Lights, camera…

…a new post!

The new exterior lights are now on the front and back of the house…the doors and shutters are on order and soon we will have completely changed the exterior of the house for our plans…next step: new framing.

The painting is complete (for now…)

The first run of the exterior paint job is now complete. The house looks 1,000% better. It no longer sticks out like the confederate blue-gray headed stepchild of the neighborhood. The new doors will be on order shortly and tomorrow I get to put the new exterior lights on the house. Just goes to show you a fresh coat of paint can go a very, very long way!Here is a little before and after and some other photos of the first round of the exterior paint work:

Before:

After:

Painting Day Two

Day Two.  Painting Continues.  Another day and the exterior’s intial paint job will be complete!

Primed, and ready to go…

Just over a week into the actual work and we are starting on the exterior paint before it gets to late in the season to get the house looking good.  I’m sure our neighbors who have watched this house sit vacant and getting over grown during the summer are happy to see our progress.  Our painters primed all the brick and started on the trim and the new color for the exterior.  It isn’t nearly done, but already it is a substantial improvement – goodbye Confederate blue-gray!

Bye, Bye Deck…

The deck just had to go…

Aside from the fact that it was nasty and rotten, it just made the house look awful. So, a chainsaw and a few hammer hits later and it is gone!

Here’s a few shots of the front of the house now that the deck has been removed.

Before and After

Just a little comparison of rooms before and after…

The Kitchen:

The Living Room:

The Mud Room:

The Master Bedroom:

The Master Bathroom:

The Master BR Closet:

The Dining Room:

The  2nd Bedroom:

The 3rd Bedroom:

From our perspective with just the demo the house is 100% better.  Once we get down to framing in the new walls things should really start to take shape.

Look Ma, No Walls!

Building Permit: $600.00

Demolition Labor: $900.00

Dumpster: $500.00

Completing demolition in three days: Priceless

After three solid days of demolition the house is down to the studs inside. All of the kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, lighting and plumbing fixtures, trim work, flooring and sheetrock have been torn out of the house.

Now that we’ve had the opportunity to go over our renovation plans with our architect with the walls off there are a few minor changes we need to make to the floor plan so we can get the new rooms framed out and get started on quoting out the electrical and plumbing work. We are conservatively estimating that we are about 4 months away from moving into the house as long as we don’t run into any surprises.

Our Renovation Story…

Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed…

Yes, we bought a house from a man named Jed and now we are getting ready to tear the thing apart. As you can see the place isn’t exactly our dream home, but that is nothing a few hammers and prybars – along with the GDP of a small island nation – can’t fix.

Our basic goal with this renovation is to make the house floor plan more open and create a more logical flow. Currently the house is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house. Qualifying it as a third bathroom is a bit of a stretch and the half bathroom is a true example of a “water closet”. Not only will we be adding a full second bathroom and creating a full true second bedroom we will also be doubling the size of the kitchen and creating a mudroom that will have a full laundry and pantry to enhance the storage area. When everything is done the master bedroom will have it own dedicated master bathroom and a full walk in closet compared to the shared bathroom and next to zero closet space currently in the home.

With our plans in hand and our construction loan ready to go we are about to begin the demolition process. So, follow along with us over the next few months to see our progress as we attempt to transform truly an ugly duckling into a home we will actually be proud to own.

Here are some more pics of the new castle:

 Next step: Demolition!  And our motto for demolition is “When in doubt, rip it out!”