Finally! A new driveway!

We have lived in our house for almost 15 years....yes!  Fifteen years!  The driveway has always been cracked and we swore one day we would have it re-done.  Well, it finally happened on December 2nd!  The old concrete was demo'd and instead of pouring new concrete, we had pavers put in.  I love the look of the pavers and I'm so glad we used it for the driveway and our front porch.

Goodbye old driveway!

The base rock gets poured.

Sand is then added on top.

The pavers get placed.

Getting there...

Driveway is done.  The front porch is next.

Almost done on the front porch.

Ta da!  Dressed for Christmas!

A family affair

My, how time flies....I can't believe the last post was on November 22nd...three weeks ago!  I had pictures to post, just no time to post them.  So here are pictures of the painting process.  It all started on Black Friday, November 25th.  It was a family affair since my youngest brother came to help spray the primer on, tape and paint.  My dad came to help...and my mom helped KWT as he taped the ceiling, plus she made lunch and dinner!  Thanks!  We had the house painted in 10 days...primed and painted...all 1,860 square feet from top to bottom!  Whew!

My brother helping CT put the paint on.

KWT taping the ceiling.

CAT painting the hallway to the boy's bedrooms.

CET rolling on the paint.

CAT painting his room.

Yes, that' me...painting the original hallway.  And yes, that's a purple wall in the other room (half bath).  Sore subject...the paint did not dry to the color of the swatch.  The paint guys says it's close enough...really?!?  So a different color was selected, in fact it was my first choice, but I at first thought it was too dark.  I just bought the paint...I just need to apply it and soon!

My dad helping paint.

The fireplace gets a color!  Yes, it's a light gray wall with a darker gray on the fireplace.

CET's blankie and the wall color in the family room/dining room and kitchen.  Coincidence or inspiration?

Here is the fireplace and wall done in the family room.

I had to put this picture in.  After all the painting, the contractor came to install the baseboard in the bedrooms.  Our dog Daisey did not like the sound of the saw that he was using.  She was shaking like crazy.  She could not go outside because someone was using a wood chipper and that was driving her crazy....so she found out that the grill was off on the cold air intake and hid there.  One of the kids found her there.  Poor thing!

After we were done painting, my uncle came over and installed the electrical outlets, light switches and light fixtures in most of the house.  We are still waiting for the porch light, and the pendent lights over the island to come in.  Then my cousin came over the other day and photographed pictures of the rooms.  He has a much better camera and a wide angle lens....

CAT's new room.  The baseboard installed and even the closet doors!

The new hall way to the boys' rooms and laundry.

Kitchen looking toward the living room

The ol' farm table in the spot where the new island will go... the island is going to be bigger than the table. This view from the door to the garage really shows how much the space is opened up. Now we just need cabinets and some furniture... and the new floors. 

Looking back into the kitchen toward the garage door, same island, I mean table.

KWT's new room, with camo colors and the laundry door waiting to be painted.

The new entry, the end of the Pergo is the original location of the front door.

Here is CET's room.  The old wood floors removed.  He was happy he could ride his scooter in his room.

The drywall is done! It's all down hill from here...I think.

It took 6 days for the drywall to be hung, taped, and textured...and we lived through it.  The two older boys did not sleep in our room like we thought.  We ended up moving the mattresses into our room in the morning and pulling them back out at night so that they could continue to sleep in the family room.  It was a pain, but totally worth it for everyone's sanity.  The drywall guys did a great job keeping the mess to a minimum.  There were only two of us who stepped in a glop of "mud" during the week and it would be the two who are home most of the time (yeah, me and CET).  The guys ended up working on Saturday to finish up the job so that we would be able to start painting on Monday.  They got here in the late afternoon and finished by 10:30 pm....luckily, we had a birthday dinner to go to that night in Alameda for my grandmother's 93rd birthday, so it worked out just fine.

So, now it's time to paint. CT bought a new spray painting gadget (insert the sound that Tim the Tool Man Taylor makes) to make painting faster.  He actually bought it a while ago to paint the exterior and it works fine.  I'm a little afraid of how much mess it will make in the interior, but really, there is nothing to ruin...the floors can be white.  I haven't finalized the paint colors, but I've got two down for sure, well...maybe just one for sure.  CET wants green walls in his room, and I'm leaning towards blue.  KWT will have khaki walls and an army green accent wall.  We ordered a new quilt for CAT that will come in tomorrow, so I'll be able to pick out colors then.

In the meantime, I photographed the wood floors, stain finishes for the cabinets and countertops if you want to take a peek.  In the next blog, you should be able to see what paint colors we end up with!

