Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Renovation... Week 3

Well, here we are. Three weeks deep into this renovation. Original plan: 1-1.5 weeks. New plan: hopefully finished by the end of the week.

I guess even though it is somewhat hectic having people in and out of the house for the past three weeks, it has also been so awesome to see the progress. We are so excited to get home at the end of each day to see what is going on.

There haven't been a lot of updates lately because a lot of the work over the past week and a half or so has been painting and drywall work. It looks so good though, you will just have to trust me on that one! All of our ceilings are repainted and "fixed" from the damage that they had sustained from the hurricane and the poor roofing and air conditioning. Also, our hallway, where we did not have the proper tools to paint, has been finished. It truly feels brand new! I honestly cannot stop staring, especially at the ceilings which have had water spots for quite some time now.

We also had people come to measure for blinds again this past weekend, but it will have to happen again (hopefully third time's a charm) because the most recent measurer could not figure out how to get the blinds in there. It was strange, and I am hoping that they can figure it all out!

So, along with all of that progress, this week has been super exciting in terms of house renovations. The tile back splash in the kitchen went up yesterday! It is gorgeous, and we love it. Just that tile back splash makes it feel like a whole new kitchen. Here are some pictures below. When I lef this morning they were getting ready to grout as everything was all set, so this isn't complete, but we still are in love!







And along with the finishing the tile work today, we said our final goodbyes to our very first front door. The door was coming down as I walked out this morning and the new one will be up by the time we get home! I guess I am kind of sad, but at the same time it will be nice to have a front door that opens and closes properly! 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

What day of the renovation are we in now?!

I feel like the work crew is at my house more than I am! Well the windows were apparently quite the project as they just were completed yesterday! They look so much better though. All painted and trimmed, no more cracks and cold or hot air coming in from the outside. So exciting! Here they are... (sorry it's really hard to see in the pictures, however Oliver approves)


This past weekend we had a blinds company come out and measure for blinds. We have to get custom since all of the windows are weird sizes and they are custom. They will be awesome though, and exactly what we choose! We are doing brown wooden blinds in the windows above, the master bedroom, and then cafe style white shutters in the windows in the living room. They have to measure one more time to make them perfect, and then they will be made and finally installed on May 9th! So excited!

Along with all of the window work, the crew has also finished the deck (pictures to be added soon), and done lots of painting and drywall work. The front door gets fixed on Monday and then the tile backsplash gets placed next week as well. It looks like we are hitting the home stretch here with maybe just one more week of work. Can't wait to enjoy it everyday!

And here is one more picture of Mr. Oliver enjoying the window and his new "seats" that I gave him so he doesn't tear up the new paint! Glad to see the boys are enjoying the renovations as much as we are!


Friday, April 13, 2012

Renovation Days 2 and 3

There hasn't been a lot of noticeable progress in the last two days. Understanding from the previous post that it wasn't going to be easy to frame the windows, we can begin understanding why it is taking several days just for that project. The guys told me it would be complete today which would be just in time for the blind company to come and measure and start building our custom blinds!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, the deck is gone and ready for the roofers to come and check things out which should be today. As soon as that is done, the new deck can be put on.

Here are some new pictures from the past two days!


The bedroom windows with the curtains down, blinds thrown out and all of the framing ripped out. Ready to start figuring out the puzzle of putting these back together correctly. This picture even shows how the window in the middle was put in crooked.

Oliver enjoying the newly built window box. Glad they got the bottom section on because I was afraid he was going to try and jump up there with nothing to land on! I think he approves of the work!


What's left of the deck


And the roof underneath that they are checking out today. Then the door comes out and the flashing and roof will get fixed so there will be no more rain inside the house!

Can't wait to see how everything today goes. This is day four of the project, and it looks as though we may be a little behind schedule. The thought was this would be a 4-5 day project, and after day four we have a lot of things that still need to be started. Might be another week or so until they finish. As long as it is done and done right, they can stay as long as they want!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Renovation Day 1

Well, it has started! Yesterday at 7:30am, the guys got to the house to start the work. I did one last walk through with them to make sure that everyone was on the same page before I left for work and left the crew to start tearing apart the house. And that is partially what happened on day one.

