Moving In

We Have Been Gypsies Since May

When my wife and I moved to Las Vegas from Chicago, we bought a house that we knew we would have to totally gut and rehab. We didn’t even unpack most of our stuff.

We have rehabbed two apartments, two cabins, and two houses. We also built a new house. We aren’t strangers to this process.

From the day we moved in until May when we left to go to our cabin in Minnesota we planned the rehab. Living in the house really helped. You start to understand things about the house, and how you want to live in it.

We could have bought other houses. There was one we saw that we liked, but it didn’t have the same views. The views from this one are below this paragraph. The other house had already been rehabbed, and we liked a lot about it but didn’t like some of the ways they had finished it. For example, we like cabinets with drawers in them and good hardware. A lot of rehabbers use really cheap Chinese cabinets. Believe it or not, IKEA uses top-notch hardware. It was also in a different part of town and we liked this location better.

Location, location, location…..

One problem with having rehabbed before. When you rehab, you get things the way you want them. This house had pretty ugly granite countertops when we moved in. I like stainless steel because they are great to cook with and indestructible. Also, Covid proof! Haha. We did put stainless steel counters on the perimeter of our kitchen.

We interviewed contractors. We found an architect. Pro-tip, really go over your architectural drawings with a fine-tooth comb. We didn’t spend enough time on them and it cost us as we went through the process. We were anxious to get the show on the road and we should have taken more prep time.

One thing that we learned about the house was how cold it got in the winter. Ironic that someone would be talking about “cold” in Las Vegas. It does get chilly here in the winter and most houses are tile. The tile is great in the summer. It can be cold on your feet in the winter! We decided to put radiant heat in the floors.

I will tell you it makes living in this house more enjoyable. We have a northern exposure, so we don’t have the sun beating down on us.

We also noticed regional differences in the way construction is done. Being from the Midwest, they put up drywall, tape, sand the seams, then prime. Here in Vegas, the drywall surface is rougher. They barely tape anything. They spray a texture over the whole thing and then prime. Out west here, the paint isn’t Benjamin Moore either. The paint of choice is Dunn Edwards. The colors are slightly different and so are the finishes.

Because of Covid, everything in a timeline got expanded and more expensive. We thought we’d get a building permit from Clark County in June. Nope. August and at the end of August. Workers got sick and couldn’t work. Supply chains were questionable. We ordered cabinets that were supposed to come in early September. They showed up in late November. Our freezer still isn’t here and it’s been a year.

So done with our international experiment with Socialism.

We also went out of the box a little on this rehab. I have always had gas ranges. This time we went with an induction range, and a steam oven. I really really like the induction over a gas range. Have used the steam oven once, and will use it tomorrow. It worked great but I have a lot to learn.

Technology changes so fast too. I am reticent to spend a lot of money putting it in. I know NuCurrent is working on integrating their tech into counter surfaces. When they do that, small appliances can be designed to be used with no cords. That will change kitchen design.

I sure wish that normal people would be able to work with the engineers that program the interfaces. They usually aren’t intuitive. By the way, if you are an engineer at an appliance manufacturer and you aren’t using UICO touchscreens you are doing it wrong.

We did a good job of picking stuff out well in advance. We secured our island slab in April before we left. Thank goodness. New stuff was stuck on a boat when we would have needed it.

Here is what my place looked like a couple of months ago.

Slowly, it started to take shape.

Here is what it looks like today. We still aren’t done. Our furniture won’t be here until June. We also are doing the backyard. That will be done in March, just in time for March Madness I hope.

I am glad to be moved in (mostly). We have to finish some rooms that are mostly done. We have one room to rehab left. We stored all our stuff in that room, and in the garage. That one should go quick since it doesn’t need a massive rehab as the rest of the place did.