Hi everyone! As we head into the long, hot, summer months so are we heading into the final stretch of this home restoration and remodel. That's the plan anyway. As I reflect on the past few months, I realize how far we have come from a year ago. At this time last year, we had purchased the house on Brignac Street and started the process of getting permits, a Modad installed, and having the porches repaired and leveled. At the same time we were preparing to put our Prairieville house on the market and planning the garage new build. There was so much going on that I can't wrap my head around it now. We got through it all pretty much unscathed. We even fit in our pre-planned vacations. I am hoping that we can just coast through this summer with just a move to look forward to in the fall.
Since my last blog in February, there has been steady work being done on the house. The exterior is mostly finished except for detailed trim work and repairs around the porches and doors, building the front and back steps, and painting the entire outside. Brick layers have just finished repairing the brick piers supporting the house and will soon start building our brick steps to the front porch. I can't wait for that! We will have a little patio out front as well and later on some landscaping. I have been admiring all of the beautiful flower and vegetable gardens around town. The agapanthas are lovely this year. We can't wait to have a beautiful yard again. That's something to look forward to for next spring.
The interior has been coming along great as well. The plumbing, electrical, and HVAC are all roughed in and AC units are in place. Hopefully we can get the AC cranked up soon to make it comfortable to finish up everything indoors. The summer heat is officially here! It will be 96 degrees this week with 'feel like' temperatures over 100 degrees! The new ceilings are finished, some with new wood and others with beautiful repurposed cypress wood that was removed from the exterior of the house. We are also using and repurposing wood for the new walls that have been added to create a closet, second bathroom, and staircase. We are really trying to put back into the house whatever we can. We bought ourselves a Planer to use for these projects. Planing wood is our new hobby! We found something else that we can do besides painting to help out the contractors whenever we can.
Let's see, what's left? Work will continue in the coming weeks on finishing new walls, installing interior doors and frames, and repairing old walls and the exterior doors. I see more wood planing in our near future! We had our tile installer come in to put the proper subfloor in the bathrooms and laundry room. We also had someone come in to look at the original wood floors. He is sure that they can be restored and that they will look beautiful. Yay! I'm not sure when that will happen. Some damaged floor boards will need to be replaced first. I will meet with my cabinet builder again soon to finalize those plans so he can start building them....exciting! So, there is still much to do. As I've said in the past, we don't really have a timeline or a deadline to finish. But I know everyone involved does not want this to go on for too long. So we just focus on what is next. I can't wait to see fresh paint on the walls, ceilings, and french doors. Next comes a difficult task for us, deciding on floor and shower tiles and paint colors. I have all of the lighting fixtures, bathroom fixtures, kitchen fixtures, and appliances already purchased and ready to go.
And of course, personal life goes on as well. We have had a few family celebrations and events including job promotions and a graduation from Medical School (Dr. Victoria Brignac Corley). We also took a fun family trip to Mexico with the kids and grandkids. We had a grand time!
If you want to keep up with our renovation progress weekly, you can follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/renovationbytheriver/ . I try to post of mix of before and after pictures.
See more current pictures in the Gallery tab under '2019 Mar-Apr-May'.