Project Home

Winter wonderland

2009-12-20T23:05:00.003-05:00

Most of the stucco work currently in progress is nearly finished - just in time to protect the house from the snow! Backyard is now covered in a sparkling 2 feet of snow. And the city doesn't actually plow streets, at least not any around here, luckily the buses make a bit of a path...i guess we're stuck waiting for it to melt...

Updates

2009-12-20T22:59:00.003-05:00

Showing the kitchen at near completion...has been in this state for months and probably will remain nearly finished for months to come, always too much to do! The smallest bedroom is also almost finished, and is the first room with baseboard, amazing how exciting that is to me! And the living/dining rooms are coming along, partial electric is in and some insulation is up. Hope to drywall soon.

Backyard Fence

2009-09-21T07:30:00.002-04:00

The new fence really changes the feel to the backyard and I love it! Managed to plant a fig tree and two arborvitae this weekend.

Base kitchen cabinets

2009-05-12T12:50:00.003-04:00

After returning from a great trip to the UK we are back to work. We've purchased and put together the remaining ikea cabinets. The doors for the upper cabinets and the handles have all been installed. We've also decided upon and purchased our tile for the countertop and backsplash. Now we need to get all the bottom cabinets aligned perfectly and figure out the plumbing for the sink so we can start tiling.

Under cabinet lights

2009-04-20T12:12:00.002-04:00

John hard-wired (while I held in place) our lights for the kitchen cabinets. Wiring lights has become a fairly simple job for us now. We put up basic fluorescent lights - it puts out more than enough light, and we will have trim along the bottom so they will never be seen.

medicine cabinet

2009-04-20T12:08:00.003-04:00

We finally installed our bathroom medicine cabinet. This was really a trial run for the ikea cabinets as it is also from ikea. The trickiest part is hanging the doors, partly because the screws are cheap and bend easily so you only get a few chances to make adjustments before the screws start to weaken.

The Kitchen Cabinets

2009-04-18T17:14:00.003-04:00

Our wall cabinets are up!! I must say I am very impressed with our work today. We had to shim the cabinets quite a bit at the end (farthest from the corner) but our end cover panel fits perfectly so it's just fine. We still have one more cabinet to attach next to the corner cabinet. It's a small open shelf cabinet and we haven't decided how to best attach it to the corner as it doesn't come with the open holes the other cabinets come with. We still have to attach the doors and put in the shelves, but the hard part is done.

Master Bedroom

2009-04-18T17:05:00.002-04:00

We've painted the master bedroom - a nice light purple. The closets are also painted and the bar is hung. We're currently working on re-doing a few spackle lines on the ceiling. It was looking great until we hooked the light back up, and at night when the light is on it casts very unfriendly shadows. Once that's fixed we'll hang the closet doors and start the trim.

Kitchen Flooring

2009-03-25T19:22:00.003-04:00

Our kitchen almost has a new floor! We borrowed a nailer from the local tool library (a great $ saver) and have started to lay down the floor. Once we decided upon a pattern it went down fairly fast. We have a few more rows to nail in this week, then we'll be getting ready for the cabinets, sink & stove. Also notice the new paint! The black corner in a few of the photos is our new frig (take 2, live & learn!). After the 1st needed the service guy to come out twice only to leave us with hot air blowing we decided to return it and buy new. We opted to have the frig delivered to save the hassle & we were able to get it in black to match our stove. Now we are very pleased.

Master Bedroom Floor Finished!

2009-03-25T19:14:00.003-04:00

Floors have been refinished!! Pictures were taken right after applying the poly so they are still wet. The floor came out a bit darker than we expected, even though it was a clear gloss poly, but it looks good. We cheated a bit with the wood filler and bought the cheap uncolored filler and decided not to go through the effort of staining it. It looks fine and we're happy but it would also look great if it had been a perfect match.

Kitchen

2009-03-17T20:33:00.002-04:00

We have slowed down a bit on the house work over past month as it was burning us out. We've gotten back into the swing a bit though. We had to re-level our kitchen floor, partly because it may not have been perfectly level to begin with and there was a major leak in our water lines after they were installed. We were able to level the floor with thin sheets of plywood and a lot of large shims. We have the 1st coat of primer on the walls and the ceiling is painted. John also entirely re-wired our kitchen light (ebay purchase), and to my amazement it worked and there are no extra pieces that I know of. The master bedroom floors are coming along. We've filled in all the cracks and holes throughout and now it needs the final sanding passes then we will poly.

