Before photos: Part II

Here is the dining room. It looks nicer with the blinds open of course. In here, we are not changing much structurally. The coffered ceiling will be stripped and put back and we are having chair rail not the panelled moulding you see here.




Here you see the living room. To the left of this room is a wall that was added to make a third bedroom. This wall is coming down and this room will be out back to the way it originally was! To me, this is one of the most exciting things about the project- improving the floorplan.



And here is the "den" or third bedroom. Where you see the windows, there will be French doors.





The bedrooms don't show very well. They are small and the only details have been painted over. There is original picture moulding in them, which we removed to strip.
In the middle bedroom, we are moving the south wall out a bit into the dining room to make a larger bedroom. The dining room is the biggest room in the house and our little bedrooms barely hold a queen size bed!

I am sure the apartment looks pretty tidy and you might be thinking, "Oh those tenants of theirs were not so bad." Well, maybe you aren't thinking that, but just in case you are, here is some proof of their misdeeds.

First off, imagine this, you're tearing out moulding and you keep smelling fish oil! Everything they cooked, they used this disgusting (sorry) sauce- the smell is literally in the walls.

And there was cable and phone wire EVERYWHERE- I have never seen so much wiring tacked on in one smallish apartment. It was truly vexing yanking this stuff off the wood trim.

Okay, I was just about to post the evidence of the tenants "mis-deeds" and mistreatment of the apartment and blogger won't let me post any more photos- not fair! Guess you'll have to stay tuned.

Before photos

Things are moving pretty fast- faster than I can post. I thought I'd better get some "before" photos posted of the 2nd floor before time gets away from me.

Here we have the kitchen. The window at left will be raised for counter space. There will be a corner sink, maple floors, and all new everything. The radiator will be pulled and replaced with a Myson toe kick heater.

Here's the pantry, which will be made a bit smaller to enlarge the closet in the 2nd bedroom. Oak shelves, beadboard panelling and maybe decorative brackets.






Here's a view down the hall from the kitchen. Bathroom is on the left side of the hall. 2nd bedroom is on the right. Directly ahead is the dining room and then living room.


Here's the bathroom. The tile on the walls was in pretty bad shape and the window well was rotted. We are replacing the sill with a granite one and tiling the window well. The only thing that's staying is the tile floor and the tub, which will be refinished.


Here you can see the bad tile. There was mold on the ceiling. Our tenants had no sense and never opened the window to let moisture out. They also never opened the blinds-and had seemingly no sense of aesthetics at all.

There will be a Fantech exhaust fan added to the bathroom, subway tile, and period appropriate sink and hardware.

I can't get any more images to post so I will continue with the rest of the apartment later.

Never fear

...we have a floorplan and chart with labeling system and marked every piece with a sharpie as we pulled it. We are planning to engrave the labels on the boards though before we give them to our stripper guy because we are pretty sure his industrial strength stripper will remove even sharpie marks.

Steve's labeling system is pretty foolproof I think. We've done this a few times now for the kitchen and entry and it worked before just fine.

It's amazing what you can do when you have to- plus- our contractor said to us and I quote:

"So, you think you guys can remove all the moulding in 3 days?"

I, of course, took that as a challenge. We did accomplish our goal as of 4pm today with the exception of the coffered ceiling.

Here you see all the wood on the 2nd floor back porch. We hope it doesn't collapse after all our hard work! You can't see the door and window jambs in the photo or the doors. They are out of camera view.

We are going to have a lot of fun removing all the nails next weekend and using the engraver to mark the boards. Then we have our stripper guy who is charging us $1/per foot to strip the boards. After that, we will sand and stain all of it. That will be another marathon I am sure. Some people run marathons, we take on projects- not too much different except you have to train longer for a marathon.



I feel surprisingly OK after all this although I don't look so great. I actually used the Sawzall myself this time to cut the door jambs out. And I didn't even saw my leg off or anything.

As the wood pile grows...

We have carefully been removing every stitch of wood trim from the 2nd floor apartment. Today was day two and I am pretty darn tired. There are two things that will get us through tomorrow, which should be the last day for trim removal: determination and extra strength Tylenol.

The photo at left was taken on Friday at the end of one days work. The next photo was taken today at about 6pm. Sorry, I was unable to smile for the photo (too tired).

We still have the window sills and jambs to remove and all the door jambs. For the door jambs, we will be using the sawzall to cut all the nails. I will be doing that job.

Steve will be removing the sills and window jambs by hand I think. We took photos of "how-to" and later on I hope to summon the strength to post them!

When we first started the job on Friday, after about one hour of breaking 10+ layer paint seals with a razor knife, I didn't think I was gonna make it, but once the pieces started coming off, hope returned!

