My grandmother always said whatever you do on January 1^st, you will be doing all year long.  Thus, I’m destined to be laying floor all of 2011.  But on Day 5 for Tucker and Sons Floor Company, we have completed another room….Matthew’s bedroom.  His bedroom was the former carport that Mrs. Singletary closed in to make her master bedroom.  We pulled up the carpet to find cement below the padding.  Cement makes a great base for floating floors, so we placed a new pad and begin snapping together the flooring. 

 Our tag team approach completed 400 sq feet in 7.5 hours!

Chad and I completed the dining room flooring on Friday and added shoe moulding to finish off the family room, foyer and dining room.  The Picasso of Pelham, a/k/a Brian Humphries, will follow behind with his steady hand to paint baseboards and moulding. 

 Power tool fun!

Matthew acquired a new skill this week while on his Christmas break from school.  He assembled the new dining room furniture.  We selected a pub-style table that seats 8 for this small dining room.  Of course, the directions for assembly were in the last box he opened.  He assured me that he didn’t need them.  Tony should be proud.

We are continuing to live in the cozy, pond house of Charles and Barbara Kelly until our move-in day.  This little house has been our biggest blessing since arriving in Camilla.  Not only are we being loved on by the Kelly’s, we have had so much family time with the boys.  I especially love clean-up time, which only takes a matter of minutes when you have two rooms to clean.  Here is a photo of the pond house and the Kelly's house and pond:

 "Pond house"

 Mr & Mrs Kelly's house and pond

Week 12 of a 10-week project

There is only one reason that I've been slow about blogging the remodeling progress made during the last couple of weeks.....it's been slow progress!  Baseboard, crown mould and window trim are painfully slow go.  Having the trim completed brought my much anticipated, favorite project.....laying hardwood floors.  Here are some action shots during today's work:

We even had a special guest drop by after hearing how great the floors were looking and how bad my knees were aching.  This is not a photo op, rather this photo documents the one board Tony installed in the family room. 

Before anyone comes in and blames sweet, little Brooksie for writing on the new walls, I've already asked Chad not to draw on the walls again.  Seems like working with a pencil in your back pocket in small spaces does not please Brian, the painter. 

Many of you have offered to contribute to the children's breakfast fund after hearing that we had no food in the house on Saturday.  My kids are very resourceful and didn't seem to mind the lack of milk or cereal.  They just ate the gingerbread house instead.  Here is what was left when I spotted them:

I'm in LOVE with my tile man!

My tile man is now on the job, and we spent a very non-traditional Thanksgiving week together.  We had to fill in tile in the new half-bath, new laundry room and expanded kitchen area over the holidays.  So the boys spent Thanksgiving in St. Augustine with the Tucker family while we completed our next DIY project.  I overheard Tony say how much he loved his new job and hoped he would never have to lay tile for a living.

It's all about the tools when doing a remodeling project.  My new favorite tool is Chad's hammer drill that I used to take up tile in several areas.  This is absolutely the most fun I've had in the entire remodeling project.

Chad joined us one day during the Thanksgiving week to start working on the mantle that he is crafting to compliment the arched opening and curved arched doors. 

Gallon of Buttermilk Paint

Week #8 began on November 9^th with lots of multi-tasking.    Baseboards, trim and crown mould going up in the downstairs rooms while painting is happening upstairs.    I love demo and construction, but HATE picking out paint colors.    My selection process was based on the looking at the Pottery Barn catalog and choosing the colors listed at the bottom of the page.    Here one of my two paint color chart walls displaying my methodology in color selection:

Brian officially put the first coat of paint on November 9^th at 1:05 p.m.   The color was named “Nantucket Breeze 521” and the location was in my office upstairs.  FYI - it is the color number 3 shown in photo above.

By the end of the first week of painting, we have the office, hall bathroom, Brooks' bedroom, Brett & Janna's bedroom and the master bath completed.  The next color will be "Buttermilk" in hall and foyer.

Before the new french doors could be installed, Chad had to cut about 5 inches of brick out since we raised the den floor to match the adjacent living room.  This did not appear to be his favorite thing to do Friday.

Work completed without LB

I had to take off from my construction job for the entire first week of November for election work back in Ocilla.  Chad decided to give me a big surprise while I was away.  He built our bookcases for the family room.   He built two in area that was formerly living room (left of fireplace) and one in former den (right of fireplace). 

Another addition during the week was the installation of new windows which of course will result in more work needed on exterior.  

Love, love, love the new arched opening between the foyer and the kitchen designed by Jason Jones.  Here is the progress now once the sheetrock was installed.    We have officially named it the “Time Out Tunnel” as it is the only place downstairs that you can’t see the big screen TV that Tony plans to install over the fireplace.    

 Another great design by Jason was how to transform the dungeon doors to an updated, traditional look.  Next step is installing glass and painting the front doors.

Being Bold

Renovation is not for the weak at heart.  Faced with a dilemna of having a dark foyer caused by the double dungeon doors, we knew we wanted to have more light coming into the front of the house.  We began pricing out replacing the front doors with new arched doors.  The original doors were made by a Thomasville company that also made custom moulding for the White House years ago.   New double wood doors would have to be custom-made to fit the entry and made the replacement cost prohibitive. 

Here is a photo of the doors when we purchased the home.  I wanted to maintain the double-door look and certainly keep the curved moulding.

The outrageous cost of replacing the front doors left us with two choices:  live with a dark foyer and dungeon doors....or BE BOLD and customize the existing doors.  I kept telling Chad for weeks that he could do this and finally he agreed.....

That's right.  We cut the solid wood, orginal to the house, custom-designed front doors.  Chad drew the design directly onto the doors and cut them to insert double-insulated glass.  Of course, he had a little help with this project.

I'll save the finished product photos until the glass has been inserted, but the neighbors have already given their approval of this decision.

The drywall guys moved out this week after amazing us with their teamwork.   Here they are finishing up with sanding.

The next post should show painting in process....if I can make a decision about paint colors!

Week 6 of 10-week project

Today marks the beginning of Week 6 and so far we are on schedule.  I'm really liking the progress that's occurring this week.  Paul Wisham and Sons (and grandson) are experts at hanging drywall.  They moved in your house like a troop on a mission each with assigned duties.  Mr. Wisham's term for drywall is "ROCK".  So we are hanging ROCK today in an assembly line fashion.

Wisham and Company hanging "rock".

Another project that is underway is building an arched opening from the foyer to the kitchen.  Something about the theme of the arched front doors and influence of the tudor theme or whatever.......

Chad and David creating one of three arches.

Next project is installing the new windows.  I selected the window company based on the desire for them to be made in Georgia if possible.  Found a window and door company in Monroe, GA called "Tucker Door and Trim".  No relation, thus no family discount. 



Brooks standing in family room window opening.  Note dumpster in the background that is full of the 2nd load of debris from our "little" renovation.  It certainly makes it easy to give directions to our house.  "Just turn on Rebecca Drive, and we are the house with the dumpster."



My gloves on Monday morning thanks to a group of practical jokers working in our house.