Phase 6 - We've Moved In

This is the exterior after the painting. We plan on building a giant swing from the tree branches at some point... but I might put up some cool rock climbing holds so I can scale the tree in the time being. Over the next 3 weeks, we'll do some minor landscaping and lightscaping to the front and a major landscape project to the back... more photos of that in the upcoming weeks.


This is the Living Room with views through the bay window of the front yard.... front door on the left. You can just see Boston's red pillow lying at the base of the window. He sits there all day keeping watch of the house. Kate and I have been impressed with the large amount of strollers and dog walkers cruising by our home on the way to the neighborhood park 3 blocks away. Lots of action for Boston to scope out.

My wife is SOOO great, she let's me snap photos of our house with ESPN on in the background. Remember the old nasty carpeting? It's been replaced with gleaming hard wood floors.

This is the view from the bay window/front door to the fireplace. We have begun to place our growing wine collection in the nook on the back right... being so close to Napa & Sonoma has its privileges...

There used to be a wall that separated the dining room from the kitchen. We now have a much more open floor plan and flow from living room to dining room to kitchen. The laundry and doorway to the backyard is through the white doorway in the background of the photo.

Here is the guest bathroom. The camera flash makes it look a bit yellow. Its not... it is cozy with a really cool bathroom sink faucet. Kate and I have been using this bathroom each morning while the master bathroom is completed.

This is the guest bedroom, with views of the outside. This is a 3 bedroom house. The 3rd bedroom (not shown) is our office and is complete with another bed should we have more than one visitor at a time. We encourage all friends and family to visit. We LOVE the neighborhood and our life together in Sacramento. We want to share our home with all of you..................

This is the master bathroom shower. The entire master BEDROOM is black and white... photos to come once fully designed.... the Master Bedroom follows the overall look. The tile is a nice white and gray stone, with a white river pebble floor. Very zen...

Next up... outdoor landscaping. New photos over the next 4 weeks. Stay tuned...

Phase 5 - paint and floors

Welcome to the new house. Move in day is in 2 days. Kate assembled and installed this new address plaque after the exterior was painted. We are changing the light fixture shortly.

New exterior paint and trim is now complete, along with all of the interior painting.

Living Room bay window... carpet to be removed shortly.

Master bedroom. Color is Cream. Light socket switches and sconce lighting on the left to be installed shortly.

This is the office. The color is Glamour... but looks like purple. GO KINGS!

Floors yet to be done, but the color of this guest bedroom is Koi Pond.

Dining room painted. Kitchen to the left.

Cabinets mostly installed but covered so the painting could be done.

here is the kitchen tile.... a little dusty from all the sanding and grout... but they look good. Kate told the tile experts to stand back and tiled the majority of the kitchen herself. Apparently, they were not doing it right. I was beaming with pride.

This bad boy needs some stainless steel polish but you are looking at our double drawer dishwasher. I think Kate stained it with her greasy fingers. I asked her to be careful hoisting it into place as I relaxed and took the picture. Supposed to save water and is more energy efficient. We are soooo 2009.

Here is the stove/oven... Countertops installed tomorrow.

Check out the hardwood floors... The carpet was pulled up, rotted wood replaced and a new stain applied. The color is spicy brown. We are heating things up.

Final coat!! next up... moving day!

Phase 4

Guest bath/shower area is complete. Next up... sink, toilet and wall paint.

Boston is lending a helping paw. Check out the dust on the floor.

The master bath is coming along. The photo above illustrates the shower. What you see is the waterproofing mud. The tile will be laid on top of the mud. The shower has been placed where the doorway from the kitchen into the former laundry room once sat.

Here is a close up photo of the color. You can see the interior side of the windows are covered because they are painting the inside. The exterior trim will be BLACK instead of green. Be sure to click on any of the photos for a larger picture.

Phase 3

House is being painted. Major improvement to the outside body and gutters. Windows and front door will be black. The interior should be done by Saturday. We actually had a few neighbors thank us for purchasing the home. They must like the updates we've been doing... or maybe the former green exterior was just that bad.

Expert crew installing the new kitchen cabinets. We'll select the granite countertops this weekend.

Detailed view of the cabinets

This guy is standing above the area where the stove will go.

Phase 2

It has been one week since we last updated the blog. As you can see, the weeds, cement slabs, tree stump and nasty red manger have been removed. Now we have a blank canvas to build our backyard oasis... perfect for outdoor grilling.

