Front Door Redux

Before our awning is installed, we'll be repainting the front door a more period appropriate color. Our home was built in 1910 and has some arts and crafts elements, so we are sticking with that color palate.

We have selected Sherwin Williams Bunglehouse Blue for the front door. The awning is a True Brown with a white key pattern trim. Our awnings will be shaped like this though, not rounded as in the previous link. We have delayed the awning for 2 weeks so we can thoroughly prep the door, repair some minor wood rot, and prime and paint it.

We have learned from experience that it pays to buy the best paint you can afford. Take our living room for example. We were not trying to be frugal. We just bought the paint brand they had at our local hardware store. Our living room is a deep red color and it took several coats to get full coverage. We ended up going back to buy additional paint, which cost more money anyway.

Another tip when painting is not to buy cheap rollers. We learned that painting the living room as well. We ended up with little pieces of fuzz all over the walls. Quite disheartening at the time. I never notice the flaws now, but our painting skills have much improved since that room was done about 5 years ago. My advice, buy the best rollers you can afford unless you like bits of fuzz everywhere.

Just some little lessons we've learned along the way.

Serenity Now!

I have vowed this year that I will relax in my backyard. I will not work all summer every weekend on wood. I will invite some people over to enjoy the somewhat nice backyard. In the city, many don't have a backyard and so those that do should share sometimes.

We need to repair the concrete (see photo) to make this space more usable and that will happen within a month I'd say. In the meantime, I am going about my plantings and am awaiting the grass seed to take.

I've gone with yellow this year in the pots and some texture: ferns, vine, white marigolds for their hardiness, and one yellow flower whose name escapes me.

In front, I planted some forget me nots, Prince William phlox in a beautiful purple, some coleus for color in the shade and some rosemary. The garden has been somewhat delayed this year because of late frost, but things seem to be growing well now. I think some bulbs decided to wait until next year, but that's the way it goes. If it was the same every year, it would be dull I suspect.

Who doesn't love a mourning dove in the morning? I saw a titmouse too this morning.

What is a Dutchman?

A dutchman is the perfect solution for repairing old wood and mistakes (we all make those right?) A few years ago, we were installing our swinging door and Steve mortised out the wood to fit these special hinges. Unfortunately, due to fatigue, he mortised one of them upside down. doh.

At that point, we decided we did not want to wait any longer for our swinging door, so we installed the door with the hinges surface mounted temporarily (for 2 years) and not mortised in.

Last weekend, Steve mortised the correct placement and today we were able to install the door catch as the door has a spring swinging mechanism and will stay closed unless propped open.

In these photos,you can see the Dutchmen with the hinges now correctly mortised in. We will of course, be staining them to match.



Here's the hardware from Crown City that hooks the door open. Pardon the dust. Solid brass and about $50.00. I used to gasp when Steve would tell me he spent $18 on a brass door stop, but now I don't bat an eyelash. Solid brass costs but is lasts.


It's nice to tie up loose ends. Last summer, we had no time for anything like this.

Coming up on the horizon for us work-wise:
Awnings to be installed
Concrete patio repair
Repainting front door
Pantry Shelving

Win some lose some

As I've mentioned here, I've been off houseblogs the past month so I could help out with our local Aldermanic election. Unfortunately, my candidate lost, but we made a really great effort. Considering the fact that we had much less money, and resources, we lost by only 247 votes.

On election day, I was up at 4:30am and at the campaign office at 5am. I got to the precinct at 6am and didn't get home till almost midnight. Much of the day was spent outside in front of the polling place and trying to get out the vote. It was fun, but very draining.

This weekend, Steve and I got back to some house projects. I worked on some major lawn repair and Steve was taking care of some inside jobs. He installed the last of the shoe molding in our kitchen and fabricated and installed missing thresholds from our bedroom and dining room. Then, he started on patching our old booboo with the swinging door, so we can finally finish that project. We purchased special hardware that will hold the door open and have not been able to install it because of the mistake. Instead, we've had a box of bricks holding the door open.

It's so nice when these little tasks get crossed off the list. That is the plan for this summer- lots of smaller jobs. We have plenty of those!

