Demo- Day 1

Yesterday after work, we headed to our house like usual.  Our good friends, Brett and Morgan (who have remodeled a couple houses themselves) showed up about the same time we did.  They had not gotten a chance to see the house yet so we showed them around.  We were standing around having a beer, chatting about plans when they actually initiated starting the demo.  (Sean and I had planned on starting that night but didn't want to force anyone into being involved).  

And so it began.  All that nasty (flea infested, may I add) carpet came up.  The boys pulled the carpet up and Morgan and I followed them pulling up the padding.  A gross amount of dust and dirt came out but the floors look so much better!  Brett got to work on the tack-strips and Sean started tearing out the kitchen pass through and cabinets.

Last night's accomplishments included: pulling out all the carpet and padding, removing the tack-strip in the living room and demolishing the kitchen pass through and upper kitchen cabinets.  The back yard was already full of trash left by the previous owner so now its really in need of a dump run.  I am leaving for San Francisco for a girls trip tomorrow at noon so I will be packing, doing laundry and cleaning our current house tonight.  Hopefully by the time I return on Sunday, Sean will have the rest of the tack-strips removed, the other kitchen cabinets removed, the rest of the appliances (fridge, dishwasher, oven) disposed off and the backyard cleaned up and ready for more demolition next week!
We love how much character our house has.  Notice all the wainscoting throughout and the doors with original hardwood in the pictures below.  Our goal with renovating this house is to keep with the times but update it.  After doing some research, we found our house is categorized as "Queen Anne Victorian Cottage."  Sounds fancy huh? Google it for a more complete description.  We want everything to be fully functional and comfortable.  While tearing out the kitchen we found a lot of original fir, redwood, and bead board that Sean held on to.  At first, my thought was "Oh jeez, why are we saving this?! We are trying to get rid of stuff, not collect it!!  I definitely gave Sean the look.  But the wood is pretty cool and I'm sure they will turn into a lovely Pinterest project down the road.

We probably could have gotten more done last night, however we received a call from our neighbor around 8:45 that our pup, Jessie was eating a light bulb.  We rushed home and she had apparently jumped up on the counter and pulled down a box of light bulbs and had actually chewed through one.  Thank God our neighbor, Rocky, heard this and stopped her and called us.  When we got home, she was totally excited to be in Rocky's house and getting special attention and had no idea she did anything wrong. We kept a pretty close eye on her today and she seems to be doing fine.  Just a small scare.

 And now... Pictures from Demo Day 1:

Before: Notice Carpet and the Pass Through from the Kitchen to the Living Room.

During

During.. Notice that huge nasty stain. Gross.

No more Carpet!

Brett getting to work on the tack-strips

Next up: That pass though... 

During (Sorry for the blurriness.  Iphone pic)

Kitchen Before

No more pass through! 

Morgan doing work on the tile! 

Upper kitchen cabinets. Gone! 

Our trash pile at the end of the night...

And just because: Our pups, Jessie and Chloe taking each other from a walk :)

We Closed!!!!!

We closed escrow Monday!! The house is all ours.  Sean and I got the keys and spent the last two evenings showing our new casa to friends and family and drinking wine and champagne.  It was amazing.  This was the first time I saw our house without someone else's junk all over the place.  I mean everywhere.  The previous owner was borderline hoarder.  

The front door and entry way to our house!!!

Another thing we did was start a list of all the things that needed to get done now that we are homeowners.  Homeowners to a house that was built in 1905 that needs major renovations.  Our list consists of simple things (notifying everyone from the post office to banks to our grandmothers of our new address) to far more complex issues (creating an as built drawing and demolition- demolition of everything).  Okay, I may be exaggerating but we are really planning some major changes- full kitchen and bathroom renovation, getting rid of a wall (maybe two), and completely re doing the flooring throughout.  Our goal is to be in our house by September 1st.  That is 32 days from now.  And our place that we live in now is rented as of September 1st.  So it isn't really a goal as much as a requirement...  While I totally do not mind living through a remodel it would be a lot easier if we got the major demolition aspect taken care of before we are in there permanently.

