Our Home Reno: Making Progress!

We are officially more than halfway through our bathroom renovation project!  There were plenty of interesting little surprises during the demolition phase (like the rotted floor underneath the bathtub!), but now that we have walls up and a tub in place, things are really starting to take shape. 

The marble top of our damaged vanity.  I wanted to KILL the delivery guy!

This week is going to be a really big week for the upstairs bathroom as far as aesthetic changes go:  floor tile and shower tile begin to go in tomorrow -Tuesday-, and our replacement vanity should be here by Thursday (the original one was damaged, so they sent me a new one).  I already have all of the accessories like towel rods, towel holders, and light fixtures/sconces ready to go, and I think that once they are installed it will really put the finishing touches on the room. 



Our GC, Matt :)

Our contractor, Matt (of Stirling Group in Charlotte), has been heading up this project for us and has been fantastic!  Coincidentally, he is also our neighbor in Midwood and lives only a few doors down, which is really convenient.  He has been super patient with me and my five zillion questions, and his design taste and attention to detail has surpassed even my ridiculous standards (for once! lol).  Since I don't have a General Contractor for all of the other projects going on in the house, it makes it even more apparent what a huge blessing it is to have a GC like Matt doing our bathroom.  Advice to any of you contemplating a major home improvement project: find a great GC!  Ask friends, colleagues, etc.... word of mouth is usually going to be your best bet. 






Donut rambling around our demolition kitchen

On top of our ongoing bathroom adventure, we have also made huge progress in other areas of the house!  First and foremost, our old kitchen has been demo'd and taken out.  Instead of paying the kitchen installation people to do it, I decided to take a different route.  Habitat for Humanity has something called ReStore, which is a store where they sell used items for home renovation projects.  The profits from these stores goes directly to Habitat, which they use to fund the building of homes for people in need.  I decided this was a no-brainer:  donate all of the appliances, cabinets, and countertops that came with the house to Habitat for Humanity!  Bonus.... they removed everything for the house for free, AND we get a tax write-off. 

It looks so different now without anything in it....it's almost hard to imagine what it's going to look like.  But it's a really good thing that we took the old kitchen cabinets out, because there were a lot of things going on behind it that were dangerous and not up to code.  Our new kitchen cabinets get delivered this Friday, so the installation should start next week.  I can't wait!!!!

I also had all of the plaster in the house repaired recently.  There were tons of cracks all over the house, especially in our living room and master bedroom.  Now that the repairs have been done, you can hardly tell.  We had the painters come in last week, and they repainted everything but our foyer and kitchen.  It is AMAZING what a difference new paint makes.  I swear the rooms look bigger and brighter.  Not all my paint choices were a hit on the first try (lol).... I had a originally picked a medium blue for our larger guest room, but it turned out to be hideous once they had it on the walls.  A few trips to Home Depot later, and I had a new light blue-ish/aqua that I ended up loving instead.  At first, I was second guessing my dark muted gray choice for our bedroom, but after mulling over it for a few days, I decided that I love it.  I think that it will look great paired with all the crisp white linens and our mirrored furniture.


Dining Room



Front Guest Room



Master



Master Fireplace



Small guest room



Living Room
(we also had a lot of carpentry work done in this room, and this built in nook was refaced)



Sunroom

I think we are finally at the point where I can visualize what the finished house is going to look like, and all the hard work is starting to pay off.  New pics to come as soon as the tile is up and kitchen cabinets are in!!