Sunday

My new home & the "remodel from HELL"!


Isn't it funny how opportunity sometimes falls right in your lap?  I had been thinking for a long time that if a first floor unit should become available, I should jump on it.  I couldn't see me spending my old age climbing up stairs w/ groceries & such.  Not that I would be able to; nor did I want to.  Well in Feb., after 2 years, the attorneys were finally ready to distrubute Daddy's estate.  Right after that my dear friends downstairs, Charles & Carolyn, announced that they must sell their unit.  Charles, in addition to some serious heart issues, had been diagnosed w/ advanced prostate cancer.  They felt they had to discontinue their winters in FL; & go back to full time in Ohio.  This was quite a blow to me; & I felt badly capitalizing on their misfortune.  But they really wanted me to have their unit.  It seemed that it was meant to be; or so I thought......

The closing was on my birthday in May; they vacated May 20th.  The remodel started in earnest the next day.  (Mover's moved me in on Aug. 8th.)  I had been planning & plotting since March; & had contracted work through several well established & very reputable businesses.  Details, details, details.  I thought that was the hard part, until the work actually started........

I ordered black granite countertops for the kitchen.  Because someone didn't follow the template exactly, they had to be recut & reinstalled twice.  When they took out the old kitchen sink, they failed to completely cap off the water lines.  After an absence of about 24 hrs., I go down & find standing water in the kitchen floor, creeping under the cabinets & soaking the living room carpet.  I went ballistic!


This of course, warped one of the existing cabinets; & they had to rebuild & install a new one (at their expense).  The black & white decorative tile backsplash had to be redone 3 times in order to correct all (or at least most of) the "imperfections".  I had all of the carpet & most of the tile removed (what a mess, flying tile "shrapnel" everywhere).  This was replaced by wood flooring.  Brazilian birch.....little did I know that B.B. is quite soft.  Drop a drawer pull, you got a dent.  Can't tell you how many dents there are as a result of the remodel.  I'm trying to learn to ignore them.  Despite this, the floors are beautiful.

I had the lanai tiled on the diagonal; makes it look much larger. I had bought 3 Murano glass pendant lights in Venice last year.  I knew I wanted them to hang over the bar/pass through; but didn't want to install them until I had found my "final resting place".  The European wiring had to be changed; & wire fished blindly through the walls & ceiling to get electricity to them.  But they look fabulous.



I changed the outdated shower door in the master bath.  I went w/ the modern, frameless glass w/ brushed nickel accents to match the new lighting & fixtures.  It really opened up the small space.  Both bathrooms got new countertops (silestone), new sinks/fixtures, lighting & mirrors.





I had the dining chairs, lanai furniture & barstools all reupholstered.  I had spent a lot of time looking for a wrought iron chandelier for over the dining table; but w/out success.  So I went back to a man who had done some custom furniture for me a long time ago.

If you can describe what you want, he can sketch it; & then his craftsmen can make anything out of metal, glass or wood.  And the price isn't as bad as you might think.  He came up w/ the perfect design.  So, I asked if he could design a round glass top dining table base & a console base (for the foyer) to match.  He created just what I had spent months looking for.  The chandelier & the dining table had to be retooled a little; but they are gorgeous.


More to follow.....

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