Remodel Progress!

Demo Day was Saturday June 18th, but the next big date in regards to the remodel didn't happen until June 24th. That was the last day I was going to have a functional washer and dryer. It was also the last day I'd ever have to see this....

and this....

All over my dining room floor! Praise the Lord!!! 

During this whole process there has been numerous trips...like 4 trips in one day....to Lowe's. Sometimes it just me that runs down, but other times it's the whole family that goes. Being at the hardware store is only entertaining for so long for small kids, but they try to make the most of it. They mainly LOVE that each of the desks has free mints! On this particular trip Zeke was able to entertain himself by going into the shower door display. I couldn't believe he could actually fit in through those miniature shower doors!   

I was laughing so hard! He's just the cutest thing! 

Howdy Neighbor!!! 

Saturday June 25th the washer and dryer were moved out. We also found out that my washer had been leaking for some time! Owen loves to help out whenever he can...especially if it involved a hammer! 

Here Michael was framing in the new door for the bathroom. He's actually looking at the design plans that he taped to the bathroom window. He later realized he was a little off in regards to the placement of the door, but it was an easy enough fix. Thankfully he found it right away. It would have been a pain in the butt to fix later on in the process! 

He also framed in where the cubbies are going to be. This is right as you walk in the door from the garage. He didn't bring the framing all the way over towards the wall on the right because the laundry basket cabinet is going to fit right in there.

Next up was to build the platform for where the washer and dryer are going to go. We are stealing square footage from our garage in order to make the bathroom bigger. 

The laundry platform from another angle. The wall that is at the bottom of this picture will eventually be gone! 

This is the wall where the sink will be going. On the right of the sink will be the laundry basket cabinet. On the other side of the wall is where the cubbies will be built in. 

Here's the pony wall. This is right when you walk into the bathroom. I didn't like the idea of the toilet being the first thing you see when you walk into the bathroom. Or the idea of seeing it every time I walked by for that matter. This way there is a little bit more privacy. Also if someone forgets to lock the door and someone walks in on them they won't see anything and it won't be quite as embarrassing. Also my children don't know what it means to shut a door when they use the facilities so this will make it so you can't actually see them doing their business. Maybe one day they'll figure out that we have doors for a reason! 

Back out in the garage....it's hard to see, but there is a black pipe going from the ceiling all the way down on the side of a 2x4. That is the venting! Michael spent a good time getting all the venting, sewer and water pipes done. These were the things that concerned him the most since he wasn't super familiar with them. 

Let there be light....we have two can lights...the silver box is actually the fan.

Michael was getting ready to take the wall down, but needed to cut out some wood next to some water lines when....

WATER! 

It's hard to tell in the picture, but water is squirting all over. It was a bit exciting, but nothing horrible really. Michael ran to the meter and shut off our water supply. He's good at that since it's what he does for a living! 

Lots of water was all over the garage and the sub floor, but we set up a couple of fans and it was dry in no time! 

Here is the electrical for the vanity light that will be over the sink.

Wall is out and now Michael is working on the dryer venting! You can also see the 240 plug for the dryer. This was a huge concern for Michael and I have a story that goes along with that that I will address in a future post! 

We still had this one wall that was the main wall in the old bathroom to take down. Michael was a bit nervous because some of our stringers for our house stopped on this wall indicating it was load bearing. This was really odd as the outside wall was only 4 ft away and the other load bearing wall was about the same distance away on the other side. Had Michael freaked out a bit. 

Because he was nervous about removing that wall we took a couple precautions. The first being bolting the stringers together with 3/4 inch hardened steel bolts. These each hold thousands of pounds and we have 2 in each stringer....12 total! 

The second precaution was to beef up the next nearest wall. this is the old laundry closet. Michael opened it up and decided to fill that gap and make a serious header!  

We already had a 4x6x8 so Michael trimmed that down so it would fit and then hammered it right in. 

Then he screwed that thing in and it's not going anywhere! After doing those things he felt much better about removing the last wall, but he was still a little nervous! 

I wasn't nervous at all, but he was telling me, "Sure you're not nervous...you're not standing in the death zone!" While he was talking out the wall and afterward there was absolutely no creaking sounds like the house was moving at all. Quiet as a mouse! 

Here's a look at the room with the wall removed. It feels so huge! 

Here's the potty nook! 

Here's where the sink will be! On the left side of the sink in that little nook area there will be another cabinet that Michael built me for my ironing board and broom. There will also be a place for a vacuum, mop and a couple shelves for towels! 

More progress was made in regards to the water....the hook ups for the washing machine are done! 

We were actually to the point of bringing in my laundry basket cabinet. It was so huge we had to get it in before Michael completely framed in the wall for the washer and dryer. Had to put up a little bit of drywall before we could bring the cabinet in though. 

Time to move this monstrosity! This thing is huge...he kept bumping it on everything! 

Time to take it through the wall. 

We had to lay it down in order to clear the ceiling!

Then Michael had to pull it in and get it upright. 

He pushed it back into its final home. This is the view from the dining room. See how the cabinet just fits right in there. That's why Michael didn't need to frame in the wall for the cubbies the whole way! 

And here's the view from the inside of the bathroom! They are super dusty from all the work, but there is no reason to clean them up now since drywall dust will soon be everywhere! 

This was where we stopped work and actually took two days off in order to enjoy the 4th of July with family! Michael had been working on the remodel every day after he would get home from work so it was a much needed break!