You Light up my Life

We are starting to see all our choices coming to reality. We are moving along nicely and hope to be in by the last of April. The walls are in and sanded down to a flat, soft finish, the floors are waiting to be roughed up and stained. Almost all the tile is complete, there are plenty of paint samples up on the walls. The trim is going in and and up it almost every room. But I wanted to follow up with a project started ages ago or it seems that way to me.

We started with this box hanging outside over the entrance to the Utility room. I wanted to save as we have demo'd so much that I was wondering if we would have any charm left. So my sweet husband (who is such a Renaissance man) removed it from over the door and handed it to me.
I jumped on the opportunity to strip it and see what lay beneath. See this post: Now you see it, now you don't As you can see from that post it was not pretty at all even after three coats of stripper and wire brush. So up it went on the shelf in the garage until my sweet husband got a new toy.... A DREMEL, it was like Christmas morning only better, probably because I did not have to go to bed at 2:00 am after helping Santa put out the toys! He just went to store and purchased it himself! And it truly has a million and one uses.

Here is where we started: coated with at least ten layers of paint.

After three to four applications of stripper and wire brushings. Still rough, but thrilled to see it was once the house numbers and a light for the Utility entrance.

After I removed the glass carefully, this is what was inside rusted metal and old wiring. (which we are all more than familiar with)

Here is the glass by itself with house numbers on it and lots of caulk and paint all around the edges.

Here is the miracle of the Dremel... (man I love that thing and my sweet husband)!!! You can see some of the rust holes but it almost looks brand new and ready for ( dare I say it...) a new coat of paint.

Here is the top and mounting bracket after the Dremel treatment and before paint.

This is glass cleaned and ready for new house numbers. The numbers behind the glass are copies of the original ones that will be painted on the glass before it is installed in the light.

This photo shows the new coat of paint on the lantern to match the new hardware that will be installed on the new Utility door.

Once again the bracket and mounting hardware with a new coat of matching paint.

And last but not least the old light socket and new socket with wonderful up to date wiring.
Enjoying the process and can not wait to show you all the updates.
Happy Friday.

A Look Back

Here is where we began in the living room. The lovely built in, the plastic chandelier,super low ceilings, thin hardwood floors. The challenges were adding up but with demo, vision, great people, and plans we embarked on this journey.

Here is the living after demo and beginning of framing. The ceiling is raised, built in removed and the floors were on their way out.

This is after framing, HVAC installation, lights,insulation,sheetrock, taping,bedding,the beginning of floating the walls. At this stage the floors have been removed and a new subfloor has been put down in spots where the old one was rotten and weak.

The Living room looks almost done, (well considering we looked at framing for a very long time)
Here the walls are ready for paint, trim, casings,crown molding and the floor is ready for new wood. And as luck would have it....

New wood delivered and ready to be put in place.
Can not wait to see how it looks with a new wood floor and not having to worry about falling through rotten subfloor. They started yesterday and I am headed there today to get some photos to post.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Halfway to Home, we have sheetrock!

Hope all of you had wonderful holidays and are enjoying the New Year!!!!

We are making major progress in the sheetrock department. The house is almost complete with sheetrock along with the taping and bedding process. Interior paint colors are on the drawing board. We are almost finished with the sheetrock, there are two rooms to finish putting in the sheetrock then taping and bedding. Here are a few shots of some of the completed rooms.

Here is looking into the master study, from the door of the bedroom! I like how you can see sunshine streaming into both rooms.

I took this shot inside the study you can see a portion of the new windows and a view of the pool in one of the windows to the left.

This is the view of the living room looking back toward to the dining room and kitchen. You can see how much better the vaulted ceiling looks. It makes the room feel so much bigger, we only vaulted the living room, dining room, and kitchen. (you will see the kitchen one below)

This the small bay in the kitchen,it looks out onto what will be the screened in porch and our backyard. You can see the pool in the distance, That also is a work in progress. I will post about ALL the hard work my sweet hubby has done later.

