The Main House: Scaffolding/The Roof...

So it's been 9 months since the fire and not a whole lot has happened.  There was asbestos abatement as we found out that there was asbestos in our ceilings...which collapsed all over our stuff.  So we had to throw away all clothes and anything with fabric.  Then the house pretty much sat for a period of time.  There was a reason for this but it's a long story and not really worth talking about at this point.  It just is what it is. Moving on... so the newest thing is that we have a dumpster, porta potty and scaffolding, oh my.

It sounds so boring but when absolutely nothing went on for so long it's encouraging to see progress. The next thing to be done is to remove the entire roof, re-frame it and re-tile it. It just started but it's going to take about 5 months. Needless to say nothing can really be done in the house until a new roof is put on.  As it stands the house is not weather proof and leaks when it rains...awesome. We occasionally go in the house just to plan and see what's going on in it.  It's so bizarre to see it now. It doesn't even feel like our house anymore. Probably because it doesn't have our things..or walls! Meanwhile I've gotten quite used to living in our carriage house.  For Christmas I bought a half Christmas tree to save space.  Yep you read that right.  It's literally a half of a tree...fake, of course.  It was really a space saver though.  Since our decorations were in our basement and in plastic containers they were able to be saved. So the kids stuffed every ornament onto half a tree.  It was kind of comical to see but they loved it and that's all that matters.

Now that Christmas is over I'm looking forward to a fresh start in 2020.  We had a rough 2019.  There were a few highlights but mostly it was a pain in the ass.  Here's to a New Year, progress, and keeping my sanity in 550 sq ft with kids who are trying their best to drive me bonkers! Honestly, they've really been troopers and are good most of the time #nothey'renot.;) Happy New Year!

The Carriage House Project: The Bedroom Moodboard

This was the plan for the master bedroom.  Master sounds a bit stately for such a small place, but, you get it.

Fabric: Sanderson Etchings and Roses
Light: Pottery Barn Kids Quinn Chandelier
Bed: Wayfair Lyster Platform Bed
Nightstands and Dresser: West Elm
Rug: Rugs Usa Temara Morrocan Demarche Tassel Rug
Bedding: Wayfair

Anywho, the room is mostly done...except for the curtains.  I've completely let the ball drop because I've just had more important things going on and the room is completely functional without them.  I've always loved the fabric though and it's discontinued so I'm not sure if it will even happen at this point.  I've got my source on standby to buy it if it's still available.  We shall see. The rest of the room is cute though.  Or it was until my husband left a bottle of scented plug in oil on the nightstand and it leaked, unbeknownst to us.  It wasn't until we were dusting that we noticed that it totally saturated the top of his nightstand. So the nightstand smells great but looks like crap and is completely ruined. So we'll be buying another one. I'll post some pictures soon...like after the craziness that is Christmas;)

The Carriage House Project: The Kitchen

We were able to salvage some of the kitchen from our house for the carriage house.  Since the kitchen in our house is an addition with a separate roof it wasn't as affected by the water damage as the rest of the house.  Not all the cabinets were salvageable but we were able to piecemail some together. We were also able to reuse our pendant light, faucet and island counter top.  We didn't even need to adjust the size of the countertop to fit the smaller space!   It's like those jeans in that movie "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"! We felt really good about being able to reuse some of our original kitchen.  It seems environmentally responsible and there's also some nostalgia there.

The shelves were actually cut out of the wood from the beams.  I never thought we'd have open shelving since we aren't the tidiest people.  Having very few things lends itself to less mess though.

And this is our small "mudroom".  It's a much needed place for shoes and outerwear.

So that's it for the common space for all four of us.  It really doesn't feel that small to us, just very cozy. I'm kind of loving it. Good thing since we'll be here for a while.  The bedrooms are quaint as well.  Quaint is code for teeny tiny.  I'll get to them in another post. They still aren't quite done pretty-wise but they're functional .  Good enough for now!

