Renovation Week 3: The Eye of the Hurricane

Okay, actually, in the eye of the hurricane, everything looks all messed up but nothing much happens.  That describes our house in the past week.  But I've got a few photos to share.

First, Happy Easter!  A big thanks to Katie who hosted a girl's party that was to-dye-for! 

And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Judd for hosting Easter dinner!  These are the cutest deviled eggs ever!

Next, a shout out to Amanda for being the best stage crew gal you've never seen for Orem Jr.'s Lion King production last week.  She became one with the dark side, making huge boxes reappear in different locations on the set.  Here she poses with a couple of hyenas.

So this week, we were still stuck in the permit application process, because the 10 foot roof we proposed to build over the former greenhouse area would be 5 feet too close to the back fence according to city statute.  With time ticking, we finally resubmitted the permit application without the exterior stuff.  Then, this past Wednesday (after about 2 weeks of no reply to calls, voice mail, or emails) we got an email saying the roof would not be given a permit.  Then before we could ask about appeals, the gentleman took a week off for spring break.  There's always the retractable awning idea....

Here we are enjoying the patio area as the weather warmed up to mid-60s.

But the good news is that our permit application for the interior was reviewed Thursday morning and an inspector came Thursday afternoon.  So drywall could be installed Friday, taped and covered with goo on Saturday morning.  The walls look great, except for where I chiseled off the old tile backsplash.


Notice the area of flooring by the closets.  Here's before we took up the laminate..



...and after.

 To take up the laminate in the dining room, we had to make adjustments to the living room:

Here's the dining room with the laminate...

...And here's the dining room half way done.  This floor was even more fun to remove than it was to install.  We're listing the boards on KSL, and so far we've had one interested caller.  So far KSL helped us sell our wall oven and greenhouse, so you never know what people will be willing to reuse.
 


Here's the before and after shots of our dearly departed apricot tree.  The other apricot trees in the area are in full bloom, but this one hasn't shown any signs of life for over a year.

We probably should have pruned it and digged about it and dunged it like the scriptural allegory of the olive trees.  Or we could have tried our neighbor Greg Ferguson's method of blasting his dying peach tree with a hunting rifle.  But I don't think our neighbors would have appreciated that.






So Frank chopped down the apricot tree.  No more popcorn popping.

We used the wait time this week to look at flooring, sink, some lights, and tile for a backsplash (We're thinking 6" tiles installed on the diagonal).  Now if I can just pick a paint color for the walls...  We're crossing our fingers for cabinets on Wednesday...