Guest Post - Matt Windholtz

Hello,

Our gracious blogger, Katie, has allowed a guest post.  I thought it might be interesting to show some of the layout and see what people think.

To start out, here is a picture of the kitchen as Katie and I have come to hate :).

You can't tell in the above picture, but the side of the island (is that really just a peninsula?) has carpet that runs up the side.  The soffit will be yanked out.  Cabinets will eventually goto the ceiling.

Below gives a better perspective.  Nothing like having to vacuum the walls lol...

Another picture showing the inside of the kitchen a little bit more:

Of course here is the highlight of the kitchen.  A zodiac cutting board...

 So now that you have an idea of what we currently have...here is the new and improved hotness...

One of the nice things about the new arrangement will be the traffic pattern.  The entrance to the kitchen is located next to the fridge with another entrance to the right of the sink and a third doorway to the left of the wall oven.  Instead of congregating in the peninsula, we can now loiter around the island.  Additionally, it is the thought to put a love seat below the island which would be at the bottom of the screen where the picture is being perceived from.

So in the above, this is where the stove will be with the island removed for the purpose of the picture.  One of the major things that Katie and I wanted to do was open up the kitchen and first floor in general.  So here we have a pass thru that ties in the "red room" to the rest of the house.  Once everything is complete you will be able to stand in the red room and see through the kitchen, through the newly enlarged hallway and into the tv room.

The below picture shows us currently standing at the sink.  The remodel will demo the black "X" portion of the wall and will make the opening as wide as the black X along with the current doorway.  Going further in the hall, the red X is the wall in the hallway.  The opening will be shifted so that we will be able to see into the TV room from the kitchen.

Moving into the hallway, we are getting rid of the closet (hence the red scribbles).  The doorway is being enlarged to the back of the closet.  This enlargement of the doorway allows us to see all the way through the house.  Oh yeah, take note of the awesome tile in the hallway!  See-ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old door:

New hotness!!!!!!!  At least that is what I like...we are still trying to track down all of the details on this one...

Moving into the TV room.  Good-bye awful wood panelling.

Good-bye bookshelves...

We are getting rid of the rustic beams along the ceiling

The mantle will be redone, somehow, someway, but we have no clue yet...

So what did I leave off?  1000sqft of hardwood floors and that means no carpet on the first floor.  All new appliances in the kitchen.  I did not include pictures of the laundry room which will be more or less gutted also.  The bathroom will also be modified.  New overhead lighting through-out the entire house.  Lastly, and most importantly, new white baseboards, trim and door casings throughout the first floor.  I can't wait for that part.

I think that about covers it.  I hand you back over to Katie's emotional rants about this process.

Cheers,
Matt

Way too much going on.....

Remodel supposed to begin next week and so much to do, I cannot sleep at night.  I lay awake thinking about the amount of things that still need to be done before we can start the remodel and am unable to get back to sleep.  Everything has gotten so crazy, so many decisions needing to be made, it is all very overwhelming.  I hope once the project starts it is much smoother with everyone else just doing the work for us and stopping bothering me about the 100 million details that go into ever small square inch of the remodel.  Progress towards starting is however being made.  This past weekend was spent cleaning out the basement and pantry, and the reloading both.  All of the kitchen cabinets, drawers, bookshelves, mantle, and walls have been emptied.  Other than toys, tvs and furniture which need to stay as long as we can, the first floor is pretty much empty.  For some unknown reason I do not understand, boxing up everything made me feel sad.  Again, I have no idea why this was.  Maybe finding the unopened wedding presents we have never used and forgotten about over 5 years later discovered in the pantry, tons of pictures and holiday cards I refuse to throw away because they have pictures of people important to me I kept stored in drawers that brought back memories, (including some of my independent 2 year old that seems so far from a baby  but I was reminded she really used to be one), or just the end to a large chapter of my life.  Though the house was never what we loved, I spent endless hours sanding and painting the cabinets, putting on new hardware, making it our house.  The carpeted island, zodiac cutting board built into the island, green odd shaped not available any more tile in the hallway and sub flooring showing in the doorway Matt installed, gave our house character.  As odd as it sounds they were all just quirky features that made the house uniquely ours.  The new house will be uniquely ours as well as we have made every tiny detail decision from the can lighting to cabinet pulls to placing new light switches.  I never knew so many decisions and details would have to be attended to or I might have rethought many years ago before ever buying such a project....

