It was a tight vote on the website with a total of 15 users voting. Of those 15, 47% voted for the kitchen and 53% voted for the bathroom. After much thought, Amber and I decided on the kitchen. If you follow the site, you probably figured that much since I completed a complete demo in the kitchen already. Today the drywall was completed (final sanding) and it's ready for paint. I want to do a good cleaning on the floor and make some decisions on that soon. Keep the original wood or refloor. Amber took the dimensions and we worked with the local Lowes to input it into the computer. We have estimates from Lowes, coming in higher than I would like. This weekend we are getting a bid from a local company and going to get a final price on installing new flooring, just in case we do that route. In order, our next steps are:

1. Clean kitchen of all remaining dust from drywall sanding
2. Clean floor and determine if a sanding/refinish on it will work
3. Final quotes on cabinets

Attached to this post are two PDF's including the actual dimensions of the kitchen along with the design we may go with. The hood, more than likely, is going to get eliminated due to the lack of space for a Microwave.

The project is really coming along and picking up the attention of locals. The Times Leader, the largest newspaper in northeastern Pennsylvania, included our home in this past weekends special section about home improvement. They sent out people to take photos and interview Amber. It was a nice experience and we sincerly appreciate all the kind comments.

I've attached the PDF of the website.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.timesleader.com/features/afterBefore_10-03-2009.html#

The actual article:

October 3
afterBefore
By Mike McGinley mmcginley@timesleader.com

Home renovation these days can be an interactive proposition.

But you also might find a project so thoroughly adventuresome you’re compelled to lay out all the details, in the name of camaraderie or commiseration, on the Internet.

And if, as a home-improvement team, you’re “the nice one” while your partner is more likely to “ruffle everyone’s feathers,” that just makes the story all the more suitable for sharing.

Meet Amber Vargo, a 26-year-old Wyoming Seminary graduate and first-time homeowner who spends most of her downtime these days tending to her very demanding new “baby,” which spends most of its time crying out for attention. That’s largely because this baby is a rambling country home in Shavertown, complete with large backyard, a “little man room” (more on that later) and at least one highly desirable stained-glass window, but it also has or had cracked ceilings and plaster, a dilapidated kitchen, a sagging porch with rotted steps and a whole host of other issues.

We have to give credit where credit is due. Some of the people we have been able to find have been incredibly helpful so far. Check them out if you are renovating in the area.

Plaster whack to the head = swollen eye and a bloody gash on my eyebrow. Hammer to the forehead = swelling to the forehead along with more blood. Brilliant idea of climbing into large trash bin to compress trash more = trash gave way like a sink hole and trapped my right ankle which resulted in a little ankle swelling. Metal grates in wall holding plaster = looks like I got in a fight with a cat and the cat won. Coming into work the next week and getting strange stares like I went on vacation to learn how to cage fight = priceless.

The past week we embarked on the biggest project yet, demolition in the kitchen. By far, the kitchen needs the most work. After having absolutely no luck finding a contractor to come in and do the entire job I said what I always say, “No problem, I can do it better myself!” Well, I’m happy to report, it is done. I’m also happy to report it costs $0 out of our pocket and I only had to use 2 tools the entire week. As the paragraph above mentions though, it gave me a whooping! Sure, the concept is easy, hit the wall a few times, plaster falls, DONE. Right.

We called a dumpster company and had a large dumpster delivered, say about 12 feet long and about 7 feet high. Once it arrived, I went to work in the kitchen. Removed all cabinets which I thought would take 30 minutes ended up taking 2 hours. Carefully removed all molding around doors and removed all electrical outlets. I followed my standard approach; prep work first will make the rest of the job easy. True, it was important, but it certainly didn’t make things easier in this case!

The cabinets were a paint to get out .. strange mount brackets that kept the cabinets mounted even when I removed all screws, etc. Since I wanted to use the cabinets in my workshop I had to keep them in one piece.

New pictures are uploaded including the demo complete in the kitchen, plumbing done, electrical done, insulation done, sun-room complete, and more!

http://projecthillside.com/content/pictures

Painting is not that much fun, although not a terrible task. Kind of messy, you kind of end up with paint all over yourself.. Sure, you also ruin your manicure even when you wear gloves.. but the hardest part of all, is picking colors.