I looked at my calendar at some point yesterday while talking to mom and realized I have one thing or another planned for every weekend (except one) until the first of October. 

 I am sure you are saying, "Why don't you just cancel your plans?  I'm sure if you explain, people would understand."  No way.  One of my biggest pet peeves is people flaking on plans.  I am a huge planner and when others do this to me, it drives me insane.  If you are a flake, stop it.  It's not nice.  Anyways, sorry for the tangent, I'm back.  Since my weekends are packed that leaves evenings after work to get a lot of the house stuff done.  We also have to tackle a list of things like going to banks and getting home owners insurance which requires dealing with people who have the same work hours as us.  Again, 32 days from today.  It is a ton of work to do but we are so ready to get started. 

I have been pretty caught up in the moment but I managed to get a couple pictures.  We also got a chance to pull the carpet back in one corner to see what kind of shape the hardwood is in.  It looked pretty promising, however we won't really know until we can see more of it.  Jessie and Chloe came with us last night to check out their new home and explore all the scents in the backyard and on the nasty carpet that will be torn out asap.  They seem pretty happy, so as long as we have their approval, we are set :)


And now... Pictures!

An iPhone panoramic picture of the front bedroom with a bay window to the left

Another iPhone panoramic of the living room (door on top right leads to kitchen, door ahead to middle bedroom and on left door to front bedroom, entry way and enclosed porch)

Gross.  Everything about this picture. 

These are light switches... Did I mention this house was built in 1905?

Sean's brother drew out our floor plan then later entered all the dimensions.  Thank you Ryan!  The front door is on the top with the three bedrooms lined up on the right (and a "Jack and Jill" bathroom).  The curve on top left is our enclosed porch (YES!!!!) entry way, living room, kitchen, back porch and 2nd bathroom.  Our house sits pretty high off the street level so there are stairs to both front and back doors.  

Ughhh this kitchen... so disgusting.  But a blank canvas we get to design however we want :)

Another view of the kitchen...

The view from the street.  

 It has been  super helpful to have so many people walking through the house and getting opinions on how to situate furniture, what to turn into an office or bedroom and what walls to keep or tear down.  It is kind of hard to see from the pictures but if you have any goals, tips or suggestions to help us through this remodel, please let me know.

First Blog!

Welcome to my blog!  Thank you for stopping by.  I plan on keeping my followers (you!) updated on the daily happenings of my life.  There are a couple things you should know about me which will make me easier to follow and understand:

1. I have absolutely no experience writing, other than college papers.  I primarily use the other side of my brain, so pardon my grammatical errors.
2. I love cooking, so much so that my degree is in Nutrition and Food Sciences.  I work for an Engineering Company which has nothing to do with food, more on that later. 
3. My boyfriend (Sean) and I have two amazing dogs who mean the world to us.  Our 11 year old Lousiana Catahoula teaches our 10 month old Golden Retriever how to win us of over every night when we come home from work.  We are both suckers for handing out table scraps and overloading them with treats.
4. We are set to close escrow on a house next week in our dream town, which we currently live and rent in now.  We could not be more excited for this whole house remodel.  

Starting a blog has recently been on my mind.  A lot.  I keep thinking "Oh, if I had a blog I would definitely write about this."  One thing I will write about is our new house.  I love pinning to Pinterest and DIY projects.  Our house needs a ton of work, which is the main reason we chose it.  Or it chose us.. I guess.  Sean is a General Contractor who owns a Construction business.  He is very talented and has a lot of connections.  Mix that with my creativity  Pinterest ideas and hopefully we end up with a house we can call a home.

My Jessie and I :)

Another aspect of having a blog is to set goals with a small amount of accountability to them. Hopefully you all will help me with that.  I will try to set small, short goals to accomplish by the next time I blog.  Looking at my upcoming schedule:

Tonight: Rehearsal Dinner for Sean's friends wedding

Tomorrow: Wedding

Sunday: Celebratory brunch for a friend's promotion

That being said, I don't think I will be getting much done this weekend.  My goals before Monday are:

1. Workout once

2.  Meal plan and prep for next week

3.  Blog on Monday! 

Thanks for reading my first blog and I hope everyone has a great weekend.