During our recent long, long blogging drought, we have all been busy moving and settling into the new house and preparing for winter. The Harbers have successfully moved in on the first floor and have been busy cleaning and buying all the necessary items to furnish their house.
Now that the big projects have all completed, we have been focusing on the finishing touches. Since many of the lights in the house did not have any fixtures on them (they were exposed, bare bulbs), first on the list was to buy lighting fixtures. We tried to find ones that matched the style of the house for the common areas but had a more modern flair inside the individual apartments. In the front entryway and in the staircase to the second floor, we found these great traditional antique-style bronze single bulb sconces.
Inside the units on the first floor, a polished chrome chandelier was chosen for the dining room, while a super-modern all-glass fixture is hanging in the living room.
On the second floor, an all brass fixture was installed in the dining room, and a shaded pendant piece is hanging in the living room.
Since the first floor bathroom is a bit larger than the second floor bathroom, Christina and Ben can fit a larger piece of furniture in there that enables them to have more storage which is helpful since they have a pedestal sink. Also notice that there is only one inset in the bathtub area instead of three like there are on the second floor. The reason for this is the guy who tiled the bathroom used / damaged too many pieces on the second floor, leaving us short many pieces for the first floor. Luckily the one large inset has proven to be more than enough.
Other than getting all the new fixtures and furniture in place, we have been busy staining more windows, and looking into window treatments. This was a rude awakening... they are SO expensive! Luckily we found some relatively affordable ones that we like for the second floor. They are folding style roller shades. Currently we've only installed a few since we still need to finish staining all the windows before we order the rest. But you can see here how they look.
We are very excited to report that the Harbers are just one week away from finally moving into the first floor. After a few construction setbacks and one last-minute change to the kitchen layout, things have taken a little bit longer than we expected. But this week some great progress was made -- the walls are all patched and freshly painted, the bathroom is half-tiled, and the kitchen cabinets have been installed. What remains is the installation of the countertop and the rest of the bathroom tiling. Hopefully when we write next week Christina and Ben will be settled into their new home and we will have photos of the final first floor unit.
Meanwhile, upstairs, the never-ending task of staining the new windows continues. Katherine and Christina make a mean staining team. They have got the painting and ragging down to a fine art. However the more we work, the more we realize how much more there is to do still. So far we have completed 2 windows while the 3 windows in the dining room are in-progress. This is out of 25 windows! Not counting 4 doors and the new baseboard trim in the kitchens. Yikes. Now we understand why most new construction paints all of the wood trim white -- it would be so much easier. But this will keep the house a little bit more true to its original form, so this will all be worth it.
The other staining job we were most elated to finish was the bathroom door. As you can guess, this means that Katherine and Ryan were door-less for the duration of the job which was no fun. But after 5 coats on the door and trim, they were able to hang it. Yay for privacy! Oh the things you take for granted when you are renting.
This week marked the beginning of a meaty house project -- staining the new windows, doors and interior trim. Eager to complete the job before water might damage the new wood (especially in the bathrooms and kitchens) and also before the cold winter months arrive, all four of us pitched in to tackle the first round of staining.
The first step was to choose the stain color. Attracted by the low odor and fast drying time of water-based stains (compared to oil-based ones which, admittedly, have a richer color but smell really awful), we tried out two colors on a piece of wood scrap to see what would best match the other trim in the house. The first experiment produced no clear winner -- one color was too yellow and the other too brown. However after trying a number of combinations of the two together (see the splotchy board on the left), we were able to come to a group consensus on the winning color.
The top priority was to stain the new door to the bathroom as it is exposed to high humidity and the occasional splash of water. We first did a light sanding on the wood to make sure it was smooth and clean. Then we applied a coat of pre-stain, waited for 30 minutes, and applied the first coat of stain. As we waited for the first coat to dry, we also tackled a window. A little nervous about getting into all the nooks and crannies of our new double-hung windows, we decided to make the little-seen window in the 2nd floor mechanical closet our sacrificial test window.
When it comes to the windows, team work was invaluable. One person used the brush to apply the stain while the second person was armed with a rag to even out the coat. The tough part was having to move down and pull out the double-hung windows and access all of the hidden pieces of wood.
After the first coat was dry (about 2 hours) we did a second coat of stain. We still have to apply 3 more coats of the finish sealant which will add a little bit of glossiness, but you can get a good idea of how our new doors and trim will look.