I played around on Sherwin-Williams.com for a couple of days and decided on a bunch of color options for the sunroom/living room/dining room. I learned all about complementary colors and accent colors, and flow, hues, warmth, bla bla bla.

Nothing can prepare you for the actual trip to get paint samples. Oh sure, it's great that you can get a little can of paint for just under $3 to try on your wall before you commit. Wouldn't it be great if you could try before you buy so many OTHER things in life. BUT, when you stand in front of the 3 billion little squares of color spanning the wall in front of you at the paint counter, it is easy to quickly become overwhelmed. Martha Stewart? Laura Ashley? Historical colors? I don't know! What do these little brochures think I should do?

After much anxiety, we agreed to buy 5 samples. 3 for the sunroom, which I planned to be an accent color, 1 for the living room, and 1 for the dining room. Always a fan of warm colors (probably because I am a brunette), I decide on 3 shades of pink and 2 gold colors. Yes, I am a woman and I decide I want a pink room. Yes, Jason is a man, and thus, does not argue with me.

My dear friend Renee stops over for a visit and we jump right in to throw some pinks on the wall. Bright, brighter, brightest. Brightest wins. Let's not wait for it to dry. Let's just use all the sample paint of the brightest (old rose) even though the sun is setting and everything looks better during the magic hour. We are on a painter's high! CLICK TO READ MORE

Remember those days of your youth when you would call up a boy or girl that you liked on the telephone and sit around all day jumping every time the phone rang hoping it was them returning your call? You felt vulnerable, anxious, insecure even. These are the same feelings we had Monday when we tried to call 5 or more of the following types of people:

General Contractors - 2 of 5 called us back
Electricians - 1 call back
Dumpster people - Jason called one place every hour, and I called them once. Since I had a number in the proper area code, I got a call back 3 hours later.
Drywall people - 3 of 10 returned phone calls, one not until the next day.

What do people tell us when we ask for recommendations of such skilled laborers as mentioned above? To use the phonebook. The what? No google maps? No .com addresses? Nope, the yellow pages.

I tried to get my hands on one of these coveted books, but you cannot just go pick one up. The phone company mails it to you. I kind of laughed at the rep when she told me that. Luckily, our drywall guy let Jason take a look through his copy that he conveniently keeps in his work van. (What skilled professional doesn't?) I am assuming he had it next to his rolodex and his car phone.

If nothing else, this experience has made us return to simpler times before tweets and status updates... and the internet altogether. My favorite advice came from the township secretary who told us to stop in at the Farmer's Inn (a bar up the street from us) and talk to Margie because "she knows everybody".

Last weekend we finished priming the ceilings in the living room and the sunroom and were finally ready for some PAINT. Several people mentioned to us that using textured paint would help hide any imperfections that might still be visible in the repaired ceilings. Not wanting to jump into anything without having at least SOME knowledge, I spent a good couple of minutes googling about this type of paint. I found out where to get it, how much it cost, what it should look like on the ceiling.... easy enough, right? NOT!

We got a gallon of the sand looking stuff made by Valspar at the local Edwardsville Lowes and decided to jump right in. We get it home and the can says to use a trowel to apply it.. umm what? So while I am googling again how to apply it to a ceiling, Jason opens it up and tried to pour it into the paint tray. Picture opening a can of solid dog food and dumping it into a bowl. It comes out in one solid lump... kind of like cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. Ah, we have to stir it continuously to get the sand to be even in every part of paint. Fine. Then I find that as long as you do a 2 foot by 2 foot section and go vertical, horizontal, and vertical again, the paint should go on nicely.CLICK TO READ MORE

This morning I woke up at Project Hillside and had to go into New York City for business. I decided to take the Martz bus and enjoyed a 4 mile backup on the interstate. While sitting at work I felt a need to check in with Amber to see how the ceiling looked with the final layer of paint dry. This house is turning into my kid and I must check in during the day! I found myself sitting at Chipotle admiring some of the woodwork, thinking about interesting applications I could do with similar designs. It won't get out of my mind! Stay tuned for LOTS of updates next week. I'm on vacation for a week and will probably put 60 hours into the house.