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....

Closing Time

It's ours! Of course, it all came down to the wire. The mortgage company tried to hold things up with the underwriters the day before closing, but we stayed firm, as did the sellers, and closing finally happened Friday the 9th. Dave and I met at the title agency's office, and after about 45 minutes and 3" of papers to sign, 931 Camelot became ours.

The construction crew arrives on Tuesday to being demo. Let's do this thing! Here are some starting pictures and some explanations on what's going to happen:

Helllooo, 1968, and goodbye kitchen. Bye, bye dropped ceiling and fluorescent lighting. I'm fairly certain the cabinets are vintage late 60's and have been painted over and over. The paint is so thick in places that it's peeling off (you can see this under the counter in the desk area, bottom right). The best part of this room is that it's got a pantry. Holla!

Another shot of the kitchen. The wall that the cabinets and desk are on is getting taken out and we'll construct a bar in this area. Beyond that door is the dining room, and we're taking out 2 more walls that frame it. Essentially, when these 3 walls are removed we'll have a huge open space. Great for parties!

A shot of the appliances. Check out the vintage stove combo by Tappan. Is Tappan still even in business? I feel like we should donate that thing once it's removed. Alani in the background is still perplexed as to what's going on.

A view of the family room. The long white wall in the middle of the picture is the major wall being removed. The bookshelves along the far wall are being removed, as is the paneling on all 4 walls (to be replaced by drywall). The flooring in here is parquet, and it'll be sanded, re-finished and sealed. I have always adored parquet floors!

Looking at the dining room from the entry foyer. The short wall on the left side, as well as the 2 red walls you see in the picture are being knocked out. Anyone want a chandelier? That thing is definitely going too!

There's more to be done in the house, but this is the major work to be completed by the contractors. Stayed tuned for the fun!

T-minus 3 days

Ok, I'm doing it again; I'm blogging about our next 'adventure' project. A few people suggested I should do a blog about our upcoming home renovation project, so I figured why not. I should be asking myself 'why', since I can't seem to answer a simple email in much less than 24-48 hours now that I have an extra 16 pounds of human life to care for these days. But we'll see how this goes...

Most of you know that we're moving. Oh, you don't? Why don't we back up about 9 months and first talk about Bringing Down Da House version 2.1. We found ourselves waiting to welcome a new baby, and our house was the most perfect size for 2 adults and one 4 legged child. An addition of another human life to 1,100 square feet was going to be challenging. There were the questions, of course: Do we move? Do we add on? How do we re-configure the current space? Do we garage in the car port and make a garage? What about a second bathroom??

Dave and I thought long and hard on this, and in the end we decided to lose our spare room to make it the baby's room, and somehow figure out where to put all of *my* stuff that was in that room. This included a whole dresser and closet full of stuff. If I hear ANY of you comment on how many clothes I own, I will find you. People in the 50's didn't own squat, and the closets in this house are tiny. OK, where was I?

Of course we went to our favorite store on Earth, Ikea. Dave and I are convinced Ikea was born to serve those of us living in micro-houses. We were able to shuffle things here and there and ended up with new carpet, some fresh paint in places that hadn't been painted in a while, and a brand new nursery.

Flash forward to December 2011, when the house directly behind my sister in law's house was for sale. Her husband put a bug in Dave's ear that we should by the house and we could make a 'family compound'. Things being what they are, the house was NOT what it seemed and we decided to take a pass. But, the tiny fire had been lit, and there was no going back. We were destined to get a new house sooner versus later. We always thought we'd get a new house by the time Reef was in grade school... but that's like 5 years away!

To save the rest of the long story, here we are, looking at less than 3 days until we close on a new house. Woah, that was fast! We're happy that this house is literally 4 doors down from Dommerich Elementary School and Maitland Middle School. I'm so excited for Reef, and he has no idea why. I have always wanted to be able to walk to school. I had a friend in grade school who lived right around the corner from school and sometimes I got to walk home with her. No 1/2 hour or longer bus ride home. Two turns and we were home. So perfect.

Our house on Camelot Road is a 4/3/2. It's nearly 2x larger than our current house. Can I tell you that my favorite part of the house is the closet space? Plus, as it's been pointed out to me, both Dave and I can have food poisoning at the same time again, and it won't be a huge problem (Yes folks, in our one bathroom house we had food poisoning one night. I can tell you, it wasn't pretty). Of course there's a fully fenced back yard for Alani. And the piece de resistance for Dave is the 2 car garage. Bette can now come home.

Oh yes, about my precious Bette. She's on a bit of a hiatus right now, as you might imagine would happen with a hot rod car after a new baby arrives. But I assure you that she's still in the family and some new additions have been made in the recent months. Once she gets to her new house and work starts back up again, I'll start back up with her blog again.

The name of this blog is Reconstructing Camelot. And that's because not only are we buying a new house, but we're also remodeling said new house. The house was built in 1968, and is in need of some updating. Why? One word: Wallpaper. Oy vey. Luckily it's only in a couple of rooms, but I'm fairly certain the people who put it in used Gorilla Glue to adhere it to the wall. The other massive renovation we're going to do is take out 3 walls. Yep, THREE walls. We'll be taking the walls between the kitchen, dining and family rooms out to create an open, updated space. It's not like we have anything else going on, right?

Luckily we'll still be living in our current house while most of the heavy demo/construction goes down, but I know that we'll be itching to move in to the new place as soon as we can. Should be an interesting couple of months, better buckle up and hold on tight.

Now, anyone see my packing tape and Sharpie? There's some packing to be done...