This is the appliance side of the kitchen. The ceiling is glorious and makes me smile! Under that beautiful window (which is original)will be my farm sink. I have always had an idea of what our kitchen would look like but when I found the blog: for the love of a house I knew I found my ultimate inspiration. Please visit the blog, Joan has been so gracious in posting about her home. I could not help but be challenged to try some of her ideas and implement them into our home. Floors are next on the agenda, the wood should be delivered soon ( it has to acclimate) tile is waiting in the wings. So glad we are headed into a full work week.

Glory to God in the Highest!

Merry Christmas, hope this year ends with all of you feeling blessed and loved.

We are closing the walls!

Here it is..... SHEETROCK! It was delivered today and I am sad to say I missed the 18 wheeler that delivered the sheetrock but it is placed nicely in every room. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. Today they started in our daughter's room. the ceiling is done, I will snap those photos tomorrow, it was too late when I went by the afternoon.
As an added bonus some of the exterior doors have been delivered as well. Hitting a high note and making it early Christmas present to boot!

This is the stack in the living room, and waiting to see these pieces go up. This view is looking back toward the hall and new powder bath. You can see the fireplace in the background. We had to repair the firebrick and with that came new herringbone tile insert. It is beautiful, I will post those photos in another post.

This originial view is from the living room looking back into the dining room and the kitchen.

This is the same view now, you can see the ceilings have been vaulted and the sheetrock is here waiting to be hung.
We are so glad things are coming together, everyone has worked hard this week and we are so grateful for all the people involved in the renovation. We have gotten to know new friends and look forward to sharing the rest of the journey with friends new and old.


Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Baby, it's cold outside.

It is finally cold in Texas! I am thankful for that, it is December after all.
The insulation has been blown in the outside walls and put up into the ceilings. We are about to begin putting up the sheetrock, then wood floors, tile in the bathrooms,Yipeee!!! But I am getting ahead of myself.
Let's start with what is already in place at Hathaway; outside walls, new roof, new framing, new electrical, new plumbing, new lighting, new HVAC and insulation. Imagine how surprised I was when I went inside the other day and it was much colder inside than outside, the insulation is working like a charm.

Here is looking into the master study from the master bedroom. The pocket door track is installed and ready for interior doors. You can see what type of insulation was blown into the walls and insulation that was put up into the beautiful tray ceiling. ( I will take another photo showing the beautiful framing of the ceiling)

Here is a close up of the insulation, between the windows in our bedroom. It is amazing how quiet it is in the house with just the insulation. Once the sheetrock is up it will be really quiet and spa like. Although it will be more like Calagon take me away, is probably closer to reality.

Here is a shot of our daughter's insulation, I know it all looks the same but I am so happy to have moved from framing to insulation and heading into sheetrock.

From one of my favorite Christmas songs:
I've got to go home - Oh, baby, you'll freeze out there
Ahh, but it's cold outside!!!! (or inside if you have new insulation and no heat)

Windows of the World... Well, our corner of the world

Here is the back of the house right after we signed the papers. The upper windows have changed in shape and size, the back wall has been moved out to increase the room size. This was the original garage of the home when it was built (1942). It has since been closed in and looked like this but here are some of the photos along with the process and transformation.

This picture shows the sagging roof and the outside rock exposed. Along with single pane windows and french doors which were poorly installed. As in everything that was done to this house before we bought it and started this "renovation", I mean total rebuild.

This is after the roof was ripped off and before the new roof and extension of family room was completed.

Here is a close up of the two new windows and dormers of the upstairs bedroom and bathroom. And the new metal roof on the back side of the house. Can't wait for the rain (now that the house is dried in).

Here is the almost finished view, minus the stacks of lumber and trash. I love how it looks and I will really enjoy it when I am floating in the pool on a raft with an umbrella in my drink !
We are headed to pick out exterior doors and then onto sheetrock. They say it moves fast after the sheetrock starts..... will keep you posted!