Walled In

As Andy's previous post alluded, we now have drywall up (it's actually completely finished as of today, some of these pictures were taken last week). The rooms are really taking shape, though it's not without the cost of drywall dust, that's for sure.

Kitchen wall (range will be directly in front of you, powder room is on the other side of the wall).

View looking into the kitchen from the existing dining room, powder room to the left.

Upstairs south window in the second bedroom (this window replaces the horribly mangled excuse for a window that was there before... Andersen window owners beware).

Upstairs bedroom view to the southeast. It's incredible how much light this room gets. It's awesome.

In other news:

Though we don't yet have pictures of it, the south window in the kitchen was re-installed this past weekend. It looks great all cleaned up and the light in the new kitchen is just phenomenal. We can't stop smiling when we walk in the room.

Siding is going to be a bit of a fiasco. Suffice to say, it'll look great in the end, it's just a matter of what body parts need to be sold to finance the whole thing. We're committed to the "restoration" aspect of the work, but we're not convinced that the contractor is equally on board... stay tuned for the awesome conclusion.

We've had our first tiff with the contractor over... of all things... flooring. It would seem that our definition of words like antique heart pine, estimate, and samples vary from the contractor's... or perhaps more correct, these things exist on a spectrum, with our absolute on one end and their interpretation somewhere in the middle. In any case, it's been a little tense, and I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but also not willing to dissolve further into naysaying and frustration. I think we're too close to the end of our patience and our budget to press the issue any further.

Gratuitous Nala Photo

"Could you move? You're blocking my sunlight."

Homecoming

When we came home from Maine we were expecting to see this.

Unfortunately, we saw this.

Not really sure where the confusion happened (we were expecting them to install the drywall while we were out of the way/town)... Oh well.  All of the drywall is now up and should be finished soon.  We're meeting with the contractor shortly to see where we are and what's next.

The Maine Event

After almost two years of waiting and anticipation, it finally arrived.  The New York Times calls it "the greatest thing this summer", The Chicago Tribune's editorial board says "this is a long time coming and definitely worth the wait", the Morning Sentinel summed it up with the headline: Finally!*

That's right.  Katie went back to Maine.

Luckily for me, she allowed me to join her.  As mentioned above, it was almost two years since the last time we were in Maine (five points for guessing the last time).  Far too long.

The trip began by dropping the pup off at "summer camp", aka a friend in lower PA with three other greyhounds, lots of fenced in land, and a big heart.  From there we made our way to see my dad at the National Model Railroad Association's National Convention in Hartford, CT for dinner.  Check out page 15 of this PDF (it's big and takes awhile to load).  Not only did he win the scratch built competition for cabooses, he also won: 

• the "Favorite Model Award"
  
• the United Trans Union Brass Lantern Award (this is awarded by the people who actually work on cabooses to the model that most accurately captures their world.  A very prestigious award.)
  
• the People's Choice Caboose Award (incorporating both kit built and scratch built models).
  

Congratulations Dad!

Eventually we found our way to the greater Boston area to see Jack and our newest nephew, Nate (born 9 July).  Both of them were extremely well behaved (I don't think Nate cried the entire time we were there - he'd gotten it all out the previous evenings apparently).  While Nate (and hopefully Lauren) slept, Jack and my Mom and brother showed us the neighborhood.  We were both envious of the 18 basketball hoops within a one block radius of Jack's house (we know because he pointed every single one out to us and ensured we saw them).

Prior to leaving for Maine we also managed to make it up New Hampshire to see my grandmother.  All in all a successful first two days!

Once in Maine we were able to relax, see the coast, enjoy home cooked meals, and visit Katie's family.  A few of the highlights include:

Ocean Point.  Katie's favorite spot in the world.

Relaxing on the coast after celebrating Katie's Great-Grandfather's 95th birthday.  

What's that Aunt Valerie?  There's a ghostly-looking pirate ship out there?  I'm skeptical.

Oh, there really is a pirate ship out there.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip, however, (beats the creepy pirate ship for sure), was our visit with Katie's cousin Megan's two girls, Hazel, and new baby Stella.  At barely 2 years old, Hazel is talking up at storm... and the storm is hilarious. When told that Uncle Mike, Aunt Kathy, Katie and Andy were coming to visit, she replied "No, Mommy, not Andy... Andrew."  This kid has more snappy comebacks than a comedy routine.  So cute.  And Stella is a good natured baby who loves to smile and didn't complain once in the nearly 4 hours that we spent together... even when being kept awake during nap time.  Good kids.  

