New Pictures of our house: 2/11/10

Alright everyONE... (emphasis on one because.... well, you know... only one or two people read this thing. haha). Here are some updated photos. Tim and I are so excited to move in, and so blessed to be given this opportunity to "build" our own house.

We purchased this house December 2008... and finally in February 2010, we're moving in! woohoo! I'll have to post a 360 degree video soon.... maybe I'll do that today.

One thing Tim and I are excited about is that there is a house just down the street selling for $200,000 more than what we purchased OUR house for! The "sale" house has no real updates as far as kitchen, flooring or windows... or anything, really. Homes are definitely an investment piece! We're excited, though, we plan on living in this house for a while...

A few the the most recent pictures are below. Last week, we had concrete poured in front of our house. (The railing on the trellis is not shown in these photos though... I'll have to take pictures of that).

I love smooth concrete! It looks like so much fun to do! haha...

Here, you can see our trellis... we started staining the posts... but when it began raining 3 weeks ago, we stopped. Plus, we realized the stain was a little more RED than we wanted, so we're planning on going back to Home Depot to purchase different stain. (Tim says he's pretty sure he's been to Home Depot more times than there are days in a year!)

This photo also shows our door "before" getting painted, next to our new lights... how do you like them?

Here's our door [from the inside] painted... The photo was taken at night, so you can't really see the detailing in the glass that you can in the picture above.

Here is a picture of our shower in the 2nd bathroom. Our tile guy gave us the border FREE! I guess he had some left over from another job. What I love is that on the left side, there is space in the wall to put misc. thing: shampoo, soap, etc.

This is the vanity we purchased at Lowes for only $112!! Love that price! The funny thing is that another lowes, it was "on sale" for $182! Retail....

This is our master shower! Love the travertine! Thinking back now, Tim thinks we should have gotten a jet tub. (Apparently, according to Yahoo! a jet tub is one of the top ten things a house should have for resale value).

Here is our master bathroom vanity. I love the faucets! They are kinda like a well... vintage. The cabinets, Tim and I put together, after purchasing them wholesale at Cabinets Wholesale in City of Industry. This vanity was REALLY easy to put together compared to our kitchen cabinets!! The best part is, the vanity was roughly only $1,000.... Double sink vanities are typically twice that.

Here is our living room. We add those two windows on either side of our fire place. If you scroll down to some of our previous posts, you'll be able to see this room "in progress." Our plans for the fireplace is to add a mantle, and dry wall the top half and paint it... then add tile on the bottom half. It's still a work in progress, but its not too high of a priority right now.

"At laaaaaaasssttttttttt..." like that song some people use at weddings.. lol.... our new sofas! We have looked EVERYWHERE for couches... and finally, we found something that we liked! You can really see our new floors in this picture too! = ) We still need to find a rug and a coffee table... and then put our TV on the wall... and buy some trees/plants and then... VOILA! Here is our kitchen!!!!! Of course, we don't have any appliances yet, and the island is not installed (The piping you see sticking out of the floor is where our 3'x5' island will be). We're going dark with our island to offset the vintage white cabinets. The curvy part of the wall is where the entrance to our house is.

All in all, its been a LONG process, but a fairly easy process to remodel (aside from the contractor(s) that have given us crap). Why do they have such a bad rap? It's because its true.... so if you're a contractor reading this.... do your best to be hard working, flexible, on time, have attention to detail, be personable, pay your workers, follow the contract, accept your payments with class, and just be a good "business" to deal with.

I think a house warming will be happening soon... Maybe a house warming/birthday party later this month.... I'm going to be 27!! wow. (I still look like I just graduated high school......sigh.......).

Thanks for reading!

~Jenn

Updates

So much has happened since my last blog post. So much improvement! Although we're STILL not living in our house yet, we are so blessed to have what we have. I'll post photos this week. (Just took some today!).

Our current set back is that our water heater has been installed, but its failing to work; so we don't have any hot water in the house, and so we don't feel we can move in yet. Good news is: Everything (except for the kitchen) is connected... so we have toilets, shower heads and bathtub fixtures, sinks and vanities in both bathrooms! All the electrical outlets work, lights have been installed both inside and outside...

We purchased couches today, and played around with our cabinets. It's a fun process... but it sure takes its time.

...Pictures to come...

Video!

...to REALLY see how much improvement we've had... check out my last 360 degree video I posted in my first few posts!

Dry Wall... Plaster... and a baby? woohoo!

We have WALLS! So last week, we had dry wall up. The guys worked super fast! Had all the dry wall up in 6 hours! More dry wall... this is the "kitchen." The purple is pretty... but I found out that the colored dry wall is more resistent to moisture, which makes sense since that is where our sink will be.

Then on to PLASTER! This was done this past Saturday, and the plaster guys I believe are back at the house today. I took a photo of the plaster the guys were using because it had the FISH symbol. I do feel more inclined to use a company that is Christ focused. Of course, you never really know... they could just like the symbol.... but nevertheless, I thought it was neat. So. Check this guy out. He's on stilts. I was almost tempted to ask him if I could try them on. Haha. He was good in them. He did all the top portions of the walls, and the guy by the fireplace did all the bottom. There was one other guy who had a "White-out" type of roller to do the ceilings.
...more plaster on the walls. It's neat to finally "see" walls... we're scheduled for interior paint this week!Ok.... now.... Here is a picture of our backyard. Yes.... sadly, it looks just as it did when we first purchased the house (For those of you who don't know... it was a junk house, and the backyard was full of STUFF). Anyways, I wanted to take a picture of our junk that we had stored in the garage... We had to move it out of our garage for the dry wall and plaster guys.