Another project that Ryan undertook this week was to prep the closet on the second floor for the new shelving system we are planning to install. When we moved in there was no hanging rod and only one sad shelf with a few hooks. In order to install our new shelves, it requires that everything is stripped out of the closet, including the strip of wood that runs around the interior.
After prying off the trim, this exposed a decent-sized hold of plaster down to the wood lath. Over the span of 5 days of working a little bit each night, Ryan has re-plastered the holes. All that is left is to sand the plaster flush with the surface and paint... and then the shelves can go in! Hopefully sometime this week.
Finally we have more updates on the front yard. Christina and Katherine's mother Lilly offered her mad painting skills and took on the sad and rusty wrought iron fence in the front garden. While the fence was last painted green, much of it had rusted and chipped off and it was in dire need of some refreshing. Lilly sanded and chipped off some of the larger chunks of the paint and did a nice coat of classic black rustoleum paint. It looks pretty nice!
After a week of cleaning off construction dust and unpacking some boxes, Ryan and Katherine finally have their floor in a livable state. You can now get an idea of what their floor is going to look like -- in some cases the difference before and after are pretty remarkable!
Here are some before and after shots:
The other two big projects on this floor were the restoration of the entryway between the dining and living room and the demolition of the mini-closet in the main bedroom. Here are some more before and after pics!
And then here is the old closet and the newly opened up space in the bedroom.
Another amazing feat that Ryan did all by himself this week was the installation of the video and voice data center in the basement. In order to get our phone and cable working, we had to basically connect all of the cables coming down from the rooms with the lines coming in from the outside. Since it was all new wiring, Ryan had to strip and connect each of the phone and coaxial cables into the junction box. Clearly he did something right because we are writing this post from the house! Nice work!
This weekend was the culmination of over 3 months of anticipation, hard labor, and not a little bit of stress. With their lease expiring on their 2-bedroom apartment, Ryan and Katherine packed up their things and made the first move into the Palmer House... kind of. Because we decided just last week to replace all of the interior window trim, the contractors were pushing it up to the very last minute to finish up the unit. As the couple moved their boxes and furniture onto the freshly varnished (but dry!) floors, the plumber was still installing the last fixtures for the bathroom and kitchen. Because the contractors have been in and out tying up other loose ends this weekend, they have been staying with Christina and Katherine's parents in Palatine... a full house! But hopefully tomorrow night they will be able to spend their first night in the renovated home.
As the team has been busy cleaning and making small repairs around the unit, all four of us are pretty happy with the way things turned out. This was the first time we saw the bathroom completed (for the most part at least). The tiling, vanity and toilet are installed. The mirror still needs to be hung above the vanity and the bath faucet handle needs to be installed, but you can get an idea of how the bathroom will look when it's finished. We love how the wall tile turned out and the little cubby recesses for bottles and soaps. The bathtub needs a good scrubbing too, as does the rest of the house actually). Construction sites are very very dusty.
With 5 days left until Ryan and Katherine move into the new house, the pressure is on for the contractors to get everything done in time for the August 31st deadline. Ryan and Katherine currently live in an apartment and the lease is expiring this Friday. While the progress on the house has been great over the last week, a lot more still needs to happen between today and the 31st. Over the last week, new floors were installed in the 2nd floor master bedroom and in the first floor kitchen. The kitchen cabinets have also been installed on the 2nd floor, and all that remains is the counter top to be measured, cut, and installed. The contractor assures us that the kitchen will be completed by the move in day. So at least we can cook! Additionally the bathroom and kitchen have been painted because these rooms are obviously the ones that need to get completed first. The cabinets look great.
One of the reason we are pushing it so close is actually our own fault. When the new windows went in last week, we realized that there were a few new problems. First, since the windows are replacement windows, they don't fit into the masonry opening exactly in the same way as the old windows did. They are actually shallower than the 1890 originals which resulted in a 1-inch gap between the new windows and the old interior trim. Additionally the oak wood on the new windows wouldn't match the original window trim exactly because it would be difficult to stain it to the same color. Because of these various issues, it was decided to replace all 25 interior window trims with new trim pieces. This solves both the problems we currently have. First the wood will now match more closely the new window, and additionally the gap between the trim and the window will be eliminated as we are having the new trim done with custom carpentry. The carpenters that are doing the work are the same ones that did the entrance way on the 2nd floor last month. We are very happy with their work, so we are pretty confident that they will do a good job here as well. As of Sunday night, they had torn off all of the window frames and built up completely two new windows.