We actually did extremely well I think as we had very few cracked boards. We also learned some things about how the 2nd floor was constructed a bit differently than the 1st. In some ways they cut a few corners using secondary wood in a few places and using shallower window sills etc... I could do an entire post dedicated to these differences and probably will at some point.

Maybe the 1st floor was always considered the "owner's unit" and therfore got better quality on a few things. Or else the worker's on the first floor knew more what they were doing when installing window jambs etc...We will be in some cases putting it back better than it was even originally.


The nightmare of it all (hear music from The Omen playing here) will be removing the coffered ceiling.

Steve started to this morning, but after cracking two boards (we can repair them- don't worry), we decided that we will wait until the ceiling it cut out so he can get up above them and pound them out that way. In our place, Steve stripped the coffered ceiling in place. It took him a whole summer basically working weekends.

Wish us luck finishing up tomorrow. I took Monday off to recuperate before going back to work. It's funny because this is about the most sore my muscles have been since we drywalled the kitchen 2 summers ago. I find if I keep moving I don't notice the pain as much. It's once you actually stop working, that it really hits you.

Tylenol and Gatorade are my friends (and you housebloggers too). I'm sure most other folks think us batty for this episode.

Oh, I forgot to mention we had the radiators pulled in the midst of this and thru a mishap(plumber's error) had water rain down into our unit in a few places. Not alot thankfully and no damage to see except for the rusty water that stained my expensive lampshade. Hopefully we can have it cleaned. Gary, I thought of you. Signing out!
(Steve can't believe I'm typing this much with my poor tired hands)

Has anyone seen this?

Old House Restoration Stories

I didn't know Houseblogs was on here!

Contact OldHouses.com
Submit Your Resource to OldHouses.com
Please tell us about your:
your own old house (join our archives)

I see quite a few housebloggers are on there already!

Post Replacement: Day 2

Okay I know this isn't really that exciting, dingy basements just aren't that glamorous for the most part, but I'm all about the documentation right now.

Yesterday, Miro and crew removed part of a wall (see left) to add another post and poured the footing. They are going to also add a support beam for the back of the building, which contains the kitchen and our bedroom. Our 2-flat was built originally with no support beams for the back side of the building. Maybe this is because kitchens didn't used to have all the appliances etc... This is what we think.

So, since we now have much more stuff than what they had back in 1910 and our building is sagging a bit, we are updating the support posts and beams.



(view from other side)

In this process, we have moved Steve's office out of the dingy basement and into our dining room. I hate Steve working in the basement for a few reasons. It's dingy and not nicely finished and there is still asbestos down there. Now I have been told that the asbestos is only dangerous when it becomes airbourne, but I still don't like him down there. We are now thinking that we will make our den his office and just keep files and stuff down there for him to get at. The den is not big enough for everything. It would make me happy for him to have a nicer environment to work in and I think he would be happier too.

Oh, one more thing. Initially, our contractor wanted to put the posts in after 2 days. Steve thought this seemed a bit fast for dry time and called the concrete manufacturer Quikrete and spoke to an engineer on staff who said minimum 5 days dry time. He discussed this tactfully with our contractor and they are now waiting 5 days before doing the posts. You really have to watch these things it seems. Just like your own health, one has to take responsibility for the "health" of your building- no one cares as much as you do.

Coming up next post...
...and then there were none..the tenants vacated last night at 11:40pm. How do you spell relief? e-m-p-t-y-a-p-a-r-t-m-e-n-t!

Post Replacement: Day 1

Things are about to pick up speed here with our tenants leaving and the work starting. The tenants have until midnight tonight and they seem to be waiting until the last possible moment to vacate completely. Thadeus has moved out but the other two are still up there and seem to be having slumber parties every night. I can't for the life of me imagine what they are sleeping on since I swore I saw them move out all the beds. Not my problem I guess.

Miro came yesterday and put the temporary screw jacks in place to support the building, while the old posts were removed and the new footings were dug and the concrete poured.

Above, you can see the temporary jack.



Here, you can see the reason why we have to add an additional post. Some genius comprimised the structure of the building to run radiator pipes through a beam. We believe it's original to the building. This additional post clutters up the basement a bit more, but we'll deal with it for now.


Here's a shot of one of the footings.



And here's a shot of one of the removed and rotted posts.


We wish we could afford the permanent solution, which would be steel, but with all the other work we are doing right now, we just can't. Down the road, if we dig out the basement and finish it, we will replace the wood with steel beams and then we can eliminate many posts and make a better space.

Did someone mention knobs?

