After we bought our house in November of 2020, we started to do a couple of updates right off the bat that we knew would be kind of messy before officially moving in. We stayed at Bob and Donna's until the end of January 2021 while we had floors restored. Terrazzo, baby!
With the floors done we were ready to move in! Rob was taking some things over to the house to drop off and when he walked in there was water coming into the kitchen pouring out from under the cabinets. He couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. He just happened to see our neighbor getting home from work (who is a plumber) so Rob ran out and asked him if he could help. He came right over with his son-in-law and thankfully, they were able to identify and fix the issue. The hose to the faucet had come out from under the sink in the hallway bathroom and was pouring down behind the wall through the kitchen and unbeknownst to us also behind the other wall to the back playroom on the other side of the bathroom. They were able to clean up all of the water, and even repair the hose for us. SUCH AMAZING neighbors.
That incident kind of delayed our move for a couple more weeks so that we could clean everything up and have a water mitigation company come in to put fans in and really get everything back into a better condition for us to live there.
After we moved in we were also able to get an insurance claim process started for the water damage and mold damage that occurred because of the leak. We started the process of getting estimates for the repairs as well as all the material. With the help of my cousin I became the “general contractor” for the project. I started getting everything together in April and May, but the work didn't begin until the end of July. At that point we moved back in with Bob and Donna because the work included tearing down walls to the studs, shutting down the plumbing, and having the kitchen contained and treated for mold.
We failed the first Mold inspection so that pushed everything back, and the mold mitigation company had to come back to re-do the mold containment and treatment. After that we passed the mold inspection so we could green light the new drywall going up and then the new cabinets went in along with the new counters and some of the appliances.
Separately we also had our windows updated to impact windows throughout the whole house. The timing of when they were delivered ended up being right when the kitchen was done, so by early October we moved back into a house that had gotten a major face-lift (all that was missing was the installation of the remaining appliances).
By the end of the first week back though we noticed the air conditioner was acting up...
And you guessed it, the compressor died... it was about 15 years old, we knew it didn't have much life left but the timing was hard because as you can imagine it was not an expense we were ready for after all the other items had come up. Big thank you to my family for helping us be able to get the new a/c.
And just for good measure, the pool pump also spazzed out, so we had to replace that in late September.
A few weeks later, Rob was mowing the lawn and the lawn mower stopped working mid-way through. At that point our neighbor came over and jokingly said, we need to douse your house in holy water so everything stops failing on you! (EEK!) That me laugh and think of Michael Scott from The Office saying, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.” Lol!
We weren’t planning on updating the kitchen right away but since the leak happened, we had to make repairs, and so I started to get excited about making updates and getting to set it up just how we'd like it. Thankfully, since then, it's been much less exciting. Our house seems to be getting more comfortable with us as owners, and we are starting to figure it all out little by little.
Here are some photos of the transformation from Nov 2020 - Oct 2021.
Much Love,
Los Hicksons
The Kitchen was originally enclosed, and the house had tile and carpet. Before moving in, we had the original floor restored, and we removed the kitchen enclosure.
Demo Day!
Removing the carpeting… yay, terrazzo!
In some rooms, we found vinyl flooring under the carpet!
With the floors restored, the last thing I did was remove the upper cabinet doors and add some fun palm leaf wallpaper as an accent. We assumed this would be our set up for awhile, but less than a week later we had the leak! (Jan 2021)
Completely gutted the old cabinets and walls (Jul 2021)
Mold containment
New walls! (Aug 2021)
New cabinets and counters... almost there… the pendants get progressively dusty! lol =) (Sep 2021)
Impact windows get installed - the goose is thrilled.
I added the wallpaper to the cutlery drawer as a nod to the old kitchen!
Pot filler, accent backsplash, gas range! Pretty much done!
Thankful to be getting more settled after the unexpected renovation. This is a recent photo of us out for a walk in our neighborhood. Lucie is in a Rapunzel dress while driving her RC Monster Truck. That about sums it up!