's where we are. It's actually been okay, we've taught ourselves to Grill this summer!  And we are really Really getting good at using the grill! And we also have to be careful with our sink these days as the pipes will bust loose at any moment. But again, its all part of making sure you have it done right the first time. If you read by first post, you'll know I mentioned I have a plumber here once a week. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed a small peak into the renovation of our kitchen! I don't mean to write any of this to bog you down with our problems, rather I am sharing these posts to let our friends and family in on our lives these days. And hey, we LOVE our kitchen, its where we spend ALL of our time (besides the deck)!

Up next, I might take you into my living room - the bathroom will need a lot more work before I can share that room! Again, we feel very blessed, not only to have each other but that we are able to go through this journey because we are learning a lot from each other, and learning to trust that we'll get through this - together. 
We're just praying the renovation will pick up soon..and by pick up, I mean not be so heartbreaking to deal with every day. 
Have a great weekend, I'm off to start the grill :)

My First Post

This should be fun, because I love to write! I hope it will be for you too. 

I decided since we have a lot going on in our lives right now, the best place to share those happenings with friends and family would be this fun little blogspot. 

Titles I considered were "hiccups of a newlywed," "renovation gone wild," because that's just how life feels these days....However, as is in most cases, I reached out to Brian, and said, please describe our lives, or what you think of us in 2 words. He simply said "great adventure"....While that's certainly true, and part of the engraving on his wedding band....The title came as did the byline, all thanks to him, and our new house!
 
Fun fact: Brian and I met 3 years ago today actually. So what better time to start a blog about our lives than on the day we met?! [Brian insists the only day he has to remember is our anniversary which will come in May of next year !]

For my first entry I want to share with you the goings on at our "new house" - so you know, we now refer to our house(s) - yes 2 homes - by the terms "new house" and "old house". Example of a normal conversation for Brian and I these days, "I'm heading to the old house to check on things," in reply "great, meet you at the new house in 30 minutes," -- see we have to clear things up or we'd be passing each other!

New house was purchased back in March - more on that at another time. Here's how she looked on the day we signed the closing papers. Yes, I did say she, I like to think the house is a female as it has great bones, but needed a bit of make-up to really make her Pop!

(March 10 2014)

The fun was just about to begin and we didn't even know what we were doing. (Still don't) There are several things that took place over the next few months, I'm sure I will share those later on down the road. One of which was a Lovely wedding!!! And a lot of demolition, and lets be honest, maybe even a little bit of fussing. We were just about to find out what Everyone had been warning kindly telling us about being newlyweds and (surviving) a home remodel.

As of right now, we are about half way done with the new house. And yes, for those who don't know, we do live there. I would say about 85% of the upstairs is complete; while only about 40% of the downstairs is finished. Electricians have been at our house all week, we've had someone at the house (re-painting) the last 2 weeks, and the plumber is in and out of the house once week. 

I want to be as honest as possible (well, maybe I won't share everything) some days are really hard. Yesterday I cried, it felt like everything was going wrong. We all have those days, where we feel like our problems are the biggest in the world. Brian reminded me sitting on the porch last night, that we are so blessed, and while at that moment I didn't want to listen to him, he was so right. This morning I watched the sunrise and I thanked God for everything that we have....And for the promises I know are in store. It felt good to thank, instead of pray for the problems.
And so, while we have A Lot left and feel a bit overwhelmed, that view is worth it.... 

And there you have it, Our Life with a View!