It's not as fun as it looks

So........... we are still renoing. The plumbing, electrical, "behind the scenes" stuff took a while. But all the pot lights are in ( and working) and all the plumbing has been re-routed and we even have a functional sink now! I know, don't be jealous. 

The drywall and first coat of mud and tape are on!
I love how bright the space is with all the pot lights.
And yes, you better believe those are base cupboards...
My kitchen is in sight!

While changing up some of the piping, we came accross a NEST, kinda crazy,

don't worry all you tree huggers out there, Steve just transplanted it out of our house. We didn't think potential buyers would enjoy this particular feature....

We have only been at this a few weeks and I am already exhausted. Its difficult not to have a working kitchen and take out gets old REALLY fast. Its crazy how you budget your time and money and think you have it all figured out, and then you start your renos and realize you had no idea.. haha oh well I guess live and learn. I think the most difficult thing both Steve and I have incured is trying to decide where exactly to stop. We would love to redo everything but unfortunately our money tree is non-existant and expenses sure do pile up! We may not have a money tree but the flowering something tree ( I am not a gardener) in our front yard is absolutely gorgeous!!!

We finished the travertine tile in our bath surround and floor in the main bathroom and we love how it is turning out!!! Word of advice if anyone is renovating, travertine is gorgeous but because it is such a thick natural stone it takes a special saw and probably double the labour to cut and install. We are extremely happy with the end result though:)

Men are from Home Depot, Women are from Pottery Barn....

So we are about a week and a bit into our renos and things seems to be progressing well. Steve has been doing an incredible job facilitating everything at the house. This week has been what I deem "boy week." Ill explain what I mean. I like seeing big change i.e walls coming down, cupboards coming out, flooring ripped up. I hope in the next coming weeks that drywall will be going up, cupboards will be going in and new amazing flooring will be getting installed...but regardless I really don't give enough credit to the behind the scenes things like plumbing and electrical.

I like picking out nice light fixtures, choosing where pot lights will go, selecting the finishes and shapes of bathroom and kitchen fixtures but I have absolutely no interest in wires and tubes. I really have given it a shot but its not nearly as fun as the design side of things. I think I am officially 100% girl. Steve's number one concerns center around prepping sub floors, and the intricate involvement of the plumbing and electrical behind the walls. All I can do is envision where I will place the furniture, what accent colors I will be using and deciding which baseboard profile to go with... haha my poor husband!! I guess you need both sides of things to totally finish a house.

The stone continues to go up on the exterior, slowly yet surely it is coming together. I really did not want to put money into the exterior because, well, I'm like a budget Nazi, but Steve was right, it definitely is making a drastic improvement for the curb appeal. This past week again has been full of lots of challenges and changes, this next week the kitchen cupboards go in!!!!

The before pictures of the rock installation.....

This is the beginning of the rock being installed, we hope to have it all completed this weekend!

The kitchen continues to get demolished, every day there is less....

They have been prepping the sub floor for the travertine and cupboard installation. Lots and lots and lots of sawing, nailing and noise! The combo with my night shift schedule is definately making for interesting sleep patterns....







We cant get over well, how dirty everything ALWAYS is, and how much the house has been transforming!!

The Reno's begin....

Well, we have been living in our reno for five days now, and the exterior and interior are already taking on drastic transformations. We began taking down the dry wall yesterday, we started banging down a couple walls, and, well you will see the final outcome. I have a feeling that I won't be hosting any dinner parties for the next few weekends....

I got to take the first swing at the drywall!!!

All my handy-work....

Steve going to town on the wall, in my defence he also had a big hammer, if you notice I was only given the little one

You can see by these pictures how the house was quite closed off, both of us have been excited to open it all up!

Really starting to see how things are going to be looking

Such a disaster, right now we call it home, we are both really excited to have things moving along

This is with all the studs down, I cannot believe how much it has opened the house up. We walked in yesterday and it felt like we had walked into someone else's house! Its definitely a mess right now, but both of us are excited because we can see the possibility of what it can be. There is no turning back now:)

Our plan for this next week is to get all the plumbing and electrical fixed up, which I guess is important, but I am more excited at the prospect of our new kitchen going in next week!!! Steve has been doing an incredible job at keeping things on track. Im going to brag a little about him now. He truly can do anything, he seems to somehow understand how everything needs to work and go together. His endless patience is a huge asset in this reno. I think tip number one for renos would be marry a patient man....We will see what next week brings:)

Big Move!

So after a year and a half of living in and fixing up our Sundance house, we have decided to move back to the house Steve had purchased before we got married. It really was a hard decision because we loved the Sundance area and the house, but we are hoping things work out with this move. We were so fortunate to have my family come and help us make the transition over. It's crazy how much stuff you actually aquire!! It was touch and go for a while there I thought I was on a "hoarders" episode. To say we are "settled in" would definately be a LARGE over statement. Our plans are to gut and renovate most of the Killarney house, so I think that translates to living out of boxes for a while. I don't know if I am really a blogger, but I decided to start one to chronicle our progress and journal the fun and not so fun moments of a full blown reno:) Steve is the ultimate Mr. Fix-it and is going to be taking on lots of the renos himself. I am so proud of him and think both of us are going to learn a ton from this process.I think we have determined he is the construction side of things and I am the decorating side of things... we will see how it all pans out!!!!