Toilets, and Showers, and Valves...Oh My!

I've always thought how wonderful it would be to design your own house, from the ground up...selecting the perfect layout to fit your needs and hand selecting every last detail and feature of the house.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had these thoughts.  I'm beginning to reconsider that luxury.  One bedroom and bathroom is overwhelming enough!  Overwhelming might actually be an understatement.  Any time I'm given more than two choices, my head starts spinning.

Where do you start?!  My best advice would be to start looking in magazines, online, and any available marketing material to get an idea of different options out there.  I'm glad we decided to visit the local plumbing supply store and local hardware store to just browse and get some ideas before setting up an appointment.  I was focusing more on the pictures of the fixtures in a bathroom layout to get a sense of style and color options and tying the whole look together.  Our impromptu visits gave us the opportunity to look around freely and decline any offered help so that we didn't get caught in a pressuring sales pitch before we knew what we wanted.  It also helped to be able to stand in our future bathroom and measure off ideal locations and sizes of the shower, vanity/sink, etc. which gave us a more realistic feel for how much space we had available.

Under Construction

Here's an update of the construction this week.

Day 2 - The framing of the walls and floor went up quickly.  This was a nice surprise after Monday's demo.  Gahh I'm so excited! :)  

Day 2 - Framing

Day 1 - Murphy's Law

The contractor had come by last Friday and Saturday to start removing the plaster ceiling in the garage and the garage door, nothing too exciting.  The real construction was to start on Monday.  The normal anxiety of the weekend ending was subsided by some excitement of the project officially starting.  

Oh Monday.  My morning began with a few minor mishaps right before leaving the house...I poured cold water into my tea (I forgot to turn the tea kettle on after I filled it with water).  As a side note, I use Teavana's amazing loose leaf tea blends so couldn't exactly reuse the tea after this mistake.  Anyways, after patiently waiting for the water to boil, steeping my tea, and transferring to my travel mug, I knocked the mug over and spilt the tea everywhere.  We laughed as we quickly cleaned up the mess and darted out the door (sans Monday morning caffeine fix).  Nick dropped me off at the subway station and wished me a good day, I laughed as I joked that it could only get better from here.  (But really, I don't like to complain and always try to cease the day while appreciating how lucky I am so I try to always be consciously grateful, for many things but life in general.  I like to think of myself as one of those "smile, smell the roses" kind of people because really what's there not to be happy about?!!).  Anyways sorry for the side rant but spilling my tea was not the end of my day and I didn't huff and puff into work to announce to the office about my horrible, no good, very bad day.  Nonetheless, in my terms it seemed to be "one of those days".  

Master Bedroom Addition

Drumroll please....our current (and biggest!) project yet is a new master bedroom addition!  It is not a complete new addition outside of the footprint of the existing house, but will be above the existing garage.  The existing flat roof is designed as a deck with access via a sliding door from our office.  However, we don't use the deck (we prefer the patio and screen porch out back) and the New England winters bring the agony of shoveling off the roof.  We were lucky this past winter as the snow gods were good to us.  But the snow and water were affecting the condition of the roof.  We could see mildew sprouting out along the edges from beneath the rubber roof and feel the mushiness when walking on it.  Instead of simply repairing the roof, we decided to make use of the valuable space and enclose the space (yay no more snow shoveling!) to create a master bedroom.  After contacting a number of contractors and evaluating different design options, we made our selection and signed the dotted line.  The following is a list of wish list items that made the project:

The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home

This past winter we gave our kitchen a makeover with new granite countertops and overhang for barstools.   The existing cabinets are in good shape so we saved some money by avoiding a complete kitchen reno, however we have a ton of counter space and apparently expensive taste in granite (or most things these days!) so it didn't come cheap.  I love the outcome, it seems to open up the kitchen and give it a clean, modern look.  I can't forget to mention our new sink and faucet which has a touch sensor for turning off and on (this was hubby's pick - he always has to have the latest and greatest when it comes to technology.  Did I mention our expensive taste?).  A friend of ours installed the new sink and garbage disposal.  Nick and I added the new tile backsplash around the kitchen and painted a small area of what was left of kitchen wall.  One of my favorite parts of the design was the ever so clever granite window sills.  Brilliant!  Especially behind the sink where I'm prone to splash water while washing dishes.  We owe the credit to the contractor for that nice touch.  

Sprucing up our Curb Appeal

Our entry project (last summer) included a new door, awning, handrails, and light fixture.  Motivation: The existing door was sticking and difficult to shut and the aluminum awning just had to go!  We originally wanted sidelights at the door but this involved additional structural work that we decided to forgo.  Instead, we chose a Therma-tru fiberglass door with oval glass panel to bring in some light.  We went with vinyl posts and handrails which is a bit more expensive than wood but is said to last longer.  Also, I'm not a huge fan of wrought iron railings which I believe are more expensive and not as easy to maintain anyways.  As shown in the before and after pictures, the entry has definitely improved our curb appeal.  (In the After photo, the light fixture under the awning has not yet been installed.)  

Contractor: Almar Building & Remodeling

Before

After (w/o light fixture)

The Accidental Project - Back Stairs

After getting a quote for a new exterior deck (Summer 2010), we decided against the full deck to simply upgrade the wood treads of our existing back stairway with Trex material.  Upon ripping up the stair treads, Nick found the stringers were rotted and decided to demo the entire stairway.  So Nick and his friends spent the summer rebuilding the stairs.  It was not the ideal time of year to demo the stairway leading to our backyard, patio, and pool and any plans of summer cookouts had to be put on hold as our patio soon became a construction zone. 

Beat the Heat - Central A/C

To this day, I'm still convinced that installing central air was the best investment we made for our home.  It was our first project (Summer 2009) and definitely the most beloved (thus far).  What a difference in personal comfort!  I can't tell you the number of mornings I would want to jump back into the shower after succumbing myself to the heat of a blow dryer on a hot, humid morning.  Uck!  Rest assured, I can now blow dry my hair without breaking a sweat and we sleep comfortably in the torturous heat.  A luxury well worth the price!

Contractor: Hillside Construction Heating & Cooling

Welcome Friends

My husband Nick and I were fortunate enough to purchase our first home about 3 years ago.  We live in the suburbs of Boston and love taking on new renovation projects.  We've been busy making the house feel like our own and have decided to bring you along for our adventures...the good, the bad, and the ugly.  But that's inevitable in home ownership so we've learned to laugh along the way.  I decided to start a blog to share the progress of our projects with family and friends.  Since I'm a few years behind, I'll start with a few brief posts highlighting previous projects but you likely won't hear about the appliance upgrades or minor nuisances of the past.  Stay tuned for our current (and biggest!) project yet!