CAT's room with the drywall hung.

The "office" area and the entry beyond.

Here is the kitchen taped and textured.

Our wood floor (bottom), the stain for the desk and quartz countertop. Quartz is Cambria, New Quay.  Wood flooring is Pacific Pecan in Mocha.

Wood floor, stain for the kitchen island (perimeter cabinets to be white), quartz countertop (Cambria, Torquay) and subway tile backsplash.

Ignore the carpet...Amtico vinyl flooring for the powder room with the stain for the powder room cabinet and quartz countertop.

Again, Amtio flooring, the stain for the two bathroom cabinets and the countertop.

This is for the laundry room.  The cabinets will be white for easier clean-up.  Just in case you are wondering why there is so much of the gray, swirly quartz...we had to purchase the entire slab, so we though we would use as much of it as we could. The quartz is maintenance free - so I'm good with using it everywhere!

We've almost reached the climax of this ride....

I can't believe another two weeks have gone by.  Where did the time go?  I feel like all I have been doing is moving our stuff from one place to another...and really, that's all I've been doing.  After this weekend, we will be down to one bedroom for about a week and a half.  Yikes!  The drywall will be installed starting on Monday.  I've heard it's yucky and we don't want to be around here when it all happens.  Our contractor even told us we should consider staying at a hotel for a couple of days while they are mudding.  The drywall contractor seemed to think we would be fine and they would clean up after they leave every night.  So, I guess we will see and play it by ear.  If it gets too much, we might stay at my parent's house.  It will be fun getting up early to take the kids to school in the traffic (I don't know what would be worse - drywall mud or traffic).
But enough about us...take a look at the house!  I love coming home and looking at the exterior.  The shingles are nearly done.  Just a few more spots at the corner of the garage and then above the entry. I absolutely love it!  CET's room was worked on in the two weeks, a section of the garage was worked on to create shelving for the garage, the electrical and lights nearly done, the kitchen window installed, the walls got insulation, new ducts were installed, the framing for the pocket door was created and a section from the entry to the laundry room was closed off (no more short cuts into the new addition) and the cabinets ordered.  We are coming to an end...I can almost feel it...even if it is another six weeks or more.  So far, it's been worth the ride.

The new addition get shingles.

Here is CET's room.  Finally, it's a reality for him.

The new kitchen window!

This section of the garage was supposed to be extra room for bikes, but because of the foundation and the wall is holding part of the roof up, it had to stay.  Once the drywall goes up, we will just turn this into shelving.  We can all use more of that.

The drywall gets delivered.

Insulating the walls.

From this view, the house looks done.

The progress on the entry.  The columns were supposed to be shingled, but we decided to do something a little bit different to give it more of an "entrance". 

Here is the view from standing in the house.

Just a closer view of the entry.

Wall from entry to laundry is closed up.

This will be the new kitchen.  See the three chairs together?  That is were you can sit at the island.

It's a mess, but this is the view of the family room and dining room beyond.  Really, nothing much has changed here except those darn walls are now gone.  Daisey will even get a new doggie door next week!  It will be where she is currently eating in the photo.

Framing for the pocket door for the laundry room.

Just one of the bedrooms with insulation.  It's made a difference in the house so far with the weather being so cold in the mornings.  At least now we can turn our heater on to about 60 degrees!

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all had a great Halloween.  Once the contractor left that evening, we had to kick it in high gear and carve our pumpkin and decorate the outside of the house.  Our next door neighbor gave us caution tape that we used to cover the porch, since the ramp to the house was taken down and there are no porch lights on the exterior of the house.  Got it all done - the kids dressed in their costumes and even had dinner too in a little over a hour.  CET got the hang of it this year.  He ran from house to house following the heels of CAT - said his "Treat or Treat" and "Thank yous".  It was great.

The fire insert was also installed on that day.  It was a tight fit, but it's in and looks great.  The two older boys had to sleep in the family room that night.  It was nice for them to wake up in a not so cold room and the fireplace running.  I almost want one in my room since it's so pretty to look at...plus the fact it keeps you toasty!

The shingles came in today.  The contractor will start putting it up tomorrow....but we hear it's going to rain on Thursday, so he may not be able to finish it by the weekend.  We will see...cross your fingers for no rain.  I would love to see the exterior done.

Kenny from South Park (no, he has never seen that show, but his friend told him he should dress like Kenny since he has an orange hoodie) and the two ninjas...ready for Halloween.

Caution!  Do not enter!

Not much decoration, but hey, we only had an hour!

Our new fireplace!  There are clear glass beads inside.

CAT trying to wake up in the morning.