All that's left is the icing

Here I sit at our new bar, typing up the latest (yes, overdue) update on our castle on Camelot. It was gently pointed out to me yesterday that there are people waiting for an update. Really? I'm still shocked that all of you have taken the time to read my blog. Thank you for that!

Granite got installed on May 24th. In just a matter of a couple of hours the installers transformed our room with 'storage boxes' into a real kitchen- just like magic. The granite is gorgeous! It looks even better installed than it did in a large slab. Which is actually a relief! Oh, and that little matter of the agony that we faced over the flooring and if it would coordinate with the counter? It's FINE! We probably could have even gotten away with our first flooring choice and been ok, but 'it is what it is' and right now we're very happy with what our house 'IS'.


Amazingly the plumber actually came out on Memorial Day and got the dishwasher, fridge and sink all hooked up. What an amazing concept, working on Memorial Day. The contractor came back in last week and did some clean up work on a few minor things, so this means that we're preeeeeeettty much done. Yippy! I guess the contractor will be in later this week for a final inspection, and then we can call this project done.

And while things may be done on the contractor's end, we still have our own work to do. I'd say at least 90% of the house is done. We still need to get a big desk for the Reading Room, and organize all of the 'stuff' that belongs in a desk. My inner OCD goddess is jumping at the chance to get organized, but the rest of me dreads having to go through the last 10 boxes or so. But isn't it always that way... you get sooooo far and then, out of exhaustion (or boredom), you just slow down or stop all forward progress.


We (and when I say 'we', I really mean Dave) still have to do the base trim for the living/dining rooms. And I still need to paint our third bathroom pink. Why I didn't have the painting company do this when they were here is so beyond my sleep deprived mind. Luckily I found a shower curtain that I had in my apartment 8 years ago, which is plaid and in hues of pink (see, I loved pink even back then!), so I don't need to spend money on that. And, I think that I've picked out the pink paint for the room, so now I just need to find time to Kilz and then paint the 3rd bathroom.


And other than that, we just need to get pictures hung on the walls- like I said, icing on the cake. We're also getting our old house ready to rent. If any local folks know of someone in the rental market in Winter Park, let me know!


I'll update the blog again once rooms are done and I can show before/after pictures. A lot of that will depend on us getting the pictures and accessories hung. Oh, and if you're going to be in the area in mid July, feel free to stop by for our housewarming open house. It's all set for Saturday, July 14 at 4pm. There will be snacks and drinks (Seriously, what Johnson party would be complete without a keg?) and all are welcome. I just ask that you RSVP so that I can have enough cocktail weenies :-P

Stay tuned for the icing....

We're HOME!

When things started happening around here, they started happening FAST! Let's chat a bit about the last 10 days....

We passed the rough electrical inspection on May 8th, which meant that the contractor was OK'd to go ahead and finish up the electrical work in the kitchen. That meant hooking up all of the switches, outlets, can lights and pendants. OF course this didn't necessarily proceed on as fast as we had hoped, and by the time we moved in on Saturday the 12th we were still left without lighting in the kitchen/living room. But hold that thought and we'll come back to it.

The cabinet installers from Lowe's came in on Thursday the 10th and transformed our kitchen. Dave said the guys showed up, got to work, worked their tails off, and were done before he knew it. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! When I finally got the chance to come over to the house after work, I couldn't believe how great it looked. In fact I was in quite shock and could only manage to say 'Wow', with my jaw hanging open. It shocked me to see that the kitchen space is still bigger than I had anticipated, even after the cabinets got installed. It was starting to finally sink in that The Money Pit was starting to come together and we were actually going to move into it soon.

The granite folks came out on Friday the 11th to template the kitchen for the counters. Dave got the chance to look at the stone on Monday the 14th, and as of right now, we are slated to have granite installed on Monday the 21st. That's fast! And good, because I'm a little over not having a kitchen sink or a place to set stuff down!

The big day finally arrived: Moving Day, part 2! Dave and a small (yet VERY hard working) band of merry movers were able to get everything moved out fast than I thought they would. I had to work until 3, and by the time I got to Camelot, they were done with moving all of our stuff in. Now the fun started for me. I immediately set out to bust out the kitchen. Remember me saying I'm the queen of organization? By the end of Saturday, I had gone through nearly 10 boxes and I was able to finish unpacking the rest of the kitchen by the end of Sunday.