Making an entrance

We've been slowly working on our curb appeal for a few years. Little by little... giving our entry a makeover, restoring the french doors to the 2nd floor, and adding a decorative railing, landscaping the yard, etc...

We're down to the last bit of work we have planned for the facade of the building and that is adding awnings. We ordered our awnings yesterday from Chesterfield Awnings. They had been out a year earlier to quote the job ad now we are finally ready. The awning will be installed in about 6 weeks. We are putting a small one over the patio doors and a large one over the entrance.

I am excited to see this last change come to fruition. Other than that, my main "curb appeal" goal for this year is to add some more evergreen foliage to the front yard.

We also took a trip to Home Depot today and are ordering a new door for our garage. The door had to be special ordered so it will be here in about 3 weeks. It's nice because it will only need to be shimmed and we can eliminate the framing around the door that is currently there and kind of oddly done.

I'm glad that we are gettng going on some projects but nothing can compare to last year though. Looking back now, I realize how intense and exciting it was. I can actually kind of see how people can get hooked on renovation because one really feels like you are accomplishing something of significance. I have to adjust because we can't afford to keep that pace of spending money or working. I do miss it though sometimes. Such is the life of a renovator.

Our yard needs some TLC

Last year was a pretty rough one for the backyard. Between the roof tear off, pretty much constant workers traipsing across the lawn, Steve and I refinishing woodwork on it, and digging a trench for the electrical wire, it really took a beating.

I have never liked our yard in the winter because almost everything in it is dead. We need more evergreens and hopefully by fall we can add some.

We are planning to add a row of a variety of upright evergreens on the right side of the yard along the fence that you can't really see in this photo.

I am happy that the picea orientalis pine tree has recovered somewhat from the drought in 2005. The lawn is SAD though.



Probably the first project we are going to tackle this Spring, is replacing our falling apart door to the garage. The frame needs to be rebuilt and we want to get a door with a small window so we can see if the garage is open.


In this photo from July 2005, you can see the fence where we will plant the row of evergreens. You can also see that the yard looked a bit better then before the construction chaos.

It all comes down to paint fumes

So, somewhat recently I upgraded to the new blogger and merged all my blogs together. No more compartmentalization. No more hiding my houseblog from the neighbors. No more keeping my community blog out of my houseblog. It's all mixed together now and the result?

Yesterday, I was commenting about the local election here on one of our community blogs.
and one of my neighbors and fellow bloggers who happens to disagree with my choice in candidates directed the following comment at me:

"Maybe you should wear a mask next time you're around paint fumes. "

It takes a thick skin to deal with neighborhood politics in Rogers Park. But at least I can be flattered they read my houseblog right? The hazards of blogging about your house projects... who'd have thought?

This morning when I read it, I was a little hurt, but now I think it's funny. And the person did apologize too, which was good of them.

It really is about the house

Oh, I talk real big and say other things are important, but I always come back to the house. In fairness, we aren't quite done yet. There are still some small jobs that really need to be done, such as replacing the rotting wood entry door to the garage and all those little odds and ends.

So, tonight Steve and I made a list of what is on the agenda for 2007 (and beyond). There's more than this long term, but this list is somewhat realistic for 2007. I'm sure we won't get to all of it, but we will certainly put a good dent in it. Every year can't be a gut rehab year after all.

If we accomplish half of this, I would be very happy.

To Do List for 1st Floor 2007

Entry:
Install shoe molding

Kitchen:

Finish installing shoe molding
Kitchen caulking
Build Pantry shelving and install pot rack

Miscellaneous:

Fix single popped screw in mud room inset all nails in trimwork
Adjust hinges on swinging door so we can prop open with $50 hardware we purchased over a year ago...
Put in thresholds for bedroom & dining room
Restore/fix 2 stained glass windows
Add storm windows on all 4 stained glass windows
Refinish floors throughout
Refinish bathtub
Add electrical outlets and light to closet in Bedroom
Purchase & refinish salvage replacement doors for missing doors to den and front mud room
Strip Basement stair door and refinish
Strip trim in bedroom
Install ceiling fan in living room
re-paint radiator covers
Asbestos abatement in basement

Yard & Outdoors:

Install new awnings
Reframe and replace Garage entry door
Paint front door
Replace basement windows
Install back yard side door Gate
Install dog run gate
Garage door wood framing- paint
New front door

Front yard:
Jackhammer sidewalk in front (side)
Eliminate bed right along side of house and lay patio area.
Plant evergreen trees and shrubs for interest in front yard

Backyard:
Fence on north side- new posts and stockade fence
New back porch deck?
Plant evergreen trees and shrubs in backyard for privacy
Add some source of shade

Just some things to keep us busy this year. Stay tuned.

