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!