Remodel #1 before/after pictures

How do I start this final blog? Let's try the beginning. Roger and I got married in 1977, had two kids, bought a big house, fixed it up and lived in it for 24 years. As a family, we have very special memories of our home and lives on Elmwood Ave.

About 5 or 6 years ago, knowing our kids were eventually going to begin their lives "away" from us, we started looking for a smaller home. There's a part of me that is still surprised we actually followed through! We looked at several homes but nothing felt right until we looked at the house on Carla Lane. Although it needed LOTS of work, and still does, we saw the potential. We know others, especially our kids, thought we were crazy, but after much prayer we decided to make the move. Because it is such a great area, we knew we were "buying the neighborhood" so Roger started drawing plans to make the house ours. 

Thanks to the tireless work of my hubby Roger, Trinity Renovation's Scott Monday, JSO Construction's Jared Oller, CS Design's Casey Soderlund and countless others, our vision is now reality. Enjoy scrolling through our first remodel. 

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

The new built-in living room bookshelf was an added bonus...a great suggestion from a very creative friend.

I can hardly wait for a rainy day to sit in front of the fire in my cozy new living room!

For those of you who have been following our process, you know this remodel was not without a few bumps along the way. I will again sing the praises of our Project Manager, Scott, who did whatever it took to make things right. 

We know we are incredibly blessed. We look forward to having many family and friends gatherings so that you, too, can enjoy what has been given to us. All we have is a gift from above and we are grateful beyond words.

Stay tuned, people. Remodel #2, if all goes according to plan, should begin in September or October. The previous owner enclosed a patio and made a bonus room. We have been using it as storage and a place to watch TV. It, too, is coming down and will be replaced by a den. Here is a taste of what is to come.

Our door is always (well, almost) open. Please feel free to give us a call and stop by for a glass of your choice. I might even have some special treats in the pantry!

Bye bye for now.

Week 15

We are almost there, folks. This week brought the installation of the fridge and dishwasher.

Almost as important was the installation of the cabinet that houses Roger's toaster. If you know the Dials, you know how much they LOVE bread.

The zipper wall came down this week, which gives our cats the freedom to roam the house. I am sure they are very glad for this stage of the remodel! Thank you, Scott Monday, for this amazing way to keep the dust out of the back part of the house and a secure place for our cats.

This weekend brought touch up painting and baseboards.

We've moved the furniture back into the living and dining rooms and once the blue painter's tape is removed, we will make some decisions on where to place the couches, chairs and tables. 

This week will bring the installation of the kitchen drawer hardware and pantry shelves. I will then be able to move the food out of the plastic bins and into their new living spaces. I can hardly wait to fill it all up! 

I know I promised before/after pics. We're not quite there yet. Patience, my friends. It'll happen.

Week 13 & 14

I was scolded by a friend today for not posting a blog last week. Sorry. There really was nothing to post. I mistakenly thought the floors would take 4 days. Wrong. They actually took 6 days. Installation of the kitchen floor, fitting it to the already existing living room floor, filling in all the gaps, sanding and three coats of stain and sealer was a time consuming process but oh, so worth it. The floors are gorgeous.

This week also brought the unveiling of the new gas fireplace. The weather has been so cold that we might just fire it up this weekend!

I have been told that the coming week will bring the "finish work" projects...baseboards, final plumbing and electrical, touch up painting, and finally the delivery of the fridge and dishwasher. I can see it...that light at the end of the tunnel! Stay tuned, folks. I'll be posting before/after pics soon!

Week 11 & 12

As with any remodel project, there are delays and setbacks. We have certainly experienced our share of both the past couple of weeks. After the staining situation, we naively thought we were "home free" and close to finishing this project. This proved not to be the case. On Wednesday, May 4, I had a full day of IEP meetings at work. This was the day the granite was to be installed. After two meetings, we got word that one parent was not going to be able to attend her meeting so that gave me a window of 30 minutes (it was recess time as well) to come home and take a couple of pictures. At this point the solid one piece slabs had been installed and they were beautiful. The crew was installing the 18 ft span, which due to the length, had a seam. They had set the clamps and were just about ready to glue it to the top of the cabinets. I walked in and saw, much to my dismay, that the two pieces of granite DID NOT match up. Somehow in the process of preparing the granite, one slab got flipped and the company had bullnosed the wrong front edge so when the two pieces were put together it was obviously incorrect. A call to Jared, our contractor, and to the owner of the tile company led to halting the project until a solution could be found. The slabs went back to the shop to be adjusted. The solution? Flip the granite slab and re-bullnose the other edge. Sounds easy but  it was quite complicated. So as not to bore you with all the details, let's just say that it finally worked out after much discussion and hard work.
I, for one, believe it was providential that I "happened" to come home at just the right moment and catch the mistake. If I had not, the slabs would have been glued down incorrectly and it would have made for a very unsightly 18 ft granite span. It begs the question, "does God care about granite"? Probably not but I do believe that He loves His children and cares about what it important to us. I choose to believe He knows how much sweat and work has gone into this project and what is important to us is important to Him. Okay, enough said. Sermon over. Time for some photos.

After the granite was installed, the glass tile backsplash came next. The appliances are beginning to be installed as well. 

Next week, hopefully on Thursday, the floor installation will begin. We've been told it is a 4 day job. After that the fridge can be brought in and we can get out of the garage! Finish work will take a couple of days and we can close the book on this first remodel job on Carla Lane. Oops...probably shouldn't get ahead of things too much. 

