And subfloors and wiring and cabinets and … I’ll stop now. But seriously.
We are beginning to feel a little like this house may just eat us. I’m Dorothy, all prancing along in my idealistic ruby red slippers, and I have been eaten. By a house. Oh wait. Smushed. Metaphors are running together.
We haven’t actually seen the drywall just yet {except for upstairs, of course} because they’re still working on all the important behind-the-walls stuff. Finalizing the lights. Getting rid of all those old wires. Deciding on HVAC details. Talking through all the placement of all the things.
Our awesome contractor Neil coined it perfectly, when he said that construction is like a ball that needs to be pushed to gain momentum. It builds up momentum, and then slows to a stop. And then you have to get it rolling again. Yay for momentum. I hate physics and gravity. And rules. I probably just blew that story, because it sounded better when he was telling it.
That’s where we’ve been. Getting that ball rolling again. We just want the upstairs part of this puppy finito in a month, so we can move in with the kiddos. But it feels like everything is in slow motion, but also moving really fast all at the same time. So we’re getting ready to build a few of our own pieces to go into the house, looking for some practical solutions to some problems we’ve found, and working with codes.
All. Of. The. Codes.
I may or may not have told our electrician that Tennessee was stupid. I was all, “We be from ALIBAMER! From homeschool to electricity, we ain’t GOT NO CODES!” And then I blabbered about nobody putting baby in a corner and started rocking back and forth and crying and they kind of gave Jamin the side eye as they shuffled out the door. I probably need to reel it in. Or get some sleep. Or click my heels and be grateful.
Rehab a house, they said. It will be fun, they said. – Actually, it’s like one big puzzle piece, so we’re loving the challenge. This is probably the most scary-fun thing we’ve ever taken on.
Meanwhile, this fireplace has come down, and we’ve been trying to decide what exactly, to do with the TV. Still.
I believe we mentioned it last week, but we’re looking for a sensible solution to the TV/box conundrum. And by still, I mean we basically haven’t looked at it in a week because we were sidelined with a little work and long weekends are the death of us right now. I’m all checking off my boxes and to do lists and refusing to relax while everyone else is having fun. So I basically said “nope” and jumped in the pool the other day when I was supposed to be painting, and refused to come back out.
Then I took this pic to make it look like I’d done something. Because nerdy chemistry goggles make everything better.
We have the TV figured out with a small recess we plan to build above the new fireplace. Once said new fireplace is in place.
Here’s a question for all of our amazingly savvy readers {and those who are here with popcorn for the train wreck} : Has anyone ever built a mantel, and hidden their boxes inside? It’s an idea we’re toying with because once upon a time I was vehemently opposed to this, but then life happened and it’s the only rational place a tv can go. Or maybe gone wireless? It’s 2016 so someone has to have invented this? I just plan to cover it. All of it.
If you remember from our first post about main area living plans, {this one has changed a little at this point, so ignore this, but pay attention to the kitchen part} you’ll know you’re looking at the spot where the kitchen will go. This is the right half of the old space.
There’s been a lot of fine tuning with cabinets, and how they relate on the back wall with the ceiling beams, and the windows, and the hanging lights, and the oven hood. There’s been a good bit of fine tuning and revising with just the cabinets, as well.
I’m still reluctant to show much here in the design department because we’re finalizing the lights now, and I want to show you cohesively how it will all work together. But we’ve been checking out a few revisions on the cabinets. Feet, for instance. And I believe we want full overlay. Oh and now we have double ovens. So this sketch is now totally moot because we’ve changed our minds and thus the reason I haven’t shown it to you guys yet… We’re a real dream to work with. ;} But think stained glass as transoms over those windows {which will actually be narrower} and shelving underneath.
I’m basically just showing you this again because tile is pretty.
So just one day at a time. Because it’s something new every day.
But that framing is a sight for sore eyes, too.
And that, is where we are. Rolling that ball again, and clicking our heels. Hoping this house doesn’t fall on us. Or something.
The pretty part starts soon – Stay tuned! We promise to make it worth your while. ;}
Young House Love recently did a post about hiding their TV boxes in a piece of furniture. They connected them wirelessly to the TV so there are no cords and everything is hidden. I’ve got to do this at our house! http://www.younghouselove.com/2016/04/how-to-hide-tv-wires/
Great! Will definitely check that out. Thanks so much – ps. Are they blogging again? That’s awesome. I am so out of touch!
Not quite the same but here is an idea: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/a-hidden-compar-123541
But still a great idea to take a look at! Thank you!
