Building a House into a Home

When Ian and I saw this house a few months ago, we could see the possibilities: the little girls could share this room, the boys that one; this could be the living room, that could be a guest room; if we build a wall here, we can finally have the chapel I have always wanted. The back yard was huge, and we could see our children playing and riding their bikes around the neighborhood.

Lots of room to play!

So we moved in and painted a few walls in anticipation of the floor that would be put in shortly, and we’d move beds into the proper rooms and everyone would know where everything was and everything would have its own place. We would postpone restarting school for a few days because of the temporary chaos of cramped quarters on the main floor. As soon as the basement was done, we’d set up our dining room table so the kids would have a place to do school and we’d be able to unpack all our books and put them into shelves for easy access.

School Among the Ruins

A month later….

We have started school, using various tables and sofas and chairs that are surrounded by boxes and dressers in what will one day be the dining room. We also eat meals here and pray our nightly rosary.

Taking a Break from Unpacking and Painting

The kids are sleeping in sleeping bags in two bedrooms, and Ian & I are sleeping in a tiny room that may have been an office at one time. It has been one long camp out!

Robert camping out

I have taken lots of pictures of the process of tearing down, rebuilding, tiling and painting, so I’ll highlight some of those projects in upcoming posts.

How Did We Go From Leaky Sink to Total Kitchen Remodel?

A few weeks ago, we noticed a bump in the kitchen floor. No big whoop, it was probably just a result from the house settling or something. A week later, the bump was squishy. Uh oh. Yup, something leaked (either the sink or the dishwasher) UNDER the vinyl, so it wasn’t immediately apparent that we had water damage. The vinyl was torn out to reveal that the subfloor and wall behind the sink cabinet were soaked.

Robert & Luis cut and removed the damaged drywall, as well as the wet insulation.

Guess what? the built-in pantry cupboard was in the way! It had to be removed (and replaced because it was damaged) too!

The island had to be removed, so we asked if they could just put the electrical outlet in the floor and we’ll replace the island with something bigger and easier to clean.  Maybe a stainless steel work station like in a restaurant kitchen.

The sink cabinet has to go, too, so why don’t we just remove it completely and replace the floor under it all the way to the wall? Ian found a 3-basin restaurant sink , so let’s put that in instead!

Big, noisy machines were brought in and plugged in to blow the floor dry enough to make an assessment: Part of the subfloor must go! Here Drew is cutting out the damaged subfloor:

Since the vinyl was all one huge piece, from the kitchen, through the mudroom, and including the big bathroom, and it wasn’t glued down, ALL of it had to be removed, and it ALL had to be replaced.

Ian & I took out one more small cabinet that was next to the stove as well, so the new floor will go all the way to the wall and we’ll replace the cabinet with a rolling cart.

We painted the wall behind the sink to match the rest of the room, since there won’t be a cabinet in front of it any more.

Bob & Jaret are gluing in the new floor here.  They came the day after Drew:

The bathroom is done! Just have to replace the toilet and trim:

We like the look so much , we might just leave these on the porch.  Maybe set them up on cinder blocks?  Plant some petunias in the porcelain bowl?

The Colorado ResCon guys were really taking the time to lay the floor perfectly and match up the seam in mudroom:

Jaret made the effort to slice invisible slivers from the edges of the flooring so that no one could tell they weren’t one continuous piece.

Day 2: Workers were on the job half an hour BEFORE they said they’d even be here!  By 10:45 they were done!

Next: Tomorrow at 8 AM the plumber comes to install this baby:

Stay Tuned!