Renovation Update - Sheetrock and a Structural Engineer

So - finishing up our third week of this renovation now. Thankfully, the house is starting to get put back together.  The team made a lot of progress, and the end is starting to feel possibly in sight.

Sheetrock & Electrical
The most exciting development is that they put up all the sheetrock and patched the holes. Not only is it much brighter now, but it feels a lot cleaner and less like a construction site, having all the walls closed up. We can also get a much better sense of the spaces- the bedroom is clearly much bigger. At the same time, the electrician ran around finishing up a bunch of things like recessed lights and switches, so we are no longer walking through dark construction areas trying to find the bathroom sink in the middle of the night.

entryway ceiling patched

kitchen getting closed in

bedroom wall and skylight

another view of the bedroom - so much brighter already!

air conditioning tubes in the corner get covered up

vanity wall in the bathroom- ready for lights and medicine cabinets

Shopping

The endless shopping is hopefully coming to an end. We did a big tile trip and picked up everything we still needed for the kitchen backsplash and shower walls and floor. My dad gave us some leftover marble hex a few years ago, but it wasn't quite enough - so we tried to match it as close as possible for the floor in the old sleeping porch part of the bathroom where the toilet and shower will go (a). For the backsplash in the kitchen and the shower walls  - we picked Sahara Carrara tile which seems a little warmer than the carrara. We got long skinny rectangles for the backsplash (b) and bigger rectangles for the shower (c). We don't have countertops yet, but are hoping that the backsplash can go with lots of options. Lastly - we picked up a stone mosaic for the shower floor - something with lots of space for grout so it won't be slippery, and a darker color so there would be some contrast (d).  

all of the tile

so much heavier than it seems like it should be

The Big Problem

We got a structural engineer to look at the brick issue. Thankfully, it sounds like the solution isn't as awful as I was expecting. They just need to put up a few steel beams to carry the weight. Sounds like the previous contractor we hired did a bad job of putting in a beam over the doorway, which wasn't actually supporting the bricks above, so the weight of the brick wall was pushing down and out - causing the exterior wall to push out. We haven't seen numbers yet - but our contractor said the solution wasn't a big deal, and should only take a couple days to fix. So hopefully they can wrap that up next week and get back on track. 

lots of demo to see the underlying problems

Living in a Renovation
So I feel like this week went a lot better than the previous two, living-wise. I think we've finally sort of figured out how to make this work. Despite the rest of the floor being a disaster - the living room has stayed relatively normal, so that's where we spend all of our awake time. We brought down a little table for eating, which makes things feel pretty normal, even with all the tarps surrounding us. And food-wise, after lots of and lots of takeout and a few failed attempts with the slow-cooker, we've found our groove on the grill. I didn't realize you can just stick pots and pans directly on the grills, which allows for pretty normal cooking. Of course- it's starting to get dark around dinner time now, and chilly, so this isn't a perfect solution and won't work forever - but this week really worked out ok.

a quiet space in the midst of chaos

a repeat dinner of grilled chicken, roasted veggies, and a pot of boiling water for mashed potatoes

Next up -we have a few more shopping trips to make, they've got to fix the big problem, and then I think things can really start coming together. Feeling very optimistic today!