oh no. the reason I haven't gotten around to posting kitchen pix is because we had a little break for the holidays and then morphed into the bathroom. My justification: Well, we still have half a slab of granite on hold at the fabricator's and we have to use it or lose it.

Sounds very familiar.

did you check your dh's breathing? IS he?

Yep, he's breathing. I figured him coming home on Friday night was a good thing. Divorce attorneys usually don't work on the weekends so I'd have until Monday to work it out. He actually took it pretty well. Was able to understand my thinking that led me to a gutted bathroom. I've got a good man, bless his heart. He's put up with me for twenty years. :)

Hi Pooh! Yes. That type of "while we're at it" or "while you're here" is common and adds up. DH swooped in during the end of our house reno with a couple of those. Only ours costs us many thousands. That partly explains why I have no tile in the house or light fixtures or stools or banquette or ..... ;)

Did you pick a toilet? Look at Toto if you haven't. I have two new Totos myself. Lots to read in the Bathroom Forum. In fact, there's a guy with a showroom in Woodinville, I think, who is practically considered THE toilet expert in the country. Have you heard of Terry Love?

Haven't heard of Terry Love, but have heard of Toto. When the plumber told us we needed a new toilet, I started researching toilets and ended up going with the Toto Drake ADA 1.6.

Do you know what the showroom is called? I'll have to check it out.

Yup, know the feeling....in addition to the kitchen renovation, the dining room and great room will be repainted, first floor doors will all be replaced with french doors, new hardware...a new sliding door and a small deck outside...I need to stop!!

If the owners of these tile showrooms only knew... and why don't they know?!

When I had three small children, I wore jeans daily. No need to dress up and I've never been the kind to dress to impress. We raised our children in a well-to-do town, best education and all. I'd go into a locally owned store only to be ignored or barely helped at all. Sometimes I would leave without buying anything for that reason, even if I saw something I wanted. Fast forward a decade when the kids (and I) were older, and I chose to dress nicer. I'd go into the same places and they'd fall all over me. It's like Pretty Woman, without the figure, long hair and over-sized mouth. ;D

We're doing the same thing. Since we are doing the floor from the front door right into and thoughout the kitchen, that means the entry hall will get a new floor, will need new paint, new closet doors and I think new glass in the sidelights would be nice. We will also need to repaint the dining room and family room since we are doing new drywall in the kichen and both those rooms flow from the kichen. And come to think of it, my dining room ceiling fan will need updating since it can be seen from my new kichen...

Sounds familiar, only mine started with a broken DW, and that grew into the kitchen....Amazing how things get changed!

Weeellll, we took that whole concept to a new LEVEL!! We could not do one thing to THIS house without the HUGE snowball effect(our house had been mostly destroyed in a gas explosion, then very poorly rebuilt, complete with rearranged, smaller floorplan).

So, we sold it to our neighbor, who is going to tear it down, and we bought a new place to remodel....STILL dealing with the snowball, bu on a bunny slope!!

Nancy

I love your story. And your adorable husband returning
home to tell you he liked the color.
Sweeeet.

And yes, you have no idea I am constantly starting
new projects. I blame GW. Yes, totally GW's fault because
I find all these clever ideas and virtual friends going
through the very same changes, ideas, budget constraints,
and beautiful desires.

Enjoy the process and keep making your surroundings pretty.
I can't be alone in my journey.
; )
boxer

Years ago, we started with just wanting to redo the master bath and perhaps add a few sf onto the master bedroom. The architect asked what other things we might like to change about our house, so we mentioned no family room (small library), not enough area in the kitchen, etc. She came up with a fabulous solution to all our problems, so a bathroom redo turned into a large addition. We love it! Then last summer, repair of a basement wall turned into a redo of the screened in porch thanks to a creative mason (and our architect again). We really need to find less creative contractors . . . What will my kitchen countertop replacement turn into???

I'm right in the running for first place with letting projects get away from me.

The bad part is I've been doing this so long that I've started on the second round of some things. DH is worried I'll never get finished.

I took a side trip from the kitchen this fall and did major decorating work in the dining room, but that meant moving some furniture which didn't look quite right in the den (new paint, new wallpaper) but that opens into the library (more new paint, new wallpaper and some new furniture). But then the hallway looked funny (new paint, rip out carpet and put down tile) and the entry way needed new paint to match.

So I'm finally back working in the kitchen now, though first I had to "fix" something I didn't like about the tile floor (ripping up 40sq ft of tile is not my idea of fun) and then scrape the texture off the ceiling (put up 6 years ago when DH loved it and wanted it everywhere).

At least for us, the work is all about how much work I want to do. I think I'd go nuts if I had to rely on someone else to get the work done. At least when I want to make a change on the house, I'm the one doing the bulk of the work.

I call it the "Harold and the Purple Crayon" effect and yes every project we start snowballs into multiple new projects too:) good luck can not wait to see the final results.

This has certainly happened to me. Sounds like you will end up with a really lovely, functional powder room. And your husband sounds really sweet with his kind comment about the paint color.

I overheard my DH say to our contractor, "the 5 words I dread hearing from my wife, 'when we're done with this...' ". :-)

Yep, you're in good company here. I'm still mid kitchen-turned main floor-turned main floor and basement reno. It's been painful but I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I love that your DH took it so well! Short and sweet, but to the point and ultimately supportive. Love it.