There are many, many things that I'm leaving out about our time in Maine, all of them however, were wonderful.  

Unfortunately though, the vacation eventually had to end and, after many, many hours in the car, we finally arrived home.

*Okay, so none of these papers actually said these things or ran stories about our trip.  But they should have.

Siding

A lot has happened recently at the Money Pit.  Most noticeably to the neighbors is the siding.  All of the new (post 1920 or so) siding was removed leaving the (possibly) original siding underneath... and some sections that definitely aren't siding and likely holding the house together/up.

Day 0: Just the same old house.

Day 1: Looks promising!

Day 2: Looks... ugly.  Why was this ever in style?

Day 3: Old is new again.  Looks good right?

Well, except for that side.

By now the house is mostly wrapped in Tyvek until the contractor can match our siding.  At first glance this is easy since we have Dutch or German lap siding (since my heritage is significantly Dutch I'll go with that).  

Not so.  Apparently we have an extra little bump that means the matching siding will have to be special order.  Oh goodie.

Definitions

Note to self: When discussing an "open floor plan" with the contractor, be sure that you agree on the definition of the phrase.

This is the view from the door of our second bedroom upstairs... into our kitchen.  Despite what it looks like, this was actually semi-planned.  It turns out our original floor was so crooked and sloped at odd angles that it had to be taken up.  So after talking to us first (thankfully), the contractor did just that, exposing the original beams and the kitchen.

In other news, most of the trades are complete or close to complete.  Above is a view of our lovely new range top and hood fan (squint really hard and you can see it).  Behind that is our new powder room.

Eye of the Storm

Construction at the house has been a little crazy these past few weeks. A roadbump here, an obstacle there, and it all leaves us with little time to do much but meet with people, discuss solutions/issues, and research options. Yeah... we're busy. And the insanity continues as we have until the 10th of July (leave for Maine vacation) to make about 98% of the decisions left to be made for this project. Paint, fixtures, flooring, tilework, appliances... you name it, we need to decide and order ASAP. Good news is we have a jump on much of it... but it's still a lot to think about, particularly when everything depends on a decision made elsewhere.

In an effort to post pictures of some of the progress to date, I've added a hodgepodge of photos taken over the past week and a half. As of this moment, all windows are installed (door is MIA) and fabulous, framing is done, trades are about 95% done, and dry wall is set to begin by the end of next week. Also on the agenda for next week, siding? Not sure if we'll get to that, but the contractor is aiming for it.

Window on the south wall upstairs was in such bad shape (and, at about 30 years old, it was by far the newest window in the house), they had to reframe the casement.

Ahh... newly installed windows.


Pretty.

Framed powder room.


"True" 10x2 wood joists... without a doubt, older than anyone reading this post. Possibly older than the parents of anyone reading this post. Contractor explained that new joists are called "10x2s" but are actually 9 and a quarter inches. These are really neat... hand cut. Though you can't really see it in this picture, if you look closely you can see saw marks. You'll also notice that there's no subfloor... just heart pine on joist. Can't believe it lasts so long. Amazing.

Odds and Ends

You might've guessed already by the sad lack of pictures in this post that there was no stunning or significant progress this week. In our weekly construction meeting, the contractor planned to have the subfloor in on the first floor, the windows installed and the framing largely finished. Taking stock on Saturday, we have about 80% of the subfloor finished, the windows have arrived on site, but are not installed, and the framing upstairs is largely done... almost no framing done downstairs. Though we're both disappointed and a little nervous about the pace of work this week, we're not going to get our our panties in a bunch quite yet. We're aiming to have our cabinets ordered by the end of the coming week (the cabinet guy is on vacation the last week or two of June). Once ordered, those take about 8 weeks to arrive, and according to the contractor and his schedule moving forward, that may hold up the completion of the project. Can't order the cabinets until the framing is complete... keep your fingers crossed.

Other news:

Andy and I went on an appliance bargain hunt this past weekend and bagged a few great deals... wall oven is now sitting in our living room next to the dishwasher waiting for installation, and the Advantium microwave/convection oven/miracle worker is resting comfortably in our storage unit. Still to buy/order: bathroom fixtures, toilet, sink, kitchen fixtures, garbage disposal...

