Renovations Week 5,6,7...

We're finishing up on some major renovations in our new house. We actually had a contractor come in and remove a wall in between the living room and kitchen- a job too big for us to handle on our own since it involved moving duct work and electrical. He also redid the entire bathroom for us.
My husband and I were talking the other night about it and realized we both never intended to fully gut the bathroom. Like so many renovation stories you hear, one thing lead to another and before we knew it, we were down to the bare studs. There was such bad mold and water damage under the tile, we really had no choice once we saw it. The good news is it's done, and we didn't have to do the work! Yay!

Bathroom Before Gut Job

Bathroom During Gut Job

Bathroom Completely Ripped Out, Re-plumbed, New Window Installed

My original pick for the floor didn't match AT ALL once I laid it next to the shower tile. 

I was so bummed because the tiles I picked totally looked right together in the store, but once I got them in my bathroom under my lighting (and not in the big store), they clashed. Both of them have that marble look, and it was just way too busy. Thankfully I caught it before they were cemented to the floor, ran to Lowes that night, and lugged 100 lbs of new tile back up to the bathroom. 

Floor tile from Lowes, shower tile from Home Depot

Need to add a coat of paint and hang my mirror.
Light from Lowes.

The vanity was an old cabinet I had already, and I ordered the sink and faucet from overstock. 

Living Room Before Picture: see that tiny entry way into the kitchen? 

Living Room: Ripping up the flooring 

Ripping out the wall and framing the opening/reworking the duct work.

View from the kitchen into the living room

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Experimenting with some fun designs on the steps

Living Room with new floors and ultra white paint.

TrafficMaster Lakeshore Pecan Floors

I'm pretty pumped about these floors. Remember when I told you I picked the cheapest floor option Home Depot had? These were it, at only 79 cents/sq. ft! I was second guessing myself, but I really liked them regardless of the price. Laminate flooring has come a long way.

Back upstairs the hard wood floors are a little lacking in comparison. We tried sanding them with a belt sander to no avail. Not wanting the expense (or the backache) of lugging in a commercial floor sander (been there, done that), I decided to paint them. 

Floors before

Hallway Floors Before

First coat of floor paint.

Looks like it's gonna take a few more coats of floor paint before these look right. 

So there we have it... lots of loose ends to be buttoned up before we can move in, but we're getting there. I'm hoping my next post will be the finished product.