Signed, Sealed, Delivered - It's Ours!

In the (almost) words of Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Its Ours! This revised version of the song has been playing through my head all day. Here is a fun fact- that song was released 5 years AFTER our house was built! 

I few hours after finalizing the deal, HM and I had to celebrate by heading over to the house. To give the excursion some purpose, we decided to take a few delicate and hard to box items over so that they don’t get broken during the big move (scheduled for the end of next week). We also wanted to give Buckley a chance to check out his new stamping grounds. And yes, his red, white and blue hair is fading to pink.

During the visit, I also dropped off the supplies for my bathroom project. The floor tiles are still on their way, but I was able to get the subway tiles and tools I need to start the shower. Even if this DIY project turns out terrible (which it won’t) the old Girl Scout in me will find comfort in the fact that I will still be leaving the place better than I found it. Case in point:

 A few other things we took care of while we were there was taking measurements for the new appliances. I have the model numbers and specs of the ones I want to order, but I want to confirm that they will fit. We are not working with standard sizes so they must be special ordered from Home Depot. Why new appliances? Because I am way too young to understand this mess:

When looking at the apartment kitchen in the picture below, try squinting your eyes and imagining bright white cabinets, fresh paint on the walls, thoughtful lighting and new white appliances. Ahhh, it will be the kitchen where summer salad memories are made!

Three Days To GO TIME!

I can't believe after all this waiting (over 3 months of escrow and a life time of dreaming) the day is almost upon us! Monday 6/30, after 5pm, we should have the keys in hand!!!!! The crew is ready to start demo work on Tuesday 7/1. Actual framing work will need to wait until the permits are approved. As of today, our permit approvals look like this:

Get it in gear Structure, Fire, Engineering, and Planning!!!

Approvals aside, Michael and I will still be starting work on the apartment bathroom Tuesday. I have ordered the floor tiles from Home Depot (they are only available online) and they are set to be delivered between July 7th- July 9th. This gives us a few days (excluding a quick jaunt to Vegas for the 4th) to get the bathroom prepped for tile. The shower tiles are available in store, so we can also get that started as soon as we are ready.

This is the tile we ordered for the Apt. bathroom

 

This is a picture from a user review online, using the same tile.
Bad quality photo, but it helped me get an idea of what it looks like installed.
I had read that it was lighter in person. I really think it is going to look sharp!!

Here are some upcoming dates:

July 1st - Demo starts, 1st glass company coming out to provide a quote
July 2nd - 2nd glass installer coming out to provide quote. Hardwood floor guy coming out to provide quote on wood type, installation, and herringbone costs.

July 1st - 7th - Kitchen designer will also come out to confirm that his plans will look right in the space. He did the concept drawings off the architect drawings. New counters for apartment kitchen will be ordered.

Hopefully you are all caught up with your reading of the past posts, because things are about to get real exciting in The House of Leo. I am going to start posting more frequently (hopefully every other day) just to keep you all updated with the progress.

I am going to spend this weekend enjoying the calm before the storm!

Pre-reno Update

We are still waiting for approval from the city on the plans we submitted (June 9th) but there was a small victory when HM was able to get us demo permits over the counter!!!!! This means we have approval to take out the kitchen, extra walls, and floors. We just can't put it back together.....yet. I am confident we will have it all in place by the time the crew is ready for the next step.

I had my first meeting with the kitchen designer last Thursday and I will meet him again this Thursday to go over layout details and make final decisions. Since I have been obsessing over this house for months, under contract for three, I have a pretty clear idea of what I want. I like the designer's style and attitude so I am excited to give the final "okay" and get the order started (which has a 5-10 week lead time).

I want a kitchen that looks exactly like the opposite of the current one!

The closing date is fast approaching and I will be happy when we can get access to the place and get to work. Michael and I have watched enough YouTube videos and are feeling confident about our ability to DIY the apartment kitchen and bathroom. The whole apartment could use a fresh coat of paint, but I a going to try and pace myself.  We plan to paint the existing kitchen cabinets white and replace the gross counters with a black quartz from Home Depot. Add a new under mount sink and new appliances and I might actually enjoy cooking in it until we move upstairs!

Quartz for Apt. Kitchen.
It looks like it has greens and blues in this picture, but it is mostly black with a bit of grays.

Packing up our current house is going well. We always think of ourselves as clean and not the pack rat type, but the more I box up the more there seems to need boxing! With the Jr. League year starting up, my time management needs to be spot on in order to get everything done by our move date. Two out of town trips are not making things any easier. We are marking all boxes with either red, yellow, or green tape. Red means the box can be buried until after we move upstairs. Yellow means we may need it, but not too likely. Green means we will immediately unpack it when we move into the apartment. I hope this will help the movers when they bring it in to the new place.

This move is really happening! There are piles like this in every room.

Adios SMEG

I have been spending a lot of my "house dreaming" time thinking about the apartment. This may be because I have thought out every last detail of the upstairs and the apartment is my more immediate reality. I mean, I am going to be living in it for at least 4 months. I already mentioned my ideas for the apartment bathroom and now I am thinking about a face lift for the kitchen. Like the rest of the apartment, the idea is to spend as little as possible to give it a face lift. I pulled up some inspiration photos of small galley kitchens.

