Time to get going in the garage

Here's our "before" picture of the garage. We have to get most of the stuff out in order for the remodel to start because the contractors will need the work space and our kitchen will be jutting into the garage by about 24 inches. We're going to have to rent storage for a bunch of stuff, but we will also be taking quite a few things to Goodwill and charities.

Clearly we have far, far too much junk.

Downstairs

Before

We did some work ourselves downstairs over the summer.
Check it out.

After

Architectural designer

Today Pat Sauer, architectural designer from 28th Avenue Design, Inc., came to look at the house.

She will work with a structural engineer to ensure a strong structure when we remove the current living room/kitchen wall and the garage wall.

It sounds like the garage wall is bearing more weight than the living room wall.

We are also moving enough windows with the redesign that the house will have to be evaluated with current eathquake code in mind. This may require some reinforcement work on walls not connected to the actual project area (even on the far side of the house).

Welcome - the remodeling project is just beginning.

I am going to try using a blog to post information about our remodel. Who knows? Maybe somebody will find this useful.

Our home is in the Rock Creek neighborhood on the west side of Portland, Oregon.

After discussions with several contractors and designers, we have chosen a full-service design/build firm, Mosaik Design.

What started as a kitchen remodel has expanded into a rework of nearly the entire first floor.

So far we have

• Bought a home that we knew could use a kitchen remodel; that was our plan from the beginning (April-May)
  
• Moved in and made a mess of the place (June)
  
• Assembled a bunch of ideas by looking through remodeling magazines (July-September)
• Gone to a home show, surfed countless remodeling Web sites, and talked to a bunch of contractors and design/build firms
  
• Bought a bunch of appliances (all summer)
  
• Laid out all kinds of trial designs in Visio (all summer)
  
• Had a very pleasant initial discovery discussion at our home with Arlene, Erin, and Scott at Mosaik to show them our ideas and needs - also talked to Stephanie on the phone. She's nice, too! (August)
  
• Looked at some of Mosaik's work in person (September)
  
• Decided that we like them lots (September)
  
• Reviewed a breathtaking design that we instantly fell in love with, BUT that also ended up being a redesign of the entire main floor. Not exactly what we budgeted. (October)

Here are the "before" pictures.