Come On Baby Light My Fire.

I wanted to tile the fireplace...and then I decided it could wait ($$$)...then I thought I would paint it.
Then I decided I would wait. Then I pinned one million photos of fireplaces that I liked. Then this happened:

When I saw it, this happened:

And in case you were wondering...

BEFORE

AFTER

Wondering about the cost for such a game changing renovation? 200 smackaroos. That's right. Two. Hunded. (I didn't spell it wrong, I want you to pronounce it like that) 

Breakdown:

Carerra Marble Tile (actual marble cut into tiles from International Tile Company) 200.07 

Install: 800 freeeeee!!! (contractor made a mistake and this was his make good.)

I bought way more than was needed, I have a case left that I will find something to do with. Just for your general knowledge, $800 to tile the fireplace was a fortune. It should have cost more like 300 to tile such a small area but free is even betta.

 It's the little things y'all.

Closer

Well my loves, I'm getting closer! The kitchen is nearly done! This is what it looked like before:

AND THIS IS NOW...

 I always knew I wanted subway tile in a herringbone pattern. At first we used snow white grout and it looked like this:

BOO. Just looked dirty to me. Thank God I caught it in time. We scraped it out and now it looks like this:

Cue Angels singing...this is the depth of my love for this backsplash.

I am in love with my new kitchen! Appliances are going in and once thats done and its all styled and what not, I will show you final pictures...and give you the costs. Not bad, for a gut redo. I will tell you that. I will also tell you I have a fresh crop of gray hairs because of said gut redo. You won't be getting before pics of that. :)

Tata for now.
xoxox,
Summer

AND THEN

Nothing comes easy. That's all I can say.

Just as we're closing the door on the front of the house, we got a major curveball for the addition.

This was our lay out before:

In redoing the kitchen, we lost that teensy bathroom at the top right. The plan was to add 300 square feet to the "master bedroom" (bottom right), on top of the existing 180 square feet,  for a whopping 480 square feet of living space. This would allow for a nice big master bath and walk in closet and french doors out to the backyard. ***doing a little happy dance***

^  This was to be the revised plan - a bathroom that shared plumbing with the main bath, a walk in closet and then living space with loads of natural light...something like this:

AND THEN...AND THEN...AND THEN
The city intervened. They said the back of the house had to be 25 feet from the retaining wall...that  cut 50 feet from the addition and moved the french doors to the side of the room from the back (and open door counts in the yardage...what sticklers). So we agreed this is what it would be:

I wasn't happy, but I agreed to live with my 50 foot loss and my contractors proceeded, so now my backyard looks like this:

Do you spy my gorgeous kitchen door?? If loving a door is wrong, I don't want to be right.


AND THEN...they started framing - but the framing looked off to me, so I measured it. It was only 200 Feet!! The city came back and made us cut EVEN MORE!!

Let me tell you why this is an issue FIRST my shoes, those babies need room to breathe!!

But seriously, this makes the house less than 1600 sq feet which in our neighborhood, may seriously hurt our resale chances, especially after pouring all this money in to make it a legitimate 3 bedroom 2 bath.

And our contractor completely dropped the ball by not informing me during the plan check stage. They are NEVER supposed to proceed with plans not approved by the client. We definitely would have considered other options once we knew it could only be 200 sq feet additional.

But the hit we would take on a three bedroom one bath, is worse than the loss of square feet.

AND THEN Summer found herself stuck between a one bath with sad closets and a less sad closet and extra bathroom at a potential loss.

This is the truth of remodeling. Welcome to the Jungle.

NO AND THEN.

Closer

Cabinets are in!

We still need finishing touches, finish the molding, add filler panels and kick panels, add hardware but its a HUGE improvement. Next countertop and backsplash!

xoxo,
Summer