The Koenigs Four : Pre-Baby Remodel

We made a huge list of things that need to be done before our baby girl came. We have been needing to do a lot of home improvements for a while, and some of them are long overdue. Here is a list of things that were included in our project list:

We ripped out the ENTIRE bathroom to the studs and replaced just about everything except a single light fixture.The purpose of the remodel was because we have lived with water damage for 3 years around our toilet. I have heard horror stories from people remodeling but thought we thoroughly checked out the contractor we went though to ensure a good experience. Last year I was at a garage sale in our neighborhood and commented on their gorgeous kitchen. They highly recommended this contractor and said he lived in the neighborhood. HOW CONVENIENT, I thought. We called him up to do some estimates AND went to 2 more houses he remodeled the bathrooms in. We loved his work. Not sure what else we could have done. I think the easiest thing to explain our dilemmas with these guys is through bullet points. So, here you go:

*They didn't think of the process apparently so they ripped out everything, installed the vanity (which is black), tub and toilet. Then they sanded all the walls on top of everything causing it to be covered in a thick snow of sheet rock dust. Not only was it all over the tiny crevices of our sink but now I am sure there is a pile behind the vanity causing allergies and cancer by inhalation for us. AWESOME.

*AFTER painting the ceiling they realized they didn't rip out the ceiling fan. So on top of our new tile and tub they ripped it out. It caused a bigger hole that the new fan couldn't cover all the way. Instead of fixing it the contractor said that Daniel could just paint over that part. (isn't that what we are paying you for?) Luckily the tile and tub were left unharmed.

* When replacing the door trim they broke off a corner. Instead of buying a new piece they worked with what they had. Now there is a large crack on the top of our door frame.

*When installing the mirror above the sink they broke one of the panels. Luckily they came back and replaced it for free on a Saturday.

*The new plastic pipes under the sink leaked all over our new vanity and we actually had to have them come back TWICE just to fix that.

*After the tile was finished we had to wait 3 more days to have it dry and set. Which was fine since we thought we could still use our tub carefully. Those were foolish expectations! The drain plug did not plug up water at all. *sigh* That was really the last straw!!!! We had gotten completely fed up of using other people's showers for nearly two weeks. This whole job was scheduled to take one week. This wouldn't be a problem but it is our ONLY bathroom. This has made being pregnant, potty training and normal hygiene extremely difficult.

Moving on to other remodeling projects for this phase...

*Replaced a door hinges. The previous owner was apparently in a big hurry and half painted the rusted hinges when they repainted the doors. What a cheap and easy improvement that makes a HUGE difference!

*Replaced our entire living room ceiling that was 20 x 13 ft. There was a lot of previous ripping out of walls and fireplaces, and random holes in our ceiling which were sloppily plastered over with popcorn and painted. In many spots the whole ceiling was also sagging from age or previous water damage. Replacing the whole ceiling probably wasn't very necessary but made it more aesthetically pleasing. Instead of ripping out the entire thing we had our drywall guy put up new of sheet rock over the old, texture, and paint. We told him to smooth the corners as little as possible so we could throw some crown molding up there and NOT have to paint our 3 long walls. We came home from work to find that he went down about a foot on all the walls with the drywall mud. This brings us to our next part of home improvement PAINTING. Since I was 30 weeks pregnant it was challenging with the material smells from the bathroom remodel now we had to add painting 3 walls on top of that to our tiny house. It was Daniel's busy season at work and he had to come home and do house stuff everyday.

*Installed 16 recessed lights. Daniel cut the holes and installed the lights after we had electricians come out and pull wires properly for them. Daniel also installed dimmer switches in the living room, family room and bathroom. Didn't know how easy it is to change a regular switch to a dimmer switch! So sad...what a great improvement especially when you don't want to be blinded in the middle of the night to go potty!

*12 hours of Electrical work which included installing 2 side plug outlets on each of our kitchen islands coming from under the house up to the kitchen, one separate outlet for our new over-the-stove microwave to replace our broken/ugly stove fan, making a separate breaker switch for the microwave so we don't blow any fuses, and one more outlet under the bathroom sink outlet so we can keep our blow dryer handy (like you have seen on Pinterest)

*Installed our microwave to vent through the roof

*Redirected our dryer hosing to vent through the roof

*Redirected the bathroom fan to go through the roof instead of into our open attic.

To complete our 3 weeks of insanity we got our whole house carpets and air ducts professionally cleaned. We now have a dang clean house for this little baby to enjoy!

Next on the remodel list is: replacing our rock retaining wall with large bricks, replacing the gravel around both sides of our house since it is completely over grown with weeds, replacing our deck patio, replacing all of our bedroom doors AND if we can muster up the courage...remodel our kitchen.

Bathroom Before