projects!

Well, most of you know that we've been working on some remodeling projects for a while now. The kitchen is mostly done for now, but the reason I haven't updated pictures yet is that in a few weeks we'll be having new hardwood floors and carpet put in as well as having our popcorn ceilings scraped...all while Mark and I are enjoying Maui, mind you. =) So, I kinda want to wait until I can do a big "before" and "after" session. You understand, don't you?

After we found out about baby Pearson (I love saying that!), we decided that our upstairs bathroom needed to be gutted. It wasn't in the original budget, but we felt it was important to do because of the mold situation in the shower and the thought of placing a baby in there...no way. So, with a small budget, we are slowly transforming this space and it's going to be SO nice when we're done! The first thing to do was to demo and then lay new tile. Our friend Branden had laid tile ONCE before on a mission trip and offered to help Mark, who has NEVER done tile work before. I cannot tell you how incredible the results are from these amateur craftsmen! Of course, the pictures are out of order, but oh well..
Placing the spacers...



Branden and Mark having a great time working together!


The 2nd half of the bathroom with the awful half-wall and pink toilet...


The old shower...see all those grout lines? Yeah. That's what me and my Method cleaners were up against every week. I told Mark the new shower had to have the biggest tiles he could find so there wouldn't be as many grout lines.


Taking down the old vanity in the 1st half of the bathroom.




Freshly-grouted tile.


Mark using his new tile saw.


Look how nice! We found beautiful solid cherry vanities with granite tops at the Costco Home Store before they closed for a great price, bought a new bathtub, and now that Mark has sealed the grout, we just need to start putting things back together.

I have to give a shout-out to my amazing husband because, as a newly pregnant lady, I've been visiting the bathroom quite frequently, and night time is no different. Since the demo of the bathroom began almost a month ago, I've been having to stumble downstairs many times during the night to visit the bathroom. This morning, when we came home from church, Mark surprised me with a newly installed and not pink toilet! He installed it while I was singing at the earlier services at church. I haven't used it yet....I'm waiting for my first "wake up" in the middle of the night to enjoy the luxury of just walking next door to use the bathroom...I tell ya', the things that excite me these days...

For Jessica :)

Jessica made a comment that she was checking to see more kitchen photos- here you go, girl! I went to go look at faucets today at a kitchen/bath showroom. We haven't found anything we like at the big box stores, so I was excited to go to a place that specializes in fixtures. We really feel like all the things that are going to be touched in the new kitchen should feel sturdy and slick :), so I found a few fixtures I liked...now comes the part where Mark comes with me and we try to agree- fortunately, we have similar taste, so it should be easy!


This is the sink area- see where that vent is, right by the door? Ya, real energy efficient. We'll be taking that out and moving the counter all the way to the door, and then placing the sink cabinet on an angle so we can put a regular sink in there.


Goodbye old sink. You are gross.


The wall opened up- it's HUGE without that wall there! On the other side of that plastic is another good 10 feet of the dining room!


No more ugly tile.


Nasty. See all that black mold? No wonder no matter how much I cleaned, this place just smells kinda...well...moldy. Now I know why.

We'll be out of a functioning kitchen all next week, granite should come around the 18th and then we'll be back in business! The next round of pics should hopefully include the newly-installed oven and moved sink cabinet.

The remodel...phase one

First, I hate blogger. Why can't it just put the pictures in order like I uploaded them? GRR!!
So...the dust has started blowing at the Pearson home. Since blogger is a little stinker, I'll have to talk about things backwards. In this phase, we're working on parts of the kitchen- new sink/oven/countertops and knocking out a wall inbetween the kitchen and dining room. Very exciting. Then this summer we'll reface the cabinets and replace all the flooring on the main level with hardwood.




Our dinner the first night with no kitchen...not bad! of course, I'm holding a glass of wine in my hand...no remodel is complete without it! :)


The plastic wall. :)



Oh, old oven. How sad to see you go...not really. you burn everything, you kinda smell like chemicals every time I use you, you have weird seed things stuck in your control panel. How will I live without you? Happily.


The wall where the oven and fridge were (see before pics below) The fridge will go in that little corner.



The WORST sink setup ever! Can't wait to change it!



Looking into the living room...and the plastic wall.



The wall where the oven/fridge were.



The kitchen before. The dining room is on the other side of the wall where the fridge/oven is. There is a small pass-through hallway on the other side of the fridge, but it's so small and we never use our dining room because it feels like a cave in there. With everything opened up, we're hoping we'll use it more often.


Before...don't mind me. :)