It's not just about the house

It may sound like heresy to say this on a hosueblog, but really it's not. I've talked about this before. As we all know, any home is a part of a bigger picture, a neighborhood.

I learned a hard lesson when the beautiful single family home next door to us was leveled for condos. Speak up. If you speak up as a community, often you can stop these types of things from happening. I've seen it play out this way first hand.

The next month or so will probably be a little slow on my houseblog as I head on over to my community blog and campaign for a candidate that I believe can make our neighborhood a better place to live. If you head over there to check out what's going on, I'll warn you Rogers Park politics can get pretty scrappy.

The election on February 27th resulted in a run off between my candidate and the incumbent by a mere 54 votes! This right here shows how much every vote does count especially at the community level.

Lately, we've been living in our home more than working in our home as we usually are. It's nice. After all, we are all doing this hard work so at some point we can kick back and enjoy it right? I always say when I'm working that there is a lounge chair waiting for me at the end of this. Like there will ever be an end. I know better now.

To dream the impossible dream...

This week was one of those weeks I was feeling at odds with things. I'm sure it's partially due to the void of not working on the house. I'm kind of addicted to accomplishing something and the house fulfills that quite nicely. If I'm not getting that fix, I get kind of restless.

The impossible dream, I refer to in the post title, is of course the idea of organizing our basement. Steve and I spent about 4 hours down there going through screws, nails, and tools in the hopes that when we need it, we can find that one screw we are looking for.

I know it's impossible dream, but we have to try. What would the world be without a little Don Quixote spirit. There's a reason why that story is a classic. It's funny, and it can be related to many things from everyday life in my opinion. It's about hope and whether we are aware of it or not, we are all living on hope on some level.

Okay, now that's enough of the introspective stuff, let's get down to what we actually did!

Ever since the BIG project finished up last Fall, we've had a pile of paint cans to go through. You see, we have a "system" for organizing them.

With Steve and I, we are pretty much as organized as our schedules will allow. The busier things get, the harder it is to be organized. Last summer got a little crazy and things got a bit messy.

We write down all the formulas with the room each paint color belongs to. We also mark the cans with a sharpie with what room they belong to. We combine any cans that can be combined.


I also went through the shelves and organized what was there. Luckily all the paint fit on the shelves. We like when that happens.



Then we tackled the (ejem) organization of our various nails and screws and other miscellany.



We have quite a few trays like what you see here with various boxes or little brown bags. We went through all of this. and separated out in categories like: brass screws, black screws, small, med. & large wood screws, etc... Where we needed to, we broke things down more or less. Glazing points, for example, have their own little drawer.

Bonus: We found the extra nail set we'd been looking for!

I even went through our electrical supplies. We still have to go through plumbing supplies.


And the result? This shining beacon of organizational nirvana. Now we just need to get a few more of these and we'll be in good shape.



And while we were doing all this, we were listening to The Drive on our favorite work site boom box. I usually listen to either XRT or NPR, but somehow the station got changed.

The day this thing goes will be a sad day indeed. I have such fond memories of it, that I'll probably have to bury it in the backyard and maybe even mark it with a little stepping stone or something. But let's just hope that day never comes.

Last summer, we realized that the boom box was older than our contractor and found that pretty funny. Funny how such a junky thing can be so treasured. Do you have any ratty old objects that you are attached to like this?

Off to the Wood Shop!

This is the week Steve is going back to the wood shop. His first project is fabricating bed rails for a headboard and footboard set that my Mom purchased last year.

I don't have photos of the bed right now, but I will post them eventually. The bed is made of walnut and Steve and my Mom made a field trip last summer to Wood World. They spent about an hour going through wood and selecting the appropriate boards for this project. It was not inexpensive, but she got the bed at a yard sale for a nominal sum and its a charming walnut piece with some painted decoration.

