--We painted the entire downstairs - walls with primer and two coats of paint, ceiling with primer, and the baseboards and trim with another coat of white...
--Gabe installed 1/4" plywood over the living room floor, to make it the same height as the existing kitchen floor (or subfloor)
--Wood laminate flooring got installed throughout the downstairs (hired someone/workers to do this)
--Gabe put down the quarter round all around the downstairs baseboards - big job...
Other than that - well, there's been two issues.
1) The bar top we ordered from Lowes' was supposed to be a rectangular shape, curved on the two ends (2 out of the 4 corners), to match the other bar top that was already in the kitchen. Gabe even traced the exact curve of our other bar top on a piece of paper and brought it to the guy, to show him exactly the radius size to have the laminate cut.
So we went to pick it up when we were told it was ready, 2 weeks ago or so, and they brought it out and instead of having a nice smooth curve on either end, it curved to a point - and then there was just a seam, and the straight front met that seam at an angle. So instead of the nice smooth curve, there's a sharp semi-corner in the middle of it. I mean seriously? Who would order something like that? And was it the fault of the Lowes' guy we placed the order with, or the manufacturing company Lowes' sends the orders to? We were told that maybe their laminate cutting machine just couldn't cut a radius that small, but... clearly there's a machine somewhere that can cut it, because it's the same size as our existing bar top!
While we maybe could've lived with it (at a significant discount), then we noticed that the back side of the piece wasn't even covered with the laminate. So the long end of the bar top on the side of the stove/kitchen, instead of covered in gray speckled laminate, was just unfinished wood. It's a bar top! It's visible from all angles! So why...
Anyway, we re-ordered it - the new guy made some changes to the form, and supposedly we can pick it up Monday. So we'll see...
2) We had laminate wood flooring installed everywhere downstairs, including the bathroom... and part of that job was of course to disconnect and lift up the toilet to put in the floor all around it. Well, apparently, when you put a toilet back in, you're supposed to also put in a new wax seal. You know, so the toilet doesn't leak. Our guys put the toilet back in with the old wax seal, finished the floor, and were on their way. A few days later we were wondering why the bathroom downstairs smelled so bad, until Gabe checked it out. And I'm sure you can guess the rest of the story. Yes, toilet/sewage water had leaked from the toilet to get underneath our brand new floor...
Long story short, Gabe ripped up the floor/padding all around the toilet, sopped up the water, put fans on the floor to dry it out, generally cleaned it all up, and they came and replaced just the floor this past week. Gabe's going to do re-install the toilet with his contractor this week, because they'll do it correctly...
But other than those things - everything's almost done! We're really excited at how well it's coming together. And it's finally starting to feel like home - also over the past month, we've bought:
--a loveseat
--a TV
--a washer and dryer
--an elliptical machine
--a rug
--a lot more little stuff...
Within the next couple of weeks, we should get the bar top, Gabe and Aaron will fix the downstairs toilet and install our pendant lights, and Gabe'll finish the staircase. We also ordered new blinds. And then... it's just little detail work? Artwork hanging, further organizing, etc. Maybe doing something with the yard.
But here, you can see for yourselves - without further ado:
New paint color
Gabe putting down the new 1/4" plywood subfloor
with unfinished subfloor
my contribution:
the new floor!!!
the current view from our dining room:
More to come soon!
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