RENOVATION UPDATE #3...Primer Overload
I have "primer brain". Seriously...I have laid more than 15 gallons of primer in the house we are renovating. But worse than that...I have "sheet rock dust head". Oh yes...I wore a mask, but really, that stuff gets everywhere and you can't help but breathe some. So...pictures of rooms that have primer are boring..so I'll just share a few that might show you some of the more interesting stuff.
I'm starting with the bathroom because well...I'm so sore from priming that I really want to soak in my new bathtub. It needs grout, but the tile is there. You can see in the bottom picture that this is where the crazy long vanity with one small sink in it was.
I'll remind you that we took one big bathroom and two big closets and made two bathrooms out of it all. There is tile on the floor..needs grout, but we're getting there. Let's move to the kitchen because my new cabinets are finally up on the wall and waiting for paint.
You can see that I opted for some oversized drawers and less cabinets below. This was suggested to me by the cabinet makers wife. Those drawers are rated for 100lbs each, so my dishes will fit in them. Yep...no more reaching up for the heavy stuff. She's a smart woman. Also, you can see that bump-out in my wall which is where the microwave will go so it doesn't take up counter space. Who do I have to thank for that brilliant idea?....Suzan at Simply Vintageous....by Suzan. You can see her post about it HERE. See that hole in the top of my kitchen ceiling? That's for the stainless steel hood vent. When we gutted the kitchen, we moved the stove over about 4 inches. Turns out when the hole was cut to place the vent hood pipe....yeah...there was a joist there. So...a new joist had to be built and put in before we could cut through the old one. Some swear words were said. Here is the other side of my kitchen with the pass through that is still giving me fits...
Really...I wish I had just sheet rocked that thing in. Because that used to be an exterior window..it is a little low. Because it is a little low, I had to have custom counter tops made in order to accommodate my tile design. Turns out those custom countertops were a little more custom than I had planned as some of the material was special order. Now, I'm behind schedule. I do not love that pass through. I still haven't figured out what to do with it. More swears have been said. On the bright side, that doorway goes to my laundry room and, at the suggestion of a worker, it will be a swinging door. How cool is that???!!! Lets look at a before pic of this kitchen.
You can see that I took out the soffits and the crazy 1/2 wall paneling. I also moved the dishwasher to the left of the sink and the fridge to the right. I totally eliminated upper cabinets on this side and opted for open shelving. Also, we removed the ugly wood on the pass through from hell and just sheet rocked it. Here is the shower in the new master bath....
It's still a little dark in there. I love that you can sit in this shower. A tip from my plumber...put at least one row of tile on the outside of your shower walls. He said he has had to replace more sheet rock on showers because they get water just outside the shower. Made sense to me! Remember this crazy arched window that was stupid expensive to replace in my master bedroom?
I promise you my pocket book is happier now. I stole the bedroom that had two windows in it for my craft room. Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to put a desk/office area in that closet or make it be a closet again. What do you think?
I'm still daydreaming about this funky family room with the low ceiling on one end. It's all primed and ready for some paint. I really need to make up my mind.
That is my dishwasher and stove sitting in there covered with plastic. You can see all of the sheet rock dust on the floor by looking at the edge of the wall under the window where my butt sat while trimming with primer. I swept it up twice before that. No wonder my head is stopped up. You can also see the pass through from hell in the picture on the right, as well as the entryways on each side of my kitchen. Just another thing that makes me crazy. Seriously...when you walk in my front door, this is what you see...two big openings. One into the kitchen and the next one into the family room.
I think it makes me so crazy because the opening into the family room is bigger than the one into the kitchen. It would be more aesthetically pleasing if it were the opposite. I'm not changing it. Speaking of the living room...it has become our current break area...
See that card table and chairs? That's about the only place in the whole house to set anything down on except my bathtub and no one would dare set anything on that. I'm looking forward to getting some counter tops so everything doesn't have to be set on the floor. We had to empty the whole house out to get rooms ready to prime and all of it got put in the garages. This is garage #1. You can see the wide opening to garage #2 on the right of the picture. That big blue dumpster is going away this week. Yay!
This is garage #2. See all of the junk in the middle? That is the old heating ductwork. It is dangerously close to my beautiful white couch which is undercover just beneath the window.
Yes, the new heating system was an unbudgeted surprise. Swear words. The old heating system was so inefficient that the sheet rocker guys mud froze overnight. More swear words. But we got a good one and it's a Cadillac when it comes to heating systems, so I'm glad for it.
See that switch on the upper right of the unit? It shuts the power off to the furnace so if it ever needs repairs, the repair man can just flip that switch and work on it without cutting power to anything else in the house. It's the little things. Finally...here is the other end of garage #2, which will be Sam's workshop. I'm excited for him to have it. It's a big space and I know he will be building me wonderful things in it! LOL!
Okay...I'm tired of posting pictures and really all that's left is the laundry room, a half bath, Jacobs room and an office. All primed and ready for paint. Consider yourself updated. Now, while I'm gearing up for a couple of weeks of painting and then moving, I'm going to let someone else take over my blog. Yep...I've got an intruder coming to my blog and I'll introduce you to her next week. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, so stay tuned!
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