We have a long list of projects waiting in the wings. I am most excited to finish the built-in shelving for our pantry. And the plate rack. And the sideboard. And the dining room chairs. You see, we won't be running out of material for houseblogging anytime soon...

Anyone new to this blog can see some of Steve's finished work in the sidebar. Everything he knows, he taught himself from books or from instructors at the wood shop.

Feeling Blue?

We all have our vulnerabilities and weaknesses. One of mine is getting into a bit of a funk in the winter. It's nothing serious really, but it's kind of a bummer (haha).

Out of curiosity, I googled the origin of the phrase "feeling blue" to see where it came from. After all, one could think of blue as a soothing color and feeling blue could then mean something like feeling peaceful.

But, when I saw the origin of the phrase, it makes sense.

I found the following explanation on a navy terminology website.

"If you are sad and describe yourself as "feeling blue," you are using a phrase coined from a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships. If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port."

Losing a comrade at sea- yeah that's pretty much of a downer and a ship bearing a blue lag and coming into port sounds pretty ominous too. It fits.

I know I miss working outside in my garden or working on house projects, which really dies down this time of year. I also tend to turn inward and find fault in what I am or am not doing in my life. The good thing is I know I am doing this and so I don't take it so seriously, but it still eats at me a bit.

I've been getting a bit more involved with our local Aldermanic election too, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand I meet neighbors and learn more about the issues. On the other hand, I see the meanness in politics even at a local level and it saddens me.

Part of what Steve and I are trying to create with our home is a sanctuary to retreat to. The times Steve and I are working side by side on a project all day on a Saturday, these are some of the happiest times I feel. Just being in the moment and just us and our dogs and our building. Our little world I guess.

My Grandma's "2-flat"

As many of you know, over Christmas we visited my 93 year old Grandmother Tilly in England.

Grandma has lived in this "flat" since before I was born - a long time ago. When she and my Grandfather first bought it, it definitely qualified as a fixer-upper. There was no heat and she told me the kitchen had a dirt floor!


Grandma's flat is very homey. It's not a large home, but it has 3 bedrooms upstairs and a nice brick walled in yard.

We spent alot of time visiting in the living room and the kitchen while we were there. The above photo is my sister Kimberley, me, nephew Ciaran and my Mom.



Here's my Gran in the kitchen slicing apples for a sponge cake.

I hope when I'm 93, I am walking to the store to get my bread and newspaper and able to walk up a steep flight of stairs like my Gran does.

Just thought I'd share...

Winter surprise: a (short) bird story

I know many of us on houseblogs seem to like bird stories, I know I do. For that reason, I'm going to share my little tale.

A few weeks ago, we were experiencing record high temperatures for January. All the snow had melted and daffodils were popping out of the ground in confusion.

One morning I looked out front and saw of all things a robin! Now to me, a robin is a much better omen than a groundhog any day.

I don't know how many of you recall the scene in the film Blue Velvet in which Laura Dern talks about robins. I guess it made an impression, because it's kind of stayed with me all these years.

When I saw this robin, I said to him, "fella, you are definitely confused."

Weeks passed and now the temperatures here in Chicago are at record lows. This morning, it was 7 below zero and that doesn't even include the wind chill.



So on Sunday morning, when I saw this little guy hanging out in my neighbors yard by the holly bushes, I was concerned.


This is case in point why having birding books handy is a must for me. Steve and I looked up robins in our "Birds of Chicago" reference book and found out that some robins do actually winter here. But these aren't the same robins you see in the spring.


These robins are from the north- think Canada. This weather is balmy to them. I can sleep better now. I'm going to be keeping my bird watching eyes on him now too.

Don't be jealous

You too can buy your very own artwork from the Devil Queen!

I'm an admirer of both his blog and art work and now I have a little piece of the Devil Queen that will reside right here in the 2-flat.

Kind of nice to support a fellow houseblogger too.

Meet the Basement

Ever since we had the post replacement last May, things have been pretty much in disarray in the basement. Believe it or not, Steve used to have his office down there. Happily, he now has moved up the world and his office is on the 1st floor den.

