Black Friday

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for all of you and your continued support of this little adventure Rory and I are on. But today is black Friday, a day that Mom and I religiously celebrate with gusto from 6p to about 6a or whenever I poop out- my Mom can shop circles around me and always outlasts me. But this year Black Friday means something different to me. Today is the day our beloved Floor guy, Marcos, is moving.

We are so happy for him because his move will reunite him with his family, but are sooooo sad for us. Marcos has been with us from the very beginning and is a founding member of the dream team. Let me tell ya, it is sooo hard to find people in this business on whom you can completely trust and depend- so when you do, you hold on to them tight and treasure them. Marcos is one such treasure. Not only did he do a fantastic job with all types of flooring and tile jobs, his prices were fair, and he stood by his promised timeline- that is gold in this business folks. And I gotta admit, I'm not the easiest person to work with- I'm PICKY and particular, but Marcos always made sure I was 100% satisfied before he left a job. And if that wasn't enough to make him awesome, as a parting gift to me he even taught me how to tile a backsplash.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of that tile wall, but it did NOT make me want to quit my day job. Looks like I'll be on the hunt for a new floor/tile guy. I almost feel sorry for the next guy.... Marcos will be a hard act to follow.

Marcos, best wishes Buddy! You will be greatly missed. Hug your sweet wife and kids for me and enjoy your new life on the orchard.

- Niki and Rory

Bruce Style

We are really really close to wrapping up our Bruce St project. So close, in fact, that I think it's time to give you a little clue into the design story of the house.  You ready?!?! HE (normally my projects are shes but this one is a definite he) has industrial bones with a Bohemian personality. How fun is that! Yep, I totally want to be friends with the protagonist of this story, he's just the coolest. I can't wait to introduce you to him in just a few days.

The industrial side of this home will first be evident from the curb and is subtly carried throughout the inside. We love industrial, in fact, it is Rory's favorite style but I gotta tell ya it is the Bohemian side of this home that has captured my heart. I mean, you just try not to be in a good mood when you see it. Even if you don't like it, I still think it will make you smile. 

You know what makes me smile? My WWYWWW (Work With Yo Wittle Woman Wednesday) project with my Dad- gosh I love that he is always willing to come to town to help me.  Bruce's Father/Daughter project brought the first Bohemian touches to the project and it came, once again, in the form of a feature wall. Here's the before:

And here's Dad hard at work, and me hardly working taking his picture.

This was what the wall looked like when Dad left:

All together it took us about 16-17 hours over a two day period.  Take a second to think about that... how much would that have cost if I had to pay someone to do it???? I'm not sure, but I'm quite confident it would be outside our budget. Consider that wall our gift to the new homeowner. Anyways... most of me loved the finished product, but I could not get a peace about the diamonds- they haunted me, I literally had a nightmare about them. So the next day, after dad went home, I removed the diamonds and Rory helped me renovate the design. 

 I kinda dig the wood on white look BUT that is not its final destiny. Can't wait to show you.

Bruce Demolation

Demo at Bruce Street was relatively easy. In fact, we had most of the demo wrapped up before we finished the Caldwell project. Some areas required very little demolition but the kitchen and bathroom received complete gut jobs.

This house is on a slab which in some regards is refreshing BUT it did make running new plumbing lines a bit more challenging.  Because I wanted to relocate the kitchen sink we had to jackhammer the concrete foundation to connect the new line to the old sewer line.

We also brought plumbing to the old bowling alley to give this house a proper master suite, thus taking this 1 bathroom home to a 2 full bath house.

After the demo was complete we brought in the framers to

1) attach the existing carport laundry area to the house to create a laundry/mud/office space.

2.) Framed in the old kitchen window and gave the window above the existing bathtub a new home in the office nook.

3) Ran some beams to open up the kitchen to the Living/Dining room.

Here's a side-by-side before and after view of the space so you can get better perspective:

4) Framed in the new master bathroom and closet.

Kickin myself right now for forgetting to take pictures of the framed in new master bathroom.

After framing was complete our electrician and plumber went to work followed by drywall. And then the real fun began.....

Meet Bruce

Gosh, it's been awhile. Sorry about that. Since we are all friends here, I feel I should let you in on a secret that will help explain my often long gaps of time between posts. Here it is..... renovating homes is tough. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it and feel so blessed to get to do it, but man oh man some days I just want to throw in the towel or at least hide under the covers for a bit.

You know that costly renovation surprise that happens in EVERY episode of EVERY show on HGTV- that's no exaggeration folks. Every day presents unforeseen challenges EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (Can I get an AMEN from anyone who has ever lived through a home renovation.) Anyways... there comes a point in every project where the challenges pile up quicker than I can find solutions and I go into a deep dark funk. During those times I just can't bring myself to write. Partly because I can't write happy things when I'm feeling so down and I want this blog to be happy (cuz the one story that no one wants to read is a sob story- am I right?!?!) And partly because many times my project blues are due to a subcontractor or company; and while I might really, REALLY, want to get on here and BLAST them and tell you to NEVER EVER do business with this person/company I try to write by the ol' adage "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all"- thus I stay off the blog. But the main reason I don't write during, or about, the yucky side of this business is that nearly every day I have someone tell me they would love to do what I am doing, so I just think it would be insensitive of me to use this blog space to complain about something that I am daily reminded how fortunate I am to get to do. So for these reasons the blog gets neglected.

Luckily, it is during my dark days that Rory shines. After so many days of listening to me cry he always steps in and slays the construction dragons and rescues me from my pit to get our project back on track- thus freeing me to write again. And now you know. 

But enough about that! The good news is thanks to my extra long writing hiatus you won't have to wait too long between this post, where I introduce our next project in it's "before" state, to the final reveal and it's accompanying story!!! I'm talking less than 4 weeks away people! Oh my! That barely gives you any time to get to know this house.... I better jump right in with the introductions.

Meet 1406 Bruce.

Pre-reno Stats: 

1400ish sq feet

3 bed

1 bath

As you can see, she's somewhat of a Plain Jane. Not too bad.... just not too good either. Just a nice, old, respectable, ordinary house.  This theme continues on the inside:

Living Room

View from the other side of the room:

Kitchen:

Well the orange was special.

Here is the 1 bathroom:

And the 3 bedrooms:

The 3rd bedroom was kinda like a bowling alley. Very long.

Hall

And last, back out the kitchen door to the carport and laundry room.

The property also has a little shed in the backyard. Don't get too excited, not much is going to happen out there.... but still nice to have.  

So there you have it. 

I gotta tell ya, because she was so void of character I had a hard time landing on a story. In fact, I went thru 3 different stories before landing on the final story that is dictating the design. In the end, it was the latch steel windows and the iron columns that set the final story in motion.

You scared?!?!?!