Once Upon a Bathroom

Kyle could renovate the entire house by himself, but the clock is ticking. We need to move sooner rather then later so we don't have a double mortgage payment and we don't really want to have Jack in a house that's being renovated so we found a solution.

Thanks to a referral from a co-worker, we met with a contractor who does it all with the exception of HVAC work.

His crew will arrive at our new house tomorrow to do plumbing and electrical. While Kyle works on painting and refinishing the hardwoods, the contractor will start here.

He'll move the toilet to where the drawers are. While he's at it, he'll swap out the sink to this sink which I bought off craigslist at a $125 discount:

And he'll install some really pretty white tile on the floor along with this chandelier 

And a simple mirror that we have in the old house.

I'm going for a vintage elegance in this small space. Once again, how many times have your guests used your GUEST bathroom? 

Next he'll go here, the upstairs bath and fix this floor:

Originally we thought we could do a makeshift job here and put tile on tile, paint the old tile, etc, but the contractor gave us a pretty reasonable quote to tear up all the old tile on the floor (this is a big job due to the thickness of the old tile) and replace it with new tile, replace the toilet, swap out the pedestal sink for a sink with counter space. I cannot wait to see the finished product here. 

And then he'll go here. One thing I cannot stand about our current home is the lack of light in the living room. The two story space does not lend itself to light when the sun goes down. So the contractor will resolve our future problem and install lighting in the livingroom. Once again, this is a big job which involves removing drywall, installing wiring. He's installing 4 can lights and a fan in the center of the room. I cannot wait to be able to READ in my living room.

He'll fix the short in the kitchen electrical:

Next he'll go here and install carpet. I'm not OCD, but I really don't like the idea of used carpet especially knowing the previous owner had pets. I can barely handle laying Jack in here even when I have a quilt on the floor. I can't wait to have new carpet in this space. Carpet and carpet pad at Lowes $225. Installation and removal by contractor: $90. Not bad. 

On a very surprising note, as I was negotiating the cost for the overall job he held his ground and offered to do more work for the cost. He offered to put up crown molding (which Kyle can do) and I somehow convinced him to refinish the upstairs hardwoods along with the stairs. This is also a big job  someone may charge $1,000-$1,500. He is tossing it in at no cost.

So he'll refinish all of these hardwoods leaving Kyle with the kitchen...

He'll rip up the carpet and refinish the stairs. 

The last thing he is doing is removing the junk from the garage and clearing out the landscaping disasters and clutters in the backyard. Could we do this ourselves? Absolutely. Do we want to do this ourselves with a newborn and other more fun house projects? Absolutely not. So he will haul it all away for us.