What you see here is where his office was. We had rugs down and less junk, but it was pretty dismal. Especially because there was no natural light. So this summer, when we were adding windows, I insisted that we put a new window into this room.


Before, this window was boarded up and Steve had a huge cork board over it. It is amazing how much nicer a space is with some natural light.

As you can see in this photo, our foundation is stone with brick above it. When we finish the basement, we have the choice of covering the stone and brick with drywall or we could sandblast all of it and leave some of it exposed.

We know someone who did this and it looks nice. Of course, you'd lose insulation, but we were thinking of putting in radiant flooring and that would certainly help with warmth.


Here you see why brick should not ever be painted- a little thing called efflorescence.

Today, we swept and used our new shop vac to clean up as well as threw out as much we possibly could. We are trying to get rid of anything we don't need.

We also installed the shop vac finally. We selected the StorNGo by Ridgid because it doesn't take up alot of space and has 5 horsepower.

I was also on a mission to remove dead wiring and random nails and screws that have no use anymore. Getting rid of all the remnants left from all the hack jobs done in the past makes me feel better.

I'm really not sure how we are going to approach the basement renovation. I have some ideas for cleaning up certain areas that would just be temporary. No basement dig out is imminent as I've said before.

Currently we have some kind of tile on the floor that's been painted over. Underneath that is poured concrete. Of course, it's not unlikely this tile contains asbestos too.

I wouldn't want to scrape the tiles up myself until I have them tested and see what I'm dealing with. It would probably take me a long time and that's the kind of job you want over quickly.

The basement stairs have one coat of brown paint on them. Underneath this is solid oak. I have had the notion to strip them sometime when I'm in the stripping mood- probably not till we can have the windows open again though.

This is the view from our den to the basement. All this is original plaster and it's in decent shape.

I have also had the notion to repair the plaster where it needs it and paint the walls here. I mean why not? It would look cleaner and freshen it up.

Although I've thought of replacing the staircase with a spiral one that saves space, part of me likes keeping the original stuff. Especially when it's solid oak and in very good shape.

Oh, by the way, in this photo you can see who the real pack rat is around here. That stack you see are annual reports that are just a portion of what Steve has for reference for his work!

Anyway, this is just one side of the basement. The other side has the boiler, water heater, laundry room and lots more storage space. Alot of space to be claimed, which is why it is so tempting.

p.s. Greg, we didn't buy a Silent Paint Remover. I was planning to rent one from the hardware store this weekend, but when I went there, all of them were broken (phone first!). They told me that the switches were broken and that the company that makes the switches went out of business. That doesn't sound good and I may have to just use my heat gun now. I prefer to use the heat gun with outside ventilation and it is way too cold for that now, so this will have to wait.

We've got a ceiling again

Some ceilings we don't want. As a woman, I'm not in favor of the glass ceilings in some segments of corporate America. I believe our new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she broke through the "marble ceiling" just recently.

But here at the 2-flat, our ceilings are of a much more mundane nature. We like them where they belong without holes. I have to admit that living without a ceiling is easier to me than living with holes in walls- most certainly because one doesn't look up all the time.

Anyway, we got our ceiling back today. The best part was we didn't have to do it ourselves. Our contractors are doing it since the plumbing issue was their fault. They'll be back soon for the next few steps of taping and painting and we'll be good as new.

The only bonus to this is that when we originally drywalled the ceiling, Steve cut the hole for the light too big and we had to add a decorative plaster ring to hide it. Now, we won't have to have that.

Chicago 2-flat adage:

The one benefit to doing anything over again is usually you do it better the second time around.

Scary basement getting less scary

Steve got to work plastering the holes in the basement ceiling today. Plastering is sure a messy job- especially when it's a ceiling.



First, he applied the Plaster Weld (otherwise known to us as "the pink stuff")to the existing edges for better bonding. Steve is a firm believer in taking extra steps.

Then he mixed up the plaster.

He added sand as an aggregate so the plaster would match the textured look of our existing basement ceiling.

Here he is getting ready to apply the first batch.

He mixed it almost to the consistency of peanut butter.

And here's the first application going up.

It took a few layers to get it leveled out and quite a few hours, but it looks pretty good now.