Hello again, Hicks lights

I have no pictures of the apartment, but I will post 'before pictures' once we move in. Right now the cabinets are the most craptastic medium wood. The good news is that they are in great shape and flat surfaced. I think I am going to try my hand at painting them and changing out the hardware. In the short term, the lovely gold flecked formica counters will stay (along with the sink) but in the medium term, I am thinking butcher block counters. Cute and low cost. Although I really like the soapstone counters in the top picture.

We just found out that our fridge will not fit in the apartment kitchen. I thought this was my opportunity to get a cute SMEG refridgerator. Michael agreed even after I shared the price with him...but then I got to thinking. I could replace the fridge, oven/stove, dishwasher AND microwave for about 60% of the cost of the SMEG. Unfortunately, I am too practical to pass up all new appliances. Especially since we will be doing all our cooking in this kitchen before moving upstairs. So that's it I guess. Goodbye SMEG. You will always have a place in my heart-you mint green monster.

A DIY Project- Apartment Bathroom

The permits have been submitted! We played the dumb average rookie card and kept calling the city to ensure that we did it correctly. In one conversation, we were quoted a time frame of 6 weeks. In a second conversation, we were quoted 4-6 weeks.We have heard horror stories that the city is taking 12 weeks to approve plans, so 6 weeks sounds great in comparison! 4 weeks sounds AMAZING! Especially since we can likely get a demo permit in the interim. Hammers should still swing on July 1st!

Michael and I are going to attempt to reno one of the downstairs bathrooms ourselves. I have always wanted to do that and I think it is a small enough project to take on ourselves while the professionals handle the big stuff upstairs. The bathroom I have in mind is the smallest one, in the apartment. It is a full bath, but tiny. I want to go classic and sweet. Something like this photo:

The picture above looks very much like the bathroom in my NYC apartment.That may be why I am drawn to the look. I like the chicken wire tile on the floor and the ever classic white subway tile in the shower. We will be keeping the tub because it is in great shape, but replacing the current sink and toilet. Sorry I don't have a picture of the current bathroom, but I will take pictures before starting the project.

The picture above uses the same floor we have slated for our master shower flooring. I like to call it fancy chicken wire tile. It would look pretty sweet in the apartment bathroom too. I also like the sink, but I would have to compare it to the price of the pedestal sink (hard to beat $200 from HomeDepot). I wonder if this type of sink would require a special plumbing change?

Here is one last classic inspiration photo for the apartment bathroom:

This little reno project will probably get started July 1st or 2nd. I am so excited to try my hand at tiling!!! Michael has agreed to try this ourselves ONLY if he does not have to lay any tile. Fine by me. He can do all the stuff I don't want to do, like remove the toilet, cut the backer board, mix the mortar, and cut the tiles. That leaves me all the fun stuff like demo and laying tile!

Flooring Choices

We met with our engineer Friday to go over the plans that we will be submitting to the city in order to get the permits for the remodel. Hopefully we can get the permits submitted before the close of business Monday (we did!). This is the part that makes me the most stressed. It is going to be a big waiting game. I have heard horror stories about approvals taking three months. Ekkk. How about 3 weeks or less, okay city?

In the meantime, I am starting to get the plans together for flooring. Upstairs will be all hardwood (with the exception of the master bathroom). I am really leaning towards white oak in a matte finish.

white oak floors, matte finish



We plan to keep the wood panels and trim  throughout the living room. Instead of making the mistake of trying to match the wood, the plan is to choose something that compliments it. This means either going light or going dark. Although dark would look nice, it always looks dusty in real life applications. For me, this means going light. White oak is a great choice because it is one of the more economical choices and it compliments the existing wood well. You can kind of see the idea in the above photo by comparing the cabinets and floor.

We are keeping this paneling and trim

Originally I wanted to do a chevron pattern throughout, but it would cost a TON, plus the open floor plan makes it hard to center the pattern and have it make sense in every room. As a compromise, I am still planning to install the wood in a chevron pattern in the upstairs den. It will be so moody and dramatic. Perfect for a den.

Chevron everywhere!

Installing the hardwood flooring is so far off, but it doesn't hurt to check another decision off the list!

I'm In Love With Jade Velvet

As soon as I saw the picture below, I fell hard for the idea of having jade velvet couches.

I love that they are colorful yet somehow they still read as a nuetral. I even played around with using them as a nuetral and adding color. I present to you my novice moodboard:

This couch is too teal for my tastes, but it gives me an idea

I have sourced the exact shade of velvet from a local store and have even received a quote from an upholsterer. The upholstery guy is even coming out next week to assess whether the couches I have in mind are worth recovering. Which brings me to my next my point- the couches. I offered to buy the couches that are currently in the house. The sellers accepted after a little back and forth. As long as Ken (as I will now affectionately call my upholsterer) says they are worth keeping, I scored big time.

I also bought the dinning room chairs, but I essentially bought both couches for $100.  They are huge and have low backs with the classic three pillowed back. Even if I change my mind on the jade velvet, I think these couches could work into a few different looks. If not, donation station!

Less Than a Month To Go!

We are a little less than a month out from starting the real action on the renovation. In the meantime, I will be posting periodically (a couple times a week) with updates on progress, like meeting with kitchen designers, floor selection, permit progress, etc., and posting inspiration ideas on the Inspiration Photos page. You can see the current house pictures and design sketches in the page tabs at the top of the blog. Until then, please join me in an exercise of patience (something people tell me I need for a renovation) in getting this blog going with regular updates!