As for my last post, Shawn came through wonderfully in regards to the lighting.  He said us up with Fred at Northern Lighting in Westerville who came to our house, helped us decide on what kind of lighting, how much lighting, and where it should be placed.  He provided us with catalogs and detailed drawings for the electrician.  Last night we visited their showroom and the process of picking out the lighting became much easier, and UNDER budget.  That I must say was a first along this journey - but hopefully not a last.  From there we let Maddy burn some steam at McDonalds playground on 270 and Sawmill Road which is awesome for anyone with kids.  It will definitely be a great place for the winter when she needs to run and climb.  From there we proceeded to Lowes and narrowed it down to two exterior door choices and again, both were UNDER budget.  I came home with so much adrenaline I finished packing the kitchen and living room.  I went to bed feeling accomplished and managed to sleep pretty well through the night.

We have had other snags the last week or so which we are trying to work out.  Our contractor for some reason went MIA on us and we were unable to get a hold of him.  With less than a week before he is supposed to start and questions we need answered - this was extremely stressful.  He finally called today, though got Matts voice mail and now have been unable to reach him again.  I am pretty sure we are pushing the start date back a week....  Shawn is coming tomorrow with an electrician to work out the exact details of upgrading the electricity and where we are putting lights, switches, new outlets, etc.  I am sure that is going to be super fun!!  It will be nice to get done though because we need to make sure he is available when out contractor needs him so we do not have our house torn apart and sitting for weeks with no work being done between contractors.  I know there will be glitches and snags in the future, but as few as possible and completing this process once it begins in a timely fashion is my main concern.  In a house that is already crazy filled with a 2 year old, 2 wild dogs and a cat sure to get into as much as possible as that is her main goal in life, exposed studs and wiring is not really something I look forward to.

In final stress of the week, our cabinet final proposal came back about 30% higher from where we began.  We knew we had made some changes but didn't really expect that jump.  We are exploring out options there and hopefully it will all get worked out.

BREAKING NEWS: Just got confirmation, construction has been halted until further notice.  Relieves some stress, yet now with unknowns, not to mention all of the loss of sleep and hard work put in clearing all our belongings out of the first floor, kind of disappointing.  Just some lose ends that need tied up before we move on.  Hope to get those done quickly and set a new start date soon.....  Should make for interesting times living out of the pantry with most of our stuff already packed and put away.  Wonder if this project will be complete by the time I turn 31??? (December 2)

And Along Came Shawn....

