Farewell Hillview Heights

After eight days of packing, Travis and I moved out this evening and passed our keys onto our new tenants.  It has been a very long week and I am extremely exhausted but I could not have done this without the help from our friends.  When I first found out that our renters wanted to move in ASAP I did not think that we could do it with all of the plans that we had already made for the week.  Travis had a softball game on Monday, we had a firm party on Tuesday and Thursday, then came all of the wedding weekend festivities with a kick off party for Dan and Andrea also on Thursday, the rehearsal dinner on Friday, and finally the wedding on Saturday.  Despite our busy schedule we managed to finish packing on Saturday, and Sunday morning all of our friends who were in town for the wedding helped us load our pod.  We only had one slight hiccup and instead of moving half our belongings to our new home we ended up having to rent a storage unit Sunday morning.  We were forced to do this b/c when I went over to our home Saturday afternoon to show it to our friends, we found two inches of water in the basement from the afternoon showers that we had.  Luckily our contractor was at the house when I discovered this and he believes that is from the sump pump being turned off since all of the electrical is being replaced but he is still looking into it.  Hopefully by the time we move in we will have a dry basement that stays dry.

It has not hit me yet that we will never be living at 818 Hillview Heights again.  As I have said before when we finally made the decision to purchase a new home I was heart broken that we would have to leave our town house.  We have had so many great memories and there is something about leaving your first place that makes it so hard. Travis and I purchased our town house exactly one month after our wedding and we moved in two and a half months later on November 15th, which was six years to the day after we had our first date.  Yes I actually remember every date still and I could not have asked for a better start to our marriage.  We made some wonderful friends at the Park at Melrose and I have loved living in the 12th South district.  Luckily we are only moving 6 minutes away and although it is so close, it is so much safer and I will not be afraid to walk outside at night! 

With the move last week we have not made too many decisions for the new house however I know that I will pay for it this week.  We have been asked to finalize the patio layout, pick out exterior paint colors, select a new front door, and I have to work on the lighting.  All of this with a holiday weekend coming up, my father in-law's 60th birthday, and family coming in town. 

August 28, 2007- the day we signed the contract on our town house

June 27, 2010- the day we moved out.  Thanks to the morning shift for helping us out and the afternoon and evening shift as well.  We could not have done this without the help from Jim, Nathan, Rob, Joe, Becca, Dee, Ashley, Joc, Kaitlin, and Brian.  Thanks again!

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cleeton

This is the dormer that they had to add so that we would not hit our heads walking up the stairs.

View from the inside of the new dormer window.

Archway from the mud room that will connect to the home.

The bathtub was reinstalled in the addition.

More Details

I know that I keep talking about details but they are so important and really impact the overall look of the home.  I am trying to keep with the time period of the home but with an updated look.  I mentioned that my friend Wendy had questioned me on my hardware choices and thanks to her, I have made changes that will better work with our home.  She also helped me pick out our appliances.  Besides our wine refrigerator I am going to love having double ovens!

I am using glass knobs for the "kids" bathroom

Handle that will be used in master and guest bath

I am really excited about the french door refrigerator

Hard Wood Floors and Fire Hazard and Porches oh my!

     Thursday marked the end of week three and it does not look like the same home that we purchased twenty two days ago.  Last week we ran across some problems and this week was not any better.  

     The hardwood floors in the kitchen and existing bonus room were laid and after they were laid we found out that the same color of wood was not used.  The original floors are a red oak and white oak hardwood was laid instead.  I know it seems insignificant but while renovating the home we have been paying attention to the detail as much as possible.  Our contractor offered to take out all of the white oak that was laid and replace it with red oak or if we were willing to keep the floors they way there were, he offered to give us a credit.  While I was slightly upset about the mix up, the original floors are fifty four years old and there is no way that the new floors would blend perfectly with the original ones.  We decided to keep the white oak and we are going to work with the hardwood guy on stains.  We hope to choose a stain that will compliment the two woods so you do not see too much of a variation in them.

     This week we also had the electricians come out and work on the addition as well to update some of the wiring in the original home.  During our home inspection our inspector found several outlets that were not grounded but overall thought that the wiring was in good shape.  After our electrician came out they told us that our current wiring was a fire hazard and that it all needed to be replaced.  After confirming with our contractor as well as Travis inspecting the problems that they were talking about, we are going to have to replace all of the wiring in the home. 

     On a good note the side entry porch was framed this week and it looks beautiful.  There is enough room to put our small bistro table and chairs that once belonged to Travis's grandparents.  I am hoping to plant a small garden next to the porch with herbs and vegatables and this will also be the perfect spot to go out and enjoy the mornings.

    Lastly I wanted to thank everyone for some helpful advice this week.  My good friend Wendy spent several hours on the phone with me this week helping me with our plumbing fixtures and cabinet hardware.  I thought that I had finalized everything on my own until Wendy politely suggested that the hardware that I picked for the kids bathroom looked a little "country" and that I may regret it once it is put in.  I really appreciate the fact that she understands my vision for our home and is willing to spend her time over the phone looking at cabinet hardware with me online.  I also wanted to thank Aunt Janet for her paint color suggestions.  I meant with an interior designer that works for our contractor on Saturday and we came up with several options that would work for the home.  I am going to go and get samples of everything so I can paint them on the wall to get a better idea on how the paint will work in each room.  

