Construction Junction

We're starting what I lovingly call Phase II of our horrid house remodel. If you've been here, you know what I'm talking about. I figured I'd document it in case it becomes what most construction projects do become - a freaking nightmare. Let me start at the beginning...


Our married house was a cute, little house in a friendly cul-de-sac. We knew we'd be starting a family and that I would no longer work so we decided to move to a bigger house that was closer to Chris's work. In our married house his commute was an hour and 40 minutes without traffic. Although we LOVED the town we lived in, it didn't make sense to stay there. We had lots of requirements for our new bigger house. It had to be in a cul-de-sac, we wanted a big lot so that our neighbors weren't right on top of us, we wanted lots of bedrooms to fill, Chris needed an office, and we wanted a private backyard. It took nearly 2 years of Chris dragging me around to complete dumps before I told him to continue his search on his own and let me know when there is something for real.


Drew came before a bigger house came and that was ok. Chris kept looking. One morning when Drew was just 2 months old Chris called me from work to tell me to drive 45 minutes away to another town to an open house he'd seen on Craigslist. It was the first and only day this house was being shown. I went and was PISSED that he'd sent me to another shithole to look at. The outside was great but once you walked through the orange and yellow stained-glass front door you had entered a complete time warp. The house was dark, full of gold and orange furniture, and smelled musty. The realtor told me it had been vacant for FIVE YEARS but the owner often would come sleep in the house and she kept a gardener and a housekeeper. Her love and affection for the house kept her from selling it during those five years.


I faked interest, toured the house, and left. I called Chris from the car and told him what a trip that house was and it was not an option. He asked me if the house had potential. Potential? I don't know. He told me to go BACK to the house and look at it all again with visions of hardwood floors, new paint, walls knocked down, etc. I walked back in and thought, "Yep. This is our house."


Fast forward nearly 5 years. Here we are today just now starting Phase II. Phase I we finished last fall and it was a big one. We had velvet wallpaper removed from 5 rooms. Yes, velvet! It was lovely. Really.


Phase II is going to be a walk-in pantry, a small expansion of the existing laundry room, and a desk built in to the wall in the eat-in kitchen area. I envision homework will be done there, or it will be used as a timeout place. Whatever.


Here are a couple pics of the before and what we have so far. It's only day 2:

I know, you can't even tell what this is.  This is an open area (read: wasted space) between our kitchen and laundry room.

The sliding glass door which leads out to that wasted space.  This will soon be a solid wall and the wasted space will be our walk-in pantry.  Oh, and that bag of garbage outside the door?  That's just decoration.

This is part of the eat-in kitchen.  The window is where the desk will go and the blank wall next to it is where the door to the new pantry will go.  And that wall paper is the most modern decor of this house.  No joke.

William and Lauren watching the construction guys break up the concrete.  The guys LOVED having an audience, I could tell.

The cement truck came early one morning and we got up to watch.  Great fun.

In case you just can't imagine what a time warp this place is, let me show you.  But trust me when I say the house has tons of potential.  We'll get there.  After Phase 14 this place is going to be the bomb.  Baby steps.

The front.  Deceiving, you'll see.  And ignore the pile in the front.  That's the old cement the construction guys put there.

The heavy, lined curtains.  They probably cost a fortune back in 1979 when they were hung. 

The gold veined mirrors.  We have three of these.  I like doing my make-up in these mirrors cause I focus on how hideous they are and not how wrinkled I'm becoming.

My microwave.  The Smithsonian has dibs on it when I'm done.

One of the downstairs bathrooms.  Whoever thought rock AND carpet in a bathroom was a good idea should be shot.

One of the light fixtures in that bathroom.  These puppies are going on ebay when we get rid of them.  I'm sure some Liberace-lovin' person wants them.

See?  I wasn't joking.  Our furniture looks out-of-place but after all this time I'm used to it.  And everything you see will eventually be changed.  Who knows, maybe by the time we get to Phase 14 some of these things will be back in style.  Yeah, right!