we set a date

alright folks, we are going to move into our new house this saturday, april 4.

i'm writing it here for accountability of sorts. we don't HAVE to move out of our current condo, which is the problem...it's gonna be hard to move out of this:

and into this: but it must be done! no more dragging our feet! we are paying rent AND a mortgage now, so every day we stay in the condo means we are paying double. (and granted, the above image of the house is the kitchen. we won't be living in the kitchen but i was going for a dramatic contrast.)

house projects have been on hold for the past week or so while we've waited for the help of a framer to help us build the walls with the pocket doors. we got an estimate from an electrician, a flooring friend, and a tin man, so after the walls are framed we can do electric, HVAC, and plumbing. then, we should be able to drywall, i think!

so here's to homesteading! yippee!

our new favorite haunt

tonight, ben and i went to visit a special place called cannon recovery. it is like the tj maxx of home building supplies. they carry remnants, overstocks, wrong orders, etc. at discounted prices. bert told us about it, and i can already tell it is going to be a favorite place of ours!

they had aisles and aisles of cabinets, carpet, countertops, vanities, windows, doors, and flooring. this is only one of the warehouses:

it reminded me of the last scene from indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark when they place the ark in a warehouse full of boxes. the door aisles reminded ben of monsters, inc. so this picture is for dave, because apparently i'm boo:


we were looking for a double closet door, two pocket doors, and a few windows. we ended up snagging two pockets. of course, they will be primed and painted white. i'm going to go ahead and estimate that approximately 80% of the wood that enters our home will be painted white (with a 5% margin of error). what can i say, i like white.

we got the two doors for just under $12o. that seemed like a pretty good price! they have a few tiny imperfections, but because they are pocket doors they will spend most of their lives hidden in the walls. :)

out with the old walls, in with the new!

sometimes it feels as if the tear-down has gone slowly, but then i remember that it has been just a little over two weeks since we closed on the house. we really have made a lot of progress!

this wall came down. it was the wall between the kitchen and the formal dining room with the strangely low built-in. we learned that taking down soffits is a real stinker.

and so did the ceiling. taking off drywall took me forever, but bert just got it started with the saw and tore it down with his bare hands.
we also knocked out a closet on the south end of the kitchen to expand the space. we'll have to reroute some heating and draining elements, but it will buy us about two feet. i'm dreaming of a cozy banquette (with storage beneath!) that would run the entire length of the wall with an oval table pulled up to it...but i am getting way ahead of myself. we need walls first.
we pretty much finished the demolition phase last week, so on saturday, ben and klaas started framing out the walls. here's the workshop, aka our living room.
we also ripped out the french doors that lead out to the back porch. this area will eventually be a mudroom with a half bath. i'm so glad we got it closed up - we had the carpets cleaned this week, and they took a while to dry because we couldn't get the house above 5o degrees! thankfully, the weather on saturday was beautiful and the house warmed right up.

we also framed out the entrance from the former dining room to the living room. this was kind of a point of controversy, because it closes up the flow of the layout...but we pretty much had to choose between a doorway and more cabinet/counter space in the kitchen. we chose the space in the kitchen. hopefully, this won't be a decision we come to regret!

we've been using a program to sketch out our designs for the house. if i can figure out how to upload them, i'll put them up here so you can all envision the final layout!

also, a note about the orange chair in the picture above: someone in our condo gave this to us for free, and it has come in handy for a place to sit because we don't care if it gets dusty. it is known as the "jacob chair " (a LOST reference). one of the first nights we were working on the house, i went into the back bedroom and the only thing in the room was the chair, facing the wall. it was creepy and reminded me of the scene with jacob in the cabin.

when we're old

we ripped out a lot of drywall this past weekend. i got to use some real power tools!


ben and i got a taste of what we will look like in forty years. if we keep our hair, that is.

progresso

don't worry, this post is not about soup.

here are some more pictures from the week. i apologize about the order...i'm still trying to figure this blogging thing out.

here are ben and klaas ripping out cabinets and countertops:


it looks bigger already!

another big project from the week was tackling the paneling in the dining room/living room. thankfully, it was only on one wall.

it's hard to describe this paneling. it clearly wasn't wood, but it had been painted over and you could still see the lines between the panels. we thought it must have been some faux finish that was stuck onto the drywall, but when we started prying it up, we realized that it was just nailed right to the studs. it WAS the wall! this is the wall that is shared with the garage (which is attached but with no entrance into the house...more on that later), hence the insulation.

it's looking worse every day - which really means it is looking better.

carpet patrol

over the weekend (friday night and saturday), ben and i ripped up plenty of carpet. here's a picture of us wearing our awesome masks as we got down to business:



we started in the main floor bedroom. under the carpet were nice hardwood floors! they need to be refinished, but still...

then the carpet came up in the living/dining room. it only had the plywood subfloor underneath...and tons of staples! those were the worst to pull out. but it was good to spend the time with ben and see some progress. i think we will take well to home improvement!

here's how we left things. :)