The Never-Ending Story of Our Renovation

So we're officially in week 7 of remodeling, which was sort of our deadline, and we sort of met it. I say "sort of" because while we are technically going to move into our house this coming Saturday, it's not entirely functional. But let's look at the bright side, shall we? At least we have a place to live!

This week and last has been focused mostly on the kitchen. We had to get the cabinets installed and pour the concrete countertops. We chose concrete for a couple reasons - we love the look, and it was waaay cheaper than going with quartz or granite. For comparison, the "absolute black" granite that we would have chosen would have been $2K just for the granite, then add in the cutting, polishing, and installation, and it would be just ridiculous. And there's very little we could do to reduce the cost and DIY. The concrete, on the other hand, was about $500.00 for the molds, countertop kit, and concrete, and then it's just a bunch of labor and a giant learning curve.

Installation of the cabinets

The cabinets with Durarock and countertop molds screwed in.

We used the counter kit from Z Counterform. Their videos make it look easy. Warning: it is not. It is also extremely messy! Monkeys throwing wet concrete around would have been only slightly worse. I just walked out of the room while Mike was dealing with it. I couldn't watch.

You have to put wire inside the concrete to give it something to adhere to.

Mike screeding the concrete....right onto the floor.

Screeding is when you level the concrete by drawing something across it, and it has to go somewhere. In our case, it went right off the counter onto the kitchen floor, which thankfully wasn't installed yet. So it landed on the plywood subfloor...still very upsetting for me! But concrete doesn't stick to flat surfaces, so Mike was able to clean it all up in a matter of minutes, and we are no worse for wear. It was a great exercise in just letting things go and believing it will all work out in the end! Seriously, who needs couple's therapy? Just remodel a house.

breaking off the molds to reveal Mike's handiwork!

at this stage, the counters need to cure for a few weeks.

The concrete goes in super dark, but dries a beautiful light gray color. It's modern, industrial, and fits our aesthetics perfectly.

close up of the edge. We may leave the pits, I think they add character!

Yep, we did an undermount sink on a poured concrete counter.

The counters will be curing for about 30 days (whoops! we sure didn't do that on the right timeline) before we can have them polished and then seal them, but they're hard and not susceptible to dents or dings, so we can move in and not worry too much about it. 

Next things to do - paint and put in the floors. 

painting with the new neutral - gray.

painting walls with vaulted ceilings is a lot of work!

I wanted light floors and Mike wanted dark. Since we wanted to go cheap (no one in the neighborhood has hardwood, so it didn't make sense to go all out), we went with a nice dark laminate that mimics hand hewn wood. Laminates have come a pretty long way since the first days of Pergo! As Mike and Tyler (our new BFF contractor friend) did the floor installation, I couldn't imagine how much dust hardwood floors would be to install, if laminate kicked up this much dust.

installing the floors in the living room.

Mike cut and installed all the underlay on the floors.

Kitchen floors installed. Please excuse our dust.

One major cost cutting factor in our remodel is the electric - my part time job is for an electrician, so we are getting parts at cost, and a big discount on labor. We installed six super nice, adjustable recessed LED lights in our living room. 

four of the six lights installed.

Finally, a glimpse at our almost completed bathroom! The tile is all in, the vanity is half installed, and I've got a first coat of paint on the walls. We may be living without the glass wall or door for a little while, as we're off to Chicago and LA next week, and we're strapped for time. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I can't wait to stop traveling and just stay home for a few months!

two views of the new bathroom

a peek into the shower from the vanity area

We move in this weekend and while we're living there, we'll still be finishing up all sorts of projects - installing the mirrors, pendant lights, and rest of the vanity for the master bath, all the trim, new doors (or possibly painting the old ones), kitchen backsplash, hood, shelving, closet organizational system, full remodel of the guest bathroom, and oh yeah - a secret reading area hidden by a swinging bookcase. And did I mention I bought a bunch of heirloom seeds for our not-yet-created garden and raised beds? It's going to be a busy spring!

Iceland

While parts of the US have been getting pummeled with winter storms, we spent the week in.... Iceland! Our weather there was actually nicer than the east coast.