The last piece of major progress that's been made is some of the tiling in the 2nd floor bathroom. So far they have done one wall above the bathtub. In this picture, the tiles are on the wall but the grout has not been applied yet. They should be finished with the rest of the wall tile in the next day or two and then be moving on to the floor tile.
The past few days have been full of action at our house. The biggest event was the arrival of our new windows. This was somewhat of a bittersweet project. The current windows are actually the house's original windows from 1890 (117 years old!). They are beautiful and use the old counterweight pulley system to open and close. Unfortunately (like many things in the house) they are not in the best of shape -- the wood around the glass is so deteriorated that we would have to build a new frame to hold the glass panes. This would have cost so much money that unless we wanted to brave a Chicago winter with leaky windows, the only option was to replace them immediately.
To respect the spirit and style of the old windows, we are replacing all 25 windows with double-hung replacement windows (pretty much the closest thing you can find to the originals). For anyone who has ever had to replace windows, you will feel our pain (25 windows!). This was definitely the most expensive part of our renovations (about a quarter of the entire cost). So you can imagine our excitement when the new windows arrived this week! They came on Wednesday and our contractor wasted no time in getting them installed over the following 2 days.
They had a large crew working on the installation (we have definitely learned to love the sound of a house full of busy construction workers -- unfortunately when they leave at the end of the day we get sad). From the inside view, you can see that the windows already look pretty good even though we still need to stain them to match the existing wood trim. The windows will have an aluminum cladding on the outside which still needs to be installed. Next week we can show you the completed exterior.
In addition to the windows, there's also been some news on our floors. We mentioned last week that they refinished the floors on both of the units. Unfortunately upon closer inspection, a couple of the rooms will need more serious work. The maple flooring in the kitchen on the first floor has suffered from some pretty bad water damage over the years. After the refinishing, it was evident that the damage was beyond repair, so we are going to have to replace that room completely. The other kink was in the master bedroom on the second floor. We had asked the contractors to take out the closet in that room because it was too small to be functional. When the floors were repatched, they did a very poor job of blending in the new boards, so we are going to have them just replace the entire room. We are hoping this will also help reduce some noise between the floors. Right now the flooring workers have torn out the old floors and will be installing the new ones early this week.
And finally just a little update on our front yard. As you can see, most of the plants are thriving (though some have fared better than others). It's amazing how many little weeds are trying to pop up, so we've been trying to keep on top of them before they become too troublesome.
The last few weekends have been filled with shopping for more fixtures for the house and meeting with our contractor to make sure that all of their work is going smoothly. So far, most of the electrical re-wiring has been completed. This work included adding cable and phone lines to each room and openings for new lighting fixtures in the bathrooms and kitchens. The plumbing work is mostly finished as well. While the bathroom plumbing is remaining basically the same as before, we decided to rearrange the kitchen layout in order to eke out more counter space in our teeny kitchen.
The original layout was not optimal because of a large window which forced the countertop to be divided into two pieces. What we have decided to do is to bring up the bottom sill of the window high enough so we can run a continuous countertop below. This would also give us a more natural location for the kitchen sink. By moving the sink there, this also made it sensible to move the dishwasher to the right of the window so that all of the plumbing would be on the same wall.
In the bathrooms, the new drywall is up as well and you can see the recessed bathtub openings have been drywalled as well. The next step for this room will be tiling and installing the new window.
The other major project that was completed by the contractors was the refinishing of the floors. Each floor was resanded, stained and varnished. They also have replaced or patched areas of the floor that have been damaged beyond repair. After this work, the floor looks great but is still a little rough. They will be applying a couple more coats of varnish to make it smoother.
In order to complete the makeover of our front yard, we had to bring in a professional -- Ryan's mom. Lynn is a landscape architect in Santa Barbara and couldn't wait to transform our sad pile of dirt into a gardener's paradise. As you know, Dennis, Ryan's dad, had already been out for a week helping to rewire the electrical system and build a workshop in the basement. Additionally, he helped us construct the stone planter in the front yard in preparation for Lynn's arrival.
