When Design on Paper Turns Into Reality...

Here is a quick video of the guest bathroom as of today. We are almost ready to put in the cabinets, which arrive tomorrow!

Smells like Hop Mop!

Above you can see the master bath as of today. It's really actually looking like a bathroom! The two videos are an updated walk-through of the bathroom and master bedroom as well as what the kitchen is looking like. I'm so glad the old lady wallpaper border is gone and primer is on the walls. We chose new paint colors so we'll see how they look this week!

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...

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!