SYNRGYdesign

We took the form work off the concrete countertops and they look GREAT!  The one area we were worried about turned out really great and I do not think there is one spot that did not come out better then we had hoped.There are places where the form works melamine attached the the countertop but they can be rubbed off.  There are small voids as one would expect with concrete but nothing that does not look bad.They say concrete countertops are an art form in and of itself.  After having done them I can understand that.  It is a piece of art that is also functional.  But if you can do them they turn out beautiful and even the imperfections look intentional and beautiful. 

Just like any other home built during the 50’s and 60’s the windows in the new house are aluminum and drafty.  They are nice because they have big picture windows in between casement windows.  But they are old and look dated.So we decided to see how much it would cost to change them out.  We got prices from the really expensive route - hire a contractor and they do everything (plus they were really good windows) to getting them from home depot.  Still on the fence on what to get.  The price difference between the 3 bids we got is amazing.  from $13000 all the way up to $25000.  The windows are different between the highest and the lowest but it is amazing the range between the two. 

The REO we bought has hedges all around the front of the house.  Apparently the previous owners liked their privacy.  Since it has been empty and we have been working on the house now for a few months the hedges have not been trimmed back and are pretty tall.  They were tall to begin with but they are REALLY tall now and look unkept.So I got my brother to trim them down so they at least looked neat.  Unbelievable the difference cutting them done and evening them out made.  There is more daylight to the front of the yard.  It looks cleaner and a lot better.I cannot wait to take them out completely.  It will completely transform the front of the house and it give some curb appeal. 

I thought I would get a head start on packing.  We have not unpacked a lot of things as we knew our rental was a temporary situation but there are still a lot of things I thought I could pack and get out of the way.After moving for the 3rd time in a little over a year I have come to the conclusion that if you do not use it every day then you should just throw it away.  I am really tired of packing stuff up.  Granted, I am sentimental and like to keep “objects” that have meaning.  I like to keep stuff the kids have done at school and even some of their small baby clothes.  The problem we have right now even though we can technically move our stuff to our new house we just do not have the room over there to move things to because everything is being worked on.  And there is no room at the rental to store boxes of stuff.  So the packing is going slowly and it is really hard to get movtivated to do it when there are a million other things on my to do list that need to get done so we CAN move. 

It never fails the to do lists keep growing and they never seem to get things checked off.  To do lists are great and I am a great advocate of writing things done.  Just ask my husband.  I constantly make lists of things I need to do, list out things I need to buy, pack, etc.  The house remodel has made my to do lists grow.  I have to do lists of things that need to get done - on excel no less.  I have hand written to do lists of things I need to buy or research or look at.  I have to do lists telling me to write more to do lists for how we are going to do certain things around the house!Yes I think the house remodel may have cured my to do list illness but then again it may just have fueled it even more. =) 

As much as we would have liked to be moved in to the new house by the end of March we have come to realize and accepted that it just will not happen.  We can probably get things done by the end of March but there is no way I can get everything packed and moved out of the rental on top of that.So we have decided to extend it one more month.  We still want to finish by March and that is our deadline even if we do not get everything done that we would have like we have accepted the fact that we need concentrate on certain things and accept that other things will be finished after we have moved in.  That will hopefully leave us April to pack and move and get the rental cleaned so we can hopefully get our deposit back. ;-) 

We have definitely learned a lot from buying an REO home.  And it does not stop after the escrow is closed and you actually have taken possession of the home.  We have “learned” many things from our great neighbors about the past occupants of the home and why we have a very interesting street light in our back yard attached to the power pole.We have also discovered - not really discovered as we saw it when we did the home inspection - but still ponder why the garage slab seems higher then it should be.  We are not sure why it was done and it looks like it was done a while ago but for some reason they poured the slab of the garage a lot higher then normal thus resulting in a very short door from the garage to the back yard.  Wierd.   

The house is a mid century ranch style.  We want to keep with the original design and intent of the home so we are trying to keep in the mid century ranch style as well with modern updates that complement it.The dilemma - front door.   No one sells or makes mid century front doors anymore.  There was  a place in Texas that sold mid century style doors to the public but just our luck they decided to stop selling to the public at the end of January and are now only selling to contractors.  Plus the cost was a little more then we would like.I have spent hours on the Internet trying to find mid century front doors.  There are some nice pictures and there are some around the Tustin area that are still intact.  They look great.  Now I just wish I could find one for our place.  They are a lot more modern looking then the doors being sold today. 

After getting an estimate of over $3500 to texture the plaster ceilings and paint them we had decided to do it our selves.  The results are great.  We decided to go for the completely smooth ceiling instead of trying to texture it.  My dad has been spending a lot of work on them and they are almost done.  The house looks completely different with smooth ceilings.  I know the acoustics will have to be addressed now that we do not have the popcorn ceiling but  it does help update the look of the house to have smooth ceilings.  It has set us back in the schedule but it is worth the effort as it really changes the look of the home.

It seems like it is taking forever.  The form work just takes a lot of time and patience which at this point I am running very low on.Reinforcing the countertop with rebar takes some time.  We are doing a combination of mesh and rebar.  Cutting the rebar is not a problem.  Bending the rebar is back breaking since we do not have the proper tools to do it.  I just basically clamped it to a vise and hammered it as best I could.  It was very hard to get them straight but I was able to bend it.  It was also very stress relieving and it helped to get all my frustration out as I hammered the rebar.  Surprisingly I did not hurt from all the work.  I am not sure if that is a good thing or not.