Another short story in the book of our lives, is coming to a close… by short I mean 4 months worth 😉
The Mac House project, has officially been completed!!! 😆🏚🛠
Now, if you haven’t seen the first post about us getting possession of The Mac House, stop now and go read this -> Mac’s Possession Appearance
Now, since I’m trusting you did as I instructed and read that post, I hope your eyes are slightly scorched and the images seen won’t be quickly forgotten after seeing what the Mac House NOW looks like! 🙈
So, December 1st is the day we gained official possession and after many loads of item removal, the process of remodelling the house began.
You know how usually you’ll see something shocking and slowly get over it? Like, ‘oh ya that thing was crazy but like, it’s not so crazy now that I’ve had time to comprehend it’.
Yeah, we never felt that way… EVERY time we would leave the house with more trash and whatever else, we’d pause, look at each other and just kind of mutely shake our heads at one another in a state of continual disbelief at the amount of disgusting stuff we removed 😬
After emptying the place out as much as we could, we did a light sweeping off of walls and floors.
Removed a multitude of tacks, staples and nails from the walls and then gave a kind of mopping to the whole upstairs in efforts to remove smell more than actual filth.
Then we knocked down a wall 😜👍🏻
We wanted to open up the kitchen and living room layout so we decided early on that the wall would have to go.
From there on out it was planning and re-planning and then re-planning the plans 🤪
The kitchen layout took awhile to decide on, as every new layout brought out a new problem or pro and things are continually being noticed that are needed or missing but we eventually nailed it down and ordered up the kitchen from Ikea.
We hired a fellow from church to come do the electrical work and Mikes brother lent a hand for a day as well.
The bathroom was gutted and we began the ‘big’ purchasing during a trip to the city.
A toilet, a bathtub, a bathroom vanity, a kitchen island, the appliances etc. were all purchased in pretty rapid succession and we settled in to working on the continued demo/prep of it all whenever Mike had the time.
I scraped off the popcorn ceiling in the bedrooms and bathroom and could hardly move my arms the next two days 🤪
Mike then took over and finished off the living room/kitchen/hallway 😬
The wiring was completed, outlets readied, drywall cut out and patched, water heater installed, flooring scraped and cleaned, trim removed, wall repaired where we’d removed a wall and I’m sure much more that I’m forgetting since I wasn’t always there 😬🙈
My brother-in-law, who’s the owner and operator of ‘High Caliber Construction’ moved here from Arizona at JUST the right time 😉
The time that we needed the house patched, skim coated and painted 😜👌🏻
So, while Mike was busy working away from home, the Mac House was still progressing.
Once Mike returned home, the guys got the house painted up, trimmed, patched and prepared for the seemingly final stages of the reno! 😱
I love how the wall color turned out and how it keeps it nice and clean looking by having the trim and walls the same color.
I’ve also been super happy with the appearance of the chosen flooring ever since we first spotted it, so seeing it getting laid down and installed was extra exciting 🙌🏻
Though the coloring is everything I could want in a floor, after working with it, Mike did find it wasn’t as nice of an installation quality as others he has installed, so that was a bit of a bummer. The company was super pleasant to deal with and their customer service was top notch though, which does count for a lot in the overall experience!
He had one day off work specifically to work on completing the bathroom and it was one of those ‘everything that could go wrong did’ kind of days 😬 The tub surround had two of the same corners, so a trip to town to replace that was in order.
The adhesive wasn’t working for some reason at first but then eventually they (he and our neighbour friend) got that completed.
A piece we’d pre ordered for installing the toilet was the wrong kind and the piece the store said they’d place outside for our bro-in-law to pick up, wasn’t found.
The hole in our vanity for the faucet piping etc, was smaller than the pieces on the faucet we’d ordered. So special cutting tools and some stressed anticipation occurred as a the porcelain was cut a bit larger.
Thankfully that went smoothly.
Another piece we’d ordered for the tub, didn’t fit either and was the only mat black one we’d been able to find so that needed returning and renewed searching as well 🤪
There’s more but you get the idea I’m sure 😉
All in all, the bathroom did finally get installed and it looks so fresh and clean and I do really love the black fixtures we decided on 😁👍🏻✨
Then began the Ikea fiasco.
Our kitchen order was placed and later on we received a call telling us that the order would be delayed and we would get an email with the details. We never received an email so I called to find out when we could be expecting out order. I was told there had been some mistake and our order was actually already at the shipment location and we had one week to pick it up.
So Mike took off a day of work, we planned a trip to the city and went to get our kitchen so it could be installed later that weekend, only to get to the shipment location where we were told our order was indeed NOT there…
Thus began a week long bout of much calling and trying to get in touch with Ikea about where our order was and when we could expect it etc. etc. They were very disappointing to deal with during this circumstance but finally it was located and we again went to pick it up.
They almost didn’t release it to us though because Ikea hadn’t sent them the proper paper work 😜
Building an Ikea kitchen was probably the largest task I actually handled during this whole reno ‘she admitted with some slight self mortification’ but I got most of it assembled so it was ready for installation when Mike and a hired friend had time to do so.
Once the kitchen was up, countertops on, appliances in place, you could really start to see the progress… funny how it gets to that point where putting pieces in makes a place actually feel BIGGER.
Mike was just itching to tile so he scratched that itch by tiling the kitchen backsplash and accent corner with long subway tile, using black grout to tie in the hardware.
I think it turned out really nicely 😁
From there on out it was a smattering of major, minor things 😜
Installing the doors and their handles. Putting handles onto the cupboard fronts. Adjusting a tap. Touching up paint. Patching trim. Removing garbage from the yard that the melting snow had uncovered.
Etc. Etc…
The construction of some updated, front and back steps and railings… which due to manufacturers faults, resulted in being a MUCH longer project then anticipated, also had to occur before the house could be listed and truly approved as ‘finished’.
I think almost every reno project tends to ‘take longer then anticipated’ though so was it really THAT surprising? 😜
We tossed around the idea of staging, or not staging, for a some time.
Actually we fought about it if honesty is required 😜
I liked the idea of staging but not the idea of the potential cost/time/effort it would involve to do it well. As I didn’t want to do it half way and end up having the space look oddly empty rather than minimalistic. Mike wanted it fully staged. 😜
The conclusion – to stage the main area fully but by using an assortment of already owned items from myself, my sister and my mother 😉
My time had come, I got to choose the colours, design details, hardware and whatnot up till the end but staging was something I could conquer fully by myself, in order to allow Mike somewhat of a break / surprise factor 😉
If this has been too much reading and way too many words and whatnot, I apologize but not super whole heartedly because how else can one put perspective on this size of a reno?? 😜
All that to say, hold onto your seats because it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… well, I don’t know, maybe you haven’t been waiting but we sure have been 😉
The totally redone and unrecognizable photo’s of how the Mac is looking these days 😉
New windows still have to be installed and two shelves will go above the toilet but I couldn’t wait to post, any longer 😉
The basment was finished and painted but left empty for the buyers to do with as they please.
Lastly, some simple little side by side ‘before and after’s’ to once again bring to mind the space we faced four months ago, to wrap this home reno reveal up!
Hope the lengthy read was worth it 😉
Jemstory 