building back

updates!

So, we've had a little bit of an interesting past week.  I caught a little virus called Parvo.  (Not just for dogs ;)  and my grandmother passed away.  It has been a tough week, but so joyous in our celebrations of Grandma Bertie!

On to the house.  Its been all demo up until now.  But now, we are building back, or at least doing the background work towards it.  And the one thing that makes me feel like this is a real project and I'm all grown up and have my own house with major renovations is this... 

Yes, it is a Port-a-potty!  But this is necessary because we have no working toilets.  This means that subcontractors ("workermen" as I referred to them as a kid) are on sight for most of the day and that is a legit project.  It just screams construction!

Here are some other photos of the work.

Electricians hard at work in the kitchen.  Recessed cans.

Living room ceiling.  Scraped ceilings, and blocking material to go back and be able to clad the exposed beams with natural wood.

Up close on the building out of the fireplace.  Goodbye brick, hellow stucco and a floating wall mounted flat panel tv and... no wires!  Once the J-box's are up I'll take a picture and explain!  One thing you HAVE to do if you are re-doing a fireplace.

This was the LED "recessed can" that we tried out... Its a little "cold" and way brighter looking than a typical recessed can due to the fact that the diffuser/bulb isn't recessed...  

These are the monsters we are installing instead.  Traditional recessed cans.  looks very sleek on the outside, but inside the ceiling, monster.

David measuring out the locations of the recessed can in our new kitchen!  

My new laundry room!  The wall on the left will continue to the end of the far wall.  Galley style laundry room, stacked W/D with clothes rack and lots of storage!  Cabinets come in 3 weeks!

Sad day when I was told we cannot lower the window seat.  The window depends on the height of those studs exposed.  Thanks to my man for ripping out that wall so we could see if it was possible.

New bathroom layout.  We widened the toilet "room" (no door) because it was pretty funny seeing David sitting in that little space.  But, this means we had to move the toilet drain over.  (In commercial design, you don't do this unless you have ADA issues and you're violating code.)  Here at the Walker house, Papa Walker (David's dad HD) and boy Walker have NO problem breaking into concrete and moving over a drain.  We have a trained pipe fitter and construction manager.  Why not?!!

Before

After

This is a very fun part!  This is a picture of our waterproofing membrane that was built/poured a couple of days ago and is now being tested for leaks overnight.  This hard shell like membrane made of fiberglass is continuous from the floor of the shower to the walls about 10".  We will never have leaks or mold within the walls with this walk in shower.

By the way, we also had to move the shower drain.  Here you can see it in its original location, for a tub.  But where they saw-cut and chipped out is closer to the center of the standing/walk-in shower and will help with proper drainage.

One other item in the master bathroom.  We now have 2 vanity sinks!  Instead of 1.  So happy, much needed, everyone should make this happen!

I finally went to the house after not going for several days and the back wall (where the hall closet and wall mounted oven/microwave used to be) is now filled in!  It already seems so much bigger.

Hallway with recessed cans down the middle.

An example of bad wiring.  David found this during the electrician's work the other day.  This is super bad and not safe.  If you are going to join two pieces of electrical wire, they have to be enclosed in a junction box and secured to the structure.

And thats it for now.  Upcoming days will include:

finishing up drywall and scraping over existing texture to create new
paint colors picked
new texture on walls
doors and casings

This weekend I get to go to Container Store and design our closets!  I need to get samples of paint and make a freaking decision already.  And, finalize our new appliances.  Front loading washer & dryer and french door refrigerator here we come!

thanks for reading!
katie & david, H&H