Decorator Hardware has more than a few to choose from. The problem, they are not cheap. Now for our kitchen we got knobs from Rejuvenation, which ran us between $7-$12 a pop. But for a rental apartment, we don't want to go that crazy.

Has anyone found any nice knobs for around $3 each?
We saw some at Home Depot we liked but they were out of stock. We will try and get those if we can find them in stock.

We have the same dilemna with the bathroom fixtures. The things we like are expensive and we don't care for what HD carries. Like Goldilocks, we need something right in the middle.

Later on, we could add nicer knobs up there. Right now, we have too many other things to spend money on.

And the award goes to....

Steve and Jocelyn for maximum use of Home Depot and I-Go car in one day(and no we did not drive on the highway like this in case anyone is wondering).

As we tied a garden cart and patio chair to the roof in the Home Depot parking lot, I didn't feel silly like I often do when we tie things to the roof of the car we are driving. Rather, I felt proud of our ingenuity to get things done with whatever means we have available. I believe this is part of what drives us with the house too. That and we want a nice place to live of course.

We went to the following stores yesterday: Lowe's, Home Depot, Decorator Hardware, Buy the Yard, and Abt.

And of course, there was the requisite visit to the nearby Steak and Shake after working up an appetite in HD.
I'll post the results of our shopping expedition soon. We didn't accomplish everything we would have liked, but we made a dent.


And we realized how much work we have to do.

World's longest move out

I think our tenants are going for some kind of record.
5 boxes a day or something over a period of 2 weeks.
The good news is: They are Moving!!! It's the end of a not so great era!

I can hardly wait to get upstairs and dance around the vacant apartment and best of all...take the treasured "before" photos. It's so close I can taste it.

and...we just got a call from our contractor who is ready to start the post replacement job and our electrician asking for a start date. woo hoo!

and...tomorrow we are going to Abt to buy the appliances among other things. Busy weekend ahead.

positvely dreamy light fixture

Don't you love those moments where you find something you really like? I do. Recently in my never-ending browsing of Old House Journal and Old House Interiors, I started to notice ads for a place called Brass Light Gallery. I liked their ads and I noticed they are in Milwaukee, a mere hour and a half drive from us.

I went to their website and started looking around....and I liked what I saw. They don't have prices there, which made me nervous, but I am going to perservere and get some quotes soon.

I love the light at left (Bayview Ceiling fixture Goldenrod Collection)and want to get it for our bedroom. It shines up and down- how perfect! and it has craftman elements but seems somewhat transitional, which matches our home style.

You see, our bedroom badly needs a light fixture- wouldn't you say?


It's been like this, since the old jimmy-rigged fixture failed on us. When I get a price, I'll post it and let you know if it's do-able. Do you like it for our bedroom?

Gratuitous Peony shot

This year we got 4 flowers on our Peony tree. Last year, we only had one, but it was huge. These flowers are literally like 7" diameter.

The first year we had a tragedy with it. A roaming band of kids came into our yard and broke half the baby tree off. They also ripped out some of my tulips.

I confronted them one morning about it. They have since moved away and the Peony is recovering. I think next year will be it's "big year" to establish.

Here's a close up of one of the flowers.

What puts a twinkle in my eye?

Some women like jewelry, for some people it's food or a car, maybe even spending time with that someone special. Honestly, I like those things too. But putting that last coat of varnish on the shoe moulding for the kitchen, that made me smile...

This was me last night. After having a splitting headache at work all day, I decided to finish the shoe moulding so we could install it today. Instant headache cure.

At left, Steve using our new hand operated Jorgenson compound miter saw. He is now quite skilled at coping as well.


Here's a shot of some of the finished work. We have a few more boards to install as I kicked the drill and broke the last drill bit while I was passing through the kitchen.

Next up- finishing the shoe moulding in the entry and cleaning the entry floor.

Working on the house really does fullfill me. It actually makes me better able to deal with my annoying day job because I feel I'm accomplishing something for myself. I am an Administrative Manager and sometimes I feel like I have 10+ kids at work. All day it's people whining at me, "Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Jocelyn, I need you..." I rarely get a moments peace. "House"-work is quiet and peaceful and I get to work alone or with Steve, whom I like. It's good to be back!

Decisions...Decisions

We have to decide on some things soon for the 2nd floor project. Like....

What kind of doors we are going to put over the awning- do we put real French doors or do we put sliding doors that just look like real doors. We are looking at Pella and Andersen. We, of course, prefer the authentic door with sidelights or French doors for obvious reasons. But sliding doors will not take up space in the room and they are a bit less money. I think we are leaning towards real doors.

