Demos on My New House

It has been one crazy year of emotional ups and downs to say the least!

You might have noticed the last few months the lack of Christmas posts or many posts at all.  I moved (again) December 1st which made decorating for the holidays non-existent.  Which is hard for someone like me who absolutely LOVES Christmas and hates moving.  {My pied-a-terre was lovely but just too small for a long period of time.}  We made the most of it and I had a wonderful Christmas with my kids and family and I did manage to decorate a little tree.

So as you know I bought a house in the summer, my Sweet Little Bungalow, and I closed on it at the end of October.  Hunting for houses was a challenge.  The real estate market here in Vancouver is hot.  I placed three offers in on houses and there was a bidding war on every house!   Each house sold over asking so, needless to say, it took awhile finding the right house.  The Sweet Little Bungalow was one of the first houses I looked at and although it had great features I thought it felt too long and narrow.  It soon had an offer on it so I continued on my search.  After two failed offers on houses that were, in hindsight, not the best choice for me anyway, Sweet Little Bungalow was once again available – the offer before had fell through!  So I made an offer and of course there was a bidding war but I got it!  I had never been so excited.

After the inspection was done, mold was found in one of the bathrooms and would need to be gutted.  So I decided to do some minor renovations replacing the kitchen cabinets and redoing the bathrooms.  Demo took one day and then the house sat empty for a week.  Then the weirdest thing happened.  I got a stop work order!  My contractor and I were completely astounded.  One day of demo and a week of no work and someone called in a complaint to stop the demo work?  So my house has been sitting empty ever since waiting on permits.  Apparently the gutting of the moldy bathroom required permits so now everything is on hold.

But this is a blessing in disguise.  We have to wait two months for permits on just replacing kitchen cabinets and redoing the bathrooms.  We had talked about taking down the load bearing wall that divides the kitchen between the dining room and living room but I didn’t want to wait on permits so I decided against it and to just go with the already existing floor plan.  Well, now that we have to wait on permits anyway for something small we might as well be waiting on permits for something BIG like a load bearing wall!  So my contractor had architectural plans drawn up and the load-bearing wall that connects the kitchen, family room and dining room is coming down which will make the main floor one big great room.  I’ll be able to put in a large kitchen island (something I’ve always wanted) and be able to have the space I really want.  So although this house is smaller it will end up feeling larger and everything will really open up.

It also gives me a chance to change around the floor plan.  I’m putting the dining room where the family room is here and putting french doors leading out to the back yard.

I’m taking out the hall closet and making the laundry room into one big mud room.

I have plans in my head and in mood boards for nearly every room now.  I’ll be sharing all the renovations with you so get ready for my big plans!

You won’t believe the changes I have in store!  It’s gonna be a fun ride.

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