Enjoy the ride...

i can relate. somehow by the end my scope increased to full plumbing upgrade, full electrical upgrade, insulation etc.... nothing to sexy that i can show off either!!! :(

We knew when we planned the kitchen remodel that we were going to redo the whole downstairs....thought we would do it slowly but now on the fast track since son got engaged..want place to look nice for everyone who'll be coming in for the wedding next year. Have to decide what to repair/reupholster vs replace.....I might be hanging out a lot now on the decorating forum!

What a lovely reaction he had! It would be so awful to have him come home after all that and say he didn't like the color! Perhaps, include him in the planning for the hall?

The term for this phenomenon is "project creep". :)

I managed to avoid that, but because my GC is so good, I seem to be undertaking many more. :)

OP, that is almost exactly what happened to me - but it was worse! All I wanted was to put a utility sink in the laundry room. (IDK why they did not have it in the first place.)

But my bathrooms leaked around that time, all of them, one after another. The contractor agreed to replace fixtures in one of them, then he agreed to re-do another bathroom - you get the picture! We ended up remodeling all three bathrooms with "zero time" notice. I was shopping for tile, sinks, and toilets on the same day they were gutting the first bathroom. It was 4 years ago and I am still recovering from that, LOL.

Yep, we're suffering from scope creep here too. We planned to redo the entry, living room, hallway and kitchen. That has blossomed only a little bit into adding the guest and master bath and only because we had left over granite from the kitchen that I paid for and wasn't going to let go to waste! Unless one plans to reno the entire house from the beginning, it's pretty difficult to keep the project on track, in my opinion. I just keep seeing all the potential in the other rooms now that I've been shopping around and reading here. So, in part, I blame GW's too! :)

PoohPup ... that sounds like my mom's "$12,000 refrigerator"

The old 1960s turquoise one died ... and before she was done, the kitchen had new appliances and a new countertop, the adjoining family room had new drapes and both had new flooring.

You see, the new almond frig made the rest of the place look shabby, and she had never quite liked the way the kitchen worked.

It was really a minor remodel because cabinets and footprint stayed intact. It was still U-shaped and tiny, but worked a whole lot better.

She extended the peninsula for a built-in DW, widened the peninsula for better working space on both sides, installed a bigger oven with micro above it, converted the under-oven cabinet to a drawer for baking dishes, added pullouts under the stove, installed wider stove, and added doors to the back side of the peninsula for better access.

We needed to replace our 40 year old carpeting in the LR, DR and hallway. "While we're doing that why don't we do this..." morphed into our moving out of our house for 6 months and doing a down-to-studs-and-plywood whole house reno.

You're not the only one. (still not sure how that process evolved)

Love hearing all these remodeling escapades. After reading all the responses, it's nice to know that I'm not alone and scary to know what it could snowball into! Lol. I don't think I'll mention this thread to DH or he will find a divorce attorney that works weekends!

It isn't a showroom in Woodinville so much as it is his house (Bothell address). I went there. He opened his garage to show me a few toilets.

There are a couple of real showrooms that do house Totos in Bellevue that I know of, and probably in Seattle as well, but since I'm Eastside, I didn't look to hard to find those.

Pooh - yup, it is like a rolling stone. Once we finish our kitchen, then the bathroom, the carpet, and the paint!
We already did the outside of our house - except windows!

Oh yeah, I hear you.

Mine started with the boss wanting a new dishwasher and fridge to be fitted into the existing cabinets, countertop and sink.

Bought them. $$

Well now of course they were too nice for the cabinets. So, we engaged a cabinetmaker for a total gut of the cabs.

$$$

"Since we are getting new cabs, we should get the range you have been raving about."

$$$$

"You know, the dishwasher can't be integrated with the new cabs."

But it is only 4 months old.

"So?"

$$ (Again)

The footprint doesn't match the old one so we'll need to refinish the hardwood floors.

$$

The builder did not run the hardwood flooring under the old cabs.

Heavy sigh - $$$

I wonder what this week will bring.

I fervently hope a thief steals my wallet. I won't even report it stolen. He couldn't possibly spend as much with my credit card as I have been putting on it lately.

Best wishes,
Doc

You know, My STBX GC husband said the most expensive words in the world are "while you're at it."

I have a different kind of domino effect.
My DH left me with shoddy work, frightening electrical issues, a badly installed roof (newest estimate yesterday to repair the front, $900.) you name it.

When I have the $$, I have someone over to put up and finish drywall. Unfortunately and fortunately, he's an all around kind of guy. Unfortunately, every time he moves into a new room, or I ask him a question, it turns out something needs to be redone. Most recently, a window reinstalled.

Other than the continual $$, the problem for me is that usually I've questioned it from the beginning, or he shows me something where I can see what he's talking about.

I face the porch rebuild, my roof has to be reroofed and the valleys done properly (2 years ago I had to have the 1st 3 courses of shingles taken up and drip edge installed), I've got plumbing issues, and it never stops.

So unfortunately, I'm redoing much that could have been done once, done right. OTOH, I'm getting things exactly the way I wanted them from the start. And safely.

But it's truly a domino effect.