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...

One week: Arthur Christian Viado Photography

Ok, sorry everyone... I know we've been slacking on our posts... :) Also, more updates to come soon! The photos I'm posting today, are from last week.... so now that it has been ONE WEEK since the guys started on our house, there has been a lot more work done!

To give you a sneak peak into our "Floors," we've decided to go the "Stained Cement" route... not only will it give a great "new" "contemporary" look, but it allows us to use the existing concrete, and it is so COST EFFECTIVE!! Here is a video of a How to Stain video I've found on You Tube:


...Pretty neat, ehh? Add in a few area rugs, and voila! An awesome house, with awesome floors, and it saves us enough money to buy the area rug for the awesome house! haha.

This week, in the life of J.T.House, we've been busy with work, work, work... and checking on the house.... but it hasn't been ALL WORK AND NO PLAY... T has found time to play Call of Duty.... and J went riding yesterday! woohoo!

Today, we're meeting up with my mom for lunch, and to go look at cabinets. In the meantime, enjoy our photos our friend Ian took of our house last week. He's done photography as a hobby, and is now ready to go PRO! I think his images are just as amazing as professional photographers I've worked with. After you view the photos below, check out his work: Arthur Christian Viado Photography
He's available to shoot YOUR NEXT SPECIAL event: Family, Weddings, Friends, Corporate, Pets, everything! You'll love his photos!

Ok...... now on to some House shots Ian took:

We have a trench in the middle of our house. New piping!

Tim and an electrician pulled cables all throughout our house!
I love this shot of the pool... Yes, its a junk house... but we're fixing it up! HGTV, here we come! Shows we could be featured on: Over Your Head (lol), Hammer Heads, Bang for your Buck, Renovation Realities, Cater Can, 10 Grand in Your Hand... just to name a few!
I like this shot too.... it shows the versatility of Ian's photography skills!
Lights, Camera, Action! Recessed lights all throughout our House!
This shot is looking in from the back bedroom, into the 3rd bedroom, into the family room, into the living room. haha... Yeah.... right now, you can see the whole house.
Hallway... we'll have an arched hallway. N.I.C.E.
Before shot of the backyard. (After shot may not come until 2010 or 2011)

Hope you enjoyed our photos! Be sure to leave a comment!! (We like those!)

~Jenn

Major work being done!

Hi all!

Here are some pictures of the work the guys did on our house today... scroll all the way down for a 360 degree video too!

(Yes, it looks like a bomb went off in our "kitchen")

This is looking from the "dining room" into the living room/soon-to-be front of the house & kitchen.

Framing the wall in between the living room and the kitchen. The open space where the guys are standing will become part of our expanded kitchen!

This door was taken off of the house, and is now in our garage (laying sideways). We're thinking of selling it... it's still so new that Home Depot sells this door! Let us know if you know anyone interested! *We might end up keeing it..... its up in the air right now.

Ok, and now, for the video:

Yep.... its a MAJOR remodel! Our contractor says all the dry wall should be up in 15 days...! Keep your eyes and ears out for a "House Warming Party" in the near (crossing my fingers) future!

Just a thought: We'll invite all our friends and family... but leave us a comment if you don't want to be left out of the House Warming party!!

Tim here:

So, we ordered windows today. It will be about a 10 day wait for those to come in. I'm starting to get excited about all things we need to do. Luis our contractor should do a fine job for us. I'll let you know how he does and give him the thumbs up or down. I went by the house twice today to find that he had spray painted the floor where the sewer line was. He spent eight ours doing that today. Not really, he said he went to buy all the lumber and material to start the job. I'm looking forward to seeing some progress. It's been way to long since anything's changed in the house. Hopefully I'll show up tomorrow to find some broken concrete. When we are done with the house I'm thinking about breaking a Champagne bottle on the house and naming it.

Comments & an Update

So... we have good news to share! I asked Tim if he had updated our blog since I've been out of the house all day... he said, "no, I haven't because nobody reads our blog anyway." I told him "Heidi reads our blog." lol.

Then he said,"You only know people are reading your blog if they comment."

So the moral of the story today kids is: COMMENT ON OUR BLOG PLEASE! :)

Anyways... the update is this: We have a NEW contractor, who will begin work on our house on Monday! woohoo! yipee! Hoorah! I'm excited! But then... in pops the thought that I have to go to a wedding tomorrow at work... and my excitement turns into anxiety.... and then I remember that our house will be worked on Monday.... and the thoughts of a beautiful Christmas tree in our living room pops into my mind, and then, I can almost smell the tree..... = )

~Jenn

Time... & random cars?

.... waiting.... waiting.... waiting....

Time is just ticking away! So Tim told me I shouldn't hold onto the hope that we'll be in our home by Christmas.... that's a bummer. I really wanted our home done, and Christmas tree up, with a warm fireplace going in OUR "NEW" HOME this year...

...but, I'll wait patiently.

The other day, Tim and I stopped by the house to pick up mail... and there was a white Solara (I think it was) with a Virginia license plate parked in our driveway. A couple months ago, one of our neighbors had ratted out the girls living across the street, saying they have been parking their cars in our driveway late at night, and then moving it early in the morning.... we hadn't seen any cars there, even when we were there at 10, 11 p.m... but on Monday, around 5 p.m., sure enough... there was a car parked there! It's good in a way, because it shows "intruders" that people are around.. but COME ON! Wouldn't it be more polite to ASK before you park your car on someone else's property?!?!? Technically, it is tresspassing on private property.

A little part of me wants to get the car towed if I see it again. O=)

~Jenn

*I'll post a picture of the car if we see it again. hahahaha...

Thoughts...

...and by "myself," Tim really means "ourselves." :) It's our house remodel. But the great thing is, Tim has a lot more day-time flexibility in his work schedule, so he's able to meet with most of the contractors.

For more good news... I have this coming Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday off of work, because I have THREE weddings this weekend. (woohoo! for 3 days off!)

~Jenn

Here is a sneak peek of half of what came off of our cielings and walls... conveniently placed in our garage until a bin was rented... Our first contractor did this:

Tim here:

Change of plans, literally. We might be changing the game plan yet again. I am meeting with a plumber tomorrow (hold the crack please) and seeing if it is feasible to manage the remodel myself. Along with the plumber I need to meet with the framer, drywaller, concreter, stuccoer and the candle stick maker. Well, not the last guy but you get the point. So starts another adventure in Tim and Jenn's never ending quest to make a unlivalble house livable. As for the pool, well lets just assume I need to buy some coy fish. Cross your fingers that the quotes we get back equal less than the contractors quote to do the whole job.

House Dilemmas

My first post.

To sum up our house remodel to this point:

• Purchased house Dec. 2008

• Moved out of our apartment Jan. 2009 (thinking we would be in the house by April 2009), moved in with in-laws
• City permits and plans delayed/taking a very long time!!
• Hired an awesome contractor
• Gutted house. Dug up piping half way.
• Contractor disappeared... good thing: We did not pay him in advance.
  
• Searched for new contractor.
  
• Found one. immature.
• Currently: Looking for a new contractor/maybe hiring out our own sub-contractors/Anyone interested in helping us?? Can anyone recommend any companies/people who do a good job? ...on a budget.
  

Estimated completion of the house: Before Christmas 2009!!!!

~Jenn