Feels like progress!

It has been a big week at the house. Flooring removal has been completed ✔ and stucco has been chipped off ✔. Both HUGE projects that we'd still be working on if we hadn't brought in professionals.

As discussed in a previous post. There's never a lack of surprises when renovating. Especially when the house was built in 1963!

Stucco removal is phase 1 of having our bare brick exposed. Steve our contractor from Ace Sandblasting has spent DAYS manually chipping away the stucco. To retain the integrity of the brick, all of the stucco must be removed before they can sandblast. As he was working around the front windows, he found this!?! Ummmm... WTF? How are we to have a beautiful exposed brick with this.... ugliness? 🤦‍♀️

Apparently patching this type of thing is quite common here. Gary found a brick and stone guy who is coming this week to work on a patch for the window. He will also remove the second front door and build out a new wall.

April 6th we are scheduled to start phase 2 of this project, which is to sandblast the brick. Many of these houses were painted or stuccoed probably in the '80s (seems like an eighties thing to have done... ) Many homeowners are now taking their homes back to the original brick. When our new neighbor caught wind of our project, they started chipping the stucco of their house! #alreadytrendsetting

The aggregate brick is going to be AMAZING!!

Remember all the uneven flooring? Turns out that it was due to many many layers of mortar with outdoor pavers installed in the house. Removing the pavers lowered the floor significantly. We're now able to just leave the tile in the family room, glue down some heavy-duty plywood, pour a couple of bags of self leveler and we will have even floors ready for laminate installation!

We started tiling the bathrooms this week, which is super exciting! It makes you feel like you've moved forward by seeing your design come to life!

Gary installed the main bathroom floor earlier in the week. Here is it freshly grouted.

This weekend Gary and I worked together to tile the tub surround. Turns out the pattern I found on Pinterest wasn't as easy as it looked. #damnyoupinterest 🤷‍♀️

Lucky for me, my guy knows what he's doing and it turned out beautifully!

I was given the task to tile the end wall. We decided on a straight stacked subway, which was not as easy as you'd think. Getting those suckers lined up both horizontally and vertically was a pain! I did "okay," but needed Gary's expert eye to double-check my spacing.

Today my job was to grout the entire shower surround. Our friend Kim came over and helped. #selfisolatingwithneighbors

After a tutorial by Gary, we were off. OMG... WHAT A MESS. 🤣

We had black grout everywhere. It looked like some kind of art project before we finished. We both are still scrubbing it off of our fingernails, etc.

It still needs some trim and silicone, but here's the final product. 🙌

In other tiling news, Gary installed the mosaic pattern in the powder room. Here it is without grout. #loveit

What else? Our new pathway from the front entry to the back hallway is now complete, including a new pot light. It looks so much better when you enter the house. Much brighter and inviting. It also serves the purpose for guests in the front bedroom easy access to the main bathroom.

Gary spent a bunch of time working on the master bedroom. He added new electrical for the vanity lights, installed a pot light in the ceiling, built the foundation of the walk-in shower, and added drywall. Phew... AND it was his birthday today!

Like I said, a big week at the house. Things are progressing at a good pace. Stay tuned for more updates!