Moving Up Monday

I'm excited to share a "Moving Up Monday" update with all of you today - there has been quite a bit done to our new house since the last time I shared about our home remodel!

First up, the progress on our Mudroom/Laundry Room/Office.  We knocked down the wall between the "laundry hallway" and the old first floor bedroom.

Photo taken from back of the old first floor bedroom
looking through to the old laundry hallway
creating one larger mudroom/laundry room/office.
(Photo taken May 26, 2013)

And more recently, the mudroom closet (which will have an area for coats and cleaning products storage) has started being built.

The closet will be easily accessed as you enter the house.
We will be using the old closet doors from the original downstairs bedroom
as the new mudroom closet's doors.
(Photo taken June 11, 2013)

Now onto the Downstairs Bathroom.  We started by clearing everything out of the bathroom.

Photo taken from the old doorway of the bathroom.
(Photo taken May 23, 2013)

And then the hallway walls and old first floor bedroom's closet walls were knocked down.

My "studs" (LP and My Farmer) taking out the old studs.
(Photo taken May 26, 2013)

After the guys took the beams down, I got the job of taking out the old nails - but I had to quit doing that not too far into the job because I broke the hammer...  Who knew I was so strong!

Don't mess with me - I'm strong enough to break hammers in half!

And now the bathroom has been completely gutted and thing are getting ready for the new fixtures (shower/bath, toilet and vanity) to arrive.

Photo taken from the new doorway of the bathroom - see how much bigger it is now!
You can see the area where the shower/tub is going to be on the left
and in the right corner is where the toilet is going to be.
We also had a smaller window put in to give more privacy.
(Photo taken June 11, 2013)

Photo taken from toilet area looking through to both entrances for the bathroom,
one from the dining room (where LP is) and one from the mudroom.
(Photo taken June 11, 2013)

Photo taken from shower are looking at vanity area,
as well as looking at the linen closet that was kept from "old hallway".
(Photo taken June 11, 2013)

There also has been work started recently on our new half bath.  This old unfinished closet is going to make a great bathroom for the second floor.

Where the stool is, is where the sink will be located
and the toilet will be in the corner of the room.
Thanks to an idea from our general contractor
we reused the old kitchen's tile floor for the half bath.
(Photo taken June 16, 2013)

Our general contractor is building some "open" storage
where the wall/roof slants, as well as some
shelved storage around the chimney.
(Photo taken June 16, 2013)

And while I'm showing photos from the upstairs, I'll show you what we've done with two of the bedrooms closets.  Two of the three bedrooms' closets have a slanted "wall" due to the roof.  So to make things easier to access we've add an extra access door to one of the bedroom closets.

New/additional closet door accessible from the hallway
(Photo taken May 23, 2013)

See how long this closet is!  LP is standing in the doorway of the bedroom
connected to the walk-in closet.  With slanted walls/roof, it would have been hard
to get all the way down the other end of the closet.
(Photo taken May 23, 2013)

And we're adding sliding doors to the other slanted wall/roof closet.

You can see the new sliding door area.
The old doorway will be covered up/drywall installed.
(Photo taken May 23, 2013)

Besides all of these updates, we've also:

• Removed all the carpet,
• Had outlets installed on every wall in every room (those of you who live in old homes know how big of a deal this is - older homes usually only have one outlet for each room and it is usually oddly placed and is outdated by only have two prong openings and not three),
• Been stripping wood panels and windows that were painted, which we are now having stained back to their "original" condition,
• And have removed a lot of tree seedlings from around the property (but I'm afraid there are hundreds of seedlings that still need to be cleaned up!).

In the coming weeks things we're looking forward to seeing:

• Electrical work finishing up,
• New windows being installed,
• Additional kitchen cupboards being installed,
• Both bathrooms becoming functioning,
• Central air/heat being installed,
• And to be able to start painting the rooms (all of which will have a primer of white painted to start with).

As you can see, a lot of progress has happen but at the same time we've got a lot of work to go before we plan on moving in at the end of July.  We still need to think through paint colors for all the rooms in the house, as well as flooring for the bedrooms.  Do you have some favorite paint colors for Living Rooms, Kitchens, Bathrooms, Bedroom, etc?  And/or do you think we should leave hard woods in the upstairs bedrooms or carpet the bedrooms?