The electricians came out on Monday the 14th and got all of the kitchen electrical hooked up. And that's a NICE change, since we were operating under the soft glow of bedroom end table lamps! Unfortunately, we still don't have a microwave or a stove, so we're still either eating take out or cold food. I'm grateful to my mom who brought us over sloppy joes and macaroni salad, and to a sweet friend, Sharon, for bringing quiches. We've certainly had a nice 'welcome to the neighborhood' so far!

The other missing part of the puzzle was hot water. Our hot water heater is gas fired, and we weren't exactly sure how we'd get or who to contact for our gas hookup. Luckily I have some friends who live nearby who have natural gas, and they directed me to the company who we needed to contact. After having to go back to Lake Howell for a couple of days to get a warm shower (mama don't do cold showers. Period.), we were finally in business on Tuesday. Yesterday, Wednesday, was the closest thing to a 'normal' morning that we've had in a while. That's nice. REALLY nice.

We've spent this week going through boxes and getting stuff put away. So far it's going well. I don't have as much time as I'd like to dedicate to unpacking, but I know we've got time to get it all done. I'm not a person who likes clutter, so having to shuck and jive around boxes is a bit annoying. The best part is that we seem to still have plenty of room for what we have left to unpack. That's an awesome feeling!

I like to move it, move it

Finally, we have had a breakthrough in the flooring drama.... It's ALL done! Tile in the kitchen, carpet in the bedrooms and wood in the rest. Hallelujah, it's a miracle!


The guys from Ability busted their tails to get all of the wood laid on Saturday. Nice! While the flooring seems to be more varied than we initially had wanted, it looks great. It goes with the paint colors throughout the house and the only variable left in the mix is how good it's going to look with the granite. Guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks how that game plays out. We spent Saturday selecting all of the 'accent' items: fans, lighting and bathroom lighting. The only thing left to get is hallway lights and a chandelier, which we'll be getting from Ikea. Just wish that place wasn't so damn far across town!

Sunday was moving day, Part I. We still had a lot of stuff in Mark and Sarah's garage from closing out the Punta Gorda house, so we got that taken care of first (I'm sure they're glad to have their garage back!). We even got all of the boxes out of the Lake Howell house as well as the stove. I remembered yesterday morning that the granite guys will need to know where the stove is so that they can granite around it. So now I have no stove to cook with at home. Guess it's a good time to start that raw diet, eh?

Here's where the fun part is going to start. My over-obsessive mind is going to take over with how everything is going to be arranged. I even dreamed last night how I'd like to set the kitchen up. I can't shut it off, it's like a sickness! I was able to empty a majority of boxes in the Reading Room yesterday, and I even spent a portion of the afternoon re-thinking how I had organized them (already!). Oy vey.

This week we anticipate the rough inspection on Tuesday. The cabinet installers will be here Thursday and the granite guys will be here Friday to template the counters out. Among all of this will be the smaller punch list tasks to complete by the contractor. Saturday will be the 'big move', and I'm going to have to miss it because of work. I'm bummed. And my OCD is twitching because I can't be there to organize. Yeah, I know. I'm not right ; )

Getting closer

You know, if I wasn't so tired I would be doing the Snoopy dance of joy. Why? We. Have. Floors.

After the week we had, I wasn't sure that Dave wasn't just going to torch Camelot.... We made the change in flooring with Ability on Tuesday. By Wednesday I was back at the shop, dropping off a check for the deposit. Coincidentally, Rick, the owner, had just arrived with our flooring from the warehouse, and he had some bad news: The floor is wicked varied in color. The flooring sample that they had didn't do the true flooring justice. Just the thing we were trying to avoid with the initial flooring choice. Mother Pussbucket!

After talking with Dave (who, by the way, was OF COURSE out of town), we decided to press forward with it. They started to lay it down today and put down a 4' wide sample to make sure that we really like it in the space. I really like that about this flooring company- they are very customer focus and dedicated to making the customer happy. Novel concept in these days, huh? Anyway, I believe the floor is going to look nice. The moisture barrier is down and they plan to work tomorrow (again, novel concept!) to get it finished.

The big news is that the carpet is down in the Reading Room and bedrooms, so that means we can start moving into those rooms ASAP. Finally! Moving day is just about here! Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to help the day of the big move because I'll be working. I think we're going to get a U-haul on Sunday and get at least some of the mass of the boxes over to the house. And not to forget the stuff we brought up from Punta Gorda that's been living in my sister in law's garage for the past 2 months. Oy vey.

On the bright side of things, everyone set their calendars for Saturday July 14th. That'll be the housewarming party to end all housewarming parties. It'll be time to take off my moving hat and put the cruise director hat back on. And THAT'S something I can dance about! OK, back to packing. My Friday night is SO glamorous, eh?

