As of today (Friday)

Finishing of the drywall, I think. I'm a bit unclear on this part of the process, but it looks nice! Facing the stove/oven area. You can now see the vent area for the hood. The white cords hanging out of the wall are for the under cabinet lighting.

Old breakfast nook/toward dining room. The wood at the bottom is the flooring. We are attempting to match as close as possible to the existing oak floor.

Sink area. I've been in search of lighting today for above the sink, the island and the desk area. Lowes didn't have anything that grabbed me for these, although I did choose the pendants for the bathroom. On to Home Depot and a local lighting store tomorrow.

Facing the back door. Hasn't really changed much since before, except for the drywall finishing.

Doorway into the master bath. The wall ahead is where my closet used to be, for reference.

Where the toilet and sinks will go. The inset area will be a small cabinet.

Bathtub shower area. The tub is under the cardboard. The grey stuff is special drywall for wet areas (wetwall?). I'm realizing how totally ignorant I am about this whole process as we go.

Where the window was (and still is, behind the drywall). I still can't quite get over that there's a window! Behind there!

Facing the bedroom from the bathroom. The built-ins in the distance were recently installed, and at first I thought they were too big but now I love them. It will be so lovely to have our bedroom back when this is all done, and I can make it all pretty again. We are also getting a king size bed, and I'm looking forward to new bedding and drapes. We will have to repaint the bedroom, but we'll most likely stick with a similar color, since it is FIJI purple and makes Dan happy.

Wednesday this week (just the kitchen), and how we're living during the renovations

Mudding! Of the drywall! Apparently the least favorite task, according to the workers. Dan asks these kinds of questions of them, sometimes while offering them some of his beer collection. I'm thinking they hope we come up with more projects for them.

Facing the stove/oven area.

Old breakfast nook, looking toward the dining room.

Sink area. 

How we wash dishes. Hence, we are using LOTS of paper & plastic products.

Welcome to our litchen - living room/kitchen hybrid. There is barely space for two people to sit anywhere. The microwave is in the dining room, so at least we have that.

Two holes have had to be cut in the wall/ceiling of this room to access pipes & such. We will be tackling this room right after the current renovations are done, needless to say.

As of this week, Monday-ish

A tub! Installed! I was very tempted to climb in.

Drywall! In the kitchen! I'm definitely a fan of drywall, although the smell is a bit overpowering during some of the process. This is, in case you haven't been following along, facing the sink area.

Stove/oven area

Was the breakfast nook, dining room is just beyond, will now have the fridge, pantry, and a desk area.

Facing the back door from the mudroom. The dark square to the left is the laundry chute, which used to be covered up (on this floor - we've always had access from the 2nd floor). This will now be accessible from the kitchen. I've been finding random items to send down just for fun. Perhaps the drywall fumes are getting to me.

Kitchen & bath, two weeks later...

I took these today. Much of the work that was done between when the last photos were taken and these was plumbing, electrical, framing, and moving ductwork, none of which makes for dramatic photos. However, drywall is now going up in the bathroom and some in the kitchen, so it's more obvious that work is moving forward.

Kitchen:

Looking down the hallway between the kitchen and the stairs to the 2nd floor, toward the front door

Facing where the ovens, stovetop and microwave used to be. The shiny duct that goes up the wall was the one that had to be moved the most, from the middle of the room to the wall.

Facing where the sink was (and will be again). I'm quite excited about all the lighting, because what we used to have cast a shadow no matter where you were working. And, I just realized from looking at these that the ceiling is in! I hadn't even seen that when I took the photos. Now I must go back and admire it in person.

Facing the dining room, where the breakfast nook used to be. The fridge will go where the drywall on the left is, and there will be a pantry cupboard between the fridge and the wall going into the dining room.

Looking down the hallway toward the back of the house. That small room was our too deep and narrow pantry but will now become a cleaning/broom closet. I need to figure out what shelving we should use, because it's still deep and narrow. At least it keeps us from getting any bigger, or we wouldn't be able to get to the back of it!

Bathroom:

The new doorway into the master bathroom. I don't think I posted a "before" pic, but this used to be an archway. It will now have a door, partly because the room is now entirely the bathroom, but also because then when Dan has to get up earlier than I do to go to work, he can turn lights on without worrying about waking me. We will be using the same door that originally went into the old bathroom area, which is why the doorway seems smaller than usual. It is.

Facing where Lynette's closet used to be. The bench does not stay, as lovely as it is.

There used to be a window here! It's actually still there, behind the drywall, and from the outside you can't even tell that it's boarded up. The guys put the blinds back up before covering it up. Hopefully they never fall or break, or we will become THAT family.

Facing the old bathroom area.

Where the shower was, and where the bathtub will go. The tub is currently sitting in our garage, so I expect it will be put in soon. I had to hurry up and choose the fixtures last week so they could know where to put everything before finishing the drywall.

Where Dan's closet used to be. The linen cabinet/built-in will go here. Dan discovered that the light switches are not wired the way we thought they should be, logically, so the electrician will be changing them. Little details like that are why I'm glad we didn't vacate the premises during the construction. We are really happy with our contractor & the workers, but there are always these things that pop up you never think of.

Bathroom demo, part 1

The kids and I were away while this was going on, so Dan did the honors.

Wall where the sink was. The blue area is a gap below the stairs to the 3rd floor.

Where the toilet and wall were, plus part of Lynette's old closet area.

Lynette's old closet.

 Close-up of the stairs and pipes.

Where all the new insulation we had blown in a few years ago, above the bathroom, was.

Kitchen demo, part 1

I started out consistently taking pictures after each day's work, then I found my sanity. Dan has picked up where I left off, so we still have a fairly good representation of how things are moving along. I'll try to keep them in the correct order, but no promises.

 First, some questionable taste in wallpaper was discovered in the kitchen:

 Then, the walls literally came down:

 Facing the breakfast nook from the kitchen

Where the fridge used to be

Where the ovens, stovetop and microwave used to be

Where the sink used to be

The BEFORE pictures, master bath

Master bath demo started a few days after the kitchen. The plan here is to make it all one big room rather than a small bathroom with a closet/dressing area. There will be a door that closes between the bedroom and bathroom area, and we are adding a tub and a 2nd sink. We will also get a fairly sizeable linen cabinet plus enclosed closet and drawer space. We are covering up the existing window, but we never used it anyway.

Bathroom:

Lynette's old closet:

Dan's old closet:

Looking from the dressing area into the bathroom: