More Progress

It's amazing how fast things change at the new house. The breakfast nook area opened up to the kitchen with the removal of the wall where the big picture window was and the master bath addition is coming right along. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we have decided to paint the outside of our house. Yes, we are going to have the brick painted. I think it's going to look great! Even though the house below is not brick, it is the color we have chosen for our house. We already have black shutters and a black roof and we will have all the trim painted soft white.

This is a view of our new master bedroom closet and bathroom addition. My DH's closet will be on the left and my closet and a little linen closet will be on the right. A nice soaker tub will be situated under that window and to the left will be the potty room and to the right will be the shower.

This is a shot of the breakfast nook after the wall came down the other day. There will be a window on the right wall out there with a window seat and cabinets/shelves on each side. The window in the wall on the right side of the photo will eventually have my kitchen sink under it! That window leaning against the wall in the breakfast nook is the one that was removed when the wall came out. The doors leading to what will be a small deck came out of the great room.

It's Coming Along....

There continues to be much progress at the new house. The dry wall is almost up in the original parts of the house and the framing, walls, and roof are going up on the new additions! We have a buyer for our house and plans to close at the end of August. We worked a deal to stay in our house for an extra month and just pay one month of rent to the buyers. This was great news to know we don't have to move twice, rent a condo, or store our furniture. I am very grateful for that!! We have been busy choosing tile for the bathrooms, and finalizing the kitchen layout and finishes. I am looking so forward to seeing it all completed and I know it will be soon at the rate these guys are going!!
Here are the most recent photos of the progress.

This is the bonus room with drywall. Behind that wall is a storage room.

This is the other side of the bonus room and behind that wall is a new full bathroom.

Here is the foundation and floor for our master bedroom closets and bathroom.

And here are the walls and window holes for the master bedroom addition.

Here we have the great room all newly drywalled. The door to the new screen porch additon
will be cut out to the right of the fireplace.  The door on the left will be replaced with a sliding door and will exit out
to a landscaped courtyard area. 

Addition Progress

The additions are coming along. These photos were taken between July 2nd and today.

The footers for the breakfast room, deck, and screened porch are poured and ready.

Block is up.

Framing begins.

Roof frame is up.

We've got roofs.

Breakfast room on the left and screen porch on the right.

Site prep done for the Master Bath and Closet addition. Ready for footers to be poured. 

Standing in our future screened in porch. Can. Not. Wait.

Decisions and Progress Made

Since I last posted we had a little stall in our progression of the remodel. It happened that my DH, our designer, our contractor, and I were all meeting at the house with the electricians to decide on light fixture and outlet placements, etc. when my DH had "an idea".  It turns out it is a great idea but it took us several days of discussion and new plan drawing (thank you talented designer!) and more discussion weighing the pros and cons of the change, etc. (Thank you patient contractor!) So the change is this...we are adding on to our master bedroom by 24 feet in order for each of our guest rooms to have their own bathrooms. It happened that while looking at what was going to be the master bath, my DH saw the potential of making that area a bath for the bedroom on the left when you come down the hallway and in so doing, it meant we had to redesign the master to get our closets and bath, which requires a bump out where our new triple window was going to be installed. It also meant that we could now revert back to the original entry to the master which is at the end of the hallway which meant we would not have to take space from the bedroom on the right which was going to make that room very small. Also, instead of a hall powder room with a door way through it to the full bathroom off the right bedroom, we will wall that powder room off and it will become just a nice powder room off the hallway and the right side bedroom will have access to it's own full bath from the bedroom. Sound confusing? It's been very confusing making the decisions and changes. And I haven't even discussed the changes in the kitchen.  My DH and I decided we would like to have our cooktop closer to the sink (basically where it originally was when we bought the house) but it was going to be very tight due to a change of the laundry room/ pantry door placement. My brilliant contractor suggested putting the door back where it was on the wall across from the dining room as opposed to the kitchen wall and thereby make more counter space for the cooktop. Problem solved. Of course they had already moved the door and now have moved it back. Thank you again clever, patient, and understanding contractor!  So here are some photos...

This was the frame up in the master for his and her closets and the bathroom
at the back where the window is on the back wall. 

It is now reframed and the back part where the tub and window are is the bathroom for that blue room you can see on the left . You can see where the door to the master was going to be and now where it will be on the left as well. The areas framed in front there are closets, one to the left for that blue room and the other to the right is in the master as extra closet space. 