The Carriage House Project: The Living Room

This is the moodboard for the living room/kitchen:

Bookcase via Ballard Designs, Almazan Buffet via Wayfair, Rivy West Chandelier from Home Depot,
Lederer Rug via All Modern, Deliah Coffee Table via Grandin Road, Donington Stool via Wayfair, Tobacco Road Acacia Floors from Lumber Liquidators

And this is how it turned out.

We got the couch second hand.  Someone was moving and had only had it for a very short period of time.  It was the exact one that we were looking at at a local store but for much less...score! The flush door is a storage area.  It's kind of a mini office for a printer, papers and anything else we need to hide out of sight. And a glimpse of a keyboard. Both of my kids play the piano.  We had a baby grand (not sure if that made it out alive) but we were very fortunate that their piano teacher had a keyboard to lend to us.

I love the beams and the ceiling.  It's probably my favorite part, honestly.  The exposed lighting wasn't what I wanted originally but I actually really like the feel of it in the room. We actually get quite a lot of light in the room but the weather outside was a bit meh when I took these so I needed the extra light.

Next post I'll show the kitchen.  It really wasn't ready for its closeup if you're picking up what I'm putting down. Until next time, cheers!

The Carriage House Project: The Bathroom

This is what I envisioned for the bathroom.  

Vallie Outdoor Barn Light from Wayfair
Ikea Godmorgon/Rattviken Sink Cabinet/Medicine Cabinet from Ikea
Branwell Porcelain Field Tile in Lempicka from Wayfair
Thunderhead Gray Penny Round Tile from Home Depot
White subway tile from Daltile

 

The bathroom is small.  Period.  But that doesn't mean it can't have some personality!  It started with the floor tile. I knew I wanted to do a cement look tile which is popular at the moment.  I found this in my online search and I absolutely love it.  It wasn't going to break the bank either, especially since we didn't need a lot of it, #silverlinings!  Originally I wanted to do shiplap on the walls too but the room is small and already would have a lot of pattern with the floors and shower walls so we abandoned the idea.  It was also a money/time saver to not do it which was a bonus.  

Here's the progression:

The Schluter shower system.  Don't ask me what that is, I have no idea.  I know if I tried to look it up I'd spend a nanosecond before my mind would wander.  I have zero attention span for this stuff.  My husband, on the other hand, could probably teach a master class on it.  Oh opposites.  

And here's the shower wall/floor tile and bathroom floor tile in.  Just like that.  Bam! I wish it happened this quickly. It really looks amazing though. I'm so in love with the floor tile.  I seriously admire it every day.  

The sink, cabinets and medicine cabinets are from Ikea.  I really did NOT want to use something from Ikea because I wasn't sure about it's longevity.  Eventually I caved though because, 1) it was cheap and available and 2) it offered a ton of cabinet space, especially since the sink is so shallow.  The medicine cabinet is enormous as well.  I can store a cubic buttload in this thing which is much needed.

So this is the entire bathroom.  As you can imagine, it's very hard to get a good picture in such a small room (with no natural light to boot).  Right outside of the bathroom we do have another sink set up so it's not a total disaster, but the struggle is real when there's more than one person who has to use the toilet.  I know people that come from very large families that grew up sharing one bathroom.  I don't understand how that works but more power to them.  This is the one thing that I won't miss at all in this process.  As a mom, I already have zero privacy under normal circumstances.  We've dialed that up to an eleven now.

 

This is the extra sink outside of the bathroom.  When the architect first drew this into the plans I hated this idea.  Now that we're living here I get it. We needed an extra sink to brush teeth or wash hands in if someone was in the actual bathroom.  

So that's it for the bathroom.  I'll get to the other rooms in another post.

The Carriage House Project Phase 3: Insulation, Drywall and Floor

I never thought I'd be so excited about insulation but living in an old home that leaks like a sieve and costs a small fortune to heat and air condition was not something I wanted to repeat.  And look at it..it looks so neat and tidy, which appeals to my OCD.  I have to say, it's made all the difference, especially with sound dampening.  So important when 4 people are sharing such a small space.

