Friday, August 3, 2012

Home Relocation and Restoration - Update

Hi Everyone, sorry for the delay in responding! It's been a hectic month at Casa CollectoratorToo! We took ownership of our new house on July 3rd and today August 3rd is the official last day of contractors for awhile! My bank account is very thankful! Believe it or not we almost got our main restoration wishes done in a month! If we hadn't had the garage flooding incident (more on that in a bit) then we might just be done!  My lack of posting about our progress is due to the push to get it all done quickly and still show up to work every day (almost every day). =)

I probably invested a little more than I should have in the kitchen restoration but given the amount of time I spend in there, it seemed the most logical place to spend money.  I'll highlight it in posts to come but the short list is as follows:
  • custom cabinet doors made so there would actually be doors going forward (as I am not the neatest person in my cabinetry due to over-collectorating this is important),
  • a new boomerang Formica counter top (totally not necessary as a laminate counter top was present in the house. I think, though,  I waited long enough to have a counter I really like instead of settling for apartment beige),
  • a new VCT floor to return the kitchen back to where it belonged in time instead of the dark modern  bachelor cave  it was when we moved in (it was stained black concrete now it's streaky grey and white VCT!),  
  • a new fridge that fits in the space (arrives next Wednesday!), and
  • paint (still working on that actually)
The library room is on it's way to being done as well. All the painting is complete, but I am still waiting the furniture to arrive and of course I need unpack and organize all of the books. We had a mantel built for it too which I will share more about in a later post.

The bedrooms all got a coat of paint and new closet insides. I am going to have to wait on adding closet doors (no there were not any when we moved in) as I am not really happy with any of my options at Home Depot/Lowes. I have to go shopping at the restore places to see if I can find something unique and "right" for each room before I'll cave to the "cheaper" options available. My husband built the closet insides which are basic, but it allows for maximum use of the space for clothes and shoes all of which my husband says I have too much of... pshaw...

The bathrooms received some repairs and more cabinetry door work done (again to add back in doors) but the aesthetics in there will come with time. Right now I am just enjoying their blue and pink goodness.

The family room or "big room" as we are calling it turned out to have the color I like the most of all the colors I chose, although it took three of us and two ladders to get it done! Right now it's functioning as the box/stuff staging area since the garage flood. Someday though it will function as the entertainment room flush with a pool table (to appease my  husband for all the work he's done on the remodel and heck yeah there is room for one), a bar, and the typical media center area including our record player. The ridiculous thing is that I think someday I'll have to get a bigger couch and tv since that room dwarfs everything. Right now it looks full but that's because of the mammoth wall of boxes and stuff that is in there now.

Lastly the other fairly large chunk of money we spent was on beginning to fix the garage and work on the drainage problem. Half way through the month of July we had a monsoon of a rainstorm which is not expected in the middle of July in Texas! Unfortunately, we had just moved the boxes into the garage for staging the day before. Because we still weren't living there, it took us a day to realize that oh hey the garage doesn't just leak it floods... I didn't take any pictures of the aftermath because I really do not want to remember this much longer but of course the boxes on the bottom of the stacks were not pottery and plastic... oh no, it was books (yes some vintage too) and my wicker under the bed box full of all of my pictures. Devastating. The good news is that the pictures, through a five day drying and crying out process, all seem to be more or less saved. I won't say they are in perfect condition still but you can still enjoy them. (I add the caveat of hopefully, they are all stacked back up in the wicker box which also survived and I haven't checked  on them in a couple of weeks...so keep your fingers crossed). The books on the other hand are toast as I prioritized the pictures over the books. I'll have to make a list of the books and slowly rebuy them over time. At least for the most part I can do that.  The one thing that would not have been replaceable, my grandmother's handwritten cookbook, miraculously was fine... still not sure how, but I am counting those small victories as positive. So my husband has spent countless hours ever since tearing apart the back of the garage and rebuilding it like a fort becuase he was originally going to turn the room into his man cave which needs to not have waterfront property on the inside. Now we just have to wait for it to rain again and see what happens... We knew there was a "drainage problem" when we moved in, we just didn't know a river literally runs through it... I still have to work on the actual drainage problem but that involves more contractors and given it's August I think we can wait a little bit on that.

Regardless, we've recovered from the flood and we're forging ahead. More updates and details will be coming soon, but I'll leave you with this picture, which has nothing to do with the house.  The day we did the big move into the new house it happened to be our third year anniversary. In the middle of all what we had going on, my so very thoughtful husband, bought me this leather bag for the "leather" anniversary. It's a vintage bowling bag, but he thought I could use it as a traveling bag or to hold all my knitting and what not ....A collective awwww now is in order... Me on the other hand had to make up a connection of how my gift fit into the "leather" anniversary. I got him some really awesome cuff links (no connection but they were very him) and  a cool vintage  burnt orange dress shirt for UT game days. I used a Longhorn as my connection of the shirt to leather... LAME....queue up the Price is Right you didn't win sounds right about now... he loved it, but still comparatively I lose! The bag though is fab and it happens to have my initials on the back (well my maiden name initials but still how amazing is that?  



6 comments:

  1. Aw, that bag IS adorable! And I can't wait for pics to go along with your narrative! Boo for the flood and yes, I too have experienced all my books getting wet...luckily it was almost 30 years ago and I've recovered...fully! Hope it doesn't take as long for you!

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    1. Thanks and thank you for the optimism that one can fully recover from something like that! I keep telling myself that it will be fun to shop for the books again!

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  2. How exciting and busy you sound! I cannot wait to see pictures! OH and believe you me I share your feelings and know what water/flooding is like. About a year after I bought the Casablanca we had a rain to end all rains here in North Texas. For 2 solid weeks it poured rivers rose, flooded, the orphans were homeles- (Never mind the Orphans) Any who I went out to the casablanca and the front door looked like a water fountain. The rains had come down the hill in my back yard, through the back door across the bedroom, through the kitchen and right it the lounge and front door.Oh what a mess! That anniversary bag your husband game you is sweet! Here's to things looking up!

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    1. oh how tragic! I am sorry to hear that about your house! I hope you were able to recover everything. I feel lucky it wasn't any worse than it was and we found out about it before we finished out the garage.

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  3. I can't wait to see pictures of the house. You've accomplished so much is such a short time!

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    1. Whew, I am exhausted to say the least. We finished the kitchen/dining room floor yesterday and finally moved the furniture in last night so we are getting closer! Pictures coming soon!

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