Living in dust

I can't believe the last post was over 6 weeks ago - it's been pretty busy over here and finding time to post pics has been few and far between.  We are starting to see the end of Phase 1 - Kitchen/Laundry Room reno but there are still a few items left, mostly aesthetics but it's nice to finally have a functional kitchen. woot!

We removed the existing patio door and window....this was only a month ago and it seems like years at this point.

This is the view from the living room looking towards the kitchen. We removed the existing kitchen (on the left where Derik is putting up the drywall) and have now built a future laundry room/mud room.....I have been promised that today is the day that the appliance go in.

This is the view into the future Laundry/Mud room which at this time was used as our break spot (you can see the water bottle and Tim Hortons bag on the floor, how far we have come since those days!

Unfortunately we don't have many pics of the kitchen construction but as you can see the floor is down (we went with 18x18 travertine which turns out are very heavy and awkward to install) and we have pretty much completed the installation of the cabinet.  As you can see, we don't have any lighting yet (in these pics) and have had to use one of those industrial lamps borrowed from my brother which has served us very well as we have spent many days working into the wee hours.  That said, we have installed pot lights and as well as under cabinet lighting, but that will have to wait for a future post.

Here is a pic with the granite installed which is about 2 weeks ago.

View of the sink/future dishwasher and fridge area.

Well - off to tackle tasks for today (which did I mention includes a finished laundry? cue fist pump....and hopefully won't be another 6 weeks before the next post :-)  Happy Sunday!!

And the demo-ing has begun....

Ok, it's been several weeks, almost 2 months now since we last posted.  There was a 2 week trip to Italy (I will post pictures later but they aren't downloaded on this computer I am using today) work trips and then a move temporarily into a condo as we waited for Sanford to close and to prep for our renos.

We took possession of Sanford last Wednesday and we have been up to our eyeballs in reno's and cleaning.  After finishing work at 6 we have headed straight to the house to begin, well, more work.   It's been a lot of work and it's been busy but we are extremely happy with the progress we have made to date.  At first we couldn't believe the undertaking we had gotten ourselves into but are already seeing the fruits of our labor...it's really been satisfying to see things come together!!

For the renos specifically, we have demo'd the old tv room (honestly not sure what that room was used for ) along with the existing kitchen. All these rooms are on the main floor and were quite closed off from one another and our goal is to create a more open concept look and feel along with a flow that "works".

Here is a picture of the Kitchen (what will be) Wednesday once we took possession.  Unfortunately all other pictures are on another computer so this is all I have at the moment, but you get the point right? :-)

Here it is mid-way through construction on Friday.  I just noticed this wasn't yesterday (Saturday) but Derik pointed out that he decided to take his lunch break and do a little extra demolition. According to his schedule we had already fallen behind, he is definitely the brains of this operation!

And here is our "soon" to be kitchen with the flooring and drywall removed.  Can you noticed the tongue and groove on the far wall?  This used to be an exterior wall and once the extension was built, they drywalled right over it.....it's yet to be removed but I have been advised that saws can cut right through those things with ease (reciprocating or circular depending on the mood) so no need to worry :-)

Now if you had studied our plans closely you would remember that the kitchen is adjacent to the tv room (or should I say our soon to be laundry room adjacent to the soon to be kitchen) on the left.  And here is our before......

 The kitchen with drywall removed:

and more drywall removed(sorry for the pics being so dark - we had turned off the electricity at this point)

the view from outside (or from the future living room)

Down to the studs. This is the view from when you enter the house

It's only now that I am realizing that we didn't take any pictures after we took down the framing yesterday.  I think we were so tired and mentally finished we were looking forward to dinner and a hot shower.  Heading over today so we will take some pics of the open space.  Wish us luck!