We selected the cabinets and we are using Kraftmaid Lexington style in Toffee. These are mid-priced and way nicer than what you see in most apartments. Steve is making a few custom maple shelves to go over the sink, which will make it a bit more custom looking.

Lighting-wise, we are going with all Rejuvenation and Schoolhouse Electric. It is going to be very nice. I am going to wish I lived up there!

For the ceiling fan, we saw an article in Old House Journal this month that featured more authentic vintage style fans. We like the Hunter Classic Series. Most of the ones at Home Depot are hideous monstrosities. We have an ugly one in our living room right now that we are going to replace with one of the Classic Series too.

There are other things, but this is all I can bear to think about right now. (Bathroom fixtures, appliances, kitchen sink!)

I neglected to report on our visit to the "Stripper Man" last weekend. I have to admit I was somewhat sobered and mildly frightened after meeting him. His shop was really bare bones. He said he had "just moved" from up the street. It was actually a store front with a beauty salon next door and I didn't see any respirators anywhere.

We came in and he was sleeping in a chair and he jumped up and said, "Sorry, I had a rough night." It's the kind of thing where you worry about him disappearing and us not being able to get our wood back. I am probably being a nervous Nelly. I mean, Steve called him 6 months ago and he was in business. He does work for Jan's and Salvage One. He's the under the radar cheapest guy.

My gut and my conscience doesn't like it but we don't have much choice as everyone else is 4 times more money and we don't have time to do it ourselves. We're just going to have to gamble a little on this one. It will probably be okay. Suspense in renovation yet again.

to save a facade...

We've all seen examples of muddling up a facade or building. We've all seen beautiful buildings of architectural significance snuffed out.

It's nice to see someone saving a spectacular facade.
I have heard from a friend who lived in Paris for years and worked in the construction trades, that developers in Paris were forced to keep the facades of buildings and preserve the character of the city.

Steve is often fond of saying (in his bitter moments) how a stereotypical American goes to Europe and loves the art and architecture but then comes home satisfied with strip malls and Walmart. They don't seem to realize we could be like Europe if we wouldn't keep tearing down and building newer and cheaper.

The facade at left looks a little bit Louis Sullivan-esque. And you know, they just don't make 'em like that anymore.

The Back Porch

We have an enclosed back porch. I doubt it's original simply because a wood porch would not last that long. The porch was probably enclosed in the 1970's judging by the panelling and the windows. Our posts need to be replaced that much is for sure.

We've talked about tearing down the porch and having a deck built, but it's possible we could just replace the posts and freshen it up. We're not doing that right now of course, but with our tenants moving out next weekend, we decided to address another issue related to the porch.

I didn't take a photo before, but if you look at the photo here, you can see where there was a wall earlier today.
See where the gray paint ends? There was a full wall with a door that separated the stariwell from the landing.

It was a very tight squeeze and no one could possibly move in or out through there. A larger person would almost have to sqeeze through as a matter of fact! Well, no more. Now the tenants can move in and out through the back.

The bonus is that it has a much more open feel and lets some more light into our kitchen.

Here's the view from our back door. We are thinking we will put a storm/screen door on so we can keep our back door open and not let critters or flies in.


I'm planning to repaint it and clean it up a bit. I pulled an old radiator cover out of the basement and I'm using it as a plant table. I'll paint it too and I'll have a nice herb/flower garden to look out on from the kitchen.

We got it!

We've got our permit! It's funny how all the angst of things led up to this simple solution. The main demons were the unknown, what the city would require and of course, if we could afford it.

Things are looking good with our budget and timetable. Our tenants have said they are moving out the weekend of May 20th and I've seen some boxes come in for packing.

We have signed contracts with our electrician and contractor. They are ready to start as soon as the tenants leave and we remove the trim for stripping.

This weekend we are headed to Home Depot to do the cabinet configuration for the kitchen with one of their consultants. We did this for our kitchen with Kraftmaid cabinets and it worked out pretty well. The lead time on cabinets is longest so we want to get them ordered right away.

Then we are going to meet our Stripper Man who will remove all the paint from the trimwork and doors. I can't wait to see his operation. Maybe he'll let me take some photos, we'll see.

He says he will pick up the wood from here too, which saves us some hassle.

In the kitchen, we are doing a few things differently than we did on our floor. We are using a corner sink for one thing, which will be a nice touch. We are also having some upper cabinets since the pantry upstairs will be made smaller for bedroom closet space and thus will need more storage. The nice thing is we've been through the whole kitchen and bath projects before so we know exactly what we need to buy for supplies etc...

We're keeping the maple floors and Steve is building a smaller version of some of the custom shelving too. I think it will be a pretty darn nice apartment by the time we are done- good enough for us to move into should we decide to...Stay tuned...