In yet another reversal of fortune, the BAR came out a few weeks ago and established that yes, we do have original siding on the original section of the house (back wall of original house was the dining room wall... old kitchen and second bedroom upstairs added circa 1910). The rule states that we have to preserve the existing siding if less than 10% is damaged beyond repair. Our contractor is hoping to find that it's in poor shape. He claims it's mostly a safety and standard of quality issue, but I think he's hoping for a bigger payout (and he'd likely make a lot more on materials for replacing everything, than he'd make on labor to restore the original). Nothing wrong with that, but I'm a preservationist at heart. If the siding is in decent shape, we'll try to do what we can to keep it.

Dust Bowl

It's official, the construction chaos has migrated upstairs to the second bedroom. And with it, a cloud of dirt and dust such as has never been seen since the time of the seven plagues of Egypt. (Okay, so I'm really just guessing on that one, but suffice to say, our house is D-I-R-T-Y. :o( )

View from the original closet in the northwest corner looking towards the back of the house. (If you look closely, you can see the nearly floor to ceiling windows in the back. Also notice the water on the floor in the back... proof that the roofers have yet to do their job. Grr.)

The beam in the back is holding up the roof of the house, and will jut into the room a bit. Don't worry, we double checked to make sure Andy can walk under it without stooping... we also made sure he can stand up straight in the very back of the room... check, and check.


Our newly-framed walk-in closet. May not seem like much to you, but in Old Town, this is HUGE.


View from the middle of the new room looking towards the door to the hallway. Hard to discern in this photo, but the framing on the far right of this image will create a little space opposite the closet for a tiny desk, a sitting area, bookshelves, storage cubbies, you name it. In honor of Andy's home in Michigan, we call it EJ, or Eddy, Jr.


Downstairs is beginning to shape up as well. Crawl space under the kitchen is dug out, dirt removed (we should know, where do you think the dirt cloud came from?), cement footers are poured and cinderblock foundation is set. Our contractor stated, while looking over the space, that it was a "thing of construction beauty," and, judging by the look on his face when he said it, he truly believes it. This week they install floor joists and start framing downstairs. The windows are set to be delivered on Friday (yay!). Hopefully we'll have a good update for you all at the end of the week. Until then, enjoy your relatively dirt/dust-free existence.

Sand Dirt Box

Now I know that Andy and I have mentioned that we're trying to design a antique kitchen with all the modern amenities, but I think we're going to extremes at this point.

A few pictures of the old kitchen, pre-sledgehammer:





And here is what we're dealing with as of Monday night:




Wow, that's a lot of dirt! The demo of the kitchen has brought good news and bad news. The good news is that the kitchen is demo'ed. The bad news is that (and I'm going to have to itemize this, so I don't forget anything):

• The footing in the back of the old house (back corners of the old kitchen) either rotted away or never existed. New footers must be installed (yay! more poured cement!).
• Neither the rear wall of the old house (between the Slope and the old kitchen) nor the the wall between the dining room and the kichen are properly structured as load-bearing walls. Hmm... so what was holding up the back end of our house, you ask? Sheer will and a prayer, it would seem. Guess we know why the floor on both the first and second levels slopes downward. Nothing catastrophic, but interesting.
• There is old termite damage (and the contractor did emphasize OLD... no sign of anything recent) to the bottom of the studs in the kitchen. It appears that the previous renovation attempted to remediate this issue, but in yet another demonstration of construction mediocrity, likely did as much harm as good. Our contractor will take care of it the right way.
• The floor joists in the kitchen needed to be replaced for several reasons... one of which is that the lack of crawl space underneath the existing joists would not pass inspection. Contractor is digging out the crawl space as you read this (well, not if you're reading before 7am and after 5pm).

Phew. I think I covered the major bases. On the one hand, we knew that it would be a miracle to reach this stage of the process without some big surprises. After all, the house about 5 times as old as we are... jeez, if I'm not falling apart at that point... On the other hand, these obstacles will take time and money to overcome and time and money are our enemies in this whole "adventure."

The positive perspective on this: At least we'll know the back end of our house is supported properly!

Eulogy

Ode to an Old Tree

You stood on that curb since the days of yore;
We hated to see you go,
But you were rotten to the core.

How many heads have you sheltered, old tree?
How many furred and feathered bodies have called your branches home?
I will never forget how you once shaded me.

