Stolen Porch and a Man Cave

I don't have much of an update - we are in the waiting period of permitting which could take 8-10 weeks.  However, a few major demo items have been completed.

1.  Someone stole our porch!  Thank God.  See ya old porch, can't wait for our new one.

2.  Brian is dreaming big dreams for his basement man cave.  Gone is the green shag carpet and wood paneling but other manly things will take their place.  Most likely surround sound and blackout shades and an obscenely large TV.

Designing Bathrooms Around a Window

We are officially almost done with the design process - at least for the floor plans and the elevations (what the house will look like from the outside).  Next up - tile and paint and woodwork and built-ins and more....Thank God for Houzz.com, because we've got the basic aesthetics down after hours of ideabooks and pinning.

Now I totally understand why some houses look funny from the outside.  It is quite a task trying to place windows and doors while making the inside functional and the outside look good.  I think we redesigned our Master bathroom at least 5 times trying to figure out how to get the window placement just right on the front left of the house.  

Here's an example:

Weird, right?  The upstairs left windows are too small - because we had our shower on that front wall.  So we moved the shower and bathtub around and ended up with this:

Another weird thing about elevations is that because they aren't 3D, it's hard to tell the depth of some areas.  The door on the left of the house is actually about 50 feet back and is a door into the garage that you can't even see from the street - not a random shed on the side of our house like I thought the first time I saw this.

Demo and More Demo

We are smack in the middle of demo and it's coming along!  Because the house was built in 1928, we have had to have lead and asbestos abatement.  Luckily there wasn't a lot, and it's almost all done.  

One of the best parts of remodeling an old house is being able to use some of the old materials and blend that with all of the new.  We are keeping the solid oak 1928 hardwood floors - they are in amazing shape (thanks to the 60's and 70's, where carpet over the hardwood was all the rage) and we are also cutting the old wavy glass exterior windows and using them as the glass front in some of our kitchen cabinets.

Here are some of the demo pics

Right side of the main floor, looking from living room to the back of the house (buh bye, radiators)

 

From the middle of the house looking towards the front left - this used to be one of the bedrooms

From the middle of the house looking towards the back left of the house, where our new kitchen will be!  This used to be another bedroom.

 

This Is Happening

Well, this is really happening.  The lead paint and asbestos abatement was started this week and we are in week 2 of designing the floor plans.  Just so you guys can see the inside and what we are working with, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the interior.  Don't be jealous.

The narrow and enclosed front porch.

 The front entry. Don't miss the doorbell chimes on the wall behind.

Dining Room looking towards front Living Room.

Purple striped bathroom with wood toilet seat and carpet, so stylish.

Kitchen.  Yes, they took the cabinets, applicances and even the crumbs on the floor.

Brian's new basement man cave, complete with radiant heat and wood paneling. 

Next up - demo and designing the outside of the house.  Still pinching myself that we are building a house :)

We Bought a House - Yay?

We closed on our house!  Quite a looker, huh?  We hired a great design/build firm, TM Grace, and are getting the plans rolling.  Brian and I have been scouring Wash Park for about a year for the perfect lot and older house with great bones that we could make into our family home. 

Here's a look at our new neighborhood....we've got some serious work to do.

This is our neighbor to the North.  We will not be keeping up with those Joneses.  

This house is about a block south of us and I stopped in my tracks when I saw it.  Love at first sight.  We are using this as our template for our plans.