Please sir, might we have a permit?

Steve went down to the Permit Office this morning and we hit a small snag. He showed them our plans and said we were doing new electrical and drywall. And they said, "Anything else?" And he nonchalantly sid, "Oh, and we are adding a dishwasher." They then told him we'd have to have mechanical drawings, and a licensed plumber install it, etc...etc...

So Steve left, annoyed because we could have had all that ready had we known we needed it. Except for one thing. We don't want to take a chance that the city will tell us we need a larger than 1" water line going into the building for this minor change so we are going to skip the dishwasher...for now (ejem).

So he has to go back now next week and tell them that we eliminating the d/w because this is just a rental unit and we can't deal with any complications right now, etc... He was a bit disappointed, but it could have been worse.

We always want to do everything to code and we will even pay for permit fees, but we just can't go bankrupt renovating our house- we just have to draw the line there.

Just thought I'd post our experiences in case anyone can learn from them. Not such interesting reading I'm sure.

On a more fun note: Tomorrow I am going to poly the quarter round moulding for the kitchen and entry so we can install it as soon as the 2 coats are dry. We can also try our our new manual miter saw.

Can you repeat that please?

Life can be pretty funny at times. I got back from Las Vegas and I wasn't feeling so great. Got a sinus infection and then noticed this strange rash on my left thigh. It was itchy and red and I was worried (after watching too many Dateline shows about the subject ) that I was a victim of bed bugs! I went to the doctor and she told me that an irritated nerve and stress caused a recurrence of Chicken Pox!

I can demo a room, dry wall it, strip loads of lead paint off wood, dig a new garden bed with no ill effects. Put me at a trade show in Las Vegas for a weekend (sans drinking, smoking, or gambling) and become so stressed I get sick in a few different ways.

Yes, I'm a homebody.

Fortunately I only have it in a few areas and I'm staying home from work for a few days to rest up. It's just a mild outbreak and I only have spots in a few places, but it's icky to me.

On the home front, Steve is going to see the city for a permit tomorrow. He got a call today and they said he didn't need an appt. for our type of job- just walk in. So hopefully, he'll come home with the permits tomorrow!

And since I am low on energy and conserving, I am just going to congratulate Nick and Trissa over at Pigeon Point on their soon to arrive baby!! I'm happy for you both- hope you read this!

And Greg- I wish I had your energy ! I've been reading but not commenting lately- but I'm always lurking about.

And to all other housebloggers: Beware Las Vegas!

Meet Stanley and Stella

No, Stanley and Stella aren't our new tenants. But they will reside here for a long time to come.

They are 2 fastigated boxwoods we planted Easter weekend. It's amazing the difference greenery makes. They really soften the concrete steps alot. They will only grow 1 1/2 feet wide and 7 feet tall. And they are evergreen- we like 'em.

This photo is of Stanley. Forgive me for naming them, but he really does look like a Stanley doesn't he?

The past few weeks have been extremely busy for me at work. We were getting ready for a big trade show and then I went to Las Vegas for the show last week.

I think I've mentioned I work for a high-end wallcoverings manufacturer and we always show at the Hospitality Design Expo in Las Vegas. This was my first year.



I managed to walk the show a bit and didn't I just go and fall in love with this outdoor lounger from Janus et Cie. A steal at about $2K. I think it represents where I want to be someday as far as lounging with my sweeties (Steve and dogs), a good book, and a glass of lemonade.

I also got to buy 2 new dog beds from the Crypton line at wholesale cost. I guess you can see where my priorities lie.
These beds are sold by specialty dog boutiques in case anyone is interested.

As far as the 2nd floor project, we have contracts signed with our electrician and main guy. We are just hoping that the tenants will move when they promised. We are planning to ask them for an update this week. We are also contacting an attorney to see how to handle if they don't move out.
Hopefully it won't come to that, but I know that ultimately we will prevail.

Progress

I haven't been posting as much, but things are moving forward quite well on the 2nd floor project.

We have selected a contractor and that is Miro from Miro Home Improvement Inc. He seems very honest and reliable and he re-worked his price with our changes and he's within our budget. He wants to handle the demolition and when we told him his quote for demo was $3K higher than the demo companies, he was able to adjust his pricing.

We've also selected an electrican and made a decision about what to do with the wiring for the building. We are going to get a third panel for the common areas, which will give us the flexibility to move upstairs to the 2nd floor should we decide to. This will take away quite a bit of usage from the 100 amp panel on the first floor (electric dryer main culprit), which will enable us to keep the 100 amp service on our floor and not upgrade to 200 amps. We are going to put 100 amps upstairs and then 100 amps for the common area panel. We will also be getting 3 new meters and new service into the building- alot of stuff!

