We closed on the house in August and started on transforming it into our vision.  The house has “good bones” but really needed or needs a lot of work to lift it up to its potential. We started with demo on the inside while doing an overall cleaning of the property. The interior of the garage, the previous owners left a lot of things behind we needed to remove. Two 15 yard construction dumpsters later, we had the garage and most of the exterior cleaned up. We removed the upper cabinets in the kitchen, a water feature in the courtyard, and a built-in entertainment center.  I will post the interior shots at a later date, the before and after progress. 

The exterior was going to be put on hold but the parapet walls were neglected and over the years, water ran down the side walls and caused cracks in the stucco. We couldn’t put off addressing the stucco issues. It rained almost daily  over the past few months and we could see dollars adding up if we didn’t take care of the problem sooner than later.  Expert Renovations LLC  performed the stucco repairs. They did an outstanding job considering the amount of damage needing to be repaired prior to painting.  I think another year or two and we would face having to stucco the entire house. This would have been a monster bill/project! 

Even with a couple of rain delays, Expert Renovations LLC completed the job in about two weeks.  Once the parapet walls were repaired around the entire house, our anxiety dropped considerably.  

The landscaping will be addressed over the next few months…but the state we are in now is much improved over where things started. 

Next up is the kitchen renovation, we have cabinets on order. With the supply chain issues, they might be here in December.  The bathrooms will be reconfigured and renovated, new flooring in the entire house as well. 

Here are the first photos of the before and after stucco and painting of the house.  It no longer looks abandoned! LOL 

Thanks for taking the time to visit… more images and updates to come as we go through this renovation/process. 

11-18-22

It’s started… the first week inside the house with the contractors.  We pulled out a little over half of the kitchen and the cabinets in the laundry room but the rest is up to them.  The entire house will have new cabinets and countertops.  The main bedroom bath is being reconfigured to have a water closet, larger shower, and additional storage space. 

I should note… all the old images were taken when the home was posted for sale, original owner home items, etc. 

Before – Main Bedroom Bathroom 

During – Main Bedroom Bathroom 

The kitchen is also being reconfigured.  The bar you see in the old photos will be a straight bar without the bar top… a flat island.  We are adding a center island and new cabinets along the back wall.  There were will be double ovens, induction stovetop, and fridge on the wall where the old appliances were.  The old oven location will be where the drawer microwave is being located…it’s going to be “coffee central” as well.  Between this section where the back window is located, the window will be removed and a 8x8ft sliding glass door will be installed.  The cabinets will be similar to knotty alder with wood grain and knot patterns… deep rich color with white quartz countertops.  Everywhere we could place a sliding drawer, we did. As you grow older, you come to discover crawling under cabinets for things is a pain. 

Old Kitchen 

Old Kitchen – During 

The contractors are going to relocate some of the plumbing to accommodate where the dishwasher and sink are going to be placed. 

Living room – Before 

The living room in the before images, you can see the built-in entertainment unit, prior to the start of the contractors we ripped this out. The team has since repaired the sheetrock and it’s being prepared for painting.  The entire interior of the house will be “Swiss Coffee” which is a white with a little bit of warmth to it.   In the image you see the French doors, these will be removed and another 8x8ft sliding glass door will be installed.  Between the living room and kitchen sliders, this should really help bring in more natural light.  Along with the white paint… we might be able to avoid adding skylights.  The house is really dark… we are working on fixing it. 

12-05-2022 

The cabinets are starting to be placed and we can see how the overall design is going to look.  The back window in the kitchen will be replaced with a 8’ x 8’ sliding glass door.  This should add a ton of natural light to the space and really give it an “open feel”  once completed.  The layout is so much better than the previous kitchen placement, the center island is going to be great to work on.  We made our stone selections and tile choices for the bathrooms.  I’ll post some shots when the tile work has started, we are couple weeks away from the installation. 

The countertops have been measured and the company should have them back to us in a couple of weeks… fingers crossed.  Then the appliances will be installed and the pendant lights will go in after the appliances.  The patch work on the ceiling is going to take some time to get it to match…should look great once completed. 

Once all the work is complete, the last thing will be the resurfacing and repairing of the floors. This won’t take place until the fist week in February… who knows… we might move in before the 1st of March?  :) 

More to come…. 