Decisions, decisions

We came through last week feeling good about our flooring selections. And then we went granite shopping,  which made us doubt our floor selection. Anyone who's a friend of mine on Facebook might have noticed my status update on Saturday: This 'adult' crap is getting old. And indeed it is. My head hurts so much from the constant thinking it's been doing. No blonde jokes, please. This is serious stuff!

We chose an engineered wood floor in a hickory. It's a gorgeous lighter color and looks very natural. It also is subject to some coloring variations between the planks, and that includes some naturally occurring dark marks and the like. Then came our trip to the granite shops. We picked out a couple of slabs that we liked and moved on to the second stop. We had stopped at Amazon Stone in Oviedo before. While we were there I fell in love with this stone that looked to have river rocks through and through. Figuring that it would be out of our price range, I didn't think much more of it.


Turns out that the river rock is actually WITHIN our price range, and Dave likes it! A note about Dave and decorating: He certainly wears the pants in the family in THAT department. His mom used to tease him that he should have been an interior decorator. I'm able to give my opinion and have ideas, but Dave for sure has a keen eye for this kind of thing. I can look at paint that looks pretty and he'll say 'It's too yellow' or 'It's too blue' and that'll be the end of it- even if I can't even see any blue or yellow in the paint! I wouldn't call him picky per say, but he's certainly very specific about what he likes. Which isn't a bad thing, of course.


So we are going to move forward with the counters in Black Marinace. It's a Brazilian mined stone. I'm super excited, especially since it's so unique. I see so many homes that seem to have the same counters over and over again. No one will be able to accuse our house of being 'cookie cutter'.

However, with the Black Marinace, we realized that we probably needed to change the wood floor that we picked for the living room. While there's not necessarily going to be a lot of overlap of the two, we don't want the house looking too 'busy'. We spent the rest of the weekend going back and forth between 'Ok, let's change the wood' and 'No, we should keep it, it's not too bad'.

We ended back up at Ability Floors today. After a little hemming and hawing, we took a new sample of flooring with us. It's an Anderson Engineered flooring in Brazilian Oak. It's a bit more red than I originally thought I liked, but we were able to take some planks back to the granite and to the castle on Camelot, and I'm fairly certain we are going with the Brazilian Oak. Plus it's cheaper. We'll take any place we can save $$ where we can get it.

SO, as of right now, we've got counters and wood floor selected. And the guys started getting the kitchen tiled today- it's looking nice. And if all goes right, the kitchen cabinets will be installed next week. Fingers crossed!

TWO WEEKS!

Just when you think the worst has happened and it can't get much worse... Yep, it does. Folks, we have indeed bought the 'Money Pit'.

Dave called me yesterday and left a very cryptic message, telling me 'the hits keep coming'. This started the butterflies in my stomach to start flying at mach speed. My call back confirmed the worst: the parquet floor has to go. The wood floor that we had gone through so much to salvage and refinish was finally removed from life support, and in a way, I was relieved.

Turns out that when the floor was originally laid years ago, the people who installed it didn't properly prep the floor underneath. This caused the glue that they used for the wood tiles to crystallize over time, meaning that the tiles were no longer sticking to the foundation, but instead, only to each other. And this meant that the floor was just a floating plank over the foundation. As the guys started to prep the floor to get it ready to be sanded, they noticed that some of the tiles were loose. Very loose. The more they 'dug' around, the quicker the tiles started to lift.

The bottom line is that it would have taken more $$ and a lot of time to re-stick the tiles, sand and then refinish them. We were at the point where we needed to let it go. I'm honest when I tell you that I really felt like we had just taken a friend off of life support! Sounds dramatic, but for the past 2 months it's been a fight to keep the parquet. Time after time we had some bad things happen, yet we powered on, determined to keep this floor and make it gorgeous.

Luckily I was able to leave work early, so we met at Ability Wood Flooring in Orlando to pick out new wood. Very helpful folks and we quickly and easily came to a decision. We're still spending more than we thought we would for flooring, but, this is where the rubber meets the road. We've got no choice.

So, timing. The flooring folks (who also happen to be the people who are installing our carpet) seem to think they can get carpet done for sure this week. They're currently working on moving some other jobs around to try to accommodate our job. Luckily, the wood we chose is in stock locally, so that should help speed up the process too. Maybe the tides are turning?