Here's what it looked like with just the lathe up last weekend. And what did I do while Steve was plastering away all day? Rest assured I was pulling my weight. I was at the laundromat washing our comforters and other bulky items and I cleaned the house. I was going to SPR the den door, but I decided it would feel better to have a clean house this weekend.

Next weekend will be a stripping weekend.

Nostalgia...well, not quite

It's getting to be tax time, so Steve and I spent a few hours Sunday categorizing and sorting through all the receipts and invoices from the work that we did in 2006. Suffice it to say, there was ALOT of paper to sort through. Fortunately, we had managed to keep a level or organization through the process so we were not bad off at all.

Looking over all the invoices since paid and done with, I was reminded of just how much work we had done last year. It was alot. It was exciting. It was exhausting. It was, of course, more work than we thought it would be. Nerves frayed and tempers flared at times, but we survived to tell the tale.

And I found myself reliving some of the excitement and gratification that comes from big projects like we had going on last summmer. I found myself getting just a little hungry for the next big project.

The wheels starting turning about how much I want our basement finished off. Of course, the fact that Steve and I basically spent all day Saturday down there -him installing lathe and me weatherstripping 4 windows and cleaning out cobwebs- didn't help ease my growing urges.

I even started thinking that most dangerous of thoughts, "What can I do to move this project forward?" Now, I knew I was in trouble. I'm now scheming how I can come up with the funds to have the asbestos down there abated as soon as possible.


Now really, this is a good thing. For if Steve and I are to start working on anything down there on a regular basis, removing that dangerous element from the basement seems a wise move and one we will probably make.

But as for a total overhaul of our basement, there is only one thing that can save an obsessive project monger/house restorer such as myself from my own self. Lack of cash.

We will not be up for a big expense like that for a while, unless something dramatically changes in our finances.

In the meantime, we can do things little by little and bit by bit. Steve is repairing the plaster ceilings in a few places to make the rooms solvent. We don't need to live with holes in the ceiling for 5 years after all.

And we'll have the asbestos properly abated and I can work on things in the basement and not worry about cancer so much.

Otherwise, here are the projects we are planning to work on for the rest of winter:

Stripping the den/basement door and refinishing, Building out the pantry, correcting our swinging door installation, installing a few threshholds.

Furniture-wise, Steve is planning to make some new bed rails for a headboard my Mom bought. He's making them out of walnut to match the headboard. He is also going to make a stand to hold a large model boat for my Dad. And then, after he's done woodworking for others, the next item up is (for now) a plate rack for our kitchen.

This should keep us busy enough for a while...

Okay, Plumbing Gods, are you happy now?

On Tuesday, Steve cut a hole in the wall of the 2nd bedroom upstairs so the plumber could have access to fix the leak. His findings? The leak was coming from the shower head connection inside the wall.

It was good to have a licensed plumber confirm that "the plumbing work looks good," but not so good to hear that if our contractor had fully tightened the shower head arm to the water supply, there would have been NO leak at all. It took 2-3 more turns for it to be tightened and stop leaking.

I'd say this falls under Stupid Contractor Tricks, wouldn't you? Price of carelessness? Twenty minutes, $85.00 and half a ceiling missing and a large portion of wall gone. We haven't called our contractor yet to fix it because we are "drying out".

The plumber said that this little "boo boo" was nothing compared to the dumb and incompetent things he's encountered in his career. One story he told was about a homeowner that hired an unscrupulous contractor to put a bathroom in a basement. The toilet was installed but the drain was never connected to the sewer pipe. It was a seldom used bathroom, but eventually the toilet was not working and they removed it. What did they find? A toilet draining into the dirt under their concrete floor directly underneath their home!

Our little problem didn't even make his Top 10, but he said it was a stupid mistake and if our contractor had tested it before he sealed up the wall, it would have been abundantly clear.

But why didn't he test it??? Sleep deprivation? Bad mood? Stubborn arrogance? Could be any of those. I know he isn't incompetent, but he must be watched carefully, which Steve did for the most part.

Anyway, the happy ending part is that the problem wasn't in the kitchen or worse than it was. Now, back to business. Tomorrow, we're planning to weather strip some windows in the basement and start the work patching and repairing the plaster ceiling in the basement where it was damaged with the post replacement last year. First step is the lathe...