In case anyone doesn't know how it works with owner occupied two-flats, the city is concerned about owners being sneaky and putting common area wiring on the rental unit and making the tenants pay for the building lighting. In our building we pay for everything, but some people can be very sneaky and pull things like this. The city frowns upon that and we were concerned they might make us put a third panel in anyway.

We also got a letter from our structural engineer verifying that the roof is supported by clear spanning joists from masonary wall to masonary wall. Every other joist, there is a vertical 2X4 connecting the roof to the 2nd floor ceiling joists. This is good news because it technically is not a load bearing wall and this means we can move it with little trouble making the bedroom larger.

Steve has his appointment with the city the first week in May to go over our plans and get the "easy" permits with electrical. Since we are not touching the plumbing or structure of the building, we qualify for an "Easy permit." If we were doing the plumbing etc... it could take up to 3 months to get permits.

So after all the trials and tribulations, we are making decisions and on budget- things are OK.

The tenants are scheduled to move end of May, and since I feel like hissing like a feral cat every time I think about them, that's a good thing. Oh, and I got a raise at work that starts June 1st. Provided the tenants leave as promised, June looks to be a good month here at the homestead!

Happy Easter...zzzz..zzzz

Just wanted to check in as I haven't posted this week. I had to "step away from the computer" as having started two other local blogs, I got blogged out. But I have decided to stick only with my houseblog for the summer and stay out of neighborhood activism in blogland for a while. It's just too much for me right now. Plus it's getting so nice out, I want to be gardening rather than at the computer so much.

Steve and I planted our annuals and two upright compact boxwoods to frame the stairway leading up to our front door yesterday. And I planted the cannas. But no photos because I lent my camera to my Mom for her visit to see my little nephew in CT.

Happy Easter! I'm going to lie down now and rest my weary self.

Suspense in renovation

Yesterday was the BIG day. Steve went upstairs to the 2nd floor apartment and cut a hole in the ceiling. We need to find out how the roof is being supported so we can address the issue of moving a wall to make one of the bedrooms larger.

The photos at left are of the space between the 2nd floor and the roof, which probably hasn't been opened up since the house was built. There was old-style cottony insulation there that you can see in the photos.

Put simply we need to know if there are ceiling beams that support the roof or if the vertical wall we want to move supports the roof before we move a wall.

We still don't won't know for sure what we have to do until we get word from our Structural Engineer. We emailed him photos yesterday.


We are going to move the wall either way, but one way will require a special permit and plans drawn up by the SE that must be approved by the city. The other way requires plans but no permit. We're talking about a difference of about $3000.00, which is alot when you are on a tight budget.

We've been told that typically it can take 3 months to get approval on these kinds of plans, unless you pay for an expeditor, which is about $1000. 00. So, cross your fingers for us that we won't have to go that route.

Here's a handy tip for anyone who has to cut a hole in a ceiling to see what's up there. Steve stapled a clear plastic bag to the ceiling around the area and then used a blade to start the hole and a sawzall to finish it. Because of the bag, the mess was pretty well contained.

Deal..... or no Deal?

We like that show here at our house. At first we thought is was dumb but then it's really the perfect mindless entertainment after lots of project planning and quote analysis- really.

Which brings us to our current dilemna: selecting a contractor. I am going to give a brief outline of all three contractors we've met with and gotten quotes etc... I think I know who we should select, but I am interested to hear your opinions of course. All checked out OK on the Better Business Bureau website. All spent about 2 hours+ going over the project with us at our home. They are listed in the order in which we met with them.

This person will handle rough framing, drywall, and finish carpentry for the project only.

Contractor #1 Miro
Referred to us by our favorite electrician. He is a young guy who learned the business from his Dad. He brought numerous photos of jobs and they were mainly kitchens and baths and the work was good. According to him he has done 4 jobs similar in nature to ours. He ALWAYS answers his phone when we call. He took us to see a few of his projects on a Sunday afternoon. We thought the work was of acceptable quality. He did not provide a formal quote but gave us a breakdown, but will let us write a contract and buy all materials. His quote was in the middle price-wise.

Contractor #2 Dan
We found him on Angie's List. He is a bit older but his business is relatively new-7 years. He said he's done one job like ours. His website shows a good caliber of work, but we want to see something in person. We spoke to a current client of his who raved about him (he combined a 2BD and 1BD condo into one in a lakefront high-rise for her). She asked me to call her back this week to schedule seeing the work. He runs his business out of his home and gave us a P.O. box when we asked for a business address-maybe a misunderstanding. He never answers his phone and it takes a long time for him to call us back. Sent us a pretty detailed quote on letterhead although he bid on items we did not request. His price was significantly lower and therefore tempting, but the communication issues are a concern for us.