Ok so I have no idea about the tv because we keep ours on our unfinished basement I hate that thing! 🙂 However I love reading your posts and seeing the construction details. Someday we will get to build our dream home and seeing other people’s work always gives me such great ideas and things to think about.
Awe thanks so much Bekki! We were kind of wondering if people are getting tired of our ramblings but we’re truly up to our eyeballs in it, so may as well share all, right?! HA!
No, not tired of it — love it! Always looking for more posts. Thank you for opening your hearts and sharing your journey with us all. Praying for encouragement in the process for you. Thanks, again. It is fun and inspiring and so beautiful. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
We *might* be designing and building a small house (but not quite officially “tiny”) so am learning a lot from the nuts and bolts stuff from your project, as well.
It will be awesome. I think I have left this comment before. I am sort of wondering a couple of things. Is the reason the T.V. unable to be placed on the wall opposite the kitchen, in front of the living space, because of where the stairs are? Are you going to have a working fireplace, like Jamin wanted? We have a wood burning insert in our house in the mountains that really heats the house well. You had mentioned the Nashville ice storms. Our fireplace though, has a beautiful antique mantle around it….so it just looks like a regular fireplace. I am starting to think outloud… In a condo in Destin we did board and batten around the room. The T.V. does hang on the wall ( I know…not the best…but have gotten used to it…) Anyway…….. what we did to hide the cords, etc….. was to put all the wires inside a hollow piece of the wood that matches the board and batten. I have no idea what you are invisioning design wise…but wondering if you could incorporate a similar idea by having the wires go out to the side and down…you would want the moulding on both sides of the fireplace, of course, for design purposes. I don’t know if I made any sense, at all. It is easy for me to envision it in my head but hard to describe to you. Panels that match that open to show the T.V. I would think you would need to build it out instead of in because of the heat? Anyway, I know you guys from reading your blog and you will figure it out! I have a friend in Nashville doing almost what you are doing, at the same time. You both sound alike about the process!
We hid three speakers around our tv above the fireplace (tv mounted above mantel) and then did a wireless system and hid all of the boxes across the room in another recess (they are actually in the dead space above the air return. I hung a screen door type frame so that the equipment was hidden but wasn’t covered by solid material (this was 6 years ago technology could be better now and maybe you could use a cabinet door). We also lowered the mantel so the tv wouldn’t be hung so high. We love the wireless remote convenience (I can operate from the kitchen and pause or fast forward while making dinner when kids are watching tv).
Dana at House*Tweaking did something kinda like that, and you can find that here: http://www.housetweaking.com/2013/12/09/the-tv-wall-is-built. If you ever need hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel with your renovation, read Dana’s blog — they did almost exactly the same thing, and her house looks so AMAZING!
And your double ovens makes me think of what Chris Loves Julia did in their kitchen reno last year — oh la la! http://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2015/09/idaho-home-full-kitchen-reveal.html
I researched the wireless TV set-up a while back. I think you can hide the TV stuff basically anywhere you want (like in a closet — it doesn’t even have to be near the TV) and connect them all with an RF extender / controller. It needs a little receiver thingy by your TV, and you need to make sure you have good ventilation around your electronics. At least, that’s what I read all about before I realized that our cable company’s box is one of the few that will not work with the RF/IR extenders. So… definitely find out about compatibility. Since then, we’ve dropped cable TV, and haven’t looked back. I was SO worried about missing it, but it was a very good decision. Of course, you’ll still have stuff hooked up to your TV even if you don’t have cable, but all of that should be compatible with going wireless. 🙂
I love seeing your progress! I’m pretty amazed at how the framed space is looking. Love that vaulted ceiling.
Best thing we ever did was when moving into this house 2 years ago, was hire some TV guys to come set up our family room. They hung the TV over the fireplace, ran the wires through the wall (behind the TV) and into some built-ins next to the fireplace. There are no visible cords or wires. The built-ins basically look like very nice, off-white kitchen cabinetry. All the equipment (DVD, etc.) is in the built-in. The thing I love is we can keep the wood doors closed all the time! They put these little black diamond thingies with wires on the front of each piece of equipment so the remote control signals will go through the wood. I love not seeing wires, the cable box or DVD player. The little diamonds’ wires all hook up to some kind of connector that hooks up to the TV (all that stuff is inside the built-in). The diamonds are tiny and it’s minimal wiring. I love it! Truth be told, you could probably figure out how to do that yourself, especially since your wall is wide open/nonexistent right now.