grass floors

We are now at the interesting stage of the remodeling process. Yesterday Pete the Flooring Guy started work laying the new bamboo floors upstairs. We had originally decided on horizontal carbonised bamboo in all the bedrooms with carpet on the landing and stairs. This was the solution we came up with to two problems: how to prevent scratches on the hardwood from the dog's nails as they chase the cats along the corridor; how to deal with the seven angles that merge on the landing that present a nightmare of cutting in and joining hardwood strips. However, during one of the chase-a-cat sessions the cat had peeed the length of the carpet and no amount of Nature's Miracle completely disguised the smell. So Steven took up the carpet one Sunday afternoon and then spent the next week and a half removing the grippers and staples.

Pete spent an hour moaning about the angles and the extra work involved in the project but agreed that it would look fantastic when it was finished. Unfortunately all those angles will add signifiicantly to the price on the project and even worse the timeframe for finishing has entered a different realm altogether. One thing I had not bargained on purchasing was a stairgate. I thought we had finished with those eighteen years ago. Late last evening I had to run out and purchase two gates for the front and back staircases so we can keep the dogs downstairs and away from the precious bamboo. We were really concerned that Sadie would suffer separation anxiety sleeping so far away from me but I think it did her good. She knocked down the gate once, which scared her, and then she slept in the den with Polly. The bonus was that the cats also stayed downstairs, so we slept uninterrupted till 6am.

We are really excited that the flooring is going down because now we can start to really live in our new house. Up to now we have felt more like we were camping amongst the dust and debris. That is the upside, the downside is that we realise how many more projects there are remaining - from the removal of that cute olive green and candy pink cabinet in Verity's bathroom to the crazy tiled bathroom left and the biggest remodel of all:
the kitchen.

The good news is that the floor in our bedroom and closet looks fantastic. The bad news is that I will have to wait another week before he can install any more flooring and I am slightly freaking about the floor getting scratched as it may not be as hardwearing as we were led to believe. I am in two minds whether or not to order oak flooring for the landing, as that will be where most of the traffic goes or should I just make everyone take their shoes off upstairs?

And there was light

It took all day and half of the evening but we have lights on the circular drive at last and hopefully they will be high enough that the guy with the snow-plow won't knock them down this winter. We are now able to walk around the property in the dark and not fall over anything. The electricians also traced the problem with the shoting lights in the rear hall. Some genius had wired the outside tree lights to one of the hall switches. When it rained or got humid the lights outside shorted and so did the hall lights. It took three call backs and six hours of work to discover that, so imagine what the bill will be. In their defense there are four switches that control the hall lights including one double switch next to the exterior light switch so who would think that it could be a five-way switch?

Overwhelmed

When we bought this house we knew there was a certain amount of work we would have to do before winter set in, First we had some windows that had to be replaced, some of the guttering was shot or missing and the siding over the garage had been damaged. Inside all the carpets would have to go to be replaced by wood floors and, to make more space, because 5000 square feet is just not enough, there were closets to be taken out (I know that it is impossible to believe that a gal can have too many closets but even Imelda Marcos would have trouble buying enough shoes to fit in here) plus there was the decorating stuff to be undertaken: paneling to be ripped off the walls, wallpaper to be stripped from three rooms and a hallway and the "Muenster Cheese" decor in the master suite, which covered every wall, door, architrave and baseboard, would have to be painted over.

We figured we would make the outside waterproof before tackling the interior projects. But of course things never run off a slate roof, as they say in Dutch, so we are working backwards, doing all the stuff we don't need to do while waiting for the windows which at this rate will probably be installed during a three-day snowstorm in January. In July, just before our first houseguests left, the contractors started work tearing out the panelling, taking down the mirrored closet in the bedroom and shortening the hall closet to make a bookcase. Then they painted over the oil-blue interiors of the remaining closets with a fresh coat of clean white matte and left for their vacation.

Koen and Verity stripped wallpaper and pulled up two carpets before they left and we ordered 1500 sq' of pre-finished wood flooring. Sick of the cheese effect, I painted the walls of the master bedroom and dressing room a calm blue shade and the ceiling, trim and doors a brilliant white.

Renovations or where it all started

This is our new house that I fell in love with months before we even considered moving from our old place. I fell in love with it despite the fact it was twice the size we needed, twice as far from Steve's office as our previous home, needed new roof, windows, gutters, had termite damage, rot and the electrical line to the house had completely corroded.

Our previous house needed nothing doing to it. We had just remodeled the kitchen and it was completely fantastic. But this house is original and when I looked at the photos on the realtor's website, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I had a sick feeling in my stomach. That's how much I wanted it and how afraid I was that someone else would buy it and treat it badly.

This is a custom design by Andrew Geller, famous for his beach houses on Long Island and Connecticut. Although this house isn't really on the beach, it's not too far from one either. The house was period 1968 when we moved in and the challenge has to be to update it gently so we don't destroy the integrity of the design. This blog is going to be the easiest way to document all the repairs and renovations we are making to our new house.

When we bought the house we knew that there was a lot of work to be done but we figured we would have a month or so to get the big stuff out of the way before we moved in. How wrong were we? We moved in the afternoon of June 29, the previous owner finished her move that same morning. We had guests arriving in four days so we just cleaned, cleaned some more, threw away debris we found in cupboards in the kitchen and bathrooms and made the place look as welcoming as possible.
After the guests left we set about taking carpets up, stripping wallpaper, removing closets and paneling on closets and occasionally writing about the process...