Renovation Reality: Timing is Everything

HGTV never shows you how timing can really screw up a renovation. I guess telling homeowners who are new to the process what to expect is like telling your kids what adulthood is like: You can't. They just have to experience it for themselves.

Patio doors and windows? Ordered. When will they be here? Next week.

Cabinets ordered. When will they be installed? Three weeks from now.

Granite slab ordered. When can they do final measurements? After the cabinets are installed.

And what do we need to have finished by then: wiring, plumbing, drywall, and painting and flooring installed.

This week's fiasco (and last week's, too) has been wood flooring. I've traveled a few hundred miles in town and surrounding areas looking at the various options of various flooring companies. And what I've found is not what we want. Or if it's what we want it's out of our price range. Or If it's a close match to what we want, it's not available until October. If it's a good runner up, the reviews scare us off. If it's a good bargain, well, it's there's a reason for it. We can't seem to win. These are just some of the samples we've looked at:

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First, we loved the hand scraped teak floors, until the salesman told us they weren't available until October.

Then we found these beautiful maple floors. They were perfect except they were $2 more per square foot than we wanted to spend. So we thought about it. For about 3 days. Then we read the reviews online. They were so bad we just couldn't chance it.

Then I found a beautiful distressed maple floor at a nearby warehouse. It was the right wood, color, price, and the salesman said we could probably get it in about two weeks. So I called the salesman the next morning. Three times. Apparently he thought I was desperate. He calls to say he could get it in a week, but at almost a dollar more per square foot.

Really?

After a few angry words hurled at that salesman, hubby and I go back to a local place with his sample. Hubby found something even better. It was closer to our original pick, with the same price as our original pick, that will be delivered the end of the week. Take that evil salesman!

After all that, I'm exhausted, and it's only one hurdle we cleared. There are so many more hurdles.

Next up is a kitchen door. You'd think it was easy to pick a door style, say wood, fiberglass, or steel, then a color, then glass design, then voila. You have a door. It's a cinch, actually, if you are rich (you don't have to be famous), and money is no object. Even if you could afford the $2,000-4,000 price tag, good luck finding something you like in the store; it's not the right color, style, or size. They'll have to order it. And you guessed it--it takes 30-45 days to even get it. There goes our schedule and budget. Just look:

Yes, Maisey modeled a door for me. They're enjoying being dragged from town to town, store to store, to sort through appliances, doors, windows, floors, light fixtures, countertops, paint samples and whatever else I've been searching for this past month.

Not.

They're banshees in the store, but at this point, I'm over the judging. I just want to get in there, find out what they have and how much it costs, and get out of there.

So not having a kitchen door is going to hold up progress if we can't get one by this weekend. Why? The builders can't lay the stone siding without it; they can't install the wood floor until it's properly acclimated to the room (at least a week), and they can't start any new projects (to keep them busy) that will take away what little living space we have left (and those odds and ends jobs are all we have left to do). But worst of all, if work is stopped while we wait for wood floors to acclimate and front doors to arrive, the builders will likely go elsewhere to work. And who knows when they'll come back.

So it's more than decisions. It's decisions and stress.

And I haven't even mentioned all the "little things:" paint colors, lighting fixtures, outlet cover colors, trim and baseboards, door knobs, lock sets, yada yada yada. These are just some of the light choices we have to make:

And the cabinets have to be done and installed by 8/5 so the granite guy can measure for our slab to be cut. And if the cabinet guy isn't on time...well, we won't have a kitchen until September, because it takes between 1-2 weeks to cut and prepare the granite before it's installed. Here's the granite we picked:

Looking at this picture, the center of our granite slab looks like the face of Chewbacca with a very large boufont hairdo. I don't want Chewy's face on my island.

So when someone says how easy a renovation is, they've probably just been watching HGTV. Did I mention this was my inner circle of hell? Layers of decisions, wrapped in a schedule, held aloft by oily salesmen and their elusive suppliers. I thought planning a wedding was difficult. Meh, planning a renovation is like wedding planning on crack, wrapped in valium and sprinkled with hope. Just a little.

Renovation Reality: Bites

So we're all set for the new kitchen, right? Wrong. We had to go back to the drawing board to be sure the new door and window placements were accurate to fit our sink and dishwasher, and when we laid out the kitchen in the room, we realized just how massive that island we designed really is. So we scaled it back to accommodate the inswing French doors, but then it was small and weird looking. Then we changed to outswing doors and larger outside steps.

