Lifting My Eyes: Contractor in da house!

Ok, so I've been a little lax in the house posts...I get reminded of this weekly by the hubster.
He's just a little into this renovation process ;-)

Made a little mulch/tree stump playground for the littles while demo is going on

Since we last met...a lot has finally started happening, but you will have to let me share it in a few posts, you know, to keep ya hangin' on.

T insisted I learn to drive the tractor. I'm a bit nervous about this so let's hope I never have to do anything with it.
Although I look pretty stylish, yes?

We finally chose a contractor to help us handle the major things like electrical, plumbing, framing, etc...and he's moving right along. T is ready to gift every one of the workers with a notepad and pencil, however, because NONE OF THEM TAKE NOTES when we make changes or simply remind them of things we wanted to begin with...maybe there's a silent code we didn't know about?

Anyway...T continues to work on demo

Garage Step 1: almost cleaned out...soon to be master bedroom/bath/closet

Ready for rebuild!

and Rodney and his team began putting things back in place starting with opening a couple of doorways to give us a smoother flow from the front room through to the kitchen.

Front room looking towards dining:
BEFORE

AFTER

Notice also the fireplace is gone to the right? Trev took that out and we will be adding one with a chimney on the other side of the room.

The room looks so much larger without this sticking out. But we are going to try to find something to do with the bricks, they are good 1950's style flat bricks.

Looking from Dining to Front Room:
BEFORE

medium sized opening on dining and regular doorway on front room

AFTER

Now both walls have larger openings allowing better flow and light but still maintaining separate rooms. The front door will be put back into place where the plywood is, we just have some damage to replace first.

This one change made a HUGE difference in the feel of the home. We wanted it a little more open, but not completely open as we've lived with that plan for 12 years. We actually wanted walls. Something we laugh about while watching Fixer Upper...don't you wonder in ten years, will everyone be saying "I would like a wall here and a wall there, why is this space so open??"

Ok, back to photos...
BEFORE: kitchen looking to dining room and hallway

That's a lot of medium brown. I'm a fan of brown really...but after being in a log house for 12 years I'm kinda done.

This pic is looking from the back kitchen door towards the dining room on right (single doorway) and hall to the left

AFTER: (different view)

We also made a large opening between the dining and kitchen where once was just a doorway as you can see to the right of the photo above.

So as you can see, things are clipping along finally.

And as usual, I'll throw in a couple of fun photos of things found or will be used...

This will be our hall bath...gray subway tile with white or gray grout around tub/shower up to ceiling and the really pale gray/white penny tile on the floor with light gray grout

this dark gray hexagonal tile will be on the master shower floor as well as making a few snowflakes in white hexagonal tiles on the master bathroom floor. White subway tile will be the roll in shower walls. Dark gray grout for all tile in here.