February 8th:
Day 4
The ceiling is scraped and the walls are being painted!
But we didn’t know that they had started to paint, so we didn’t get a chance to tell them which walls we would like to be the accent walls. The colors we chose are Cracked Pepper (accent) and French Silver (main color) from Behr. At first, we were worried that they had painted all of the walls in Cracked Pepper because the walls were so dark, but then we realized that all was well. Silly us.
Still, some of the walls that should be Cracked Pepper are currently French Silver, which is something that could have been avoided if they had let us know that they would be painting… but we were assured that they could paint them appropriately. No harm done!
The floors are covered in ceiling dust, which is quite smelly. I can see why it’s best to have your ceilings scraped professionally! They’ve done a wonderful job and I’m abnormally excited about having smooth ceilings. Seriously, this can’t be normal.
February 10th:
Day 6
Very long day. Sohrab got stuck at a client (due to his car, not the client!), so I called AAA and rushed over so that we could get his car towed. Fortunately it looks like it won’t be too much to fix it, but it certainly made for a stressful evening. We were able to go home in Ellie, and his car is in the shop.
February 11th:
Day 7
We visited the condo today, and everything is really starting to come together. The paint “issue” has been amended, everything is the right color, and I’m loving it. The cabinets have been taken out completely, so we were able to get a good look at just how big that room really is. I’m glad we’re moving forward with the open concept idea; it’s already making a huge difference.
And, after much ado, we have come to a conclusion about what to do with the water line that is in the middle of our kitchen.
Allow me to explain.
To open up the kitchen, we asked them to tear down the three small walls surrounding the fridge. As it turns out, one of the walls will have to stay up because it is load-bearing. Unsurprising, but still a little bit of a drag. Our way around this is that the original doorway to the kitchen is now wider and the other two walls can come down, which means that the island will be able to fit no problem, and we’ll get the dining table/island functionality. Hooray!
Well. Once we saw that the wall directly behind where the fridge used to be had a water line running through it, we thought that was the end of the original plan. We’d need to frame around it, creating a corner wall in the middle of the room. Bummer. We discussed several options, including one that meant nixing the island completely. We finally came to the conclusion that the pipe could be rerouted for cheaper than we expected (we were originally quoted between $500 and $1500, and it was hard to justify that; now it will be much less!) because Sohrab’s dad referred us to George, a plumber who could do good and affordable work for us. Thanks to Baba, George, and a little bit of working with the budget, we will be able to move forward as we originally thought! There will be the small, load-bearing wall, which I plan to utilize in the form of a chalkboard wall, forming the hallway that you’ll be able to see in pictures below. Then we will have a 5-foot island installed lengthwise (running parallel to that hallway) that we will use as our dining table as well as extra counter space. Yippee! As Sohrab noted as we drove over to the house, knowing full well that we were facing issues, “Here are the horrors of a renovation… you never know what is going to happen.” But, on the plus side, we were able to work around those issues and I am so grateful for that. This has already been a great learning experience, and it’s only a week in to the renovation! I’ve been trying to keep a level head about it all, but if you know me, then you know that I’ve been having difficulties with not getting too excited. I always look forward to the next time we’ll be able to visit the house, even though it is filled with dust and tools right now. It’s so refreshing to give new life to a place.