And our cabinets got delivered yesterday! CABS ARE HERE! The garage is filled with the sweet smell of fresh wood and it's beautiful. We had a little gathering of some friends last night at Camelot, and some of the new neighbors even stopped by, seeing the flurry of people activity. It's going to be great living in that neighborhood! I only hope we've put the worst past us and we have nothing but smooth sailing to the finish.

Must I always be waiting on you?

Anyone who knows me well knows that patience is a virtue that I work to perfect daily. I have been working tirelessly on my patience skills lately with this house remodel. Yesterday found me nearly at the brink of collapse.


I will filter some of what I have to say, because I don't necessarily believe in burning someone in effigy when they cannot defend themselves. However, we've hit a rocky point in our relationship with our contractor and it looks like the completion of our castle in Camelot will be delayed another week (that sound you hear is me clenching my teeth and biting my tongue). 


And it's all over the floor. The damn parquet floor. The damn beautiful parquet floor. The damn floor that the workers damaged in a couple of places during the demo and reconstruction. We had to have some new wood pieces milled to replace the parts that were damaged by water. For whatever reason it took a long time for the wood to be completed and John (said contractor) didn't think the wood could make it until Saturday the 28th at the least. And this meant that work would not start until Monday, and the floor would not be ready for our big move in on May 5th. What? WHAT?!!


I think Dave and I blew our mutual gaskets at hearing this. Because as of May 1, we are now responsible for 2 mortgages and it's GO TIME to get Lake Howell rented. Grrrrrrr. I guess you can't just sand a bit here and then sand another part there- it all has to be sanded and then refinished at the same time. Oh, and once you put the finish down, you have to let it set up for a few days before you start moving furniture on it. Who knew? 


It took most of the afternoon to calm down and come to terms with the fact that we were going to probably lose the parquet in order to move in on the 5th. Bitter, party of one? Bitter, your table is now ready. This just seemed to be *one more* thing that's gone wrong in getting this remodel done. Don't get me wrong, our contractor has been great, and very apologetic over the fact that there've been *glitches* along the way. But I've just not gotten a sense that he's got a fire lit under him to get this work done ASAP.


So we sat down and talked about the pro's and con's of keeping the parquet or installing laminate instead. It all boiled down to we are going to KEEP the parquet in the living and dining rooms and the hallway, and we're going to put down tile in the kitchen (probably more practical than wood in there anyway). This also means that moving day has been backed up to May 12th now, instead of Cinco de Mayo. Bummer, but it's the only way to get it all done and done the way we want it to be done. Victory is mine!


Dave called John today to explain our new plan, and surprise! The parquet work begins tomorrow. I'm still scratching my head over how the wood got here earlier than anticipated, but I'll take it (boy I'm cynical tonight, aren't I). We made a trip to Floor and Decor tonight and picked out a nice porcelain tile in a gray tone for the kitchen. The best part of it is that the grout will be a darker color- yeah buddy. No scrubbing grout to get it 'clean' anymore.


Tomorrow should be a big day and I'm looking forward to it, since it's been a couple of weeks since we had a 'big day'. The cabinets are set to be delivered and the floor work begins. We're getting close and I'm just waiting for the end of the construction so we can start to live in our new castle.

Hay Bartender!

I stopped by the house tonight, knowing that I'd not be there again until Sunday at the earliest. I figured that I'd get to see the completed master shower, but was pleasantly surprised when I walked in the front door and found the beginning stages of the knee wall for the bar.

Let me just say that we are certainly going to have the biggest bar in Camelot! Which is good, because I hear that the neighbors like to get together for parties throughout the year. I can't wait to host our first party in the new house- and that should be sometime in the summer. I'm already secretly putting on the cruise director hat and planning the house warming party to end all house warming parties. I'm thinking mid-July, which is good, because that gives me a swift kick in the pants to get unpacked and settled. No pressure, right?

Ok, where was I? My thoughts tend to wander a lot these days... The knee wall is built and looks to have the power all set up. I took a moment to look around and ponder if the room already looks like it's smaller, and I don't think that the bar is going to give that feeling to the room. At least I hope not!

The master bath shower is completed and looks gorgeous. The only thing left to do is to put the shower head and controls in, and that job gets a check mark. Let's see what's left to be done:

~ Sand and refinish the parquet

~ Install carpet

~ Install the kitchen (cabinets delivered on Friday!)

~ Baseboards and trim

~ MOVE!

Of course it seems like this list is short, but there's a lot to be done with each step. I really need to start packing too. Oy vey, why can't I clone myself, there's so much to be done!

6 weeks in

How difficult is it for me to wrap my head around the fact that we're 6 weeks into reconstruction? It's extremely difficult!