Next came drywall and suddenly it was transformed.  It finally looked like something livable. 

My new bedroom.

The new kitchen island false wall

New front door and entry way stairs.

Here are pictures of the new floor in the kid's room. We went with an engineered wood from Lumber Liquidators.  We debated using an all wood floor but since we were on a timeline we didn't want to have to spend more time on the whole staining and sealing process. Plus, other than the time that we will live here, the floor isn't going to see that much foot traffic.

Also in these pictures is the start of the loft bed that spans the back wall.  So, two kids will share this room.  An 8x12 space.  What could possibly go wrong?  I'll keep you posted on that one.  Hopefully, in the span of two years, we all make it out alive....

The Carriage House Project: Small Space Storage Furniture

While all the construction was going on I was busy planning for how we were going to function in small quarters.  Where were we going to put all of our stuff?  I mean not that we have a ton at this point but I know how we roll and I know things are going to accumulate over time. I tried to find pieces that had storage options.  I'm not about to look at crap hanging out everywhere in this tiny home.  I also started to think about what style I wanted. The main house really needs to be more traditional but I wanted the carriage house to be something different, something I wouldn't normally do.  I thought it would be fun to do a modern farmhouse look, especially since the garage kind of looks like a barn and it was a real carriage house back in the day. That kind of steered a few decisions like exposed wood beams in the new living/kitchen area and shiplap on the ceilings in the bedrooms.  I'll show pictures of that in the upcoming posts, but I digress.  God I have a hard time staying on topic! Anyway, furniture. I started looking for a buffet as a tv cabinet and after spending at least a gazillion hours pouring over what felt like thousands of options I finally settled on this.

Almazan Buffet Via Wayfair

I'm not sure if it's still on the website but I can't say enough good things about this.  It has a ton of storage and it's very sturdy.

Next I was on a mission to find a coffee table.  I looked at some midcentury options but in the end I went with this from Grandin Road.

Via Grandin Road

It's actually an outdoor metal coffee table.  Storage, check.  Indestructible, check. The storage is huge.  I can fit blankets and pillows in this thing.  It's amazeballs.  I looked online and it looks like it's no longer for sale.  Maybe because it's seasonal?  I highly recommend it if it comes back in stock.

Lastly I bought a bookcase.  I figured I could put some baskets on a couple of shelves to hide some of our inevitable crap.  And there would be room for a couple of knick-knacks and picture frames.  I settled on this from Ballard Designs.

Via Ballard Designs

And yet again, something else that is no longer on their site.  That's totally not helpful but it is what it is. Anyway this was the start of the great storage search. Finding the rest of the decor was a lot less stressful.  Farmhouse decor seems to be everywhere you look.  TTFN!

The Carriage House Project Phase 2: New Framing/Electrical/HVAC etc.

After getting out the squirrel leaves and rot and assessing what was left, it was basically the exterior brick and some of the original wood beams.  Almost everything had to be reconstructed into something that was safe for habitation.  I always thought the floor seemed unstable and awfully springy...turns out it really was!

View of the addition

Another view. This is the new living room/kitchen.

Foundation for the new stairs on the side of the garage.

 

A view of our "master suite".  Did I mention that we have central air now?  That's a huge upgrade from the window unit that was a million years old. Our neighbor just confided in us that he was ready to give us some money to upgrade it...he was tired of listening to its death rattle.

You can see the ceiling height here.  It's about 11 ft high.  We figured we may has well have a tall shoe box to live in.

This last one shows the new wood beams in the living/kitchen area. These are obviously a little further along in the project.  And we got new windows put in.  You can actually open them!  It's the little things...

One thing I don't have great pictures of is the framing of the new bathroom and second bedroom. Everything is so small that it's hard to get good photos. It's also hard to conceptualize a loft bed that didn't exist at this point. On that note, I'll stop here.  I promise this is going to get more interesting when I show it more put together. Or at least it will for me...