Contractor #3 Marian
Also found on Angie's List. Had strong feelings against us refinishing the tub and was for redoing plumbing. Replacing the tub and plumbing isn't in our budget. Experienced. Knowledgable. Came with a laptop with many photos and left a CD with tons of projects (95% kitchens & baths)- all look good. His quote consisted of some bare bones info emailed to us with quite a few typos and many questions for us to follow up on. We have yet to address it. He called to follow up and said, "I want you to talk to me before you make a decision." We will honor that request certainly. His prices are the highest and we aren't sure why. We discussed doing no-permits with him so we would think the prices would be lower...

Here are the main things we are considering:
1. Honesty
2. Trust
3. Communication
4. Experience
and finally....
5. Can we work with this person?

Other general questions that we ask:
1. Have they worked on old homes? Someone could be quite competent at new construction but putting things back together in an old home involves a different skill set.
2. Do they have a business license? Are they insured?

The Care of Trees

This is kind of a nice segway after yesterday's April Fool's post. In case anyone doesn't know me that well- I am all about plants, trees and birds. A regular snow white some might say-- only I can't sing.

Last weekend we had a great company come out and look at our Picea Orientalis that we planted about 3 years ago. It had been growing well and we had dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" as far as looking after this tree. In case some of you don't know, last year was a very very bad drought in Illinois including the Chicago area. I've seen many a sad unwatered pine tree around the area dead as a doornail.

We watered this tree religiously and also treated it with WiltPruf every summer and winter. Below is a shot of the tree last summer. The photo to the left was just taken.


Sometime around late December, we noticed it had browned a bit (see above)and it didn't look so hot. My Dad suggested we call The Care of Trees and get an evaluation. A Certified Arborist and very nice and knowledgable guy named Allen came out and evaluated all of our trees. He told us that sometimes you can do everything right for a tree, but it's still "up to the tree." Sounds kind of like us humans doesn't it? It made us feel better of course, because we were worried we'd made some mistake that caused the browning.

He told us our tree would probably recover and we did not need to prune the dead ends, they will just drop off and be replaced by new growth. Pine trees are very succeptible to browning in winter because they don't harden off and go dormant. The winds and dry air can cause this.

Allen also told us about an organization we might be interested in looking into. They are called Tree Keepers and they offer a certification class for learning more about trees and soil etc... This is something I'd like to consider doing down the road.

I just thought I'd share this resource. We all know what an incredible presence and old tree is and how long it takes to replace them. I suspect that many of you valuing older homes would be on the same page with regard to old trees as well. How many of you remember climbing trees in your youth? I could tell you a story about me getting stuck in a tree, but I'll save that for another day.

Taking a break

Today Steve & I decided to take a break and go do something fun. The place we're going doesn't have a website so I can't show it to you, but I'll show you some photos of what we are looking for.

We decided that since we are always so busy with the house, one way we could save some time is if we get rid of all our plants and replace them with artificial ones. Good idea, right?

So, off we go to the Silk Plant Factory! The ficus pictured at left was priced online at a whopping $446.00! Who would have thought artificial plants would be so expensive?

Silk Plant Factory has ficus trees on sale for $399.88. We really can't afford them right now, so maybe we'll just get some ideas for today.



I found out they even make some plants called Preserved "Once Live" Foliage. Maybe we could use those in the yard and then we wouldn't have to water. More time saved! I have to admit, I had no idea such an option existed.


I can't wait to breathe in all that fresh air with all those plants in the factory. I'll let you know how it goes.

Awnings

As you can see, we currently have an awning over our front door. It comes in quite handy when it's raining or snowing and you are fumbling for your keys or carrying packages etc... We've never really loved this awning aesthetically however- it's aluminum and we don't feel it enhances the building.

One of the things I'm really excited about doing as part of our 2nd floor project is getting rid of that panel over the awning- the one that matches the front door- see it there?

We are putting in French doors with a wrought iron railing there bringing it back closer to it's original state. Because we will have doors that can open there and possibly tenants living up there, Steve is worried about the doors being left open and water getting in and damaging the floors etc...


This brought us to the issue of awnings for the 2nd floor. Steve set up a meeting with Chesterfield Awnings. We are thinking about replacing our metal awning and getting a new one for the 2nd floor- both made of cloth.

We like the Georgian pattern edge on this one. The sales rep said in our case either you would try and match the building's exterior with a red or brown tone or go for contrast. I think we are leaning toward matching the building.

I like the white edging on this one too. All you bungalow people out there, I see they put these awnings on many bungalows on their website.