12-27-22

And the progress continues. :) 

The counters for the kitchen are in now, most of the appliances have been installed.  The crew is placing the vent hood, stovetop, and refrigerator in this week.  Sierra Vista Tile was out last week to take additional measurements for the backsplash and bathroom countertops.  The backsplash in the kitchen will be the same stone as the countertops…fingers  crossed it looks nice.  
 

The main bathroom has the cabinets installed, the water closet is in place, and the shower is starting to take shape. We removed the old shower footprint and placed the shower on the back wall. This allowed us to add additional storage from the bedroom side for blankets / bedding. 

In the images above you can see the progress being made.  The shot with the ladder in it, this is where the additional storage will be from the bedroom side.  The vanities are set, counters have been measured. The medicine cabinets are recessed. There will be lighting to the left and right of the cabinets, a mirror in the center for makeup, and a pendant light over the top of the mirror.

The laundry room is underway as well… this counter will be a plain white stone and a sink to the left. The water heater and water softener will be enclosed with the same cabinet style as well. 

That’s all for the updates, lots and lots of progress being made. 

More images on the way.

Enjoy the day.

01-05-2023

Progress!  The counters are in, the laundry room is 99% complete, and the main bath is coming along.  We just have the refrigerator to install but I think we are going to wait until the floors are finished next month.  I need to change the bulb to a warm color temp in the pendant light…  

So far… things are coming together quickly… we are shooting to move in towards the end of next month.  The guest bathroom needs demo and a shower built out. We are removing the tub and will have a nice walk-in shower. 

Update - 1-14-2023

The main bathroom is coming along nicely. The tile is in and the grout is setting up. The glass divider will set on top of the small wall, it should be in next week. The shower heads will be installed soon. 

Once the shower heads are installed, then the cabinet hardware is next and a door and jamb for the water closet. 

The floors will be ground and polished/stained next month.  The guest bath is up after the main bath… and we are getting closer and closer to this project coming to an end. 

More to come. 

Enjoy the day all.

Update – 2-08-2023

It’s been a few weeks since the last update and this renovation project is almost at the finish line.  We have sliding doors on order and we won’t see them installed until April/May but the bulk of the renovation is about finished. 

We hired Rojo’s Finishing Touch out of Tucson to do our floor work. When the house was built, the previous owners had a slurry coat of concrete applied with stamp work throughout to simulate a floor tile look. It was dated, worn, and we just didn’t like the look of it. 

 Rojo’s has been great to work with from the very start! They made the trip down from Tucson, provided  us with a couple of options on how to tackle the change in the flooring and we hired them for the project.  This week they started and just the covering of the old floor has given now life to the house. It feels fresh and they still have several steps to complete before the floor is finished.  We are anticipating 8-10 business days of work.  They are on the second coat of the seven or eight coats needed before the final polish is complete.  I’ve included their contact information, get in touch with Gilbert (one of the brother owners) if you are in the market to have floor work done.  We will bring them back when we tackle the casita floor at a later date. 

In the images below you can see how dramatic the difference is just with the base coats going in over the old tile look concrete…it looks  much nicer now, we can’t wait until we get to see the finished floor. 

One item, which was nonnegotiable in the decision making process of the renovation, was a set of  iron doors for the main entrance.  Stan Greer Millworks here locally, works with an iron door contractor out of Phoenix to provide iron door options for our area.  San Juan Iron LLC  does outstanding work!  The door construction is stout to say the least, they can make just about any design you can think of out of iron.  Compared to the original doors, we love the amount of light we now have from the new doors.  Below is the original set of doors and the new iron doors.  The glass on the inside of the door opens and we have screens to installed to allow for nice airflow. They are busy!!! So if you have a project in mind, reach out as soon as possible. The wait for our doors was just about three months, which worked out well since the renovation is ongoing.   ***The light coming through in the center of the door… I didn’t have the doors closed completely, no light comes through when closed***

The spare bath is pretty much complete now and it’s a huge difference from the original.  The back tile have a hexagon pattern and at some texture to the overall look. The stones on the shower floor ties it all together. 

Lots of progress… more to come.  I’ll update in another week when the floor is close to complete or is complete. 

Frank