1st floor renovation

[k3am]

I was convinced it would never happen, but we started demo this week!

I slacked on getting us packed up so our before pictures are awful, but at least it’s some frame of reference.

The kitchen will be moving into the dining room, dining room will be between the kitchen and family room, we’ll raise the floor in the living room, and just about everything on the first floor will get an update. And the number of lights will be multiplied by like 5 (the designer LOVES lights - I think it’s overkill, but I’m reminding myself we chose to work with her for a reason.)

So far, the contractor and his guys have been great. He’s done a couple of projects with our designer before, but primarily does new build construction in an older neighborhood nearby (buys the house, takes it to the foundation and starts from scratch). We were torn between two contractors, but he seemed willing to push back against designer recommendations that didn’t make sense for the budget.. some of which we didn’t even realize were in the plan! 🤦🏻‍♀️ (No, sorry I DON’T want to pay for a waterfall countertop in the LAUNDRY ROOM.) I ruled out the contractors I didn’t feel great about and let DH make the ultimate decision. After seeing 3 of his jobs (two completed and one in process) and talking to a ton of referrals, we were sold.

Work started on Wednesday, but that’s also when we were finalizing packing things up, so most of the work has been outside - demo of existing pergola, relocating laubdry, etc. The goal is to get the new outdoor structure up and the roof waterproofed ASAP so they can use that area as we head into winter. (We’re using the garage as a kitchen/living area)

Saturday the kids got to smash walls. DS in particular LOVED it. I’m not sure that all the walls the contractor had them go to town on needed to go, but they do now. We found out we needed new floor joists as those are rotted out in the family room, so those have been replaced already. The good news is we haven’t seen any termite damage on the back of the house that they have down to studs, which is unusual for a house its age in our area.

[RockNVoll]

Excited to watch this process unfold! Sounds like it will be amazing.

[dr.girlfriend]

So exciting! Renovating was the BEST thing we ever did with our money.

[simpsongal]

Good luck! It’ll be tough but you’ll be so happy after it’s done.

[maudefindlay]

Thanks for sharing, will be fun to watch the whole process. What is the timeliness looking like?

[k3am]

Nov 11, 2024 18:04:53 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Thanks for sharing, will be fun to watch the whole process. What is the timeliness looking like?

~4 months if we’re lucky, but with winter (even CA winter) I’m guessing it may drag out more.

[mrsukyankee]

Can't wait!!!

[darby]

Yay! How exciting! I’m really looking forward to your updates.

[k3am]

Week 2 update:

They’ve framed out the new window in the family room, the huge sliding door, and the new window in the kitchen (I don’t have a good photo of that!)

The also framed off a temporary wall so that we have more privacy (and warmth!) to lead a pathway from upstairs into the garage, which is great and terrible, since we don’t have as clear a view of progress. We’re decently set up in the garage with a ninja air fryer and an induction stove burner from a neighbor(and one more that I ordered before they offered it up to us - it may get put into rotation, TBD). We are having some electrical issues with circuits in the garage that we’ve mostly gotten figured out. The HVAC was down for a couple days, but thankfully fixed now.

The city messed up our permit and didn’t fully stamp something, so while we’ve dug the 8 foot deep holes for footings for the outdoor structure, the contractor hasn’t wanted to fill them yet in case there’s any surprises from the city.

The kitchen is mostly demolished now - the framed wall remaining was the dividing line between kitchen and dining room. I’ve found new homes for all of the appliances, which makes me happy. They’re mostly OLD appliances (20 years!) so we didn’t want to put them back in, but they oven is a thermador and cooktop is a GE monogram and we never had issues with them, so hoping they get to continue to live out their useful lives. The dishwasher was on the newer side, but I HATED it - the contractor is going to put that into one of his rentals.

I have no idea what’s in store for tomorrow and next week, but these guys are moving to fast and painfully slow. (The kids and I agreed that the most annoying part for them must be spending time every morning undoing all the plywood boards only to have to put them back up again at the end of every day)

[libbygrl109]

This is so exciting! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

[mrsukyankee]

Very cool. I'm always jealous of garages - we had to put our fridge and cooking stuff in our living room while we had our kitchen done. Can't wait to see what comes next!

[k3am]

Nov 17, 2024 3:30:20 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Very cool. I'm always jealous of garages - we had to put our fridge and cooking stuff in our living room while we had our kitchen done. Can't wait to see what comes next!

I would rather be in the living room! I imagine if we didn’t have the garage, they’d have had to make something like that work. But the garage does come in convenient, and not just for this. I’ve never lived without one (aside from dorm life) and always complain ours is too small.

[mrsukyankee]

LOL. I wish I had an internal picture of the garage my MIL's house had - THAT was small. Yours looks HUGE.



You can see the garage door to the left of the open door. It wasn't really more than a small car sized wide. The only garage that existed in my adult life (I lived there for 2 years).

[k3am]

mrsukyankee, the photo is deceptive since it’s take zoomed out.. but I’m sure it’s huge by UK standards! Everything is bigger here. It’s technically a 2 car garage, but even before we put a single item in it when we moved in, we couldn’t put two cars in if we wanted to be able to open or close the doors.

[nicolewi]

This is great! Can't wait to see how it turns out. I love the garage kitchen/living room with dog!

[k3am]

nicolewi, the dog monster is a such a people person that it's impossible to get pictures without him. He's got a love/hate relationship with the contractors... loves most of them, hates two of them.

We are currently awaiting the dreaded 'mega bomb cyclone atmospheric river' (the news is so damned dramatic) but I'm ultra dreading it this year, for obvious reasons.

[k3am]

Since I'm finally sitting in front of a computer, I figured I'd post some of the blue prints so anyone interested can get a better feel for the grand plan.