Master Bedroom Floors

2009-02-24T14:57:00.002-05:00

This past weekend we spent an entire day and half preparing the master bedroom floor for sanding. This is quite a lengthly process including pulling up staples from the carpeting we removed and random nails, setting all nails below the surface, removing the old paint that is in some places at least 3 thick layers. We managed to begin sanding sunday afternoon, but the general exhaustion prevented us from finishing the 1st layer of sanding. But the floor is starting to look pretty good.

Soundproofing

2009-02-24T14:54:00.003-05:00

John purchased soundproofing foam which we added around the bathroom and between the bedroom walls before we finished drywalling these rooms. So far the verdict is that it's a slight help. Although with only two of us in the house it isn't really a problem.

Master Bedroom Closets

2009-02-24T14:51:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago I framed the master bedroom closets. Later John and I finished putting up the drywall in the master bedroom. The spackling process has begun and will be finished for this room in another day or two.

Drywall continued

2009-02-02T13:10:00.005-05:00

This weekend we continued to put up drywall, and my family was here helping all day Saturday! We have the middle bedroom celing and about half the room dryalled.

More drywall

2009-02-02T12:54:00.002-05:00

Last weekend John and I hung drywall on the master bedroom ceiling and part of the walls. The ceilings require a lot of prep time shimming as they are not very level.

Watch our kitchen become a room!

2009-01-24T22:55:00.002-05:00

As you can see we have made progress in our kitchen with the drywall! We also now have electric completely wired in the master bedroom - and it's only Saturday. I've also spent a lot of time this past week patching brick along the stairwell wall (not pictured).

Master Bedroom

2009-01-19T20:41:00.003-05:00

Our much appreciated subcontractors installed both bedroom windows and framed that wall last week. During the weekend I framed the other exterior wall as well as the interior wall. The interior wall will eventually have closets on each side of the chimney. I also ran the electric wire and finished insulating the room. John has begun to wire the receptacles, and this room should have working electric by the weekend.

Yard

2009-01-19T20:37:00.003-05:00

The current state of our yard is beginning to resemble a dump. If only it would snow here and cover it up for a couple months!

The Electrician/HVAC Specialist Taking his lunch break

2009-01-04T21:08:00.002-05:00

Current projects

2009-01-04T20:58:00.004-05:00

We are currently working on the master bedroom - patching the brick and replacing much of the brick under the old windows to prepare for new windows to go in next week. We also framed a drop down ceiling and kitchen wall to hide the ducting and plumbing behind. Drywall has been delivered this week and we started to hang some on the kitchen ceiling!

Moved In!

2009-01-04T20:42:00.002-05:00

We finally and prematurely moved into the house on December 1st. The first night was fun and reality hit by day two. We spent the first 3 weeks trying to get our furnace working, turns out our contractor incorrectly installed the venting which resulted in the furnace shutting off shortly after it would start to heat up! Luckily it was an easy fix once the problem was discovered, and it forced us to run much of the ducting throughout out the house. We also worked quickly to finish gutting the downstairs to help limit the amount of dust we live with. Here are pictures of our bathroom which is almost finished, and a hall closet we built next to the door to the small bedroom (the one we are currently in).

Electric, Insulation, Windows

2008-11-23T22:59:00.002-05:00

Our house is finally sealed from the outdoor elements! Our 3rd upstairs window went in today, and the house already feels a bit warmer. We have also been very busy wiring two bedrooms and half of the kitchen. It's amazing how exciting hitting a light switch can be.

The master bedroom has been mostly gutted, only the ceiling wood lathe left

2008-11-23T22:55:00.001-05:00

Bathroom

2008-11-23T22:48:00.004-05:00

We have been very busy over the last few weeks. The bathroom has been 95% tiled, we just need to add a few pieces of trim. The bathroom door is in place. And we rebuilt our vanity to hold our 1920's sink.

Tiling

2008-11-10T08:09:00.003-05:00

This weekend John and I leveled out our bathroom floor to prepare for the tile. I tiled the bathroom floor, which still needs to be cleaned up and grout added. I also insulated the ceiling of another bedroom. There is also a picture of a bedroom window that was recently installed.

Window with trim

2008-11-03T21:25:00.004-05:00

Today I made the sill and trim for our bathroom window. I must say it turned out quite well and I look forward to finishing other windows! I also painted the interior of one side of our skinny bath closet. We've worked on numerous other tasks throughout the house which I can't begin to keep track off. We have our refrigerator at the house now, although it's not yet plugged in.

Close to a bathroom

2008-10-26T22:06:00.007-04:00

This weekend I worked on drywalling the bathroom - first I had to level out the wall with the window as it wasn't close to being level or plumb. My first attempt at drywalling isn't very good, I'm hoping the spackle will fill in all my mistakes! I also framed in what will be a little cabinet that will double as a shelf for the shower at the end of the tub.