We went back and forth from angle cabinet to corner cabinet, and determined that the corner will support the measurements better, even though I like the angled cabinet idea. Dang. The sink has to be centered under the new window, or it's just weird looking, so function and fit over form here.

The good news is we are ready to give the cabinet guy our measurements. We've ordered our appliances. The bad news is, we still haven't decided on a color for the cabinets because we're still looking for flooring.

And once we looked at the ceiling height, we thought we wanted a vaulted ceiling in the kitchen. Except by the time we allowed for attic space (ventilation), insulation, and the drywall for the vault, it wasn't much of a vault at all. So we decided on a tray ceiling instead. Add a week of work and a lot of money, and here we go. The good news is the pot lights are more easily placed in the tray than on a vault. So that's a plus for me, because who wants to decide where potlight should go in the ceiling?

So the doors and windows are coming out and being switched. It was weird to leave the house like this.

And come home to this.

But it's progress. And I love it! Can't wait for the new doors and windows to be installed.

Renovation Reality: Part II

You would think I was prepared for this renovation after years of watching HGTV and DIY network shows, and planning, down to the paint color what I wanted. But in reality, renovations are decision upon decision upon decision, and for a Libra, that's the innermost circle of Hell for me. Especially when every decision comes with a price tag.

Bye bye small, dark, and outdated kitchen!

We are now switching our old dining room and kitchen. So the above room is now going to be out formal dining room area, and this expansive space is going to be our new kitchen. My fears have begun to overtake my excitement because of the nightmare we found beneath the shoddy construction work of the original builder, who I shall call DumbAss Construction.

Of course, we have to fix the problems first:

Water damage to the structure and floors from no flashing, and generally fix all carpentry mistakes and oversights made by DumbAss Construction, who built this thing all wrong the first time.

Replace damaged, missing, and all around inadequate insulation. No wonder this room was an ice box in winter! We could see daylight between the original house walls and the addition. R-11 insulation with huge gaps in some areas, and huge gaps between the garage wall and addition wall. You can see through these spaces right into our unheated garage. It was an open invitation for mice, insects and cold air.

Spray for carpenter ants, wasps, and any other creepy critter that can get through the massive gaps in the wall to the garage.

Oh yeah, widen space to open it up, but most importantly add a support beam between the old kitchen and the addition (we are all very thankful that it didn't just collapse in the 10 years we've lived here).

Sister the ceiling joists so that we don't fall through our "attic bedroom" that wasn't properly finished by, you guessed it, DumbAss Construction.

Level the massively uneven floor between the addition and the kitchen (DumbAss Construction just laid plywood across the space between the rooms, making an incline of about 1/4-1/2 inch. Talk about dumb ass construction!)

Renovation Reality

Well, we took the plunge and just a week after returning from the beach, we're moved into the basement while the remodeling crew does wonders to our kitchen, dining room and the bowels of our house. I'm excited and nervous, and already coming out of my skin. But we're making it work, because at the end of this 6-week tunnel, we'll have a beautiful new kitchen and dining room to enjoy.

Here is some of the demolition and deconstruction.

We knew we'd find water damage on this part of the house. What we weren't expecting is that the DA Construction company that built the addition didn't put any flashing on the house before siding, so the water got in. Everywhere.

Here is that corner from the inside, before they pulled up the floor and drywall (which came off in huge sheets because it wasn't properly installed to the wall.)

We are tearing off this low-slung, light blocking, awful porch roof and making a gabled roof that extends out over the concrete part of the deck.

Here is the new porch roof from the underside.

We are going with a stone siding (instead of the awful beige vinyl), so this whole addition should look like a beautiful Irish cottage. I can't wait!

Hang Ten

This is how I hang ten.

A week at the beach. Ahhhhhh.

It worked wonders for every one and everything...except sleep. There was too much to do: nighttime walks on the beach to sneak up on ghost crabs, and puzzles or social time, or movies or swimming in the beach house pool. Bedtime was the furthest thing from our minds. And that's a vacation.

We enjoyed some fun & sun on the surf.

Then we enjoyed some fun in the pool.

Maisey applied her own sunscreen.

Well, some of us enjoyed a view of the pool from the tiki bar. With a margarita. And friends.

Got a little Captain in ya?

The fishers went fishing. We waited on the dock for our ship to come in.

Catch of the day? Mahi mahi. The kids were all over it.

