Making Progress

Day 5 --

Well, we got lucky and were able to spend a majority of the day working at the house. We got out there around noon, and left around 7pm. In that time, Jeremy completed the wall tile, minus 2 small sections and the shampoo shelf (they will be done after a quick trip to Home Depot for a few more tiles). With the tub-surround completed, he began tiling the floor, starting with the decorative trim around the tub. I think it looks great. Here's the pictures of today's progress.

The trim around the tub.

Starting the floor tiles.

A glimpse at the whole picture.

We are SO close to being done with the tiling, we just have a couple more spots and then we're on to moving in the toilet and the new vanity, etc. I'm so excited! =)

Back on Track

Day 4 (Back to work!)

Alright, at the end of Day 3, we had finished a majority of the large wall, tiling all the way up to the glass tile border. At the end of Day 4, we now have successfully completed one of the shorter walls all the way to the ceiling, and we've installed the in-wall shelving.

Unfortunately, Jeremy's on call this weekend, and we were called out 5 times, which cut short the time we were able to actually work on the house. All things considered, he made a really big dent in the tiling.

Here are the pictures of today's progress.

The shelf cutout.

Building the shelf for the shampoo rack.

Installing the shelf.

That's my guy. =)

AND that's a wrap for the day. I'm absolutely in love with the way it is coming together. What do you guys think?

Detour

Okay, so..

Friday night, instead of working on the house, we had to deal with a little distraction. There was a rather large bee hive located between the rock siding and the external walls of the house. So, you can now add 'exterminator' to Jeremy's resume.

We had known about the hive, and had been doing our best to persuade the bees to leave. This evening, though, the bees were very stirred up, and were literally swarming along the front of the house. When we got there, we went ahead and made a trip up to Home Depot to get some insect killer and a couple bombs. After the trip to the 'armory', Jeremy and I headed back to the house to see what we could do about the bees. When I say 'we', I really mean Jay, I spent the majority of the evening laughing hysterically.

So there he was, preparing for battle. Yes, he was unsure what to expect, all he knew was he could hear the enemy. The air was thick with the buzzing with the sound of an unknown amount of bees. Jeremy didn't hesitate. No, instead he walked boldly forth to face the unknown. Cans of insect foggers stuffed into his pockets and the waist of his jeans. He grabbed the can of wasp & bee spray, and headed into the thick of enemy territory. Yes, he was vastly outnumbered, but that didn't detour him. For hours he fought (okay, maybe like 30 minutes), and against all odds he came out the victor.

Here's some comic relief for ya'll. =)

Piece by Piece..

Today, we started on the tile. After some small hiccups in the beginning, and a couple last minute changes, we decided to try a different pattern than we had planned originally.

Day 3 -- Thursday (7/15/10) --------------------------------

A close view of the pattern..

Today's end point. We will be picking up where we left off tomorrow.

In With the New

With the last of the old, icky interior removed, it was then time to begin with the process of moving in the new. After a few trips to Home Depot, and a couple hours considering the possibilities, we had decided on all the stuff we wanted prior to beginning the project. We would be replacing everything, literally from the floor up. When we got back to the house on Wednesday, Jeremy promptly began to install our new tub, and the hardie backer.

Day 2 -- Wednesday (7/14/10) --------------------------------

Our new tub!!

Jeremy the plumber!

Starting to install the hardie backer

Tomorrow we start the tile!!!!!!!!!!

Breaking Ground

Our first project, by unanimous decision, was the guest bathroom. Our goal is to finish the guest bathroom and the spare bedrooms, and live on one side of the house while we renovate the remainder of the house, saving the master bed and bath for last. Tuesday (7/13/10), was our first day of work. It took Jeremy about an hour to completely demolish and remove the tub, toilet, vanity, sink, and parts of the wall.

Day 1 -- Tuesday (7/13/10) --------------------------------

No more icky tub!!

No more icky vanity!!

No more icky toilet!!

AND it is official, the bathroom is officially gutted!

The Bathroom

This is what our wonderful bathroom looked like prior to Jeremy's gut-job.

Just for the record, that's glue on the wall, lol.

So, who wouldn't wanna use this bathroom everyday? In all honesty, it isn't really that bad, with some serious cleaning and a couple gallons of bleach, it would be a decent bathroom, but where is the fun in that?

The Low-Down..

So, this is what we have..

A spacious(1600sq. ft.) 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with great potential. Detached 2 car garage, and mature trees on .48 of an acre. Large rooms throughout, in a family oriented neighborhood.

Sounds perfect right?

What they don't tell you, is that more often than not 'potential' means 'needs lots of work'. Please don't pay attention to the date on the pictures, the camera was not set so it reads a totally wrong day, month, and year.

This is a picture of our living room area, which as you can see, is in need of some paint and flooring. This room is, by far, the least needy room. The bones of the room are great, and it just needs a couple small fixes before it will be on our 'done' checklist.

Our kitchen, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. We will be gutting and remodeling the entire kitchen, from the floor up. This is going to be one of our last projects. Don't you just love that green paint?

Back and Forth

There's no telling just how many trips we made to look at the house, both of us milling over every inch, every room. Silently weighing in the project, and what a project it was! I was hesitant, but Jay was confident. After all, he was a professional carpenter for years, this was nothing new to him. He assured me, this was nothing he couldn't handle, and to my untrained eye it seemed like more work than it really was.

After a few more calls to the realtor, a number of voice mails (none of which were returned), Jeremy made a final attempt at contacting her. He left a message. "We've been trying to contact you, we would like to buy this house, so if you could bother yourself to return my calls, I'd appreciate it."

Within a couple of hours, we finally received a call from the realtor, and everything was set into motion. We went in extremely low with our offer, and were shocked to find they had accepted it, and even agreed to pay closing! We were ecstatic. This was really happening!

We've since signed the contract, and got the go-ahead to begin working on our project.

Let there be light..

So, there we were, taking a nice little Sunday drive (on a Thursday, I believe), when we happened across a house that caught our eye. It set back off the road, hidden mostly by overgrown trees. It sat, sad and vacant, with huge rocks scattered in its yard, and weeds reaching up over the small concrete porch. We drove by at first, both of us looking it over carefully.

Without a moment's hesitation, Jeremy pulled into the driveway which was thick with grass, a small garage sat at the end with a broken window and a wide-open door. He put the truck in park, looking over at me before he climbed out of the truck. Plowing through the weeds and rocks, we peeked into the house, our faces pressed to the glass of the windows, with our hands shading our eyes so that we might catch a glimpse of what lay within. We moved from window to window, pulled in further by curiosity with each move we made.

With luck, the back door was open, and Jeremy let himself in, and unlocked the front door for me to join him inside. I think it was then that I fell in love with this house. Walking through the door, you couldn't help but notice everything that was wrong with it. The walls stood boldly before you, in a bright green paint. The floors, splattered with texture and paint, were bare of any type of flooring. Nearly every door in the place had some type of hole in it, the bathrooms were unsightly, there was some strange aroma that carried on throughout the entire place. Even still, there was an indescribable charm to the place that really made me smile.

We met in the living room, looking at each other, and I announced that I was in love. Jay agreed that the house had potential, and with that, we locked the place up and took the number off the sign in the yard.