Rest easy, as they lay down your limbs so tired and sore,
Find a quiet resting place
As mulch in someone's garden forevermore.

History Lesson

Things my brother is older than:

-The Macintosh "Mac" line of computers

-The Susan B. Anthony dollar

-The Islamic Republic of Iran

-Zimbabwe

-All but one of the Star Wars movies

-Me

Things older than my brother:

-The Earth

-Not much else...

Happy Birthday Steve!

Long Weekend

Storage unit: 1

Boxes moved into storage unit: 45

Car loads to move boxes into storage unit: 6

Total miles driven to and from storage unit: 54

Days: 3

Not having a kitchen or second bedroom anymore: pretty expensive.

Say What?

Oops! Remember how I mentioned that the contractor has asked us to be out of the kitchen by next Tuesday (the 26th)? Well, that's not entirely correct. He actually wants us to be out of the kitchen AND the second bedroom upstairs. Good thing we asked for clarification.

Eeek! This means we have less than a week to pack up a room full of books, another room full of kitchen paraphernalia, and find a storage unit in which to keep said items for safekeeping. Guess we all know what Andy and I will be doing this weekend.

Ye Haw

Don't blink an eye, because you'll miss a lot over here at the Money Pit. We were hoping for small gains here and there, and before we could process "we'd like to start framing," the framing of the new addition is finished. We had our "sheathing inspection" by the city today (sounds naughty, doesn't it?). Good news: we're clear for takeoff on the inspection front. Not-so-good-news: Things have moved a little too quickly for the folks at Marvin windows. We're waiting for our windows to be finished. In lieu of window installation, our contractor wants to move ahead with the kitchen, so our "last supper" will be on Monday, Memorial Day evening. After that, we're officially kitchen-less until this project is done. *gulp*

Without further ado...

View into the kitchen (with Andy looking less-than-impressed).

View through the giagantic new door to backyard.

Wow! That's a huge a$$ window (HAW)!


Love the brick foundation.

Outside view of the HAW.

Andy is clearly impressed by the incredible size of the HAW.

We've Been Framed!

Okay, so not yet completely framed... but getting there. As you can see from the pictures below, the first storey of the new addition is framed. They've added a tarp to protect the exposed second storey, which is great for the house, bad for getting good pictures. Oh well; it's a worthy sacrifice, I suppose. Now that the backyard is completely closed off, the only way to get back there is through the old door to the slope in the kitchen. They close that off with plywood at the end of the day, so getting pictures is becoming more of a challenge. We'll do the best that we can.





In other news:
It appears that the third time's a charm when it comes to getting that gigantic maple in the front removed. We had an arborist remove the tree in the back the day after we purchased the house, and he commented that the maple out front is rotting. We asked the city's arborist to take a look and he recommended pruning. Asked again about a year later... pruning. After all the rain we've had over the past few weeks, we noticed mold and rot all over the trunk, and decided it was time to give the city arborist another call. We got a note yesterday saying that he'd checked the tree, and it's now slated to be removed. Yay! Normally I don't rejoice in the felling of beautiful old trees, but this poor old guy is very sick; and, I suspect, is the cause of our sloping floors in the front. This will also have a dramatic effect on the curb appeal, as you'll really be able to see the front of our house once that tree is gone. Based on the view from our bedroom windows in the leaf-less winter, I'm also guessing we'll have a half-decent view. I'm excited. (And yes, we know the news isn't all positive... we'll lose the shade of the tree in the hot summer months.. yada, yada, yada...)

We're in kitchen/bathroom fixture and finish hell. Should we use this accent color for the cabinets or forget it? Should we use the really unique and interesting antique brass hardware, or the slightly more modern rustic tarnished copper color? How about a dramatic fireplace tile backsplash over the range? What is the best bang for our buck, and what can be changed easily? We're all over the map.... so many things to consider and decide. *Gulp*

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like... A Decrepit Eyesore

Thankfully our 40 days and 40 nights of rain are finally at an end. The moat is drained, the alligators are released, and the work continues. They managed to finish the foundation work on Monday and Tuesday, and started framing today. They finished the floor of the new addition (first floor) today, and if all goes to plan tomorrow, they'll have the first floor walls, ceilings, etc., framed by the time we arrive home from work.

It's neat to see the new space begin to take shape, though Andy's response to the backyard: "Hmph; It's pretty small." :oP




Sadly, what we thought was original siding is actual bracing slats. D'oh! False alarm.