One of the big issues we had was with our windows. Our home was originally built in 1900, and along with the charm comes some antiquated construction. The window sockets (for lack of a better term) are cut for window sizes from the early 1900s, not what windows are today. So, what one can do when putting new windows into a home like this, they can either get all custom windows or trim the socket to fit a standard size window. Well, the people who rehabbed the house did neither. Placing standard windows into place meant we had windows that were crooked and window sills that were literally collapsing. Last night I came home to this:


It's kinda hard to see, but that is our old window with all of the framing pulled out. You can see the brick which is kinda neat, but the crew could also see the problems. When talking with the construction guys, they told me that the wrong materials were used and everything was just framed wrong. Today they are going to rip everything out for the rest of the windows and start framing them correctly. Thankfully we can keep our old windows (which really aren't that old), and they will be able to insulate and frame the windows properly!

The other thing that they started on yesterday was fixing all the drywall issues we had, and fixing up the paint. We had two roof issues, well really the rehabbers never finished the roof, so that meant during an ice storm the water started coming in and then again during a hurricane. And once it started, it never stopped. One roof was fixed and another section of roof is being repaired with this project, but the damage inside had already been done. We also had an air conditioning problem that caused condensation and ruined dry wall as well. Here is one patch:


This one was from the A/C, and I so lovingly called it my wanna be skylight, well the skylight is all gone! This was among several ceiling fixes that took place yesterday.

Well, I can't wait to see what took place today while we were at work! When I left this morning, the deck was coming down. So sad, but a new one will be put in its place! Check back tomorrow for an update!

Monday, April 9, 2012

A busy month

Wow, I have to say the last month has been super busy! Unfortunately that meant that the blog was the last thing on my mind. Let me see, in the past month we celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Baltimore, first with a parade where Mama Rogers was one of the Marshals and then spent a beautiful spring day enjoying the pubs of Baltimore on the 17th. We finally got the chance to visit our friends Chris and Melanie to meet their new little baby boy Landon, check out her blog by clicking here. We had a few visitors, first our friend Kelly from Delaware for a night and then Ty's sister Aimee for five days. With Aimee, we got to see some sights in Baltimore with her, and Ty spent the day in DC with her before she left to visit some friends. 


Other than all of that, I have been busy with work and school. Working some late night and weekend events to learn some new roles in the office. And trying to wrap up the last few semesters of graduate school, where I just got invited to be a part of the Public Administration honor society. Tyler has been busy with work and of course lacrosse season has started. The team has started off a little rocky with an 0-3 record, but Ty has been very happy with the hard work the boys are putting in.


This past week, Tyler had off for spring break, and I got to take off on Friday so we could head to Camden Yards for opening day of the Baltimore Orioles baseball season. Some pictures from the day are below. It was a beautiful day at the Yard, and the city is so energized by the Birds. The team has started 3-0 and sit atop the American League East. Hoping it keeps going.


We are looking forward to the big renovation that starts tomorrow. We will keep you all updated on that as it goes on. It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time to think about all of the work that is going to be going on in the house over the next week or two. 


Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, Passover or whatever else you may have celebrated! Check back soon for some updates on the house!


Me, my friend Jade and my Mom at a bar in Baltimore before heading to the stadium

Tyler and me out at the bar. Ty with his Camden Yards commemorative Natty Boh

Ready for opening day!

The field. Ready for it's 20th season!

The Orange Carpet, for the introductions of the 2012 Orioles

Brady Anderson is back with the Birds! A former All-Star player, now a part of the coaching staff

The Oriole Bird. Best mascot in the MLB

The teams. Baltimore Orioles played the Minnesota Twins for Opening Day.

The commemorative War of 1812 flag for the Star Spangled Banner.

A helicopter fly over before the game started. Never seen that before.

Another former Orioles All-Star, Chris Hoiles threw out the first pitch. He was there for the first pitch when Camden Yards opened 20 years ago.


The starting defense for the O's

First pitch, and it was a strike!

My mom and I found Mr. Boh, the unofficial mascot of the City of Baltimore