This is the view standing in the blue bedroom that is on the left coming down the hallway.  The entry to the bathroom is at the back left and the entry to the closet is basically straight ahead. The door to this room was moved down the hall several feet to make space for a king size bed on the wall directly behind where the photo was taken which is the wall opposite the bathroom and closet. That tub will stay and be the guest room tub/shower.

This is the wall where the triple window was going that will now be bumped out 24 feet for our closets and bathroom to be built.  That door on the right will remain and walk out to what I hope will be a lovely landscaped patio area nestled between the master addition and the screen porch addition. Straight ahead imagine there will be a hall walkway to the bathroom with a closet on left for my DH and one on the right for me. Yay! Separate closets for the first time!! You will see a soaking tub straight ahead on the back wall with a pretty arched window that will look out on the back yard.  There will be a shower on the left of the tub and a potty room on the right of the tub with separate vanities opposite those.

This is the wall in the master where a cut out had been made for the second window.
Our  bed will be in between them with end tables in front of each window.

This is the bathroom for the guest room which is on the  right as you come down the hall from the foyer. 

This is that same room facing the wall opposite the bathroom above.  You can see into the master at the moment where we were going to make that turn and now are not. So this room gets a small closet (on the left there) and space for our queen 4 poster hopefully in the 8 foot space straight ahead and to the right. 

This is the foundation for the screened porch. The master addition will be the same length as that coming out of the master bedroom. 

This is the foundation for the breakfast nook and deck area next to the screened porch area which comes directly back from that chimney wall. That is my DH standing on the block wall. 

This is the ceiling in the bonus room where the can lights have been installed and the ceiling has been remodeled to hide those beams. The ceiling will angle up and then be flat in that area. You can see the sky light at the bottom of the photo.

This is the view of the bonus room from it's entry way. The left side is where the full bath is framed in and on the right is the storage room. The original plan was a complete wall across there which put the sky light in the storage area. I decided the skylight would be nice for the bonus room itself so we redesigned the area to allow for it.  This meant a smaller storage area but that is A-OK!

So that is where we stand today. Changes happen quickly and I will try to keep posting as they happen. On another note....We have a contract on our current home pictured here.... 

It went on the market the afternoon of June 29th and had 2 showings that evening!! Then on Friday July 1st we had our 3rd showing and they made an offer. We countered, they visited again, and then accepted our counter offer. As it stands now, there is to be an inspection on Monday at 1:30 and barring any hiccups there, we are set to close on August 29th. I am in the process of looking for a condo to rent for 6 weeks while our new house is being finished. I am so grateful that I don't have to keep the house neat for showing!!!! You can check out our beautifully staged home here:
http://listings.realtracs.com/MediaDisplay.aspx?ListingID=1484166
See you again soon!

Habitat

This afternoon, I met with our building contractor and a fellow from the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Nashville. Mr. Habitat man will come out tomorrow morning with two more guys to remove and save all the kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities we are not using (which is all of them!) and remove all the carpet from the bonus room, bedrooms, hall, living room, dining room, and great room, plus several light fixtures to put in the Habitat Restore. We will get an itemized list of our donation for tax purposes and the gratification that it's not all going to be tossed into a construction dumpster.

"Befores"

Here are some "before" pictures. The demo begins tomorrow or Tuesday so things will really start to change.  I will post some more photos of what the place looks like after some de construction work this week.

The dining room before we took down the drapes, swag, and sheers.

The Living Room looking toward the foyer. The front door is to the left.

View from Foyer looking straight ahead into Family Room. The cased opening will be completely removed and walls removed to open it up.

The Family Room. The fireplace will be covered with stacked stone,
 The book case/cabinet units will be removed and on the right side of the fireplace will be french doors to a screened porch addition which will be added on directly behind that entire wall. The left side will be built in cabinets with our television mounted on the wall. Where the doors are on the right will become a cased opening leading into a new 10'x10' breakfast room addition to kitchen.

Hallway with four bedrooms off to left from foyer. The door at the very end of the hall is the entrance to the Master bedroom. This will be walled up and a hallway that will go to the right, then left, will be built to enter the Master. 

First room on left is bedroom one...Randy's future office. Shelves will be removed, walls will be painted,  and hardwood floors installed everywhere. The entire house will have hardwood floors except the three bedrooms and laundry room will be part tile.

