less destruction, more building

the walls are all down now.  so... we have a much better view of our junk room ;D

our temporary stairs... 

& our newly built permanent ones :)

check out the awesome ceiling support... courtesy of my resident handyman, dj ;D

the ceiling from another view... 

oh... & this is our 2nd bathroom (or was)

tearing stuff down is the most fun

& the destruction begins....

here's a decent picture of most of the wall.. as you can see, some of it is already missing.  oh, & please ignore the mess behind it.  since that room has no specific function right now, it's kind of become our biggest junk drawer  :)

a picture of the wall from the other side...

the biggest piece is now gone...

as you can see, the living room side of the house is a couple of feet higher than the entryway.  those steps... we'll need to tear out & rebuild to be as deep as the new entryway.  they'll be hardwood too.  actually, when we're ready to put down the hardwood floors, we'll start with the steps!

our 2nd bathroom (behind the wall)... probably won't be able to use this much longer

the wall on the 'living room side' is a load bearing wall, so dj built this huge beam/header to support it.  it's great for pull ups (or it would be if i could actually pull myself up) ;D 

look for more to come soon!

what happens when dj gets bored...

so i came home from my pilates class on monday to this (see below).  the good news is that the prep work for the dining room floors is complete.  the not so good news… it will be about 2 weeks before we can lay the new floors - oh, & we have family staying with us this weekend.  we’ll have to be careful to keep our shoes on.  sweet.   

still working on the bathroom...

we're so close! sometimes i get so excited to complete a project, that i exaggerate - or over simplify - how little is left.  in this case, when i said "all we have left to do is hang the doors", what i really meant was "all we have left to do is: hang the doors, select the molding that goes around the doors, put up the molding, prime & paint the molding, finish tiling around the door (to the molding), finish grouting the tile around the door, paint the ceiling, purchase/make the accessories & move everything else in!

whew... so, although we're still working on the bathroom, we're finally to the point where we just have to finish decorating,  yay!!  

here's the molding around the door...  

also...a super cute catchall i picked up in berlin, ohio (amish country).  i'm thinking it will be a nice place to drop my rings when i'm washing my face + the orange is a nice pop against the blue-green walls  :)

oh... & we finally picked out a shower curtain!!  personally i could have easily continued vacillating on the perfect shower curtain for months.  i really like this one though... the grey flowers are the same color as our pigeon grey towels  :)

 

bathroom progression!

the last time i posted bathroom pics we had just finished framing the walls.  look how far we have come!  here's a look at our progression.  you'll see my husband has mad skills in the tiling department (regardless of how much he hates it)  :D

(bathtub is in)

(walls are up)

(how cute is this floor?)

(tiling begins - how cute is my husband?)

(tiling is finished!)

(dj's fancy grout manicure)

(a snapshot of the paint color - i'll get a better shot of it once we get some more light in this room - haha)

bathroom color

 below is the color we chose for the bathroom (vintage map blue - martha stewart for valspar). it's a more muted version of the teal wallpaper in the kitchen (right off the bathroom - see layout).  i'm super excited... i think it will look great against the off-white subway tile.

i usually like to use sherwin williams duration interior paint (due to it's low voc content, clean-ability, coverage & awesome pour spout - not shown online), but the last person i know to have them match a color went through some terrible ordeals... so we'll give martha a try :)

you'll get to see the results soon, because i'm painting today!

  

(vintage map blue - martha stewart for valspar)

(wall paper in the kitchen)

2009 new year's resolution

wow.  so keeping up with a blog is harder than i thought! (as evident by the lack of postings). well no worries...  one of my new year's resolutions is to get back to it.  specifically, to update dandelion living with at least 2 posts per week.  i want this goal to be attainable ;D

not surprisingly, we've made quite the progress on the bathroom.  especially with the extra time we had over christmas break.  look for a bathroom update soon!  

in the meantime, here is the agenda for 2009: 

1.  finish remodeling & decorating the bathroom
   
2.  install wood floors in dining room & living room
   
3.  create a real dining room (right now it's just a room full of drywall dust, tools & an old couch - see below.  in it's defense, it is right outside of the work-in-progress bathroom)
   
4. turn the 2nd bedroom into a functioning guest bedroom/craft room/computer area (this is already in the works)
5. push back the wall you run smack dab into when you walk in the house (the intention is to create a more open layout)
   
6.  tear out the horrible cement wall in front of the house & replace with a stone or brick retaining wall.  at the same time, create steps leading straight up to the front door  (you'll understand when you see the front of the house)
   
7.  replace the front door
   
8.  build a wood fence for the back yard
   
9.  lay a foundation for a garage (& hopefully build a garage - fingers crossed)

well, when you write it all out like that it seems like a lot of work (haha)... but we are up for the challenge :)

(our soon to be dining room - & you thought i was exaggerating) 

symmetrical doorways

we realized the other day that the bathroom remodel is a great opportunity to make the 2 entry ways on either side of the tv the same height!  (one goes upstairs & the other goes into the undefined space).   this is great because that was one of the little things that i think eventually would have driven me batty.   the entry way into the undefined space is right beside the new wall we will be building.  perfect right?  we thought so.  this is what it looks like now...

pile of trash

this is the pile of trash formally known as our bathroom... & this is AFTER craiglisters raided the salvageable wood.  i have no idea what we will do with this stuff.  maybe host a bonfire party?  yummm..... smores :)

bathroom hole smells

there is a horrible horrible odor that hits you when you walk past the bathroom hole (like a mixture of mildew & dead animals rotting).  i think it is the smell of our basement (which is directly under the hole).  but i don’t understand why we haven’t noticed this incredibly offensive smell  when IN the basement.  weird. 

more bathroom destruction

just when you think you can’t have any less bathroom... we now have a big gaping hole where our bathroom once was (the demolition is 90% done - yay!).  big thanks to dj’s brother cory for helping us get this far so quickly … & for helping us figure out what to do next   :)

bathroom destruction

so... shortly after i gave dj the "go ahead" (to start bathroom demolition), our bathroom disappeared (like magic).   i'm amazed at his speed of destruction!