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Just waiting on the cabinets, progress photos

12 years ago

We finally have our cabinet install date (in two weeks!) so we're just waiting out for the final phase of the house remodel.

We're making the small house (less that 1100 sq foot not counting the large back room added previously and reached via a utility hallway) more usable for a cooking focused lifestyle and accessible to family and friends who use cans/walkers/wheelchairs and have limited hand dexterity (and, more recently, to make the rooms more open to one another so those who are hard of hearing and starting to use ASL can see to communicate without being blocked by walls dividing too-small common rooms!). Also, this house never had a dining room -- only an eat-in kitchen that could seat very few people and we eat with groups frequently.

We spent most of the budget on infrastructure (replumbing and rewiring the whole house (woohoo 3 prongs everywhere now and properly grounded outside too!), completely replacing the ventilation system, furnace and AC, adding a water softener, removing layers of floors down the original hardwood and then patching in that hardware to adjoining rooms that never had it, widening doorways and installing lever door handles, insulating the exterior walls and upgrading to better windows, redesigning the tiny bathrooms so as to allow more clearance for toilets. Gosh, I'm tired just writing all that. It's seems like it's taken so long, but we had a lot done since starting in August!

Here's some update photos. One of the adjoining mini-family room fireplace we took out (taking this out and taking out the water heater from the center of the house and moving to tankless makes a big difference in a tiny house. The doorway was also widened.

And here's one of the partially torn out old kitchen (which I thought looked just fine -- oak cabs and prefab granite and all -- it just wasn't as functional as we really needed) and the new bare room ready for cabs.

We lost a lot of window area, but since the front window looked out to the sidewalk, it was often covered. Opening up the rooms gives line of sight to 3 windows, plus, if the folding door that opens up the space further to the music room is open, 2 more windows add light. Plus 2 sun tunnels and much improved electrical lighting.

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Comments (3)

remodelfla
12 years ago
It's nice to see that you are almost there with the layout that works best for your lifestyle. I'm sure all in your family will benefit from the changes. I really look forward to seeing this all come together!
dianalo
12 years ago
As much as people love fireplaces, they can be a pain when trying to lay out furniture and if they project far out, like yours did, they take away real space in smaller rooms. I can't wait to see what is coming for you and really like your green walls. We almost did that color on our back wall full of windows, but chickened out because we'd have dark walls adjacent to it on one side and were afraid to darken things too much. I sometimes wonder if I should try the darker color anyway, but am just too tired now, lol.
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Hi Katieob I'm so looking forward to new pictures. Hope it is going well for you. I've always liked whatever you have done in both houses. You have good taste and that is all there is to it!
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Just an FYI... snapfish requires a person to register and login before someone can see the pictures. Photobucket and Webshots let you display a picture directly within a post and give you the code for doing that.
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Susan, the right wall, at the foot of the tub, has a built-in niche the depth of the wall studs. Of course, the builder just eyeballed it, or centered it without taking in the depth of the back wall, and I wasn't thinking, so it's "almost" centered, and is 11" x 27". Had I had my wits about me, it would have been perfectly centered and about 16x24. Still, once it's finished I doubt anyone will notice its minor flaws. It will have a shelf to hold the shampoos, liquid soap, etc. All the bathroom fixtures are from the "Bancroft" line by Kohler. The toilet, sink, and shower handles are all white porcelain. Here's the sink faucet. Harry's been hard at work these past few months. The new tub location is behind Harry and to the left.
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While it might not be as easy as using the 4" tiles, my thoughts would be to add some bling! Even a short bit of pretty tile might give the place some zing and with the shorter backsplash you might be able to find some odd lots or a deal on eBay or something. I recently found some glass tiles at a granite place that were 50% off. They were sitting on the floor in a box rather pathetically looking and I offered the owner even 20% off that price--he took it!
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zartemis
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks remodelfla: we're already reaping the benefits of small changes in usability -- we cut down the threshold on the back door so it's barely above the floor -- much easier to roll things in and out of the house. The washer and dryer are on platform now -- so much nicer to use. And once you try to go through a door with your hands full you really understand why lever handles are ADA approved.

The thing we love the most so far is the Toto Washlet (we got the S400 at half price (the one with the auto flush and auto open/close). Wow is that sweet. The male in the household wasn't convinced it was worth it and is now a convert. I even saw him leave the non-washlet bathroom once and finish up in the washlet bathroom when it became free. If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is.

Dianalo: We're not completely sure the dark color will be a perfect match for all the different surfaces (it's BM affinity dragonfly), but it's just paint. Almost all of it will be covered up with cabinetry and hood and we have excellent overhead lighting plus we'll have undercabinet lights so lighting should be great. The floor to ceiling integrated fridge cabinet goes where the transition between the dark kitchen color is and the creamy living area (that has less lighting).

We did have one weird paint issue. We used BM Deep in Thought in the living/family room and hall areas and it appears as we expected. Then we put in the bathroom and it became a strong light green at night. Same overhead lights. We'll be repainting the bath.

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