Our new side entry porch.

The new hardy board siding is being added to the addition.  Any ideas on what colors we should use to paint the outside of our home?

The framing in the guest room bath was moved 14 inches to the right, much better!

View into the master bedroom taken from the master bath.  My closet will be on the right and Travis's will be on the left and through the arch doorway will be our bedroom.

 Pedestal Sink that will go in our downstairs powder room.

Faucet for master and guest bathroom.

Faucet for kids bathroom

Kitchen Faucet

Most importantly...I picked out our wine refrigerator!

This is going to be a busy week for us and we are going to spend all of our free time packing.  The following week I am going to work on picking out the paint colors and lighting. 

Rented

Well after only two weeks we have found renters for our town house.  We found two bothers that want to move in who are originally from Chicago.  The older brother is an accountant for a health care company and the other brother is trying to make it as a country music star, who knows I could have the next Keith Urban renting our place.  Finding renters is the good news, the bad news is they want to move in our place in 11 days!  Besides Dan and Andrea's wedding next week, all of our time will be spent packing and getting our place ready for the new occupants. 

Bumps Along the Way

Today we encountered some issues with the addition that we had to deal with.  I was really hoping that we would not have any major issues with our renovations but like any project something is going to go wrong that will ultimately cost more money.  I had last posted that the framers had placed the stairs in the wrong place and they needed to be moved over by about 4 feet.  In order to move the stairs to their proper position they had to build up the stairs higher and when this happened we discovered that the plans were not drawn to scale.   Unless you are no taller than five feet once you hit the landing at the top of the stairs and turn up the last couple of stairs you have to duck so your head will not hit the ceiling.  We are going to correct this by adding a dormer in the side of the house so we can bump out the ceiling but this was not an expense that we had planned on.

The framers had framed out the new bathroom and guest bedroom today and I immediately noticed a problem.  There is not enough room to do a proper cut out for the door so they had to put a 90 degree angle in the upper left hand corner which would mean we would also have to cut the door this way for it to fit.  I can usually go with the flow on things but the thought of having to look at the sawed corner of a door for the foreseeable future set me in frienzy and I said that this had to be fixed.  So tomorrow all of the framing and plumbing that was done today is going to have to be taken down and moved 14 inches.  This is going to take space out of the guest bedroom but I think that it will be well worth it to have a normal looking door.

Last but not least the brick was laid today for the addition and new porch.  Travis saw it yesterday and said that the mortar was still wet but once it dried everything would match.  As soon as I saw it today it stood out and was a major eyesore.  We did not pick out the brick and the new brick that was picked out looks nothing like the brick that we currently have.  I really had not wanted to paint the brick but at this point it is our only option.

This is the landing at the top of the stairs.  The roof was shingled today and it will have to be removed in this space so a hole can be cut out and the ceiling extended out so we will not hit our heads at the top of the stairs.

The framing on the left was going to be the entrance for the bathroom.  You can see how we would have to cut a door in order to fit this strange shape.  So tomorrow all of the framing is going to be taken down and moved over 14 inches to the right to fix this problem.

The brick to the left of the door is the new brick and on the right hand side was the original brick.  The brick looks nothing alike and makes the addition even more noticeable.  In order to make the house look more cohesive we will have all of the brick painted.

Hopefully this will be all of the issues that we will have and the rest of the renovation will be a breeze.  Fingers Crossed!

Tough Decisions

I know that it is only hardware but selecting the handles and knobs for our cabinets took a long time for us to decide on.  First off we have four different cabinet colors between the bathrooms and kitchen, then we also had to keep the granite in mind.  I had to pick out all of the hardware online so I was not able to see it in person with the cabinets and granite which made it more challenging.  Really a small detail like this could throw off the entire look of the room so I really wanted to pick hardware that reflected the period in which the home was built.  Our home was built in 1956 so keeping this in mind I think that we did a good job in keeping with the style of the home.

This is the handle and knob for the kitchen.  We will have medium/dark hardwood floors, vanilla cabinets, cream subway tile back splash and a light creamy granite with speckles of light brown.

 

In the "kids" bathroom we will have white tiled floors, white cabinets, white with swirls of gray marble counters, and white subway tile in the shower back splash with a glass gray tile border.

I chose the same hardware for the master and guest bathroom.  The master will have vanilla cabinets with a light brown glazed border, hardwood floors and a dark cream granite counter with dark swirls of brown.  The guest bathroom will have espresso cabinets, with a light gold granite with speckles of brown and flecks of garnet.

