Sunday, April 15, 2012

Finally!! It's done! Well, mostly.

It's been almost a month since my last post. We've been so busy on actually getting the house ready for occupancy that there just wasn't time to write about it. I'll get everything caught up now. It's been interesting, frustrating, rewarding, exhausting, enjoyable, and scary. In the end, though, it's all good. We had a ball. Our "crew" of workers were not always knowledgeable about the things we asked them to do but were always willing to follow directions when they didn't know and give it a try.
I found that a big key to not driving yourself, and everyone around you, insane is to be flexible and not spend too much time making decisions. My first preference for the kitchen counter was Formica that we would buy and glue on our base. When we went to the  big box store, an hour and a half away, that was supposed to have such a big selection of the stuff we found only six types and they were pretty bad. So, we decided on ceramic tile. When we got the Luan plywood glued down on the base in preparation for the tile my husband convinced me that it was too pretty to cover up so we sealed it with polyurethane instead and didn't use the tiles. It will wear as well as the Formica and really is very pretty.

We got the hole in the floor closed up with in a couple of days of my last post. Unfortunately, Don was out of commission for three weeks after his work under the floor. He had some sort of flu bug that left him weak and tired for days after it ran it's course.







Don had started building, under Danny's direction, the bar part of the cabinet. When he couldn't work for those weeks we hired Mike and he and Danny finished that and built the upper cabinet and the extension next to the sink cabinet. These were all my designs, Danny's plans and Don and Mike's labor.
Since someone stupidly took out a bearing wall to put that useless 3/4 wall in we had to jack up the ceiling and support it somehow. We wound up putting in a 2x12 plate with two 2x4's sandwiched together on edge for strength backing it up.

 Then on the walls under the ends of the plate we put 2x12's just as an extra support. It's looks good and works great. The ceiling and rafters are stable and won't be settling anymore.  As you can see in this picture we've finished the reconstruction on the floor and wall and have closed the holes up.

I wrote in an earlier post about the over sized space stealing box hanging in the corner of the red bedroom that was covering a small vent pipe and how we had made that much smaller and slanted it. I still need to trim it out but this is what it looks like now. You can just barely see it in the picture and it isn't that noticeable in actuality.








I just don't understand the reasoning behind the shoulder height box, way over sized for it's purpose, protruding awkwardly into this tiny room.

There are still a few things to do inside and several outside. Inside, the kitchen cabinets still need some of the doors hung and there is a small amount of trim that still needs to be painted and put in place. This is all trim that had to be replaced because the original was just to bad to reuse or some trim that I decided to put in place for a more finished look after we were done. Then there's the edging trim around  the counter top. I'm going to have to order that online yet. I still have to paint or cover the floor in the long narrow room in the back of the house. The doorway is off the kitchen and it runs the length of the house ending in the utility alcove on the other end. At least part of it could be used as living space. And then there is the problem of the space for the washer and dryer that needs to be dealt with. Washer and dryers are pretty standard size wise. This alcove was obviously built for regular sized units but whoever built the area made it a half an inch too small. The drywall tape on that end of the room had to be stuck back on the wall and the floor is small scraps of plywood pieced together. (I'm sure you all know the kind of unethical people that do this kind of work. They cash the checks quickly after being paid for their services before their work starts to fall apart.) So we are going to have to take the window trim and baseboards, and possibly a section of the drywall, out to get the units to fit. If the drywall has to be removed we'll have to replace it with something very thin, maybe a piece of painted luan.

But we've finally gotten to the point of occupancy. Our renter moved in Thursday and is working around the things we have yet to finish. The following pictures are mostly of the kitchen area because that's where most of the work was done.


I am most proud of this. You can see the new counter and cabinets, get a glimpse of the beautiful flooring, and see into the back bedroom previously of the hanging box and lurid red walls.


This is a shot of the finished counter top and the back splash. And the bottom of the new wall cabinet.








The kitchen from the front door. Notice the door in the counter that opens into the living room. Unusual, yes, but I didn't want a cabinet with dead useless space in it. What's the point of putting a cabinet in that you have to crawl into to access.




This is, of course, the sink counter. New receptacle on this end.










The view from the back room through the kitchen to the front door.



Well, that's all I've got to show you now. Maybe, after the furniture is in our renter will allow me to take some more pictures. It's up to her though. She has been patient with the delays we've experienced and understood that, no matter what our expectations were and are, reality can not be changed. The house wasn't ready when we expected it to be and she didn't stress out about it. I didn't either so we got through it with out problems. Some inconvenience, yes, but then, sometimes that happens in life. 

As I've spoken to people in town about what we were doing with this tiny house word has gotten around. I had three people inquire about renting this house in the last two weeks and had to tell them it's taken. Not to bad in a town of two thousand with other rentals available. They all wanted to know if we have other rentals. We don't. Yet. Several times, during this process, I've sworn I will never do this again.............  At least not until next year................ Unless another really good deal comes along................ Really!

3 comments:

  1. OMG! Honey, it's freakin' FAB-U-LOUS!!! Emily/ExquisiteStudios

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  2. I love that little house and what you've done with it! I could live there!

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  3. Thank you, Em and Tina. I soooo enjoyed doing this. Now, a few days after crunch time is past, I'm thinking about another one. LOL!

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