Alright, JUST WHERE ARE WE in the construction/renovation process on our 100 year old farmhouse?! We’ve been “under construction” for about a month now. The project kicked off officially with some DIY Demo with friends and family on May 22nd.
To save some money, we decided to demo this old addition ourselves; this is where our laundry room and downstair bathroom were housed; but with the new floor plan, it needed to go BYE BYE! It was an all-day project, required a LOT of bodies, several trips to the Dump, borrowing trailers, tractors AND tools - but it happened! Honestly, we have just the most amazing friends, family and neighbors. Thankfully at this point in the renovation I wasn’t very pregnant (18 weeks), so I felt comfortable getting down and dirty still and helping as much as I could! On June 1st, work REALLY began! I will never forget how chilling it was watching these HUGE front loaders and trucks just roll up into our backyard bright and early. I watched from the window as they TORE APART the yard (hah, just part of the process), demolished the old cement foundation and then started digging the NEW foundation for our new basement.
The doorway that used to open into our laundry room from our kitchen, just opened into a GIANT HOLE. It was a weird few weeks, lemme tell ya. Excavation took about a week, the cement took about a week, and the block took about a week. Once the basement was blocked out and the new foundation was poured, the framing could begin.
The week of June 21st, is when all the bones of the new addition started to go up. All of the exterior walls went up in about a week. The roof and the interior walls went up the last week of June.
Here we are now, into the first week of July, and exactly 38 days into the project. The electrician came in last week and did a walk through with us to map out where we want lights, switches, special outlets, etc. He’s at the house this week roughing everything in. The plumber is also roughing everything in this week, in fact I’ve been on the phone with our contractor about 100 times this morning, hashing out exactly what we want in the Master walk-in shower. We are doing all of the finish work (to save money) so it’s important to make sure we have all the rough-in’s just where we want them and with the correct valves, etc.
This is the week of ALL THE THINGS HAPPENING!
The electrician is there doing all the rough-in. The plumber is there doing all the rough-in. The contractor and his team are there gutting the existing interior, putting up the new walls, and ripping out all the old staircases - all 3 of them! We have 3 new staircases going in, tons of new windows, new floorpan upstairs - it's a ton.
It’s a good week to be away, at the beach, because we don’t have access to a bathroom while the new stairs are being built. Well, we do it but it’s up a ladder! I don't know if going up a ladder 23 weeks pregnant to pee or shower is right for me. :P If you've been following me on my Instagram, you know I've been in the process of packing the ENTIRE house and moving us OUT so that all of this interior remodeling could happen. I had to do it little by little being pregnant, so I'm happy I started almost TWO MONTHS AGO. But this weekend was our LAST weekend in the house, we are now officially moved out, and we can't move back in until end of August/beginning of September. At which point, the entire house will have changed SO MUCH!
Our mattress on the floor for our last night in the house before moving into the camper.
My closet room; empty! Ready for demo! It's camper living now, baby! HAH. We still have access to the two rooms that aren’t being remodeled - the upstairs hall bathroom, and the downstairs living room. So during the evening when there’s no work going on, we can lounge in the living room, and get out of the camper. And when we need to use the bathroom or shower, we can pop in and use the upstairs bathroom.
I mentioned living in a camper - we have a small camper (I mean small!) we are borrowing from my husband’s aunt and uncle, it’s been a life saver. I don’t know what we’d be doing without it - trying to live in the living room?! But we don’t have a way to hook it up to our septic system, so we are trying not to use the bathroom at all in the camper, otherwise my husband will have to hook it up to the pickup and take it - wherever you take them - to empty the tanks. :( He really doesn’t want to have to do that, so I am going to try my best to not use the bathroom in there. BUT, being pregnant ... Ya'll. I might just be peeing in the woods. This is my life now, some real Life on the Prarie.
Over the next few weeks, the framing will be finished, the roof shingles should be finished, and the drywall starts going in! The drywall is one of the LONGEST parts of this project. It’s pretty much going to take him an entire month. :( While that's happening inside, the contractor will be working outside to build out the new front porch, install windows, build a new back deck and the master balcony, and we are re-siding the house.
So that’s pretty much it - where we are about 1 month into our 3 month project! I'm currently 23 weeks pregnant - and we have 2 more months to go! :)
Escaping to the beach this week is exactly what I needed after months of packing! I think it's amazing that this was the week that also happened to coincide with the new stairs being built, because I don't know what I would have done without access to a bathroom.
This little AirBnB has been a nice escape. I don't know if I'll be getting another one before Baby Girl arrives, to be honest!
I'm due October 31st, so we're hoping we can be all moved in and comfortable for the arrival of baby girl. Fingers crossed. <3 We are on schedule right now, but things ALWAYS happen during construction!
Until my next update!
xo,
Courtney
Follow me on Instagram where I share all the daily details of pregnancy and living through a home renovation! @courtneydonmoyer <3
Comments