Bigger Project than we anticipated...part 2

I took Danielle to the house last Saturday since she hadn't seen it yet, and one of her comments made me pause and think, "yea...this IS more than I expected..." Danielle remarked that we really were just, remodeling the whole house! I think we all initially planned on just making the one bathroom into two...and then we thought, well, let's redo the closet. And in Forrest Gump-takes-a-jog style, we kept thinking, "well if we do this, we might as well as do that too...". The project certainly grew- you can see the pictures below!

The crew completely demolished the old master bathroom. This not only included ripping out the vanity, pony wall, and bathroom closets, but also they knocked out the walls on either side! We're widening the master bathroom by about 4 feet! Nick stopped by the house yesterday and took some pictures of where the new walls are going up. New walls means working on both rooms on either side of the bathroom, thus the master and guest bedrooms looking a little messy. Eddie's team also started construction on the new closet. Apparently they are also centering the doorway to that room...

The kitchen appliances arrive at the house tomorrow. The tubs, toilets, faucets, and half-bath pedestal sink we selected have now all been ordered. Nick wanted a toilet that saves water- I'm assuming it's similar to the water-saving washer and dryers. I'm pretty sure the new toilets (I think they are Toto's) don't have a regular flusher, but a button on top that you push. Not too sure how I feel about that. This weekend we'll order the tile we picked for the bathrooms. Otherwise, there are lots of other things for us to do- we need to pick paint colors, closet storage, knobs, handles, and the list goes on! Of course the focus is the finishing the bathroom, and remodeling it to code. We have an inspector who comes by to monitor the construction to make sure everything's being done as it should. We also have an electrician coming in to change the electrical paneling because right now it's a little screwy.

We stop by the house almost every day just to see what's going on. It's hard to believe construction started just over a week ago and there is already so much change! How exciting!!!!!!!!

Yea...this IS a bigger project than we anticipated...

Ants Taking Over

Today was quite the day. We took the dogs for a hike...probably should have left a little earlier- the heat was intense! Afterwards we decided that since there isn't much we can do construction-wise IN the house, we might as well throw ourselves into the external portion. The La Maida house has awesome landscaping potential, but there is a lot we aren't too happy with now. We discovered a few weeks ago that there were a couple fruit-bearing trees. Today we discovered that not only do we have a lime tree and a lemon tree, but also peach and apple trees! How exciting!!! I was pretty pumped about Nick pointing out mint leaves growing too. Mmmmm mint. Mint tea...mohitos (mohitoEs? that doesn't look right). Nick said they grow like weeds though, so those came out of the garden and into a pot for me! So now we have our own little farmer's market. Cool. We spent hours ripping out weeds, pulling up small trees and rose bushes, and came across a MAJOR ant infestation. UGHHHHH I HATE BUGS!!! I HATE ANTS! And there were thousands of them, just taking over the base of one of the lime trees! Of course I immediately freaked out, jumped in the car and headed to Ace Hardware and bought a big can of ant, spider, and roach killer. And blasted the suckers again, again, and again. And another time just to be safe. Nick did a lot of the major work. I mainly ripped out weeds and tried not to panick about the spiders and earwigs. *Shudder*. All in a days work of landscaping I guess :-)

The bathroom designer has final drawings to present to us tomorrow! Yayyyy. I think we've decided for sure what tile we want for the bathrooms.

Eddie and his team continue to do some impressive work- all the walls are patched and plastered and I think almost ready for the next step...whatever that is. Exciting discovery: the fireplace was also covered in white paneling and looks so much better without it! I never thought I'd be so excited to see real red brick under all that blah white. We will probably start demo on the bathroom this week.

day TWO

I am truly amazed by how quickly Eddie's team is moving! It's only the second day of demo and the house is looking pretty...well crappy. But in a good way :-)



I went to the house this morning and all the wood paneling was up, and the cottage cheese ceiling was partially removed from the living room...

A few hours later I went back, and was amazed to see that all the wood paneling and popcorn ceiling was gone!

day One.

Today we officially began demolition on the house! Or at least Eddie the contractor did. This past Friday we had the Antimite people tent the house to kill all the termites. The house looked a little silly with a giant circus tent on it. I was really excited about the tenting because I knew it would kill the ants, spiders, and every other buggy thing I hate. So I was pretty mortified when I went to the house after work today and discovered that while the ants may have died during the fumigation, most came back with a vengeance (probably the relatives of the ants that died...ugh). I went to check out what all was done today- the cottage cheese/popcorn ceiling in the master bedroom is now gone, and they started removing it from the large guest room too. I'm heading over there tomorrow since I have the day off to keep an eye on things. I'm also meeting with an electrician Nick set up for me so we can get another bid on fixing the paneling. After that, I'm meeting with Bonnie at Rio Marble & Tile to select tiles and color themes for the bathrooms. I asked Nick if he had any color preferences and he said that it's all on me, soo I get to pick it all! Muahaha...

