monster house

family room after 

family room before 

kitchen after 

kitchen before 

and the house is still standing. :)

We were able to get things somewhat put back together, we rented a couple of tables with chairs (our furniture is still in storage), we kept the grill running and the food a'flowing. A good time was had by all!

Now, we're in the process of cleaning up the basement -- getting rid of the dust -- and we'll be moving things into our nice new living room again so Bissell Jr can refinish our floors on Monday. I'm not looking forward to starting over again and dealing with all the mess, but I can't live with the floors the way they are.

I've finally uploaded a bunch of new pictures so everyone can see the final product!

it pours. We woke at 5am this morning dying of heat upstairs. Sometime during the night our a/c went out and is was hotter than Hades upstairs. Bottom line, our heat pump was broken and the a/c part was rusted and leaking freon. Guess who had to purchase a new heat pump????

Besides that, everything is wrapping up now. Dennis and Mike are adding a few details to the trim and Gloria is finishing up the back door and she'll repair the bathroom wallpaper next week. I can't wait to get our carpet on Monday so we can get our living room back together! I think that sums it all up. I'll get some new pictures posted tomorrow!

So, the floor issue has been resolved...at least in theory. Bissell wasn't pleased with the floor either, and will return on July 11th to resand the floor and start over. He has been doing floors for 26 years and he hasn't had to resand a job in over 10 years. We all just want the floors to be beautiful. :) So, we'll be staying at a hotel near our place for a week while he does the refinish.

Dennis is finishing up the little odds and ends and all the odd jobs we give him. The paint job looks great! He did a wonderful job on that and everything else.

Gloria is finished faux painting. She's coming back tomorrow to put a protective coating on the last two walls -- something we desperately need with two kids and two dogs spooging on the walls. lol. The finish looks awesome! The rooms are very warm and cozy feeling. I can't wait to see what it looks like with the new carpet. We purchased the carpet from Rite Rug and since it's in stock, they'll be installing it on Monday the 27th. Gloria is also going to paint our patio door so it matches the trim because right now it's white and stands out. :)

I think we'll be pretty close to being finished by our big July 4th party!

The floor. Plain and simple, the floor issue caused everyone and everything to fall behind. I don't think we'll ever truly know what happened, but here is what we know....

Bissell Jr was supposed to do the floor the first week we were gone, which would leave two weeks for Dennis of DLK Construction to paint and place trim, and time for Gloria Groat to complete the faux painting. Well, I guess nothing went as planned. Bissell had a heck of a time with the floors. He sanded the maple floor smooth -- too smooth he thinks -- because when he applied the stain it wouldn't penetrate the floor. He said it lifted back onto his brush, shoes, and whatever else it touched, but it didn't do that everywhere because the floor is covered with dark "chatter marks" that look like zebra stripes...but that's another issue....

Then, it was so hot and humid the stain took forever to cure, and when he was finally able to apply the polyurethane, it too wouldn't cure so he turned on the airconditioner, which then blew dust onto the finish -- remember we did all the woodworking down the basement -- so that was bad. He turned off the air and the house got too hot, the boards swelled and the poly squished out between the boards and left ridges. He was forced to turn back on the a/c. He proceeded to put on *5* coats of poly, some with darkeners in it to darken up the floor because it wasn't as dark as we wanted and the finish has dust and bubbles all throughout it. What a mess.....

Because of all these troubles, Dennis and Gloria were not able to get in here to do their thing in a timely fashion. Dennis was able to complete the painting before we came home, and Gloria was able to start, but not finish her part.....needless to say I was NOT a happy camper upon our return.

So where are we now and what are we doing about it? Check the next installment. :)

I can't believe two months have passed since I last updated!! We went on vacation for three of those weeks, and the other weeks...well, I was just too darn busy to fit some computer time in. :)

SO.....how far along is the remodel now you ask??? Well...it's almost done!

The first week in May (before we left for vacation), the granite was installed. It is beautiful! I just dearly love the Cranbury Brown granite we chose and Marble and Granite Works did a wonderful job on the install. A few days after the granite was installed, Nancy Kennedy came and installed the natural stone backsplash. The tiles were a bit darker than the samples we looked at originally, yet we knew ahead of time that the natural stone tiles can vary greatly....so we are still very pleased with the outcome. I think it adds alot of warmth to the kitchen and it looks awesome with the granite and the undercabinet lighting.

Two days before we left for vacation, we chose our floor stain color and our paint colors for the rest of the house, and we decided on what kind of faux finish we wanted throughout the kitchen and family room. The kitchen was basically done (except we were waiting on parts for my cooktop/downdraft), with little odds and ends that needed finished like end panels put on after painting and such. We thought by the end of vacation, the house would be completed......it wasn't....and I'll explain everything that happened in the next installment.... :)

We will be on vacation for 3 weeks, so I'll update when we return!