The work is getting done!

As promised, I was chained to the foyer until it was done, or at least until the tile was layed.

The grouting will commense next week. Put the grout in is pretty easy, however then you have to clean it up off the tile tops, which is a major pain. It won't be too bad, but the cleaning means hands and knees for 4 hours straight. Ugh...

This is the foyer before. I have stripped all the woodwork for the job, and will put up all new working soon.

It only took me about 90 minutes to put all this down, and probably about 8.5 hours total of prep time for everything (5 of which were spent over many days). The hardest part was laying it all out and cutting the design to all fit perfectly. It worked out pretty nicely.

The end result (without grout) looks awesome really compared to the garbage look before, if I may say so myself.

We bought this house and well, lets say it was REALLY back-dated. Worn out shag carpet from the 70's, ugly paint everywhere styles from the 70's and 80's, ugly wall paper, ugly cheap original cabinets, tubs, toilets, doors, lights, and trimming. Pretty much everything but the finished shell needed replacing. Well, that was prime motivation for buying this house. A house that was finished like we would want would cost about 50% more. So, I made the decision to do the work myself, and do it like we wanted to. The end result will be very nice, and add that 50% value to the house, only costing us the parts and lots of elbow grease.

To date, we have:
1. painted the whole house inside (except the basement, which is soon), some rooms twice.
2. painted the exterior, which was a HUGE job, but it was pink and rust colored, and HAD to get done.
3. put down all new carpet, restored the oak flooring in the living room. It still needs refinished, but it is ok since it had been covered with lime green shag since the very early 70's. Shag makes nice wood floor protection. Just taking up the carpet probabaly added a couple K to the value of the house.
4. Installed all new doors, which look very nice, and save lots on the electric bill.
5. Installed over-head lighting in most rooms (need to do a few more, but it has been great functionally and asthetically).
6. Did some minor upgrades to the kitchen with new light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and installed a cheap but decent looking laminate floor tile over the old ugly stuff.
7. Since the deck that came with the house was rotted and ugly, we ripped it out and I put in a cement patio, which looks great. I also did a significant amount of landscaping to the back yard, and some to the front. The front is in need of an over-haul including a wall-way to the front door (right now it is just grass). The old landscaping was pretty much non-existant except some remenents of stone that has long settled into the ground. The grass looks good now too, coming from weed infested brown ugly to lush, green and weed-free.

The remaining list to do is pretty long, but includes:
1. Remodel bathroom: this is REALLY needed. We have "flesh" colored sink/tub/toilet... yikes. The shower tile leaks, and everything is just nasty really. We had fixed it up some to make it look ok, but it is time. This is next on the list as I have everything I need to get going on it. Will start in January.
2. Remodel bathroom 2: The back bath will be easier, but it is just as nasty.
3. Remodel kitchen: we have decide to tentatively go the budget route here. This will be me building new cabinet doors myself, and striping the old shells to refinish them. Then we will be redoing the tile back-spash, and building a tile countertop to replace the old. New sink, and probably new stove and refridgerator as budget permits. I will install a pergo wood finish floor as well. All new lighting through out.
4. Refinish build-in shelving.
5. Add crown molding to whole house. I plan on making this myself at this point.

There are several other projects discussed, but that takes me out about 4 years or so, and I don't want to sign up for too much :)