The painters, as promised, finished their monumental task last week. I can't even begin to explain how amazing the house looks! The guys did more than just paint. They sanded, caulked, primed, sanded more, edged, trimmed (no, not the lawn!) and they even pressure washed (see last post!). It would have taken Dave and I probably the rest of 2012 to basically paint the house, let alone all of the prep work that was done.

You see the picture above? That's the Reading Room. It's gorgeous and now the best part of the house! Well, it was always one of the best parts of the house, but now the paint scheme makes it even more so. We're in 'negotiations' with each other on what to exactly do with this room. I will always recommend RePaint Florida to anyone looking to hire painters. These guys were great!

So far this week, John ran the power out to the bar. As he was reading current housing code, it's standard to have power to any freestanding island/bar. We hadn't planned on running wire out to the island, as it added some unexpected and not needed expense, but, to be up to code, we had to. *facepalm*

Secondly, the shower in the master bath has been started, and I'm impressed. We went from dazed and confused in Floor and Decor, and now we have the start of a custom shower stall. It dawned on me yesterday that we're going to need 3 new shower curtains, new towels, rugs and other misc 'stuff'. OMG! I literally dreamed about shower curtains last night, and spent my entire lunch break scouring the internet for shower curtains. I need to get out more, don't you think?!

Our next big step should be the parquet floor. Oh, that poor floor! What was supposed to be an 'easy' project seems to be turning into a complicated task. Between the water damaged areas as well as the long trench dug into it today, I'm going to be quite interested to see how it comes out. The flooring contractors are awaiting some products they need to start working, and once those products come in, they'll be in the Camelot flooring business! Let's just hope they can fix the places that were ruined!

Pressure washing is just the icing on top!

Paint, paint, paint... that's what the name of this week's game is.

We hired our friend Monte Stamper to do the painting,and in turn, his company contracted RePaint Florida to do the work. We're 3 days into the painting, and I'm just so impressed! At the end of Monday, not much *seemed* to have gotten done, but you could tell that they had sprayed the ceilings and louvered doors and had begun the timely task of masking off everything in preparation to do some 'real' painting.

By the end of Tuesday, 2 of the 4 bedrooms had a coat of paint on them, all the trim (there's a ton of it!) had been caulked in the 'Reading Room', and a lot of the other trim and doors throughout the house had been prepped or primed.

Today, as promised by Monte, I saw a huge transformation. They got almost all of the living/dining room painted and all of the kitchen is done. We chose 2 complimentary tones of bluish-gray for these rooms, and I can't get over how much they look so nice together. The darker color in the kitchen was a choice sight unseen, so I was really wondering how it was going to work out. It has certainly worked out well, I believe.

They painted all of the shelves and closets, as well as got a coat on all but 4 rooms. The 'Reading Room' is going to be the pride and joy of the house once it's done, as it should be. There was almost a day full of prep work to be done in it alone! Jeff, the owner of RePaint, is really looking forward to seeing the finished product, and frankly, so am I. Between the colors that we've selected for the room and the bright white of the trim and cabinets/shelves, I imagine that this room is just going to 'pop'. I expect tomorrow will be another big reveal, at least in this room.

The guys are planning on being done on Friday, and I cannot imagine how long it would have taken us to do all of this on our own. 6 months? A year? Longer?? Oy, it makes my head spin just thinking of it.

When I arrived tonight, Monte asked me how I liked it, and this was before I walked into the house. Being focused solely on seeing how the interior looked, I hadn't realized that he had pressure washed the entire outside of the house! The driveway, the sidewalk, the patio and the entire exterior walls of the house. Holy unexpected bonus, Batman!

I'd like to think that today's painting work was like a big cake, with the pressure washing being the frosting on an already decadent cake. I'm looking forward to see how much colorful this cake gets by Friday... the 13th (gulp).

Sometimes You Just Gotta Call a Professional

Hi y'all! Hoppy Easter! Here's a look back on the week in Camelot.

Last Sunday we went to the house to paint. I managed to take down the wallpaper border in the laundry room. It was a hideous print of birds. OMG, seriously? I don't get how some people think. This paper was so ugly it was fugly. But, to each their own I guess, and for me that stuff had to GO! Dave spent his time painting the master bedroom ceiling and the ceiling in the kitchen....

Work that led to the realization that we cannot possibly paint this entire house before we move in and still have our sanity (and possibly marriage) in tact. We have a good friend who owns a painting business and we decided to call him and get a bid on painting the house. Realistically, Dave is out of town for the next 2 weeks (zoinks!), and our weekends are quite busy the next few weeks too. This leaves little/no time for painting, which would mean we would probably be left to paint once we get moved into the house, meaning that an already arduous task would be made that more difficult. Yes, it's time to call back up.