Hall bathroom soon to be a divided powder room and guest bathroom.

2nd bedroom on left...future king guestroom.

Only bedroom on right soon to be Queen guest room which connects to guest bathroom.

Master bedroom . Door on right goes outside and down some steps to a screened-in porch which will be removed and become a landcaped patio area. Wall at back will have a set of three windows. 

Master bath soon to be expanded and totally remodeled.

Another master bath view.  The wall where the tub is will become where our vanity with double sinks will be.

DH and I took all the drapes down in the dining room, living room, and Master bath and bedroom. We found them to be made of many yards of some very nice heavy damask and moire fabric in excellent shape.  My plan is to use it to recover my chaise lounge, a bedroom chair, a couple of bedroom benches,  my dining room chair seats, and possibly some other uses. I look forward to the "repurposing" results!!
I will post the "before" kitchen, bonus room, laundry room/pantry, and some exterior pictures next time. Until then....

We Closed! And We SHOPPED!

On Wednesday June 15th at 8:30 am we became the new owners of 8304 James Robertson Court which I have fondly nicknamed "Jim Bob Court".  The seller turned it over to us on Thursday the 16th after 1 pm (today!) Starting at 9 am this morning, with the help of our  fabulous designer, we picked out plumbing fixtures at Ferguson's. That included a black Blanco Silgranite kitchen sink (Thanks, Bunny!!) (farmhouse style: no divider and very wide and deep), toilets, a bubbler tub, pedestal sinks, faucets, handles, shower heads, etc. Whew! Glad to have that done! We are also considering an ice maker. We then went to the custom cabinet place where we looked at and pretty much decided on our kitchen cabinet color scheme. More on that in another post. We picked up some bathroom tile samples and carpet samples and then went over to the house to take some more measurements. We meet our trusty builder and his framer there tomorrow morning for a final walk around before demo begins on Monday. Here we go!!

Title and Intention

ThreeTwoOne. My blog name. What does THAT mean? A little play-on-words attempt from a mind that was having trouble coming up with a clever title for this new blog. It describes what my DH (Dear Husband) and I (the TWO of us) are preparing to do soon. We have decided to move from a THREE story fifteen year old home with an elevator to a ONE story 32 year old ranch home. Thus, ThreeTwoOne! Here I intend to write about yet another one of my many journeys in life. This blog will be about my experience of what my DH likes to call "Right Sizing" and will chronicle the renovation and updating of our new (older) ranch home beginning on June 20th. It will be a place to post my thoughts, excitement, anticipation, and challenges about, as well as photos of, the transformation process. I begin by posting a couple of pictures of the two homes. This is where we currently live and have been for the past 12 years.

A winter shot:

And this is the house we are closing on in 12 days:

Our current home sits on about two thirds of an acre and our house-to-be sits on 1. 3 acres. So we will go from a big house on a smallish lot to a smallish house on a BIG lot! We have several changes planned for this ranch which I will note in a moment. With the help of two important people in this endeavor, a talented designer and a reputable builder, our ideas and dreams and desires have been put on paper and it will be a great adventure watching them develop.

A few of the planned changes include replacing an asphalt driveway with aggregate and adding a circular drive. Possibly painting the brick or just the trim or maybe doing a mortar wash. (Undecided at this point) Adding an architectural design in the triangle of the front porch over the door. Removing the current screened in aggregate patio and building a larger screened in porch off the rear of the great room. Remodeling the hall way bathroom. Redesigning and enlarging the master bath and closet area. Adding a set of windows in the master bedroom. Changing the access to the master bedroom. Adding a wall in the bonus room over the garage to create a storage area as well as a full bath room. Adding a 10 x 10 eating area to the kitchen as well as completely remodeling it. Changing the current laundry room/powder room, which is now accessed from the hall way, to a laundry room/pantry with access only from the kitchen. Removing a wall that currently separates the kitchen from the formal dining room. Removing paneling, beams, and wall paper and painting everywhere as well as adding hardwood floors in the foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, great room and DH's office room. Whew!!! We are doing ALOT!!! And I haven't even begun the discussion of how to reduce the amount of "stuff" a three story home holds in order to move only what we truly use and love to a one story ranch!!

Or the minor detail of preparing our current home for the real estate market. No doubt we will be having a busy summer of 2011!! See you next post!