We were told that typically cloth awnings last about 7-10 years. They aren't cheap, but they look very nice I think.


I am very excited about this part of the project because I think this will make our building look much nicer. There's something so welcoming about an awning.

Hope "Springs" eternal

The first flowers of the year- tiny crocus came out today bringing hope of more good things to come.

Working within the system

Recently M of Another Chicago 2-flat asked:

I'm curious as to what you're running into as far as requirements to bring things up to code. It sounds like you're being told you need to bring plumbing up to code if you touch it at all(?). But with electrical it is only the service and presumably the the areas you are actually working on?

The answer is that yes, if we touch the plumbing at all in this project, we will have to bring it to code, which means adding the booster pump and replacing all the 3/4" water lines with 1". The reason this came up is because we had been considering replacing the bathroom stack (drain) and the bathtub and sink connections to this drain. At that point we were told, we'd have to update it all and that this would maybe even require new water service to the building, which would be extremely costly since the water line is across the street.

It's pretty sad that they make it so you can't do ANY improvement to the plumbing unless you can afford to do it ALL. We figure that if in a few years time we have plumbing issues, we are prepared to open up a few walls and fix it then. We've been through worse- one open wall is nothing to us.

Regarding the electrical, we've been told by a few Electrical Contractors that if we are not touching the first floor in this project (we aren't) that the inspector won't require us to update anything inside the unit. But, since we are touching the panels and service, the service to the building has to be updated if neccesary. We were worried about our basement because it's semi-finished and somewhat hodge-podge. We are certain there is flexible conduit down there etc...
But they told us that unless there was something really alarming(and there isn't), the inspectors would leave that be.

One of the guys we talked with said we should put in the panel for the 2nd floor in pre-permit so then it would be considered existing and the permit would just include rewiring the 2nd floor to an existing panel. Otherwise, we would be forced to upgrade the service coming into the building, which would then open up inspection to the first floor. It's all sooooo complicated.

It's kind of like politics in a way.

Which is more scary?

I was thinking about something this week in terms of remodeling projects. Which is more scary? Hiring other people to do the work or taking on projects yourself? Personally, I find doing the work ourselves less scary. I know myself. I know Steve. I know how we work and that we will finish a job and do top quality work albeit at a slower pace, but the results will be good.

Oh, there's been the occasional nervousness of maybe we bit off more than we can chew. Or grumpiness from being tired and overworked. But it doesn't compare to the stress of dealing with contractors and getting quotes. Now if we bite off more than we can chew, we might have to eat mac-n-cheese for a year or wear socks with holes or something.

One contractor tells us we need to upgrade the electrical service to the building because it's only 100 amps. The next one we meet with says if 100 amps comes into the building, that means that each floor can have 100 amps maximum. Which is true? We called Comed and they can't even verify how much power we have. All they have on record is the 30 amps the building originally had. So, we need to meet with more electrical contractors.

Great Lakes Structural came over to discuss the beams etc... I won't give myself a heart attack talking about that meeting. We have a structural engineer coming this week to give us the low-down and maybe I'll post about it then.

My job now is to write up a contract and lien waiver for all the workers to sign. That way if they don't get paid by the main contractor, they can't come after us. blech. We don't have to do this when we are the workers...

Things we can do ourselves (and that we have time for)

In my last post, I spoke about the scary quotes we've been getting. I really appreciated the input and support we received from a number of you -you know who you are!

Rest assured, we are preparing for battle (Thanks Greg) and we are going to perservere until we find a way to get this project done cost-effectively and without sacrificing quality. Put bluntly, we don't want cheap shoddy work. We may move up there and it needs to be of the best quality we can afford. And besides, if this project goes over-budget it cuts directly into the engagement ring fund. I'm sure you can imagine how fiercely I'd be guarding those reserves.

What can we do to help cut costs if we can't do the bulk of the work ourselves due to time constraints? Well, we are already being our own independant contractors and getting our own permits. Steve is the man on this job since he works for himself and has more flexibility than I do.

But what else can we do?

We came up with a few things that we can do to cut costs. Some of the ideas we got from newspaper and magazine articles. Feel free to throw in your own- we can use all the help we can get at this point.

1. Painting.
2. Removing the wood trim and the nails before giving to stripper guy.
3. Sanding and finishing the wood.
4. Doing the job cleanup every day will save $3000 in labor costs for a 2-month project.
5. Stripping the door and window jambs and window sills.
6. Tiling the kitchen backsplash and Bathroom.
7. Buying and managing delivery of all materials, supplies and finishes.

So as you can see, we'll have plenty to do in the 2 months the project is going on.