Monte came out this week to look at the house and gave us his bid. And the bid came in reasonably, so we're going for it. The painters start tomorrow, the 9th, so we spent a good amount of our time yesterday finishing selecting paint for 6 more rooms of the house. Luckily this was relatively easy and WWIII didn't break out. We are GO for paint!

John's crew came over and cleaned up, which included removing the visqueen from the flooring in the kitchen/dining/family rooms. They also removed all the rest of the carpet in the house, in preparation for the new stuff, which should be installed after the painting is done. Dave and John selected the tile for the master shower, and I believe that'll be started this coming week. Lastly, I believe work on the parquet floors will start next week, with the sanding.

Unfortunately we've got some unknowns with the parquet right now. Since there were 2 'water events' (The first being when they hit the water line during initial demo, damaging tile in the kitchen, the second being the damage in the dining room from the drywall guys last week), there will be portions of the floor that will have to be fixed. I'm not really sure what all this will entail, but am cautiously optimistic that it will be an easy fix, but I have no idea. Bottom line is that I don't want to lose the parquet- so hopefully they can fix the broken parts and make it look great.

While not much happened with the house last week, this coming week should bring forth a good amount of perceptible changes, mainly in the form of paint. Doesn't everything always look better with new paint? Stay tuned!

Stop! Go! Water damage!

Have I really not posted in 5 days? What a week this has been! A week of stop and go's...

All of the popcorn is off of the ceiling, the master bath has been walled in, wallpaper is history and the drywall is now up. This week was the turning point- where we moved from tear down phase to rebuild phase. We spent Wednesday evening at BW3's, rekindling an old time honored tradition of 'celebrating' large purchases at Lowe's. You see, when we did Housemageddon two and a half years ago on the Lake Howell house, we'd find ourselves at B-dubs each night we spent a ton of money on supplies at Lowe's. It only felt right to ease the pain of writing the check for cabinets at our favorite pain-killing spot. Cabinets will be here in 4 weeks, around April 27th.vWith that huge task taken care of, we're cleared for smooth sailing, right? WRONG.

We went over to the house this morning to see what the workers had gotten done on Thursday and Friday. We were happy to see that the knock down is done (and still drying) on the ceiling and the orange peel done on the walls. The room(s) look fantastic! I'm still shocked to see that the addition of drywall and texture actually makes the space look bigger, not smaller. Unfortunately, within about 2 minutes of being in the house, we realized there were some small puddles of water on the visqueen and that some water had gotten through small holes in the plastic and had warped the wood flooring underneath. SON OF A...! We've been planning on keeping the parquet flooring and refinishing it, but after this water 'incident', I'm not sure what's going to happen- there's probably a 3'x3' square of floor that's been damaged. Our contractor brought over some fans and a dehumidifier, but I'm not sure if that's going to help. *sigh*

We had planned on spending a majority of the day painting, but unfortunately, seeing the damaged floor really took the wind out of our sails. Instead, we bought the sink and faucet for the kitchen (Local friends: IF you are in the market for any kind of sinks/tubs/faucets/etc, go to Sink Outlet in Longwood. It's a small, independent store and the guy that owns it is great). We looked at some granite (OMG, the colors!) and then went to Floor & Decor to look at tile for the master shower.

What an overwhelming experience that was! All we're doing is one small shower and I felt like the whole balance of the world rested in our hands with choosing the tile for it. Porcelain? Ceramic? Travertine? Bullnose? Decorative accents? Corner seat? OY VEY! Seeing that we've never re-done a bathroom shower before, this was a bit much to handle. Luckily we weren't afraid to ask for answers, and we got some great direction. You could probably spend a day in that store and not be able to go through all of the choices and combinations that you could make. Dave and our contractor will go back later in the week and confirm that John will be able to do the design we picked out.

So, as I sit in the 'hole' that our poor little house on Lake Howell has turned into, I'm wondering how in the world we are going to get all the work done? Packing. Packing. Painting. Packing. Painting. All the P's! What I need is more 'People'. Anyone know how to clone themselves?

Popcorn is made for our bellies, not the ceiling

Forgive me for the lack of posts... it's difficult to keep up with a blog when you have 99,999 other things going on at the same time. The past week has been a whirlwind of activity.

