It's not what...

...it's who!!  That statement has been proven true on our house project yet again.  About six weeks ago, somebody from our church who had heard about our project called to tell me about a friend of hers who has connections to really nice, slightly used appliances at bargain prices.  I called him and waited...and waited...and waited.  I wasn't actually sure this would work out, but I was hoping it would as we need to make up some room in the budget to accomodate the overage in the kitchen cabinet department.  (In kitchen news, I did find the same kitchen for $2k less...still about $2k over what I planned for, but an improvement!) 
Finally, he called this week and said he was driving down to SW Michigan to get them today, but needed the money up front.  In a super trusting mood, I agreed.  Yesterday, I handed over a wad of cash to a guy I didn't know for appliances I've never seen....and..it worked!!  The appliances are awesome.  Phew.

(The dryer in the above picture came with the house...no new laundry appliances today.)

They are way higher-end than we were expecting to buy.  And we were kind of worried that they were hot.  Not hot as in warm, nor hott as in awesome, but hot as in stolen.  How else does one sell a full kitchen set at a fraction of retail?!?!  
Turns out that these appliances were used by a KitchenAid executive for 6 months.  Apparently a benefit of working at KitchenAid is getting new appliances from your mansion every six months.  This guy buys them (barely) used and resells them for a small upcharge.  Bingo for us, our kitchen and our budget!!

Ironically, when I was telling him where the house was so he could deliver the goods, he knew it exactly.  Turns out he had looked at this house and was interested in buying it, too, but didn't get an offer together in time.  So he was super pumped for us and our deal and went on the mini-tour from Pete when he dropped off the appliances.  Small world.

Walls!

Here they are...walls! Yippee!
They aren't finished yet, but will be soon. And then will begin "Paint-a-Thon 2011".

Good Timing

We are so ahead of schedule it's scary!! And until today we were ahead on budget, too. However, today I got a quote for the kitchen cabinets that was literally three times what we have in the budget. Yikes! I think that we may have underbudgeted a bit, but I'm going to shop around and see if I can do better.
But, let's put that little worry out of mind for now and focus on happier thoughts...like drywall! Drywall should start going up on Wednesday. It is scheduled to take two weeks, which is perfect! Since we can't really do much else at the house while the drywall is happening, we're free to enjoy the Christmas season without the pressure of wanting to work at the house every waking moment.

I took a few pictures to hold you over for the next couple of weeks.

Here is the fireplace in it's new place...lower and further into the room, allowing us to put built-in shelving on the left side of it.

Here is the reworked master bathroom. Notice the new window on the left and the walk-in shower (to be) on the right.


Here is our warehouse (aka garage) full of goodies like tile, cabinets & doors that I've been snagging up lately.

This is our construction toilet...Pete rigged up the water heater box since none of the bathrooms have walls!



And here's a little tour of the finishes I've started to buy and collect in our secondary warehouse (sunroom at the rental house):


This pendant light will be in the half bath. It is super awesome, but sadly is too big for the kitchen bar. It will be perfect in the half bath, though!

I found this light on clearance at Home Depot. This will be in the dining room.

This light will be in the foyer. This was probably the most difficult light fixture to choose, but we're quite happy with this one.






Sorry about the flash glare on these next pics... : (

This tile will be in the 2nd bathroom...it's a cream colored limestone.





This is the master bathroom flooring tile...it's a teal(ish) & brown procelain.








And last but not least, we don't technically own this yet but I'm super pumped about it! This is a sample of the flooring that will be on almost the entire main floor...it's a five-inch plank engineered hardwood from Shaw called "Barnwood".

Fun Stuff

Progress...gotta love it! Not that I'm actually helping much these days. Right now, the technical people are doing their thing and my unskilled self is not needed. Pete's dad is putting in tons of hours reworking the electrical. Pete is busy installing speakers and cable and wires. My dad has finished all the framing that needed to happen before drywall. Plumbing is done, furnace is done.
So, I've been doing fun things like shopping!
Last night we braved the icy roads to pick up flooring samples in Rockford. We have it narrowed down to two options...an engineered hardwood and a solid hardwood. The engineered wood will be easier to install and have more resistance to the expansion and contraction that hardwoods experience, so we're leaning in that direction. Also, it is in the wider plank style that we want. But, there's just that special something about solid hardwood floors. We'll see...
Today, I went to a cabinet dealer to work on a kitchen layout...fun times!! I'll hopefully get the layout back from the designer tomorrow. Turns out that this place also has a cabinet outlet area, and I scored a huge wall cabinet for the laundry room for $50!! I also found a linen cabinet and vanity for the master bathroom, and averted disaster tonight by making sure both would fit. (We only have to move two light switches...not a biggie.)
Tonight, my dad helped me pick up the rest of the interior doors, so now I can get to painting those.
I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a pendant light that I ordered online. If it's awesome, it will feature prominently in the kitchen design. If it's only somewhat cool, it will go in the half bath. I'm hoping for awesome!
A couple of weeks ago, we pulled the trigger on some flooring tile for the two upstairs bathrooms that we found in the closeout aisle at a tile shop in Holland.
I'm hoping to get pictures of all these goodies up soon!!

We are inches away from being ready for drywall...Pete will be meeting with the drywaller tomorrow, and I'm hoping he'll be able to start next week. Then this place will really start to feel like a house!