I hadn't wanted to put pictures up post-move in since I had people coming to visit for my sister's wedding (and I wanted it to be a surprise!). So I'll do more catch-up now...covering at least part of the downstairs.

There's plenty left to do, but I hit a wall at the end of May where I was just burnt out, so I moved my stuff in. I thought I'd be more inclined to mix working on the house into post-job time but having stacks of boxes around actually make it kind of difficult to work. The wedding and the prospect of overnight house guests was a major motivating factor. So, there has been progress.

I've officially painted every room in the house now!
Here's the layout, so you can get an idea of how it fits together.


When I moved in, just my Master BR, the downstairs bath, and kitchen were in decent shape.

Downstairs, I finished stripping and repainting the moldings in the Living Room. Got my pictures up & the room is fairly well decorated. This pic is taken from the entry hallway.

The entry hall is still the biggest mess - since all the trim molding is off, it doesn't look the greatest, plus I haven't touched the stairs. Each post on the banister needs to be stripped and repainted.

I'm so happy with how the downstairs kitchen turned out. Most of it is IKEA (Stat white cabinets), so I was able to keep my costs down. I love the double bowl apron sink! I ended up using travertine tile for the backsplash (left over from my parent's remodel) and really like having the natural stone against the wood - it tones down the bright white. The floor is Allure - fake cork. ;) I know the lights are a bit modern, but I'd seen some similar in historical Victorian kitchen pics, so I'm happy with the choice. Oh, and that big lower cabinet panel to the left of the sink is a dishwasher - isn't that swish?
A word to anyone designing an IKEA kitchen: the one thing I wish somebody had told me is that there's a "fridge" cover panel that's deeper and taller than the normal cover panels. (It's also a bit thicker). I'm pretty sure it didn't show up in any of the catalog/design software they had. I had to make an extra trip to get it, but really like that all the cabinets are the same height and that the fridge is completely enclosed. My contractor had to build a box out to get the correct depth, but it all worked out really well.
The downstairs bath is really pretty - it's much more feminine than most of the things I designed. I did all white, sticking to different textures for interest. This picture doesn't really do it justice ;)


The back laundry room. (Looking towards the kitchen) In here I swapped out the back door for a Dutch door that was in the garage.
Both the front & back doors are painted a pretty rose-red color on the outside called "Frosted Pomegranate".

I still owe pics of the dining and library, in addition to the upstairs, but those have been particularly hard to get a good photo from!

What I love about my house so far:

1. Abby can go romp in the yard to her heart's content
2. The floor in my bedroom is crooked, so one side of my dresser is at least 3 inches higher than the other.
3. The morning sun in the kitchen.
4. The sound of rain hitting the roof just outside my window when I'm falling asleep.
5. Admiring the wall of book shelves (ah, zenlike)
6. My wi-fi hasn't once needed to be reset (constant, often daily problem at the 'rents)
7. All my stuff is in ONE place!

Mom bought me some geraniums and helped me plant them in the window boxes around the house. They look really pretty and less like a troglodyte lives here. It also makes me feel like maybe I won't kill everything I plant. Regular rains have helped maintain this illusion.

Things left to do:

1. Strip/Sand/Paint Stairs
2. Paint trim and doors in upstairs hallway
3. Touch up walls that got dinged during move-in
   
4. Strip/Sand/Paint other trim pieces in garage (fall/winter project)
   

So I already covered last weekend when I ran down to Detroit to get the first half of my IKEA cabinets. The people there were really cool and let me leave the other half to be picked up Tuesday when Dad would be down there. My awesome Dad, exhibiting his mad Tetris-skill packing abilities got the rest of it into the Jeep when he was down there. The first two pics are of that mess (which includes a bunch of cabinets, a dishwasher & a microwave). The things my Dad won't do for his girls! (c:

Poor Brad was sick for the first couple days this week, but came back like a champ Wednesday and got the rest of the bathroom plumbing and both the library & bath windows installed yesterday & today.
I meant to go to knitting group on Tuesday evening, but had forgotten my knitting, so that ended up being a night to catch up on laundry & other stuff.

Wednesday I made a run up to the Lowe's in Gaylord to get the extra-long skinny window for the library. It's about 6" shorter than what was there previously, but it will look good. Standing outside, we could tell the current window was in at an angle (like many of the things in this old house). We joked that maybe it was just level with the floor inside...sometimes it's hard to tell what you should make things level with in an old place.

The bathroom window was originally a slider; after all the mold issues in the bathroom I wanted something that wouldn't trap water like the grooves on the slider would.
My original thought was to find an awning style window, but ran into two issues - they were much more expensive and the lead time would have them arriving far after I'd moved into the house.
We ended up getting a solid piece of low-e, Argon filled glass & Brad built a box with an inverted "v" at the bottom so the water will get channeled away from the glass on both the interior & exterior. The box for the glass is made from some sort of vinyl stuff so it won't rot like the old window did.

What I've learned this week: You can shake the new iPods to get it to shuffle to the next song. With the iPod in your pocket, you can get the iPod to shuffle by dancing (badly). This method of advancing the track is superior to setting down tools & removing gloves to hit fast-forward.

Pics 1 & 2: Dad's packing job.
Pic 3: Bathroom window & framing for shower/tub faucets
Pic 4: Newly installed bathroom window.

Today Brad, contractor extraordinare, came over & we made a game plan for doing the renovation. Then the rest of the afternoon we did demo, starting with the downstairs bathroom. He did some of the bigger things I don't know how to do myself (removing toilet, shutting off water & removing sink) while I starting pulling down the wall paneling.
I'm noticing a trend with surfaces in this house. Seems that every previous owner has added a layer of paint (or 2 or 10), flooring, wall, or ceiling without removing the one that came before it. The result over the 99 years is that there are about 15-20 layers of paint/wallpaper in the living room and so many laers of paint on the moldings that all the detail is lost. The bathroom follows suit, with enough layers of wall board that they're flush with the 3/4 inch molding around the door. I'm bucking the trend by taking it down to the original wall, which we'll re-drywall in this room.
So the top layer board is likely the 80's reno: cream pressed tile board w/ little blue flowers. Kinda country/Dutch tile look. This was painted white more recently. Under that is a snazzy beige/gold board that was both on the walls and the ceilings (see second picture). A disco light and some LSD and this bathroom would have been trippin' back in the day. Under that is the original plaster with some interesting colors (lavender bathroom (ceiling, walls AND trim), anyone?) - made more vibrant by the pretty gross mold. It isn't currently damp, but I called over the mold guy to check into it anyway.

Pictures:
One: "As is" when I moved in
Two: From the same vantage point, mid demo
Three: snazzy ceiling
Four: privacy wall from the tub/toilet side.

Things I've learned so far in this house:

• Fiberglass is the "no-seeum" bug of the remodeling world. You can't see it, but it hurts like a bitch.
• You can destroy just about anything with a crowbar and hammer.