The guys got going on a lot last week. Dave and I spent Wednesday night at Lowes, looking through cabinets. We worked with a super helpful and knowledgeable man named Greg. He spent nearly 2 hours with us going through 2 different product lines and styles. We are still going to check out a cabinet place in Oviedo, but Lowes is looking

good. They've got a wicked lot of promotions going on and several items come for 'Free'. That's got to be the best 4 letter word in the book, no? By Friday the guys were hanging electrical boxes and setting the places for the can lights and pendants. The rest of the demo was complete, and the guys were starting to hang drywall.

We were out of town this weekend and I told Dave there was a moratorium on talking about the house for this weekend. We've been going crazy with getting everything ready and making some quick decisions that we were due a break; some time to enjoy our family. In fact, Dave once mentioned something about cabinets and I told him that I refused to answer the question until we were back in Florida- I wanted to forget all of the stress that we have going on with the house and have 72 hours of R&R. I know that in a few months that the stress will be gone and we'll have a gorgeous home. But right now, it's a bit much.

We stopped in on the house when we got home today, and I'm excited about the changes! I'd say that at this point, about 75% of the drywall had been hung and the kitchen once again has a ceiling. The guys were working on scraping off the popcorn- a job that I don't envy anyone. The sound alone (scrrrrrrraaaape) is enough to send me running from the room (think: nails on a blackboard). Who came up with the idea of popcorn ceilings anyway?

The shower in the master bathroom has been framed in and we even have a new light fixture in the bathroom. Embedded in the new kitchen ceiling are spots for the new can and pendant lights- a feature which we didn't do when we remodeled Lake Howell, a decision we've regretted since. There will be so much light in this house that you may just be able to get a tan when you walk in! OH YEAH!

We then stopped back to the house after work tonight, and the guys were still scraping popcorn and applying a skim coat to the ceiling (scrrrrraaaaape). I told Reef that popcorn is made for our bellies, not the ceiling, and I got a little chuckle from him. I tell you what, the guys on John's team are hard workers! They got almost the rest of the drywall hung, and our new house is starting to looking like a home again- not a damaged shell.

I'm guessing they should have all the drywall hung and texture applied by the end of the week, so it'll be time for us to move in and start painting. OY VEY. I'm a horrible painter- I'm slow and meticulous, not necessarily good qualities for getting a whole house painted. Who's down for a painting party this weekend? I promise beer and food!

Surprises in Store

Ok, where were we? I seem to have gotten a bit sidetracked over the weekend, and I missed a few updates. Let's first back track to Friday, March 16th:

I arrived to the house to see that not much had happened that day, other than some new framing around the sliding glass door to the back yard. Otherwise, I didn't see much change. I was bummed. I was tired. It was the end of a long week and I felt a bit disappointed that more work hadn't happened. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Camelot certainly wasn't going to be either.

My mom stopped by Saturday afternoon to meet up with her friend and take her to Camelot (I just love saying 'Take me to Camelot'... I may have to get me a white horse and a suit of armor. Anyone up for a good joust?). Mom mentioned that she had stopped at Camelot before coming to my house and that the workers had taken downthe last of the wall between the kitchen and dining room. This included 2 narrow fresh air return ducts and the 2x4 framing around them. I told her that as of Friday at 5:30 when I stopped by, they were still up. She and her friend went over to Camelot and called me from there, saying they were most definitely gone.

YES! I love surprises! The guys must have either come over Friday night or Saturday morning.

Dave stopped by the house Monday morning and the guys were working on tearing out the master shower. It seems that some of the tiles near the bottom of the shower had cracked, allowing water to seep behind the wall and rot out a couple of the 2x4's. Dave had initially thought about doing this himself, but thought the better of it and added it to the contractor's task list. So now, when you walk into the front door, you can see straight into the master bathroom. *That's* an open floorplan!

Looks like the guys got all of the dreaded wallpaper out of the 3rd bedroom and guest bathroom. I don't envy them that job, as it had to be horridly tedious work. I'd say 3/4 of the kitchen wallpaper is gone too. The funny part about the kitchen wallpaper is that it was this swirly blue pattern and the people before us had actually covered up the switch plate covers, therefore making the light switch nearly impossible to find. Who said this was a good idea!? Camo wall covering. No, I don't think so.

Lastly, the bookshelves in the living room are gone. I believe that's the major bulk, if not all, of the demo that was to be completed. Now it's time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

What else? We've started the fun task of picking cabinets and counter tops. We did Corian for the counters in the Lake Howell house when we did the remodel in '09, and have regretted it since. Sadly, the Corian scratches easily and when the sun shines in, you can see all of these fine streaks and scratches. *facepalm*. We won't be making that mistake again, and we'll be doing granite for the counters. The funny part is that we can't stop going back to the same color and style of cabinets that we have in our current house. No matter how much each of us tries to like something different, we keep coming back to shaker style cabinets. Creatures of habit, I guess.