Week 10

A 4 day cabinet staining job turned into a two week stripping and re-staining process. Thanks to the artistic talent and painstaking work of Shawn, from Apex painting company, our cabinets are now very close to how we had originally envisioned them to be. As I wrote last week, the first attempt at staining was unsuccessful. The stain was left on the cabinets too long and they ended up looking painted, with no visible grain. Although pretty, it was not what we wanted. Thanks to the understanding of the owner of the company, who also agreed that the cabinets needed to be redone, we now have properly stained cabinets.

           I am very much looking forward to filling, and then emptying this gorgeous wine cabinet!

                                                       View from the dining room area

It is so nice to have all the paper and plastic off the walls. With the removal of the paper and plastic, the smell dissipated almost immediately. Our home away from home, AKA the pop-up trailer, will be taken away this weekend. Thanks again to Kim Hays for providing us with a smell free escape!

The rest of the remodel should move rather quickly from this point forward. We're looking forward to the granite and floor installation this coming week. 

Happy weekend everyone!

Week 9

What a week! For those of you who don't have a Facebook page, let me catch you up to speed on our remodel process. Last Saturday the staining process was complete....we thought. We were happy with the stain color when the stainer left for the day. As the weekend progressed, the cabinets got darker and darker and darker to the point of not being able to see any grain in the wood. By Monday they actually looked painted rather than stained.

A phone call to Jared led to a meeting at the end of the day on Monday with the owner of the staining company. He looked at our sample board then looked at the cabinets and said, "we'll make it right". So began the process of stripping ALL the stain off ALL the cabinets. 

Suffice it to say that all the chemicals in our house smelled terribly. We were fortunate enough to borrow a friend's pop up trailer, which now sits in our driveway. It is a nice escape when needed. The neighbors are calling us the Clampetts! Haha.

Towards the end of the week, the wine rack arrived and was pounded into place. I am really looking forward to using this! 

So, as you can see, this has been an "interesting" week. Every remodel needs a bump in the road, right? This put us back about a week and a half but in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. The re-staining began today and will continue into next week until complete. We are confident it will be made right this time!

 It has not been the Spring Break I was anticipating but summer vaca is just around the corner.

Due to this snafu, we were given an opportunity to really witness the integrity and character of the owner of Trinity Renovation, Scott Monday. He stopped by yesterday to see how things were progressing. Apparently he noticed that I was in the middle of getting ready to go out so he casually asked what we were doing that evening. I told him we were going to Camp 4 for dinner with some friends. Long story short, after enjoying the wine and food at the restaurant we asked for our bill so we could move on to our next destination. The tag, along with Scott's business card, was brought to the table. Confused, we asked for clarification. We were told that Scott had been to Camp 4 prior to our arrival. He had made arrangements to pay for our dinner. I was completely overwhelmed, to the point of tears. Roger was speechless and our friends felt like they hit the jackpot, being the recipients of our good fortune! This is the mark of not only a good businessman but also a man who owned the mistake of the staining company, which he didn't have to do. Thank you, Scott Monday, for being who you are. To those of you reading this, if you are looking for a company to renovate your home or business, Trinity Renovation is the company to call. Please, however, wait until they finish our project!

Happy Easter everyone. He is risen indeed.

Week 8

This week brought stain, stain and more stain. Our house is torn apart again but I guess we have to get messy before we can finish this project completely. One more coat of stain on Saturday, a clear coat on Monday and the cabinets will be finished. Well, almost. We decided to turn one of the cabinets into a wine rack so it may be a few days before that is built and installed.

Our cats are in jail again behind the zippered wall. We certainly don't want cat hair on the wet cabinets. We are hoping they have short memories!

If I was being honest, I would have to say Roger and I have looked at each other a few times over the past week and wondered why we chose to live here during this project. It's all part of the adventure, right? 

I am looking forward to getting away for a couple of days next week during my Spring Break. The Pacific Ocean is calling my name so off I go. Roger is staying home to monitor things (I will owe him for this one!) while I go visit our friends Connie and Peggy in Pacific Grove. 

If on schedule, hardwood floors are next. Fingers crossed!!

Week 7

Wow. What a week. We knew at some point the pace would pick up after 3 weeks of small, but important jobs being accomplished but we had no idea things would move so quickly all at once! Please enjoy as I attempt to take you through our week.
We were initially told the windows would be delivered on Tuesday but they came on Wednesday instead. Thanks to Roger, who stayed home from work, for cat duty. With no windows, we knew they both make their escape! We now have brand new windows throughout the entire house!!

What we didn't know, was that the cabinets were being delivered on Wednesday, with installation scheduled for Thursday and Friday. 

We had cabinet pieces EVERYWHERE!!

On Friday, the mason arrived to retrofit the brick on the front of the house.

As I said, it was a busy week at the Dial's. Here are a couple more pics of what it looks like now that all the workers have gone home for the weekend.

On a side note, we had an open space in the living room that had some funky shelves in it. Neither Roger nor I liked it and even considered closing the space completely. Thanks to our friend, Judi, who suggested we add another cabinet, this is what we got. It's perfect!

What started in our minds as a kitchen remodel has definitely turned into a much bigger project. We have torn down walls, a fireplace and chimney, added windows and a gas fireplace, painted additional rooms, installed recessed lighting and we certainly aren't finished. More to come next week!