Comments on: Home renovation update

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 23:24:39 +0000

It looks gorgeous!! I love beautiful and historic homes and I am like I want to see all the pictures. I think that is going to be so wonderful for your family.

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 12:49:51 +0000

In reply to HY. @HY- here's hoping we both survive and wind up with great and functional houses!

By: HY

HY — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 12:09:54 +0000

Preparing for a gut reno of out 1940’s bungalow in the coming weeks. We’ll be moving out and living nearby. Love this update! It sounds like you are creating a great space for your family to spend time in. Also, love that blue, we have plans for similar:)

By: Hayley

Hayley — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 08:30:18 +0000

A book recommendation for you:
House Lessons by Erica Bauermeister

By: Jjiraffe

Jjiraffe — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 04:22:28 +0000

We lived through one remodel 5 years ago, and we’re living through another one now. We don’t leave as it’s too expensive. It’s not great. My husband and I are both maximizers which means the end result is fantastic! We truly live in a fully considered home, which is recruited for commercials, rentals and films (we’ve made money from that, which is nice). And hosting friends is awesome. The down side is: ugh. The process. The mess. The indecision. I’m guessing I will forget all about this when we’re done. It’s the last one inside.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 00:47:37 +0000

COVID threw a wrench in our kitchen reno last year. We were washing dishes in our bathtub for months! I love old houses (and the blue paint!) – looking forward to more progress updates and photos!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 21:42:22 +0000

In reply to Sarah k.

@Sarah K – having your contractor land in jail would definitely be a problem! But hard to anticipate. An insurance fraudster might still have good reviews…

By: Joy

Joy — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 21:22:10 +0000

I love the blue with that floor color and lovely light.

I agree with remodeling while living elsewhere. That’s what we did with our house and I’ve never regretted it.

Definitely batch the errands and decisions. For instance, I had to go over to the stone yard to choose granite. It was near work so I went on my lunch hour and chose all of the granite at once for the bathrooms and kitchen even though we didn’t need it all immediately. I went to the paint place and asked to borrow a sample book so I could take it to the house to see what colors looked like in the actual light in each room over a couple of weekends.

It sounds like a great choice for your family. I hope you will share some pictures when it’s done.

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 19:36:36 +0000

Can’t wait for a big reveal with before and after photos! What an exciting though obviously very stressful project!

By: ARC

ARC — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 18:37:35 +0000

We have done a lot of renovations but only one where we had to move out. And technically, we didn’t HAVE to move out, but with a 4yo and a 1yo, it was just easier. That house sounds similar to yours – bleh on the main listing photo but really great once I got past that and went inside. I still grieve that Seattle house esp after the HUGE renovation. Turns out you can’t renovate the weather so here we are in Phoenix 😛

As the owner of a historic house for 18 months now, I’ve realized there is ALWAYS something that needs to be fixed. I think you have to make peace with that and tackle the annoying/dangerous stuff first, and always have a bit of savings for unexpected things (like our 100 year old cast iron pipe failing inside a wall).

Thankfully both my husband and father in law are handy, and FIL lives in a “senior living” apartment where everything is taken care of, so he LOVES coming over and helping with stuff like sticky doorknobs or the water softener that just quit and leaked all over everything. We have an electrician on our regular roster, which was not a thing for us before.

We’re about to build a new “Garage Mahal” so my husband can have a workshop space and we can park more than 2 cars inside. As much as I hate constant construction, at least this reno is totally not connected to the house, though it is right outside my office window 🙁

A very wise friend told me before our first big reno that I should expect to cry at least once, and that it always costs more than you think.