The morning after her flight landed, the Kirby's made a trip to Home Depot for some gardening supplies and plants. We are very fond of purple foliage, so this defined a theme for the front garden. At the Depot, Lynn picked out barberry plants as the larger bushes and a number of purple, white and pink begonias to surround them. After she returned to the house, she spent the rest of the day prepping the soil for planting. The next day, the first plants went in. Simultaneously, Ryan and Dennis finished off the planter wall by gluing in the fourth and final course of bricks. For this course, we used glue as opposed to mortar for a more natural look.
The end result was fabulous! In fact, Dennis and Lynn got quite a few compliments as they were creating the garden from our friendly new neighbors.
So after 6 weekends of intense weeding, hoeing, brick-laying, more weeding, planting and mulching, at last our new front garden!
Finally, Ryan's dad completed three large projects in the basement workshop - the assembly of their new table saw and the construction of a large worktable and workbench. Ryan and Ben are now all outfitted to do carpentry and other projects themselves.
The last task for the week was to complete the landscaping for the patch of yard right against the front of the house. The whole crew was out over the weekend to prep the ground, buy plants and plant them.
On Saturday morning, the Kirby's had gone to a stone retailer to purchase stones for the pathway between the two planters in the front. In a hasty decision, they decided to buy 500 lbs of white flagstone. Upon laying them out at the house, the consensus was that the color was too light and the stones would have to be returned. However, being the very inventive young man that he is, Ryan suggested that they use these stones to cover the unsightly dirt beneath the front porch.
It might have been overkill to use such nice stone underneath a porch, but to be honest Ryan did not feel like driving the quarter-ton of stone back to the store.
And here are the final pictures of our front gardens! Take a look before and after.
This past week marked the arrival of Ryan's dad Dennis along with his lifetime of house remodeling knowledge. Arriving late on Tuesday night, he spared no delay in getting to work early Wednesday morning. After a quick tour of the house and a long and expensive trip to Home Depot, Dennis and Ryan really began the work in the afternoon with a complete gut of the basement wiring and lighting system. Dennis, who is an experienced electrician, was able to pass down his many years of knowledge to his son. As a team, they removed the old system of lights, un-installed an ancient alarm system, and cleaned up the bad phone and cable wiring. They also installed a new lighting system of fluorescent lights and fixed, grounded and repaired all of the old outlets.
The next task was to build a 4-inch concrete block for the laundry washer and dryer to sit on in the basement. This might sound like a simple task, but not when your floor is uneven and crooked like our beloved home's. Having a level concrete pad will help ensure proper operation of the machines as well as prevent any damage should the basement flood. To build the block Ryan and Dennis had to painstakingly measure, cut and level a wooden frame to pour the concrete into. Then they mixed 8 bags of concrete and poured the block.
Step one of the project was to lay two rows of brick pavers alongside the street curb. This was to allow drivers to open their car doors without hitting our planter. Excavating the hole for the pavers, pouring a layer of mortar, and laying the bricks down in a straight line took most of the first day. A special job had to be done around the street sign that fell in the path of our pavers. Dennis did a nice job of custom-cutting the bricks around the pole and then filling the rest in with mortar. Nice!
On Sunday, the big task was to erect the walls for the two planters. The whole crew was out again digging the trench for the first layer. The goal was to bury at least one layer of stone for a solid foundation. It turned out that the curb side of the yard was naturally lower than the sidewalk side of the yard. Therefore we had to bury two layers of stone on the sidewalk just to make it level with the curb! Ultimately, this meant a lot more digging -- at least a foot-deep trench along the sidewalk.
It sure was nice to have everyone out working because it took us in total almost 10 hours from start to finish -- just digging the trench alone took 5 hours! Laying the first course of the stone was especially difficult because it had to be level to ensure that the planters would be stable. Because of the extreme winters in Chicago, a strong foundation is key because when the ground freezes and thaws, it can cause a lot of shifting and settling in the soil.
Here is what we were able to finish at the end of the day. We are really happy with it, and we have even started to receive compliments from our neighbors passing by! Hopefully our front yard renovation will inspire some of the other houses on the block to do the same. We are extremely grateful to Dennis for coming out to help us and teach us -- it's the best housewarming present we could have received!
