VC House

2007-03-12T22:18:00.000-05:00

This marks the end of major construction. It's only been 6 months since we started. My goodness...we had no idea what this remodeling project was going to entail. There's still plenty of little things that need to get done, but we are done with contractors (thank God!) and can take our time on the rest of it. We opened our last box, so we are officially unpacked and moved in!

So, here's another little "before and after" story. In the hallway, there was this built-in desk. We were guessing it was original to the house; very quaint, but utterly useless. We ripped it out (another one of our demolition projects) and hired someone to build a custom cabinet for us. Here's the before:
And here's the "After". We had a local carpenter build a cabinet with bookshelves. Here it is already packed with books.

There's not much "in progress" pictures because we finally got smart and starting hiring the right people to do the work for us.

2007-03-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

This weekend had some lovely Texas weather. Spring is coming and I can't wait. So, we decided to spend Saturday mowing the lawn and doing some other yard work. Well, we opened the garage and found a possum had made himself right at home in some leftover insulation from our remodeling efforts. He was a big 'un! He was quite comfortable in his little nest and had no intention of moving. We were debating what to do until we noticed that he was hissing at us! Needless to say, we decided to stay out of the garage and called the city. I must give some props to the City of Dallas. Within 6 hours of calling; an animal control truck came rolling up to our house. The man knew what he was doing. Within a few minutes, he found the possum, and picked him up by the tail (with his bare hands!) and placed him in the trap. The officer mentioned that the possum was definitely "well-fed." We asked what they would do with it and he said they would re-locate it to friendlier territory. I would say that's tax payer money well spent!

2007-01-27T17:30:00.000-06:00

We're in the home stretch! The past few weeks have been really hard. We hired some contractors to do the kitchen remodel. The cabinets took over 5 weeks to get here. Once the contractors started working in the kitchen, we really had to move EVERYTHING out. We had no place to sit or eat. But, it's practically done. They just have to add some finishing touches, and then we're done with all of the major remodeling. Here's some before and after pictures:

We knocked down the wall and created a breakfast bar. So, you can see all the way into the living room.

We closed up one of those doors to make room for the refrigerator and oven. You can see our jet-age washer/dryer in the laundry room in the back. :)

As part of the remodel, we have to remove the pantry (which was in the hallway to the backdoor). So, we made a new one near the new breakfast bar.

Pretty dramatic change, isn't it? This was the most painful change of all, becuase you never realize how much time you spend in a kitchen until you don't have one. Here's some in progress pictures:

A little more work and we'll be ready for a party!

2006-12-26T20:04:00.000-06:00

It's been quite some time since I've posted some new pictures. The house is coming along slowly, by choice. The first few months were so intense and so all consuming that we've decided to slow down a little and try to enjoy the house as well as work on it. We did however manage to get the 2nd bathroom working! Here's a few of the before and after pictures:

It's very different, isn't it? We removed the awful yellow tub and placed a brand new pedestal sink in the same location. We also completed re-tiled the entire bathroom. It's hard to tell color, but it's a dark green, in the same style as the other bathroom.

We removed the closet and tiny wall sink and had a custom shower stall put in. We hired contractors to do most of the carpentry and plumbing work, but we did all of the tile ourselves. It was over 100 square feet of tile in that little bathroom! We tiled the walls of the shower all the way to the ceiling.

Because of the location of the window above the tub, the previous owners had actually covered the window! We uncovered the window, restored it, and frosted the panes for some privacy (we still need to paint the trim). The window is the old double hung type. We had to remove the sashes, sand down several layers of paint, and replace the ropes. But, they're now fully functioning windows.

Now for some in progress pictures:

Talk about getting down to the studs, we actually removed the entire floor!

2006-11-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

We have moved in! We have managed to transform the former "pink" bathroom into a more modest "blue" bathroom. Here's the before and after pictures. Here's the before:
And now after! It's just a tad different, right? Can you tell that we moved the door?
Another before and after. Here's the original pink tub and pink tile.And now with the newly installed blue "octagon and dot" tile and the now white re-finished tub.
Here's a few just for fun "In Progress" pictures:

Now...we're off to finish the kitchen and "yellow" bathroom.

2006-10-04T22:11:00.000-05:00

PINK BATHROOM

Got to love the retro look. It's hard to tell in this picture, but both the sink and the tub are pink. This is an excellent example of how remodeling projects can snowball. All we wanted to do was remove the linen closet (which is behind the door) and move the door over, so that there's more room between the door and the sink.

Along with the pink sink, pink tile, and pint bath...we found pink walls under the drywall. Talk about pink overload!

The demolition begins. Dang...more shiplap!

A LOT of demolition was required to move that closet.

Yes, we had to take down the ceiling. Did I mention that all we wanted to do was remove the closet and move the door?

Once we managed to remove the closet, we realized that there was no tile under the closet. Then, we realized that we'd never be able to match the tile. So...good bye tile! They really built homes to last back then. See all the grooves on the floor...that was filled with layers and layers of mortar.

Yay for contractors! They gave us a nice new floor to work with.

And they moved the door for us.

Now they covered it with hardibacker. To save some money, we have decided to do the tile ourselves. That's going to be a bit scary. Stay tuned for how that works out.

2006-10-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

KITCHEN

Our kitchen is hidden behind that wall. But, not for long.

So, remodeling is like digging for buried treasure. You're never sure what you'll find. We found wallpaper under the drywall. Apparantly, instead of plaster or drywall, they used to cover the walls with pure wood and wallpaper.

Shiplap is the tongue and groove wood that was used instead of plaster or drywall. It makes for a SOLID house. But, it makes it a bitch to remove!

But we did it. It took a lot of work!

2006-10-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

YELLOW BATHROOM

Our first remodelling project was the bathroom. We discovered that much of the house is original. Gotta love the yellow tub from the 1950's!

Our first demolition project was a closet in the bathroom. It was a large closet that took up too much valuable space in that little bathroom. That's my husband. Isn't he adorable?

Goodbye closet!

And now, no more bathtub! Do you see that wood on the wall? It's called shiplap and the entire house is covered with it. It's tongue and groove wood that was used instead of plaster or drywall. Let me tell you, that makes for a solid house!

2006-10-02T20:21:00.000-05:00

OUR HOUSE

It's cute, isn't it? Through a little work, this humble abode will become the home of our dreams. We've never done anything like this, but we're about to tackle a huge remodelling project. Gulp! Well, here we go....