This weekend we want to start ordering light fixtures, tubs, and whatnot so we're not waiting until the last minute. I'm bringing my camera with me tomorrow to start taking demo pics. We're so excited that things are rolling right along!

Take Off!

Things are starting to happen! Friday the La Maida house is being tented for termites...for the midwesties- I had no idea what tenting was. Basically the house gets a giant circus tent put over it and toxic gas blown through to kill the suckers!

Yesterday Nick and I met with Bonnie, a bathroom designer, and Eddie, our contractor. We have a few options as far as the master layout goes, so now it's a matter of narrowing them down and picking one we both love. We're expanding the bathroom by about 4 feet...what a process! Everything needs to be moved around. Nick and Eddie are meeting at the house again today so Eddie and his guys can get into the attic and check out some things. It sounds like Eddie and his team are pretty great and can get things done!

Tuesday is the day we officially start demo- we're so ready to bust out a crowbar, hammer, or whatever we can get our hands on to start tearing things down. Mallory- you just might be recruited to help do some damage! It sounds like the wood paneling that I hate (like the paneling in this living room photo) and the popcorn/cottage cheese ceiling will be the first to come down...oooh and the bars on the windows. We're pretty sure the house will look dramatically different already once that's gone.

I've been trying to post a video I made that is a walk-through of the house...blogspot seems to hate it though and takes forever to load...I'll keep trying...



Lastly, it's sounding a bit like the HGTV folks may be installing our new appliances for us...that's neat! We will find out more when they have their tech scout of the house next month. That is also when we should be getting a bit of an idea as to what they want to do to the kitchen!

Front of the La Maida House

Here is a video of the front out the house...before we start construction.

Hi All!

So, this is our new blog page for discussing all things La Maida house! I have Kate to thank for this idea- why not post updates and pics online so that everyone we've been calling and filling in can just pop on whenever to find out what's up. I've never started a blog before, sooo, bear with me...plus, I'm sure you all know how much I can ramble ;-)

How it Started

After months of searching for houses all around the westside and the valley, we ended up finding ours within 3 miles of where we already live! And this house SERIOUSLY needs some Nick and Kelly lovin' (we're talking burglar bars-on-the-windows-type lovin'.) Nick's mom, Karen, being the amazing woman she is, is the #1 person we have to thank for our new place. We made an offer on the house...and so did 15 other people. Somehow, we ended up being the lucky ones! We opened escrow June 8, and as of yesterday, July 13 (gotta write this date down), we were given the keys and can officially say, yes, it's ours.

HGTV, Anyone?

Literally the day before we opened escrow, I had the idea of going to HGTV's website to browse the home makeover shows. The more I looked, the more I started thinking, wait a minute... Currently looking for people who live in the Los Angeles area? well, yea, we do... "living within 30 miles of the 91607 zip code?" hey! we live IN the 91607 zip code! So I clicked on this link to a show called Hammer Heads and suddenly found myself looking at the PieTown Productions website. As soon as I showed Nick that they were "urgently casting", we were down. We filled out the application, not really thinking much of anything. I mean really, how likely was it they were going to choose us?

Apparently, VERY likely. Two days later I got an email from the production company asking for pictures of the house. So of course I sent the photos that made the house look really pathetic and in need of major assistance (see the sad picture of our back patio?). I kept thinking about the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition houses, minus the emotional storylines. Two days after THAT, my phone rang, and I missed it. I call back, and imagine my suprise to have some guy pick up. "PieTown Productions, how may I direct your call?" Um...you called? HOLY S*IT! Started freaking out and called Nick INSTANTLY. The segment producer said she wanted to meet with us for a video interview, video tape the house, and wanted to let us know that "oh yea, we're thinking about renovating your kitchen". Fast forward to last Friday and we get yet another call that the scouts for the show loved us and the house, and absolutely want our project. We shoot in September! Yay!!!! It really just dawned on us that we're going to be on TV. Exciting and yet soo weird. I'm already taking down names of people who would love to be there (Mallory, Casey, Paul...) when we start filming with the crew.

The Latest

We have a lot of work ahead of us. It probably hasn't really sunk in how much. Nick's telling me I need to decide what knobs I want and what color tile to go in the bathrooms. What? Really? Clearly nothing that had ever crossed my mind. But we're so excited and so ready to throw ourselves into the whole project! Tomorrow we meet with a designer who has preliminary layouts for our master bathroom. The house is currently 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths. We're taking our ridiculously lengthy (19 feet long) current master bath and chopping it in half so we'll have a master bath, and guest bath, and a half bath. We're also meeting with the contractor to get a final bid and to set a date to start construction. I'm hoping we get started early next week...Nick's just glad we have the house.

Anyhoo, that's the latest!