Maisey had birthday money to spend, so we did a little souvenir shopping. The girls aptly chose mermaids for themselves. Maisey's is named Ariel, and Eveie's is named Antennae.

More fun at the house. Maisey and Alex piled on the pillows.

Ethan, Alex and Maisey work on a 3D puzzle.

Then we all went to the beach.

Maisey helped Daddy return his first catch to the ocean.

All the world's a sandbox.

They fed the seagulls.

I had fun flying Maisey's kite.

More fun poolside.

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On to the lighthouses (Hatteras and Bodie Island) with a little mini golf in between (Frisco, and Nags Head).

Girl's Adventure Day

Six of us took the whole day to travel all the way to Cape Lookout. It was quite an adventure that began for me at 4:25 am, when I awoke, groggily dressed myself in the nearest laid out outfit, and staggered out to the car to depart at 4:30 am. Needless to say, my girls didn't come with me on this trip. We drove to the Hatteras Island Ferry to cross to Ocracoke Island. It was too dark, and I was too tired to take any pictures on that ride.

From Ocracoke Island, at about 7 am we were told the ferry might not depart, but after an awful, but much needed coffee, and some time to study a mama duck and her brood, a maintenance crew departed the ferry, and we were allowed to board for our 2 hour ride to Cedar Island.

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On the way to Cedar Island we saw a sailboat stranded on a sandbar. We napped, had our breakfast, thanks to Matt for making us all food! As we approached Cedar Island, we discovered surfing cows, and a laid back island with many more churches than houses. Must be a lot of sinning going on at Cedar Island.

Anyways, the drive was pretty marshland, forests, sleepy gas stations and souvenir shops, little houses on sandy grasslands.

And then we made a wrong turn and found him.

These islands were teeming with pirates a couple hundred years ago, and while we were on a quest to the lighthouse, we were excited to spend a little time with a real, larger than life pirate. So of course, we had a little fun.

Reluctantly, we left our pirate friend and his booty and made our way to Calico Jacks Ferry for the final sea leg of our journey: the ride to Cape Lookout.

We saw the Shackleford Banks ponies, but they looked like tiny brown dots on the horizon in my pictures. It was only a short 15 minute ferry ride navigating sandbars in a water depth of only 3 feet, but when we docked, it felt like a deserted tropical island. Well, except for the other tourists.

Only 3 of us bought tickets to climb the lighthouse. I figured after such an arduous journey to get here, I should do it. 207 steps inside the lighthouse, and 15 more steps leading up to the entrance. It was quite an experience, considering I'm afraid of heights.

A photo op with fellow climbers Danielle and Lindsay.

Ah, a nice breeze from each of the lighthouse windows kept us from overheating. It was hot in that tower!

More stairs.

The light room.

Lindsay & Danielle at the lookout. I was a little nervous about looking beyond the railing. The staff had blocked off half of the lookout tower walk because winds were approaching 40 miles per hour, and at that height, we could be whipped off balance.

But they talked me into it. A view of the caretaker's house from the top.

Photo ops at the lighthouse and keepers grounds.

Been there. Done that. Now what?

Souvenir shopping of course, all the way back to the ferry--well, back to Hatteras Island, really. We found a decrepit old pirate, and caught a captain in the outhouse.

We had lunch and took a few scenic shots and made it back in time for the 4 pm ferry to Ocracoke Island.

Shrimp boats.

The view from the ferry. Bye bye surf-loving cows.

Ocracoke Lighthouse from the ferry. Maybe I'll climb this one on our next beach trip.

Kind of scary having the sand dunes blow all over the road. But the bulldozer was keeping up with it.

Has anyone seen these tourists on the dunes?

I loved the sunset waiting for the Ocracoke Ferry to Hatteras. Some beautiful sunsets on the sound.

Our last day here was a day at the beach, followed by some family fun.

We went to the local pottery shop Studio 12 and painted some souvenirs of our trip.

Then we visited Hatteras Lighthouse again. The girls fell asleep, so no climbing for us this trip. We'll be back though, I promise.

Of course Maisey lost her second tooth on our last day, thanks to Shane's gentle prodding. She was excited to see if the Tooth Fairy would visit her so far from home. She did, of course. Those Outer Banks fairies wrapped her gold dollar in shells, tied with seagrass. It was a special find for Maisey the next morning.

Then, while the family did this:

I was here, walking, sea shell hunting, and enjoying the views:

And here's proof.

What a relaxing week.