The Renovations are FINALLY Finished!

First, we are truly thankful on many levels that this renovation is finished. We are thankful that our not-so-great contractor was able to hire a crew that he had never used before and that they were really good. Messy, but quality of work was good. We are thankful that even though we were completely nickled and dimed by our contractor, we still came in within a reasonable percentage of the original estimate. We are thankful that no one was injured- by me or on accident. :-) We are thankful that we like the finished product. We are thankful that we did not pay for the work that was not completed. Some of the more frustrating elements of the renovation was of course that they finished weeks behind schedule. And not because of any "surprises", just poor planning and project management...our GC did not possess project management skills on any level. I spent hours upon hours managing this project. I also spent hours upon hours meeting with various contractors and inspectors- of course all of these things are things that we paid someone else to do. Isaac got a big scare during naptime one day when our GC, who of course randomly showed up on a Sunday afternoon, dropped a huge door on the floor right above where Isaac was sleeping. Isaac was terrified of naps for over 5 weeks. That was very hard on both me and Isaac. The amount of cleaning we had to do was ridiculous. But again, we are finished and enjoying our new spaces immensely! Praise God! This is the new room in the attic. It is huge.

We have our treadmill up here and TV. This is also our main "guest suite."

This is the hallway leaving the new room and heading towards the stairs. On the left are storage closets and on the right is a huge unfinished storage area. The kids love running up and down the long hallway.

This is the new stairway leading up to the 3rd floor. We already had the stairs in place. Because of miscommunication these stairs were rebuilt 3 times. No kidding.

This is Grace's new room. She has the bonus room that is over the single car garage. We put in new carpet, built-in closet space, new lighting and ceiling.

These are her built-in closets. They turned out wonderfully!

This is her little reading corner.

This is Isaac's new room...Grace's old room. He got lots of new paint and a new closet.

He loves having a big room- and at the rate he is growing we will be putting his big boy bed up in a few months.

This is the kid's new bathroom. Sid put in new tile and the cabinets. We ordered new countertops with a dual vanity instead of a single. Which is one of the smartest things we have ever done. We had the bathtub and shower tiles reglazed and they look better than new. We also had the ceiling smoothed.

And this is our new paint job! We went from almond colored trim and navy blue shutters/doors to white trim and black shutters/doors. We also got new windows! I cannot even begin to explain the difference just because of the windows. Not only do they look great but they are so much warmer.

The only thing we are lacking is our new living room. Hopefully that will be finished in a week or so and I will add some pictures. We are already enjoying the new changes, just waiting on some finishing touches. Leah's room is painted, but will starting working on that after Thanksgiving.