Last weekend we worked on breaking off some remaining cement from the walls, and filling in the cracks, along will other cementing to our crumbling brick. John worked more on the our sink stand. And our wall where the chimney used to be is now all repaired.

More pictures!

2008-10-13T22:55:00.001-04:00

Lights & Insulation & Much more

2008-10-13T22:37:00.003-04:00

Updates: Our bathroom is now wired - working lights & outlets. We have also run the electric wire for 2 bedroom lights - to be connected to the panel soon. John is building a vanity stand for our oversized bathroom sink. Our helper has made some progress on rebuilding the bedroom wall. We also put up a new wall frame for one of the bedrooms as the other wall was mostly rotted. We have a new contractor who has actually been in (our other one left us for over 5 weeks without any work) laying the water lines, and getting ready to install our tub and toilet. We made a few good purchases at Lowe's this past weekend. Picked up an almost new refrigerator for $200 by bargaining on a clearance item. We purchased a lot of insulation as is was on a good sale, and we started to put some insulation up as well. The bedroom window has been removed, but we have already purchased 3 new windows for the windows in two bedrooms. We have also been busy ebaying for chandeliers - we have two on their way, we picked up our bedroom lights from ikea. We've also spent many hours on general clean-up - removing old wires, cleaning the basement, patching up the brick walls, etc. While our basement isn't yet dry we have our dehumidifier working around the clock to help dry things out.

Weekend of Sept 20th

2008-09-27T09:48:00.003-04:00

I spent most of my time this weekend putting the bedroom floor back together, now that we have the 3rd joist in.

Weekend of September 20th

2008-09-27T09:44:00.002-04:00

John spent most of the weekend running electric wire for the bathroom - we'll be connecting it to the panel today and hoping all goes well! As the pictures show the kitchen is now mostly framed.

2008-09-16T21:54:00.004-04:00

We also layed new concrete on the sidewalk, probably our neighbors - but we are trying to seal everything up to prevent the water from reaching our basement. The plumbers did come on Saturday to pour some hydrolic cement around the drain and foundation wall. We'll just have to wait for another heavy rain storm to see what happens. Also take note of that blue box next to me in our soon to be bathroom! The electric is coming. We started to run the wire and we have the lights.....hopefully it will be working this weekend.

One joist in

2008-09-16T21:48:00.002-04:00

We did get one joist in - we have to wait until the brick against the wall and up along the old chimney gets repaired and replaced before the other joist can go in. Luckily our help is doing a great job of removing the old chimney and repairing the brick.

Another weekend at the house

2008-09-07T21:17:00.004-04:00

This weekend I moved our bathroom doorway, which intailed framing a new doorway as it had to move about two feet. We also began what may be a big project - putting in two new joists on the second floor. A lot of the flooring in that area was also rotted so we decided to cut the flooring back to the joist we are keeping. Somehow we managed to pull the old joists up onto the second floor and not let them fall down onto our new kitchen subfloor, windows & door. I'm still unsure how but I guess that's why our bodies ache. We started to repair the brick work near the joists and cut one of the boards to size. Hopefully we'll get in this week to finish the joists. We've also made the call to hire another set of hands to speed up the work in hopes of moving in by the end of the month.

Tropical storm Hanna also brought water into our basement! The water was actually coming in right through our new main drain, and the new main water line is now whistling (a leak somewhere else behind our foundation?) Needless to say the plumber is coming Monday, of course he couldn't come earlier, so we have large clear photos for him!

Basement Windows Continued

2008-09-02T23:16:00.002-04:00

Basement Windows

2008-09-02T23:00:00.007-04:00

We spent most of Labor Day weekend exhausting ourselves with the house but we did acheive quite a bit. We picked up more lumber from Lowes, which resulted in renting the Lowes truck to get it home. We assembled one of our basement windows to allow for space for the dryer vent. After countless trips to Lowes and a few arguments we managed to get both basement windows installed. Of course they need some finish work but they are a huge improvement. We took advantage of discounts to purchase our kitchen floor. John also worked on patching up some of our crumbling brick. And with some creativity we managed to dispose of a good amount of trash.

August

2008-09-02T22:37:00.006-04:00

During the past month we accomplished a lot of clean up, including another huge pile of trash hauled away. We worked on gutting a few more walls. Laid the backer board (to prepare for tile) for the bathroom floor. We also had a plumber come who put in all the water/sewage drains and put a new water main from the street to the house - which gives us running water! We've purchased a tankless water heater & a very efficient furnace, both should be installed within the next week along with the water lines throughout the house and the duct work for the heating system.

Accomplishments!