End of Week Two

I cannot say enough about the great job that Brandon and Grove Park Constructions are doing.  He has been wonderful to work with and is always available to answer our questions or go along with small changes that we keep wanting to make.  It is now day 18 of construction and I am so pleased with how everything is moving along at a quick pace.  Brandon manages his crew very well and had to let the framer go for drinking on the job and the next day had a new framer out working on the second floor of the addition.  He then realized that the stairs to the second floor are not in the correct place so they are having to take them out and re-do them.
By the end of week two the second floor has been framed out, new windows in the addition have been installed, the kitchen has been gutted, hardwood floors have been laid, and the framing for the master suite has been completed.  I love seeing how everything is coming together and it is just so wonderful.
Travis and I met with several companies last week and we were able to agree on the cabinet colors, granite, faucets, toilets, and sinks.  We still have to pick out the carpet, appliances, lighting, and paint color for both indoors and outdoors.  I really am nervous about picking out the paint colors and am trying to get advice from anyone who will give it.

                    The old kitchen cabinets

Second floor of the addition

The room on the left is the new bathroom and to the right will be the guest bedroom.  My mother bought us a queen size bed as a house warming gift so our guest no longer will have to sleep on our pull out couch.  Thanks mom!

 New windows in the addition

This is the mud room off the garage that will have a built in bench with cubbies.

The master suite with the new framing

Framing in the master bath

New hardwoods in our current upstairs bonus room, so much better than the laminate floors that they had

The bath tub in the upstairs bath was installed

New closet in the upstairs bedroom

Cabinets in the kitchen were removed and the hardwood floors were laid.

What a great week!  Can't wait to see what is done this next week.

Change of plans

Last weekend we took the counters off half of the kitchen and after looking at the cabinets more closely we realized that they were a very low grade of laminate.  We did not want to put nice granite counter tops on cabinets that were falling apart so we decided to gut the entire kitchen and install new cabinets.

We met with Rob yesterday from Timberland Cabinetry to design our new kitchen.  We are keeping the layout pretty much the same and only making a few changes.  We are moving the refrigerator to the other side of the room and in its place we will have double ovens!  Then we are moving the microwave which use to be above the stove so it is by the ovens.  Between this and my new built in wine refrigerator this is going to be my dream kitchen.  Below are the drawings of the new kitchen.  We chose vanilla cabinets with a cream subway tile back splash and a light cream/brown granite counter tops! I am so excited!

Week One!

I cannot believe that we have only owned our home for 9 days and already so much has been done to it.  Most people complain that their renovations are taking to long, however I am a little scared that it is happening so quickly.  My sweet mother is on her way to Nashville for the weekend to see the house and help out.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have the paint colors picked out, selected the glaze for the kitchen cabinets, and weeded out the flower beds.  Then next week Travis and I have appointments lined up so by the end of the week we should have all of our finishes picked out.
I am excited that this project is moving forward but I do not know if I am ready to leave our townhouse.  This is the first home that we have had together and I have loved every minute of living here.  We have had some great memories here and it will be really hard when we leave this place.  We posted our townhouse for rent earlier in the week and have had several calls and two showings.  It would be great to go ahead and rent our place out so that we do not have to carry two mortgages until August.
I went by our new home today after work and at 6:00pm on a Friday evening there were several workers still hammering away.  I felt so guilty that they were working so late and also have to work on the weekends.  I am going to stop by and pick them up lunch tomorrow to thank them for the amazing job that they are doing.

Here is the progress from the first week.

By Tuesday evening they had the first floor of the addition framed out.

By the end of the week they had the addition walled up and the second floor started.

The desk and overhead cabinet has been removed to make room for our new cabinets which will include a wine refrigerator, this is my favorite thing that we are adding to the house!  Also the once cracked tile floors have been removed so we are able to add the new hardwood floors.

This closet was only accessible through the laundry room so a new door is being made to turn it into a pantry off of the kitchen.

The window was taken out and this is going to be the entrance to the addition.

This is one of the coat closets in the hallway.  Travis and I wondered why they removed the door, shelving, and molding since nothing needed to be done to this closet.  Turns out that there was a slight misunderstanding with the workers so they are going to put everything back in place.

The door on the left is the entrance to our new powder room.  The current powder room is the door on the right but we are moving this so we have more space in the new master suite.  Both the door on the right and in the middle are going to be walled up for the new master suite. 

The walls in the master suite have been taken down so we can reconfigure the space.  The room on the right hand side was the old powder room and this is going to be Travis's closet once it is finished.

The closet in the bedroom has been removed and this is going to be framed out for our shower in the master bathroom.

I was surprised when I saw this because I did not know that they were going to have to remove this.  The plaster was uneven so we will be replacing it with drywall.

The upstairs bathroom was gutted.

This had been a half bath off of the smaller bedroom  upstairs. It was an awkward design and we did not need a half bath so we had the bath removed and are turning it into a large walk in closet.  Hopefully we will have a daughter one day that will appreciate this large closet.

We are removing the current closet in the large bedroom upstairs and adding one to the other side of the room.  We realized that the current closet was not wide enough to hang clothes in and if we expanded it out it would have blocked the window.

Overall I feel like we have had a very successful first week.  I am excited to see the progress and hopefully we will have all of the finishes picked out next week.