Iceland is very stark and beautiful, and the culture is fascinating. They were discovered by the Vikings, colonized by the Norwegians and the Danish, used as a strategic military outpost by the British and the Americans, and finally, given their true independence. The US Navy base closed recently, in 2006, and was turned into what is now their international airport and a university. 

outside the town of Fludir

We did our best to eat local Icelandic food for every single meal. They eat a variety of things that come from the sea, like whale, shellfish (especially langoustine), various local fish such as trout, arctic char, salmon, spotted catfish, and ling cod, and meat, in the form of sea birds (puffin, cormorant, goose, duck), lamb and horse. 

Arctic Char, a local fish. Similar to salmon, but lighter and creamier!

smoked salmon and hardboiled egg on a croissant - ate salmon every day!

minke whale. it tastes just like tender, delicious beef.

The Icelandic horse is one of the cutest horses I've ever seen. They're super friendly, fuzzy,  and come in so many different colors. Once an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland, it can never come back. They are one of the purest breeds in the world. 

Icelandic horses

Mike and I had one day to ourselves where we drove around the island a bit. I got to go to a wool factory and get some yarn and raw wool to bring home for felting and crocheting. 

The wool factory!

We also stopped at this beautiful natural swimming pool - Iceland's first, from 1891. It is filled from a hot spring right next to the pool, so it was extremely warm, like 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The whole place was quiet, steamy, misty, surrounded by snow, and completely surreal. We got there before it opened and had the whole place to ourselves. It is probably the most romantic thing Mike and I have ever done together. 

The Secret Lagoon

Secret Lagoon GoPro selfie!

We also got married! Our friends and family flew in and spent 5-6 days with us, touring Reykjavik, the Golden Circle, and the Blue Lagoon. It was a little stressful, but thanks to Pink Iceland, and Hannes, our wedding planner, everything ran smoothly and we had a memorable wedding. I am excited to see our Icelandic wedding certificate. We also have my wonderful cousin, Dennis Kwan, to thank for the following pictures documenting our trip!

The Harpa Concert Hall - it is gorgeous!

Me in a vintage 70s Icelandic cape, and Mike in an Icelandic wool handknit sweater.

the cold, windy ceremony. we had all the elements - earth, fire, water, and wind.

toasting!

after the ceremony, under the stars

at Gulfoss waterfall

the Blue Lagoon - like an enormous milky hot tub.

getting in-water massage treatments at the Blue Lagoon.

at Thingvellir National Park, walking between the Eurasian and North American plates.

Hallgrimskirkja church, and that's us, the tiny couple!

Since we've been together so long, we thought the wedding would be sort of anti-climactic, but it was really special. We feel like we've renewed our commitment to each other, and it was really nice to have that break in the middle of the renovation stress.

And now we are back in Bend, refreshed and busy at work on the house again. We'd like to move within the next week or so...it's a rush to the finish! Updates in the next post!

Renovation Round 3

Mike preparing to climb into our attic space.

Skim coating the walls - it never ends.

It may not look like it from the pictures, but we are almost done, I swear. OK, OK, we do still have the floors to install, kitchen cabinets, sink, countertops to pour (we're doing concrete), backsplash, paint...and don't even get me started on the yard...but the bulk of the skim coating is done.

It's been a labor of love and/or hate. To give you a price comparison on skim coating, it would have cost us at least $2500 or so, in labor alone, to skim coat all the walls and ceilings. Eek! We did a huge chunk by ourselves, but our friend Dylan is helping us with the final bits, thankfully.

Using power tools to mix compound to the right consistency!

The picture below shows the wall next to the window frame. The farthest right (closest to the wood) is what the walls looked like with one layer of joint compound on them. A little over to the left is with two coats, and the furthest to the left is with three coats and a light sanding. After that, you wipe down/vacuum the walls, primer, caulk the corners and anywhere the walls meet, and then finally, paint.

A section of wall that shows how much work we've done.

Our beautiful, smooth, flat, white walls, ready for paint colors...

Our other giant project, which we've needed professional help on, is the master bathroom. We spend tons of time hovering and asking questions from the tile guy, plumber, dry wall guys, and the general contractor, to learn as much as we can (so hopefully we can do this ourselves in the future).

The bathroom framed out.

