Clean Slate

With the discovery of some fair amounts of mold throughout the house the motivation and work have slowed and the frustration mounted. We made the decision to gut the whole house down to the studs...

We also took down all the studs that were termite eaten between the kitchen and utility room

 

I think its safe to say that demo is finally over...since there is nothing else to demo.

Yard Clearing

Eric and Cookie headed over to the house a few days ago to do some tree trimming at the house. The palms in the front yard had a lot of branches down and the back needed all the help it could get. After awhile of the palm tree winning the battle Cookie called in the big guns. Lee came in with his guys and cleared the property pretty quickly....

Front of the house before...

Front of the house after. That brings about the issue of what we are going to do the the god awful bars and paint color. 

Before in the backyard...

After...

They were kind enough to leave the gutter tree tho....

Clearing out numerous trees and the so called fire pit made the backyard look at least twice the size it looked before. A few large plants were left in place to hold up the failing fence and of course all the choice trees were left in place. We are really happy we didn't have to do it all ourselves..it would have taken months.

CLOSET!!!

Woohoo!!

Still trying to make granite decisions...

This was our second trip to Opus Stone and we only widened our options instead of narrowing them. The granite we like the most is of course the most expensive so we are still trying to pick a cheaper one out.

Way too many choices...

Conveniently enough for us all of the wood in the show room is the same color as our cabinets so we don't have to guess which granite looks good with our wood choice. We'll let you know when we come up with a decision but we are thinking that the counter tops will be green granite of some kind.

UPDATE!

We have been knocking down more walls, chipping up more thin-set and making more runs to the dump. Here are some new picks to show you some of the work...

Jamaica Room has lost a closet and a wall and joined the utility room...

There is a step down into the utility room which will have to be removed by raising the floors.

We completely gutted the kitchen...

We removed the wing wall on the right and the soffet at the top. The AC unit at the left center will be moved at some point and the walls surrounding it will come down as well.

 The stripper mirrors came down and the wall knocked down so that the hallway could go straight back.

We punched through the pink bedroom from the living room so that we could have a linen closet.

AND we gutted the master bath and closet so they could become the new and improved master bath!
 Eric and Ryan have been working on plumbing the master bathroom so those photos are on their way.

P.S.- We did finally find mama mouse who gave the boys a run for their money before they caught her and tossed her out the window.

Close Only Counts In Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

havent found a hand grenade yet...YET!!!

(im not ruling anything out after some of the non blog appropriate things we have found)

but
while ripping out kitchen cabinets we came across this awesome horseshoe set.

we promptly took a ten minute break and set them up in the back yard to play a quick game.

 

this was a nice set too...every set i've ever seen comes in some kind of crappy cardboard box. but not this one, it had its own canvas carrying case and everything

For Some Perspective

Ok... so we wanted to give everyone some perspective as to what it is we're doing exactly.
here are some images of the before and hopefuly afterwards floor plans.

as you can see were not changing anything too drastically. the bulk of the changes are to the kitchen and the master bedroom. For the master we plan on making it into a true master suite with a new bathroom and a  pretty sizable closet; which someone (to remain nameless, but i think you can guess) has already laid claim to almost all of it.

Oh and if your wondering why i would add a ridiculous 2 foot addition to the front of the house in the dining room and office; well im not.  it just took me about 3 weeks to realize there was even a step out in the floor plan... so when i made the first plans i didn't even know it was there.  we had to start ripping out walls and landscaping before it was even visable.

Remember to SMILE

Honey look what I found in the wall...

Found two of these little guys in the wall behind the shower. Never found mama but returned the babies to the food chain (i.e. left 'em out in the backyard for the wildlife)

Walls come down!!

Yesterday we set out to haul most of the trash and debris to the dump. Unfortunately the dump wouldn't let us dump because we had "too much stuff." Soo we made more debris and took down some walls.

This wall is coming down to open up the dining room to the rest of the house.

Note the one crooked stud on the near side of this 15" wide wall....

All That took the Swakon boys all about five minutes.

They also took down this little center wall in half that....

Great Stuff!!!

Great Stuff Expanding Foam!!! It's SOOO versatile you can use it ANYWHERE!!!

Use it to install drywall!!

Use it to hold your floating laminate floors in place!!

 Turn a door into a wall!!!

Use it under the kitchen sink for your plumbing!!

Install doors with it!!

Repair your roof and eves with it!

 

Flat tire?? No problem!!

Use it to hold the dryer vent in place!!

 Use it for whatever the heck this is!!!

GREAT STUFF!!!

 

AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL HARDWARE STORE!!!

While I was at work...

Work has begun! After a couple trips to Home Depot we started cleaning up the place. Eric and Ryan hauled off the washer and dryer to the dump along with a ton of other trash that was in the house and the yards.

We tore up the floating wood floors in the front room and the master bedroom in only 10 minutes. only to find tile underneath both. Eric and Ryan also started tearing up the tile floors in the Florida room, Jamaica room and the front room (you'll figure out which room is which when you see 'em).

                      

Tree Frog!!

We have a Squatter!! Eric found this little guy in the house for the front porch light. He was a little dehydrated but jumped out finally.

Closing Day

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!

Closing day is here!!! The wait hasn't been long. Eric found the house only 6 weeks ago. Less than a week later he put an offer in on the place and BAM!....house. Today he is meeting with the lawyers to close and then the fun can begin!

Just some background on the house: Its a 2012 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bath house in Palmetto Bay. The lot is 17,000 square on the canal system. We are less than a 5 minute drive from Eric's parent's house and an even shorter boat or car ride from his brother Ryan's house. Its sounds perfect! There is just one small problem. THE HOUSE IS TRASHED!!! It is one of those houses you look at and say: 'how did people live here?'

Among other things the house needs: a new roof, new concrete sub floors and floor finishes, all new bathrooms, an all new kitchen, and numerous walls knocked down and/or moved. This is gonna be fun! We have our work cut out for us. Yes, WE are going to try and do as much work ourselves as possible. We have spent the last month in kitchen and bath showrooms, flooring outlets, appliance show rooms and of course home depot. Its gonna be a long road but we will keep you updated along the way!

Here are some BEFORE photos of our beautiful new home while we wait to start work.

The University of Miami mail box will be the first to go!!!

 

After the mailbox goes the bars will go...only house in the neighborhood with those beautiful bars.

 

The view from the front door. Maybe the previous owner was a dancer...?

 

Pink counter tops, olive walls...

 

 Loving the sea theme...BUT look! The vanity is brand new!

 

Yep, those are Hannah Montana stickers.

As I said before, we have our work cut out for us. This is definitely going to be an adventure.

                                                                                                             -Laura