Saturday, February 6, 2010

The biggest Transformation......sheetrock!

After all the demo, permitting and framing our electrician and plumber came into the picture (Chris and I both agreed that it was better to leave those tasks to the professionals). The whole house was re-wired and the plumbing was set for our new master bathroom and the kitchen re-plumbed. And then the fun part.........sheetrock!!! It's amazing to see the walls go back up and actually get a feel for what the house will feel like.

Pic- Chris is standing in the den looking into the kitchen
(he is prepping the opening for the molding)

Pic- Same as above- This time standing in the kitchen

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

New Layout & Permits

When we bought our house it felt dark in almost every room. I can remember telling Chris that it felt cave-esque! Even though there are 21 windows, each room was so compartmentalized that it was blocking off the light flow. We decided to open things up to let the light flow and thus a new layout was born!!!
The dashed lines were walls that we took down, the front bathroom was added from a space that used to be the front porch (more to come on that) and the kitchen was turned into a large galley to, again, create more light throughout.



You might notice the City of Houston Permit stamp on the plans.......Well, since we were doing an extensive kitchen remodel (full gut job), new wiring, new plumbing for the kitchen and adding a master bathroom we had to get city permits. Normally this is taken care of by a general contractor, but since Chris and I were the acting GC on our house I took on the project of obtaining the city permit. After consulting my brother (the structural engineer) many times regarding the plans and the process to obtain a permit, I headed downtown fully expecting to be rejected the first time. BUT, after a few hours of jumping from desk to desk and office to office I ended up walking away with our permit in hand!!!!!!



See those yellow beauties hanging in our front window??? Those are our PERMITS!!!! YEA!!