MaoHaus Update: Blank Slate Drywall, Floors and Windows

Maohaus: The 1890's folk Victorian house we are gutting and rebuilding from the inside out.

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We're getting there. That's pretty much the line we use when everyone asks us how the house renovation is going. Since our last update in April where we stripped everything down to studs and a dirt floor, we've fixed, edited and built it back up to a black slate. Which is oddly gratifying. When I describe this renovation at the start of these blog posts as 'rebuilding from the inside out', I'm not even close to kidding. Seeing the clean, blank surfaces has been a thrill (when you renovate an old house, your excitement level threshold is remarkably low. We get excited when we can peel off a large swath of paint too...). 

Being a few months in with workers here nearly every day starting at 7 AM as we work from home has been relatively smooth, but mostly just exhausting. Our routine for life and work has been really thrown and by the time we have free reign of the house again, we're both completely tired. And that's not even really explaining the half of what Chris has been doing as he takes on some of the renovation projects (he used to work in the building industry before he joined our current business) but also essentially being a general contractor...the guy who answers all the questions and makes sure everything is done correctly. 

I have found a few things that have worked well for myself, and the employ-fees, to keep everyone nice and relaxed during the noise and constant movement. Without delving too deep the website/app Noisli, our white noise machine Snooz, and this cat calming wall plugin. 

But things always have a way of working out. We ended up with about a week delay on the kitchen leaving us back alone in the house (it was amazing). We highly recommend actually scheduling a week 'off' of renovation every three months. 

What We've Accomplished Since April:

• deleting 3 windows and a door and replacing siding to blend

• adding a large window in the kitchen
• insulating and adding a vapor barrier under the entire first floor
• subfloors
• electrical and plumbing rough ins (outlets and plumbing for everything we want where we want it)
• marble selection
• ordering kitchen cabinets and faces
• ordering lighting 
• dry wall 
• start of shiplap install 

Thankfully we haven't run into any serious, unexpected issues. 

What's Next

• Kitchen install (everything!!!) You can see the start of upper cabinets here

• flooring on entire first floor

Essentially the next phase is going to be the biggest change since the majority of the first floor will be 'done'. Except it kind of won't be. We still have several side visual projects we want to accomplish in terms of decorating and including finishing touches.  The next update is going to be a BIG change and after that, the updates will definitely occur more frequently. We did, after all, just rebuild the house from the inside out on the first floor.