We made a stop at Lowe's tonight to get a cabinet quote. We didn't get the chance to do that, but we did manage to pick up one of our first pieces of 'equipment' for the new house: a shower faucet. I believe I heard the associates proclaim 'Welcome back, Johnsons' as we walked in. They are going to love us a lot in the next couple of months.

Take the top off!

When I pulled up to the house tonight to check on the progress, one of the workers was still there, unloading drywall. It was nice to meet him and clarify some items. They still have a small amount of demo to complete- take out the shelves in the family room, take out the cross beams in the dining room, take out a small wall between the dining room and front foyer and remove the duct work and framing around it in the kitchen.

Today- and I didn't realize was going to happen- they removed the dropped ceiling in the kitchen. Oh my! I could see all the way to the rafters, talk about open floor plan! It was cool to see but also made my stomach turn a bit to see the old, dingy insulation that was more than likely 44 years old. Ick!

Ok, no more thoughts of dingy insulation. There are piles of new drywall to be installed, and that'll make things feel fresh again. Or, at least cover up the gross insulation so I don't have to think about it. What do they say... 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind'? Tomorrow should show some more good progress at ripping out the past and moving towards the future.

Please sir, I'd like some more

Let me first put this out there... I am not liking the blogspot platform. After I spent a couple of hours putting together last night's post and not being anywhere near impressed with it, I've decided that I'm not going to post a lot of pictures within my daily recaps. I created a Facebook album dedicated to Reconstructing Camelot. I don't have a ton of time to myself these days, so I have to do what I can to get things done and get to bed within a reasonable time frame. Is that nutty or what? :)

With that being said, not much happened today. I was on the phone with Dave (He's up in the panhandle for the week for work) when I got to the house, and was looking forward to being able to describe to him what all had happened today. Sadly, I wasn't able to give him much.

Looks like a majority of today's work was spent on getting all of the debris out of the garage and into the newly delivered dumpster. The guys also masked off some more of the floor to protect it from the heavy work that will be going on.

I got some clarification as to what happened in the kitchen to cause the floor to buckle. It would seem that when the guys took out the sink, the water on/off valve basically disintegrated and shot water all of the kitchen. There were dryers and dehumidifiers running all night last night. It helped to dry things out, but the floor in that area still seems a bit warped. Hopefully all is not lost in this department.

While I'm a bit disappointed that not much more was done today, perhaps there is more that the guys did in the attic that we can't see? I know there are some electrical lines to move and some duct work to relocate, so maybe they spent time working on this? Either way, they certainly did a LOT yesterday, so I can understand a day of light work.

Mr. Contractor, Tear Down These Walls!

We couldn't help ourselves, and we started some of our own 'reconstruction' on Sunday afternoon. I think Dave wanted to see just how difficult this demo thing might be. Turns out the paneling would come off fairly easy, and you can put a hole in any wall with a good hammer!

I walked into the house tonight and WOAH, did the guys get a lot done today! Let's see...

First off, the dumpster to haul away the debris didn't arrive today, so all of the 'stuff' has been piled into the garage until such time. Our poor little Boston Whaler looks like it might get eaten by cabinets and appliances. A nice touch is that they removed the carpet from the front living room, and put it down under all of this trash. Should help to make clean up a tad bit easier. Hopefully some of the upper cabinets will be salvageable so that we can put them up in the laundry room and garage.

Front living room before

Front living room after

Corner of dining room before

And after

View of the kitchen from the laundry room door

The kitchen from the laundry room after

Taken from the bedroom hallway door before

And after- look at all that room!

1968's kitchen before

1968's kitchen after demo!

Nice clean kitchen before

After, boy can these guys make a mess!

Can you get over how different the house looks in such a little amount of time!? My jaw hit the floor when I walked in the front door.

Lastly, they've masked off the guest bathroom in preparation for wallpaper removal. This stuff is cemented on there, and John (our contractor) agreed that once it comes down, the walls will have to be skim coated before they can be re-painted. Sounds like a lot of work, so we're having John and crew do the removal. I'm also impressed that they've put down a protective covering over the parquet flooring. Hopefully this will cut down on the amount of damage that the floor sustains until it can be re-finished. Seems that John and his crew work pretty fast. It'll be interesting to see how much farther they get tomorrow....