In the search to wrap up the loose ends of our remodel, a friend of a friend was referred to me by the name of Shawn.  He owns a complete construction company that can take care of anything and everything from building from the ground up to anything in between.  Shawn arrived at the house with a binder full of photos from his project, a nice color brochure about his business and credentials, and a list of more than 30 prior customers, their addresses, the scope of the work he did from them and their phone numbers.  Each one had agreed to be a reference for his work.  Very impressive.  He was very warm and easy to talk to and understanding.  I think he saw the beat down dogs Matt and I have become when trying to get everything finalized so the project can get underway.  A big problem has not only been finding an electrician, but also someone to help us with a lighting design.  Many electricians will just install what you tell them to where you tell them to do it.  In a kitchen with a dropped ceiling with florescent lights and a single sad chandelier, figuring out cans, pendants, direct or indirect lighting and exactly where, as well as can placement in the brick room, living room and newly expanded hallway, can be a daunting task.  Shawn was very upfront that he does not do that on a regular basis, however he knew someone that would come out at no cost and plan that for us.  On top of that, he said he once the design was made, he would place the order for us as he gets a discount on the materials since he works with the company regularly.  The also horrible nightmare inducing front door was no match for Shawn.  With other contractors complaining about the size, age, brick surrounding the door, drawing up the prices to match the price of a door for installation, he stated a flat charge for all front door installation.  We allowed him to investigate the door, and the price still did not change.  The price, by the way, a small fraction of others we have had out, and we have had out several people at this point.  Furthermore, we have found pictures of doors we want but no one has helped us figure out the best place to buy it or best way to go about buying it.  We were told by everyone else, you buy and bring the door home, and then we will take Madelyn (our first born) as payment for installing it.  Shawn was fantastic.  He stated he gets discounts at certain stores, took the picture of we want and said he will find us what we want at a great price, not to mention then install it at almost $1000 less than our contractor we hired quoted us.  He almost seemed like a savior at this point.  Coming in with knowledge and answers and a willingness to help where no one else has.  I think I might have slept a little more peacefully last night feeling like finally progress might be being made.  We do not have all of the numbers or anything from him yet, however I got a good feeling from him.  Yes, I realize this post could come back to haunt me and bite my in the arse but for today I am feeling good, hoping Shawn will make the rest of this journey a smoother one.  After we deal with him more and see how these great promises pan out, I will post his company information because if he delivers as he promises, I would be more than happy to tell everyone I know to use his services.

So much to do, so little time....

To make a long story short, the latest contractor we brought in was significantly higher than the one we were going to go with but then wanted to make sure wasn't too high.  The installation of the front door is still way off, so we just told him we would find someone on our own for that.  We signed the contracts and he set a start date of September 7th.  Should be exciting as this is 6 years in the making, however there is so much to do!  We are going on vacation the week he set as the start date which I thought would be perfect.  He said the first week is going to be awful.  Dusty, dirty, exposed walls and ceilings, just not a place anyone will want to live.  So I thought it would be perfect to let him do this while we were gone and be super excited to come home and see so much progress.  However, there are still so many things to be done before he can start - and Matt just left for DC for work for 2 weeks!!!  Being a single parent working full time with a 2 year old, it is not going to be easy to get everything done and ready before the start date.

We still need to purchase our cooktop and microwave/oven built in combo.  I think we found them, but they have to be purchased.  Madelyn was not very cooperative with Matt and I both when we went shopping for appliances, running twice out of the store quickly when we were looking at something. So the thought of trying to finish that myself is daunting.  Furthermore, we are still in search of an electrician.  This has been a process. Many have come or been called and it just seems to be the task that will never work out.  The contractor said he is going to do demolition for a week then leave for a week while the electrician comes in since the walls will be exposed and ceilings will need to be accessible - then the contractor will come back and do all of the finishing work.  So now we have a 1 week window we need to find someone to fit into and complete all we need done..... this has been the head ache of the project and we cannot really allow the contractor to start until we get this in place.

We also need to actually place the cabinet order and get those started.  I am pretty sure we have all of the details now figured out on the cabinets, however every time we go there, there seems to be new decisions to be made.  Furthermore, we need to order a new front door.  We have pretty much figured out what we like, it is just a matter of finding it at a good price and ordering it.  Our problem all along this project is it seems like we always pick the most expensive products!  Not on purpose, but give us several options and it seems like the one we choose always is the most expensive.  Matts taste in front doors seem to be more on a caviar budget instead of our true canned tuna budget for a front door!!  Hopefully we find something we both like that does not cost more than the appliances!!

The final largest task of all is emptying the entire first floor.  This task in no way is something I look forward to.  There is so many toys, books, furniture, dishes, etc. it is unreal.  We basically have to move out of our entire first floor for a couple months  even though we will still be attempting to live there.  Perhaps this will be the perfect time to start living a more minimal lifestyle and donate things we have not used in awhile!!  I am sure once we move back in the though the collecting of stuff we don't need will just start again.....

So with the excitement of actually seeing progress being made, there is the never ending, always growing list of tasks that first need completed.  Hopefully Maddy will decide to be a really good helper and sleeper these next two weeks so some things get accomplished!!