BUT. Look closely...... what do you SEE in this photo.... There is one thing that does not belong... (scroll to next photo)

...Look closer...

So, I have no idea how that got there.... It's not mine... and its not Tim's. I guess it just sort of appeared, and the guys have been moving it around from time to time.

... it's kind of funny. It's not time YET for Tim and I to have a baby of our own.... but I wonder if it means something... After hearing Tim's mom's dream she had a few weeks ago of Tim and my beautiful baby... it makes me wonder. haha.

Framework!

...Here are a couple more photos of the front of the house. If you scroll back to the first few posts, you'll see that the area that was framed was actually outside of the house. Here is a look from inside. The place the ladder is at is the entrance; I'll post an updated look of the entrance in another post.

Front view: In this photo you can see the area the door will fill. ...And ta daaaa! The door! (I think I might have already posted this? And I do know that this blog is very boring... and the only one who reads it is me... lol). *sigh*

Save another date?

Hi there! Sorry for all the run-on sentences, random punctuation marks, etc., in my last post. (How annoying!! haha).

Anyways, we won't be able to have a House warming/Christmas Party on Dec. 20th, as it conflicts with RHs church services-- dance ministry (which I am a part of) is dancing at all 10 Christmas services this year, and it also includes Dec. 20th. So, I'll be posting a new date soon.... POSSIBLY DEC. 31ST FOR A NEW YEARS EVE PARTY?!??! = ) save that date. I'll bring the champagne.

OK. Now, since you saved Dec. 20th, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for you to come to one of the services. I know some of you don't do the "church thing," but I would love for you to come and watch our dance! Let me know which one you can attend, here are the times:

(Saturday) Dec. 19th: 6 p.m.
(Sunday) Dec. 20th: 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.
(Thursday) Dec. 24th: Noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m.

HOPE YOU CAN MAKE ONE OF THOSE TIMES! RH usually puts on a fantastic service & huge performance/production. And its definitely not your typical "churchy" feel. I promise, and I would love your SUPPORT! = )

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, if I don't post before then!

Before and After

So I thought today's post would be a good time for a "Before & After." They aren't the best before and after photos, but we'll work on it.

In the last few posts, I've shown you the new kitchen area (our 220 sq. ft of addition). The photobelow shows our old "kitchen." The Door was obviously removed (and is for sale currently). The wall you see which separates the door and the "kitchen" was completely torn down. The wall the door and window is on was moved forward about 14 feet (the addition).

This next photo is the fireplace area. In this before picture, the room is very dark. We created 3 new windows in this room, and you will be able to see the "after" photo in my previous post titled, "No More Holes." It is the 3rd picture down. What we did was create a window on either side of the fireplace, as well as on the lefthand wall where you see the white bookcases in this photo). The spray paint on the wall is where we created another window for the family room.

So here is the biggest before and after. The front of the house! Before, we had this open space:

After, we enclosed the open space, which is turning into our new kitchen. You can even see that we have a new door in now! (Still needs to get painted). The black paper is the wall that is getting prepped for new stucco.

Here is a nice shot of our door from the inside, and our new entryway! The window you see to the left of the door is the new window next to our fireplace.

One of the next few projects our guys will work on, is building the trellis in front of our house. They've already started digging holes for beams.

...And of course, the roof.

More photos and transformations to come. Tomorrow, we're BBQing at the house with the guys, and a few friends. It should be fun. I'll also take photos too, and post them here!

Save-the-Date!

So, its more like a tentative save-the-date..... we're thinking of throwing a "House Warming/Christmas Party" on Dec. 20th..... We would love for you to be a part of it!

Formal invites will be sent out, but thought we would informally post on our blog so that you can SAVE DEC. 20TH!!!

No More Holes!

Hi all!

So we have been SO behind on our posts... The pictures below are from 1.5 weeks ago, and it shows that we have no more holes in the floor! The covered areas were for the sewer piping.

Also! They started cutting out our new windows.... We then got our windows in last Wednesday, and they were installed on Thursday..... unfortunately, one of the guys while installing a window shattered one.... so Tim called the window company and found out it was covered under warranty, and the new replacement window is on its way.

**Other new things with the house... The 220 sq. ft of the kitchen addition was prepped last week (These pictures were taken 11/2/09). The rebar job got approved by an inspector... and as of today, concrete was poured in this area! After the concrete gets poured, the guys will be able to frame the addition.

A couple unexpected things: Since we are re-doing the roof as well.... we've been so blessed with awesome weather in November (I love California!!).... but weather.com says we may be expecting some showers tomorrow... so our guys had to change things up a bit, and do some of the roofing today, so that if it rains, the inside of our house doesn't get all wet.

...More pictures to come this weekend... The bad part of not having a flexible day schedule is that I'm not able to go "see" the house when I want, and take pictures when exciting things like concrete get poured...... Oh, the things that make me happy. haha.

Antique White OR Darker Glaze?

Help us decide! What are your thoughts on these two cabinet colors? Which should we go with?

(Obviously without the green walls!)

The next two photos were taken in the showroom of where we are purchasing our cabinets.

OR

Should we go with both: Antique white cabinets, with a darker island? (Or Should we go with darker cabinets, with an antique white island?) This photo was taken off of Thomasville's site.

A few more shots of the Coffee Glaze and Antique White...