Renovation: Wall Repair, Wood Floor Progress, and Tile Goes Down (Phase 2)

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You can tell from the photos that some of these renovations were happening simultaneously with Phase 1 – I loved that everything was happening so fast! Phase 2 involves Repairing Walls, Progress on the Wood Floor, and Tile!

This was at the start of ripping up the wood floor – take a look at that water-ruined underlayment! Yuck! They started the wood floors by ripping up where the water damage occurred so that the concrete slab would get a chance to fully dry out while they were doing other things.

As soon as the water-damaged floor was out of the way, they got to work on the new drywall. We have walls again! You can no longer see the laundry room from the dining room, which is a very big deal.

After the wall was fixed, texture was added so it would blend in with all the other walls. Since painting was going on simultaneously, this quickly became the spot where the painters’ stuff was stored.

Meanwhile, the tile floor was ripped up. It was so loud when they were chipping away all the old tile that I went far away (with my 3-year-old who thought he could help them) and I never got the picture of the torn up concrete. THIS floor has been covered with a self-leveling layer in preparation for the new tile. It also raised the height of the tile, which will make for a slightly smaller difference between the height of the hardwood and the height of the tile.

You wouldn’t believe the dust in the air during all of this insanity. I kept moving my air purifier around  to try to keep the air clean. The air quality indicator turned red (which means bad air) during the tile removal with all the grout and debris flying around. It spent a lot of time in purple before it went back to blue, which meant the air had been cleaned. Phew! I think I’ll change the filter ahead of schedule when this is all done! I’m all about HEPA filters because I think they make a big difference.

The floor looked really different with no tile!

Look at that tile going down. As soon as I saw a few pieces go down, I felt confident I picked the right tile. I love it! (It is Interceramic brand 1’x2′ size color: PEARL.)

Before the tile could be laid around the island, they had to chop off the part of the island that stuck out. The island had a non-rectangle shape with the dry wall below the former bar sticking out. I want the island to be a rectangle because it will make the counter look so much better sticking out evenly around the sides of a rectangle island. Plus, shortening this part that stuck out saved a really valuable few inches that let us use just one slab of quartz for the island instead of having to have a big joint down the middle. Awesomeness.

This is the grout in “Dolorean Gray” going down. It was really interesting watching this process happen.

Hello, beautiful tile!

And then came the new hardwood. This corner is still missing trim, but it already looks so much better!

This is one of the upgrades I wanted. We added hardwood in my son’s bedroom. Of course, with the rest of the house in chaos, this is also the only suitable place for our Lego League practices. Right now the little guy is sleeping in my room and all of his stuff is filling the nooks and crannies of my room. He is loving sharing a room with his parents. No comment on how the parents feel about that. (My mantra: This is temporary. It will be worth it!)

And because life is funny, when the plumber came to work on the plumbing for the island, he also fixed the washer and dryer water connection, and the fridge connection. The finished dry wall had to be cut (of course it did!) So, even though we thought the wall repair was finished, it is not anymore.

The progress on the renovations is sailing along. Next, I’m going to show you the new counter (which is actually already installed as I write this) and the new backsplash (not installed yet). I’m very eager to see the finished kitchen… and to say goodbye to construction dust!

If you missed Phase 1 of the Renovation – go check it out. It was fun watching the walls transform!

From my home to yours,
Mary