Mike can hang dry wall, move a few electrical switches, and put in insulation, etc, but it's nice to have guidance on the other things, like framing (and things you have to be licensed for). This is also a great way to learn how much things cost, and how much actual labor goes into each step. Spoiler alert: it's a lot. Pay those guys.

The master bath with some of the insulation and drywall/tileboard up.

The tile guy, Adin, graciously let me lay the first tile!

Tiling the bathroom was super exciting, because we could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once some of the tiles were laid, we were able to envision how gorgeous our brand new bathroom would be! Adin, who owns Artisan Tile and Stone, was our super cool tile guy who was nice enough to tell us what he was doing, every step of the way, so we could do it for ourselves in the kitchen.

The shower with most of the tile in.

The shower shelf/cubby for shampoo and what not.

I picked that awesome hexagon tile above, because my current fascination is bees! I have been following @girlnextdoorhoney on Instagram, and I just love her feed. Anyways the shower cubby is my new favorite thing in the house, because it looks like a little beehive. The soap cubby and the shower floor will have the same tiles - 2" white hexagons. 

Here's a remodeling tip: the two most important rooms in which to invest your remodel money, are the bathroom and the kitchen. This hexagon tile was the most expensive thing we've used so far, at about $7/sq ft (which, if you've researched tiles, is still pretty dang cheap). Try to use your "expensive" stuff in a small visible space, so it "pops" and makes the whole room look expensive. With the bathroom floor, walls, and shower all in the gray tile, the shower floor, the cubbies and our little vertical accent strip of white hexagons will really stand out!

Aside from skim coating (which I got lots of compliments on - yay, add it to my resume), I am also very good at putting together IKEA furniture. So, I tackled this project:

IKEA furniture - gives you a sense of accomplishment once you're done!

...which will eventually be our bathroom vanity. I like to use IKEA for a few things here and there - mix it in with your regular stuff and it's an affordable way to upgrade your look.

And now, we interrupt our remodel to go on vacation! We are sooo excited to share this vacation with you, so check back next week for a sneak peek!

Can you guess where we're headed?

Bare Bones

For the last week, we've been demolishing the house for the remodel. It started off innocently, like, "let's paint the cabinets and redo the floors," and turned into a full out gut down to the frame. This is the point when someone would say that perhaps we've bit off more than we could chew. Thankfully, two good friends, Ray and Josh, flew in from LA to help us out.

Together, the four of us got SO much done! With lots of coffee and loud music, we tore that house apart.

this used to be the utility closet and master bathroom.

Me (in the coveralls on the left) and Ray tackling the nasty textured walls.

The dining area and living room area, in the middle of demolition.

After removing the first layer of kitchen linoleum, we found another layer of linoleum, and under that...a layer of particle board, and then the sub floor.  We (and by "we," I mean Mike and Josh) had to use a crowbar and rubber mallet to pry off the upper layer, piece by tiny piece. 

Linoleum was glued on top of linoleum, on top of floor, on top of subfloor.

We took off the kitchen backsplash to find black mold behind it. Ewww! So we had to remove the cabinets to figure out how bad it was, and remove some of the drywall. During the cabinet removal, I was SO relieved to have Josh and Ray there to do the heavy lifting. I imagine if it was just Mike and I, we'd have some injuries, and there'd be quite a bit of yelling.

The black mold behind the kitchen sink. Eeek!

But it wasn't all work! We got in a couple days of play, too. It was so fun to show our friends a little bit of Bend.

hot waxing their snowboards...

A view from the top of Mt Bachelor.

I joined the guys on their last day in town to go snowboarding. It was only my second time on a snowboard, but we took one of the big kids' lifts! I managed to stay upright most of the day, and definitely realized how fun it could be...once I master turning and carving. Hopefully by the end of the season, I'll have it down.

I love this pic, because I look like I know what I'm doing!

Now that the demolition is finished, we're building the house back up, piece by piece. This involves framing out our new utility closet and master bathroom, redoing the plumbing (since we moved things around a bit), and shellac-ing the floors to seal out all those decades of renter pet and child yuckiness.

Mike demonstrating where our new toilet will go!

A peek into our future master bedroom.

It's really cool to see the house completely empty and white - it's like a giant blank slate. I spent 30 minutes just standing in my future office and daydreaming. Sure, it could be the fumes from the shellac, but I think we're going to love our new space!