Freaking out!

So I have been freaking out a bit lately on everything we have to do before they start work on the house... in two weeks.  And we don't have any free weekends really.  The day before they come and start the bathroom, hubby and I are taking an all day trip to Boston to a Red Sox game.  That might be a good time to be home and clean out the bathroom before they  demolish it.  But I guess we'll do that another day.  After the bathroom is done, they will begin the downstairs, which involves new flooring throughout.  This should begin right after Memorial day.   We are going camping Memorial day weekend in the Adirondacks.  Since we have to move all the furniture out of the downstairs and empty the kitchen, this might be a good weekend to be home as well.  But I guess we will do that another day as well. This is not to mention all the other things we have to do around the house inside and out.   The garden needs work, the fence has to be fixed, the lawn mowed, the garden planted, the flowers planted... Wow.  Any volunteers to come over and help?  At least swim lessons are over so we don't need to be going to the YMCA anymore Saturday mornings.  And K. is not going to be doing baseball for a while with his broken wrist, so no more Sunday afternoon games.  So we do have a bit more free time than we thought, maybe. 
I wish there were some strong high school boys on the street we could pay to move all the furniture.  But no, I think we will be doing it ourselves.  I guess our garage will be holding all our living room and dining room and kitchen items for a few weeks! At least its good weather for the cars to be in the driveway.   We won't have room for everything to go back into our kitchen and dining room, so what to do with the extra furniture?  Hold on to it, until Brother moves back to the US?  Yard sale?  Craig's List?  Right now I can't decide.  I have enough to worry about. 
There isn't really an option of not going away on these trips.  We need to do them.  Hubby and I need some time away to enjoy by ourselves.  We all need to go camping for Memorial Day weekend.  The boys LOVE camping and we always go on Memorial day weekend.  It is our start to summer.  So we'll carry and and figure the rest out as we go!  Somehow everything will work out in its own crazy way.

Bathroom before photos...

 Our bathroom, before pictures.  Yes, just about everything you see is going. Chloe, the dog who's end you see here, will stay with Mom while construction work is taking place.  The upstairs of the house is pretty much her domain, and this will really upset her.  (The construction noise, not visiting the country for a couple of weeks!)

The pink sink, the pink toilet, the pink lights; its all on the way out.  We are lucky to have a very large counter top so we will have plenty of room for two sinks.  The huge mirror is going to change into two medicine cabinets for additional, hidden storage.   Then maybe we won't have so many things sitting on the counter for all to see.
I can't wait for the finished product! 

The Date is set

We now have a start date for our "project".   Monday, May 13th, our house will be taken over, well at least the bathroom.   The current plan is to start in the upstairs bathroom and then move downstairs for the rest of the work.  I like the idea of completing the smaller project first.    That way, when the rest of the house is in shambles, I will at least have a beautiful bathroom to enjoy.   The bathroom itself should take about 2 weeks, and the overall the "project" will continue for a total of 8 weeks. 
I will not be sad to see our pink toilet go.  Hopefully the new toilet will have better flush power that little boys can't clog nearly everytime they go!  I am also very excited about our removeable toilet seat for easy cleaning!  Those little boys don't always hit the right spot! 
We are told that we will be able to use the bathroom most of the time throughout.  We won't be without a shower for example.  They will prep it and then remove and reinstall the new tub and shower in one day.  They will do the finish work the next day.  Another reason why we like this contractor so much.  They really seem to consider the needs of the homeowner.  We'll see if I feel the same way when we are in the middle of everything.

Next post-  the before photos! 

Choices, choices...

I think we are almost ready to begin.  As I said it is quite a process before any work actually starts.  Once we picked our contractor, we had to pick all the items in the kitchen and bathroom.  This involved separate trips to the kitchen cabinet place to pick out cabinets and counter tops, to the bathroom store for a vanity, sink, toilet, tub and tub surround, bathroom faucets, etc, etc,  Then there is paint colors, appliances, lighting, backsplash to pick out at the tile store, and flooring to choose.  Choosing items has taken many weeks.  It is not easy to do with two little boys.  They are not interested in sitting still and waiting while we discuss tile or flooring choices.  Luckily Len and I generally like the same thing, or at least have a similar idea, so we don't go back and forth too much.   This weekend was our last stop we think.  And that was for backsplash tiles.  The tile store we went to was very nice. It had a great show room, with lots and lots of beautiful tile.  Luckily we weren't looking for anything fancy and had a clear idea when we went in.  We managed to be in and out in just over 30 minutes.    We need to finalize the tile, but we've made our choices.
This process is difficult.  And if you and your spouse don't agree or have different ideas, it can be even more challenging.  Len and I are very that we have similar taste.  It has made,and will continue to make this process a bit easier.

The Start of it all...

We need a bigger kitchen.  Well not NEED exactly, but I want a bigger kitchen.  I would LOVE a bigger kitchen, and another bathroom, and another bed room.  Hence the home redo.  Well, not completely redo, we didn't get everything on our wish list.  Too expensive.  But we are going to completely redo the kitchen/ dining room areas, the flooring on most of the first floor, and redo the upstairs bathroom.  We are not going to be able to add on another bedroom and bathroom.  We had wanted to do this over the garage, but we were a bit naive as to what something like that costs.  Right now, its WAY out of our price range.    

So we've  gone through the "bidding process"  which was new to us, and took a lot longer then either Len and I thought it would.  I would say we started talking to a few contractors in October, and its April and work hasn't started yet.  It took us until January to pick a contractor and get that part settled. We got bids from 3 different contractors.  So if you undergo something like this, don't be in a hurry.  We ended up picking the one who was slightly more expensive, but we liked A LOT better, and overall we feel his company will do the best job.  After all , we are going to have to live with it for the next 20 years.