Lots of work still to do in the backyard... but you can see the dark gray stucco covering/repairing the former doorway from the old laundry room to the backyard. The new doorway is covered in plywood to the far left of the house. The all glass french style door should be installed this week. The old kitchen cabinets and stove/oven won't be enjoying the sun much longer... time for the trash dump.

Guest bath... Waterproof drywall is hanging near the shower... will be tiled shortly.

We have started to lay out the tile work for the guest bath. The floor will use these field tiles in a 12"x12" size. The shower wall will display the same tile in a 6"x6" size. All oil rubbed bronze fixtures for faucets and shower knobs... complimented by a white classic Pedestal sink. For those of you familiar with our guest bath in our leased home, it will look similar.

The master bedroom. If you scroll down to the original posts, you can see what this room looked liked when we bought it. The door into the kitchen has been covered and the new door you see leads into the master bath suite.

Homes built in 1926 don't have large closets. We doubled the size of this one in the master and will add the french double doors leaning against the wall tomorrow. By the way, the white powder you see covering the closet floor is construction dust... its ALL over the place and makes us sneeze. Poor Boston walked the site with us tonight and he came out looking like he had snorted more cocaine than a 1970's Go Go Dancer workin' the dance pole at the famous Studio 54.

Not a very exciting photo... but you can see the beginning of a shower floor with drain... soon to be complete with dual shower heads and floor tiles, made from tumbled river pebbles.

This is the kitchen. The old doorways to the master bedroom and old laundry are gone. They have now been "sheet-rocked" and "skimmed" (that's right, I'm dropping construction lingo). The doorway on the right leads to the new laundry room, complete with utility sink and new French Door leading to the backyard.

Here is the same old view of the kitchen we have been showing you in prior posts... but its changed quite a bit. As you can see, the kitchen walls are being textured and new electrical, including outlets/recessed lighting has been completed. The gas lines and plumbing has been completed. New cabinets and appliances arrive this week! Kitchen tile floor to be installed on Wednesday.

Phase 1 - Demolition

Master bedroom... I took out that closet on my own with a sledge. It took 2 hours while Kate removed on the plastic covers for electrical outlets and did some of her own handy work in the guest bath. We had Boston with us. He wanted to chomp on the discarded 2x4's so badly... he was denied though... too many nails.

This photo represents the biggest change so far. Remember the wall that divided the dining room and kitchen? Gone. We've decided to open the kitchen up. The refrigerator will go on the left behind the brick structure you see. The stove/oven will be placed along the back wall. New cabinets and granite counter tops to be installed. The giant doorway with the existing refrigerator stashed away will become the laundry room with utility sink. Kate is VERY excited about that sink. You can barely see the opening into the attic with wires coming out. That is for the new HVAC.

Another view... this time from the kitchen to the dining room. The "chimney" structure to the right is the old heat stack and has not been used for 50 years. It's in rough shape and will be dry-walled over. You may recall the 1965 yellow oven/stove that once sat in the right side of the photo. Its now gone and unfortunately sitting in the driveway. The neighbors LOVE us.

Remember the old water heater? Gone. This is becoming the master bath. The door and window will be stucco'd shortly.

Here is a photo taken the other day. You'll notice the front bushes have been removed so that the bay window is more visible. We took the photo as the sun was setting and it makes the home look like its been painted. The home is still greenish... painting will come in a couple weeks. Colors are being debated but will most likely be off-white with black trim around the windows.

The New Home

After nearly 6 months of searching, Kate and I found a home in Sacramento's Curtis Park area. On the day we closed escrow, the home was 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. It was built in 1926 and needless to say, it needs a lot of TLC.

For those of you that have been to our leased home in the Land Park area, you'll be happy to know that Curtis Park is within the same zip code and has all the amenities and architectural charm as Land Park (the new home is located about 2 miles from our leased home). Kate and I found the neighborhood feel of Curtis Park to be even more welcoming and had more of the style of homes we enjoyed.

We expect to move in during late May and have many remodeling projects to tend to prior to the big move. We thought it would be fun to share the experience with all of you. Before we get into the details of the remodel, we wanted to provide a short article on Curtis Park, we found online...

http://sacramentorealestatevoice.com/2007/05/04/curtis-park-homes-in-sacramento/

We hope you enjoy reading our posts and can celebrate the new home with us very soon.