Remodeling Madness
Jason and I have been planning to do some major remodeling to our main floor, including the kitchen, bathroom, and front area, and we’re just about ready to pick a contractor. We’ve interviewed and met with quite a few companies and solo contractors and have it narrowed it down to 3 main contenders. We’re hearing from the last one this week, then we’ll probably decide and close on our refinanced loan so we can pay the deposit.
So, what are we doing exactly? Well, first of all, we tearing down the front bedroom/office upstairs to join the dining room, reading room, and bedroom and make it all one big living space. That way we can move our TV and couches upstairs and have a higher ceiling and bigger space for relaxing and entertaining. To go along with that, we’re tearing down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and turning it into a half wall, with a counter that reaches out into the dining room. The kitchen will get all new cabinets, fixtures, prep sink, stove and granite countertops. The bathroom is going to be totally gutted and we’re going to extend it a little bit into the huge walk-in closet we have in our bedroom. We’ll have a tile walk-in shower and new fixtures throughout. Lastly, we’ll be putting in a deck off the side of the house that wraps around the back. We’ll have access to it from patio doors in the new living area, where the windows are now in our dining room.
All that to say its going to be a hell of a project. We’re still figuring out what to do with our fridge…if we should move it into our bedroom or move it downstairs. Most other stuff will go into the garage or downstairs in the “laundry room”. We’ll be eating lots of take-out and probably a few microwave dinners.
Open call to all those who have done major home remodeling….what is your advice as we embark on this adventure???
steve PMcG said,
May 15, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
At Home Stevie and Jenny we havent gone into the “major” projects much. The list is long though of what needs done. For now Im working on the urgent stuff like sanding the eaves, removing the couple of spots with wetrot and repainting it all with exterior paint. On top of this we need to replace our privacy fence as it got termite damaged (thanfully no damage to house and since we have the sentricon system for the termites the house has a guarantee not to get them. Only majorish projects tackled so far have been getting the pool running (running electrical underground, cleaning out algae) and replacing some subfloor in sunroom that had wetrot (about 8×4 area by time we were finished.) I dont think we can bring ourselves to refinance and loose the equity built up, that plus I dont think this is our “home” and we may buy again
meh just a few words
Steve