2008-07-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

Our new kitchen windows are finally in, and our contractor has finished this job and moved most of their stuff out (he'll be back to collect the ladders). We passed our electric inspection. While we are still a long way away from electric throughout the house we do have the main upgrade and new service panel in place.
The second picture is of our new bathroom subfloor. 3rd picture shows some of the joists we had repaired. And I've also included a picture of the mini closet now out of the master bedroom.

Back Door

2008-07-29T09:52:00.000-04:00

Our back door is up! It will be finished today along with the installation of the windows. We also have our PECO (electric) inspection today. And if all goes well the contractors will be out today allowing us to get the place cleaned out again and ready for the final gutting.

Kitchen Subfloor Finished

2008-07-28T16:06:00.000-04:00

The delays with the contractor have been continuous and expensive. In order for the contractors to do the work we needed to upgrade our electric system. This meant we also had to figure out exactly what electric power we were going to need, use, and where (I think we sort of figured this out).
We do now have reliable power and the beginning of a new circuit panel. Our kitchen subfloor is finished and level. The pictures also show the bathroom floor ready for its new floor and another bedroom fully gutted.

We have a contractor and a toilet!

2008-07-16T07:34:00.000-04:00

We have selected a contractor to help with leveling and installing a new subfloor for our kitchen and bathroom, repairing rotting floor joists, installing 2 new windows, installing our back door and repairing the brick around the door. Some of their materials arrived yesterday and they should start work today! Our toilet arrived yesterday, which was a huge surprise as the order originally said it could take 4-5 weeks - we ordered it a few days ago!! Also our bathroom wall is finished and up.

Contractors

2008-07-10T06:32:00.001-04:00

This past week has been the most trying so far for me. After gutting out more of the kitchen and preparing to install our new back door we discovered the water damage has affected more floor joists and brick work than we thought. One of the windows also needs replacing as the entire frame is rotted out and with a slight push I could probably push it out right now. Currently our door opening is in need of immediate repair work. I've meet with numerous contractors over the last couple of days and they all have informed me of the missing lintel on the door and that the only thing holding that brick in place is the stucco on the outside which is in its own state of deterioration. Needless to say that will be fixed shortly. The positive side is I think we are getting close to selecting a contractor to help us with the repair work.

We have Electricity!

2008-07-08T06:28:00.000-04:00

Our new bathroom wall is ready to go up & we also managed to dispose of the trash we had amassed.

Kitchen

2008-07-03T08:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I worked on the kitchen some more - removed the sink and cabinet, took down more rotting drywall, false walls around the duct work, and started on the ceiling. Hope to have this room ready for repairs by the end of the day!

Bathroom Expansion

2008-07-02T07:54:00.000-04:00

We are getting ready to move one wall to create a larger bathroom. This also means we have to change two doorways....

2008-06-28T06:30:00.000-04:00

This past week was quite productive. After dealing with the laziness and bureaucracy of the city offices I finally got a certified copy of our deed. This means we can now have utilities turned on - electric comes Tuesday! We're also starting to get estimates for the major mechanical system repairs- plumbing, heating, and electric. With the next week mostly off from work I should have major developments to come.

One Bedroom Fully Gutted! Bathroom & 2nd Bedroom getting close

2008-06-28T06:23:00.000-04:00

2008-06-15T22:39:00.000-04:00

Finally remembered to bring the camera...

More plaster/drywall/concrete walls that were damp and falling apart have been mostly removed from the 2nd bedroom and the hallway.

Also, due to a complaining neighbor I cleaned up the jungle our backyard had become.

Look Mom: Mask and Goggles!

2008-06-01T20:57:00.001-04:00

Progress on gutting the back bedroom

2008-05-28T08:42:00.000-04:00

We are taking out the closet because it's not nearly deep enough to be useful. The entire ceiling is coming down so we can re-insulate as the current insulation is almost non-existant. The roof is surpringsly dry considering how wet this room was. Hopefully another day or two and this room will be gutted.

More demolition

2008-05-26T20:00:00.000-04:00

Projects Completed:

2008-05-23T01:13:00.000-04:00

John putting new locks on the front door.

The kitchen is now almost gutted.

Also just poured our money into a new roof - I'm hoping this means no more rain collection inside the house!

Initial Photos of the House Continued....

2008-05-23T01:06:00.001-04:00

2008-05-23T01:01:00.001-04:00

Initial photos of house continued....

Becoming a Homeowner

2008-05-22T08:48:00.000-04:00

kitchen
kitchen
future dining room
front room/living room

On April 26th John and I officially became homeowners! The initial view of the house was a bit grim, but in time it will be nice. See the house in all it's glory.