Home Remodel

I am not sure if our home remodel can actually be called a remodel because it's mostly cosmetic things we are doing. We aren't adding a room on or ripping anything out (much). For the sake of convenience, that is what I am calling it.

I need to give a disclaimer here. I am not handy, nor is Jason. That being said, we have hired a contractor, who happens to be our uncle, to do the job. We know it will be done correctly with less heartache that way.

Here are some pictures of our house currently. These are real life pictures (all of them before Jack came along) of our small house.

This is our living room/computer nook area. Since we only have two bedrooms, Jason's computer has been relocated to our main living area. Not ideal, but this is exactly why we are remodeling: To sell and buy a new house!

What is changing? In this room, as well as both bedrooms and the hallway, that lovely Berber carpet is coming up. Ripped to shreds. Since we have a cat with a sensitive stomach (the Tabby in the picture ironically) who pukes all the time and a toddler who throws food, the carpet is looking rather dingy. In it's place, we are having new laminate flooring put down. There is hardwood under the carpet, but unless we wanted to add several thousand dollars to the price of our remodel, we went with laminate. If the new sellers want to refinsh the floor, great.
Here is the gorgeous floor that is going in.
Formica Flooring, Cordelia series, Sierra Oak.

The major work is being done on our lovely (puke!) bathroom. Since we have moved in, I have absolutely loathed the bathroom. You will understand why. What you can't see in this picture is that ugly burgundy tile is throughout the entire bathroom. On all the walls, in the shower......well, everwhere. The contractor is ripping it all out. We have considered painting it, however, the previous homeowners did a terrible job at grouting. The grout lines are uneven, overlap the actual tiles, and just looks plain bad. So out the tile comes. New dry wall will be going up on the walls, and in the shower is going lovely, neutral new tile.


Not sure why these pictures are showing up so tiny. Harumph. The tile is Florida Tile in Soul Spirit Pearl. They are 20x20 tiles so it won't take very many to cover the shower.

Next up is our kitchen, which is not horrible. It just needs some minor fixes.
What is changing? The older laminate countertop and backsplash are being removed. We didn't want to buy granite because let's face it. In a house this small, most buyers would not expect granite. Instead, new laminate is going in.

Formica brand laminate in Ivory Kashmere.
Next up is the backsplash. Currently, there is a laminate backsplash that matches the countertop which we both hate. It's ugly and impractical. So here is what we chose. I need to state that in our haste of choosing products, I forgot to write down the color samples. They have them on file at the store, but I didn't write them down. I am pretty sure it's this pattern. It might be the lighter one. Hmmmmm.



Daltile Stone Radiance in Mushoom blend. I love it! It has a mix of glass and stone and I think it's gorgeous.

Using such neutral products throughout the house allows us or the new homeowners to paint with either neutral or colors. It gives us a lot of options when it comes to paint. We aren't going to repaint Jack's room or our room but the main living area, the bathroom and kitchen will need to be painted.

This is not the entire list of what the contractor is doing. He is also ripping out the wall heater in our living room since we haven't used it in years and it's ugly. He is also going to replace all the moulding in the house with new Colonial moulding.

We are also going to do some projects ourselves: New lighting in a lot of the rooms, new paint on the kitchen cabinets, new hardware on the kitchen cabinets and obviously, since our carpet is being removed, we will need rugs in the living room and bedrooms.

The only downside to all of this is that it requires us to literally move out of our house for three weeks. That means we have to rent a POD, pack everything up and move. Since I love my in-laws, that is where we will be staying. I hope to God that we don't all drive each other nuts.