The signs of progress

Laundry room and new opening to bathroom

It's amazing what can be done in a few days..... Last week, when we went to the house there were holes in walls, but it still looked like demolition was in full swing. This week, walls are being framed and new electrical and plumbing is going in. A lot has happened in just a few days....

The contractor has started framing the laundry room that will be on the second floor. It borrowed room from the bathroom, took out a linen closet in the hall (there's another one in the bathroom) and part of a closet in the guest room (there's another full closet in the guest room). The electrical and plumbing for the laundry room is starting to be roughed in and it shouldn't be long before walls go up!

Framed laundry room

The electrician was working hard to get the downstairs electrical upgraded. Side note- the house had two prong outlets in majority of the house. We have to upgrade to three prongs per code. The downstairs is upgraded and he'll soon be upgrading the upstairs. You'd be amazed at how three prong outlets are taken for granted, until you need to plug in the shop-vac and there's only one three prong outlet downstairs, so you're running extension cords through the whole house!  Thankfully, that is no longer an issue.

Fred doing some vacuuming

Our blonde moment of the week.... we've been working at the house for weeks with no running water. There is a leak from the upstairs toilet that we still need to fix and a few other leaks have popped up, so we keep the water off to the house. This means bathroom runs are usually taken at a local store and wet wipes help to wash hands (trying not to be graphic). So we worked yesterday thinking that there is no water to the house. We were covered in paint chips and plaster dust, so we tried to wipe as much as we could with wet wipes before leaving the house to meet Fred's parent for supper. While we were changing clothes, Fred sat on the side of the tub to put on his shoes (no furniture in the house either). He leaned back a bit and hit the nozzle for the shower and POOF water came out! We realized that the water was on in the house! It was amazing! I immediately grabbed the hand soap I brought to the house for when water was running and started scrubbing my arms and hands. It's incredible how something as simple as running water can make you feel stupid for not realizing it's on, but also be so comforting. Running water = progress! The leak upstairs hasn't been fixed yet and isn't a problem as long as no one messes with the toilet.

Fred and I are currently reviewing the quotes from cabinetmakers for the kitchen..... ouch. Thankfully, there does seems to be a couple that are reasonable that we want to discuss further details with them. Most of the quotes also include counters... a few include granite, which would be awesome, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point, we want good quality cabinets and floors (tile), and if we need to upgrade counters later, that's fine. So, now it's working on the details of the quotes and see where it goes from here.

We got our first rug for the house. It's red with gold and ivory details on it. It's planned for the dining room and I'm going to pair it with gold curtains. Thus, the great paint debate continues... I want a medium to dark brown for the walls and Fred wants something like cream.... I need more color than that. He also has suggested the living room be red. That may be a little too bold for me. We're also trying to decide on a color for the bathroom... we're both kinda thinking yellow, but I want more of a deep yellow and he's looking at sunshine yellow. We were able to decide on the colors for the Master (slate blue) and guest room (sage green).  Hopefully, we'll be able to find colors that we can both live with.... the sanding continues!