gianocromley

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 39: Real (Sewer) Talk

Okay, so I promised a while back that I'd provide all you sewer-heads out there with the fix you've been craving for so long. Here's what went down...We were getting nowhere in our attempts to procure a permit from the city to redo the sewer line out to the sewer main under the street. In fact, everything we were hearing back from the sewer guy my contractor had hired involved a permit price that kept getting higher. At a certain point, he indicated that the permit to do the sewer might run as high as $15-20 thousand dollars. For the permit. Alone. Without even factoring in the labor and material for the actual work.I panicked.

Then after I panicked, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I reached out to a series of sewer guys and had them take a look at the project. One of them came by and said, "Have you looked into the city's private drain program?" After admitting my ignorance, he told me that the city would take responsibility for the sewer line from the sidewalk out to the street, and that homeowners were only responsible for the sewer line up to the edge of the sidewalk. I was elated, but he did inject a note of caution. He said there were some limits to the program and that he would check with someone at the City Water Department to find out more.He called me the next day and said that in order to qualify for the private drain program the building had to be less than four units (all good there), had to be occupied (whoops, not quite), and had to have had less than 75% of the place renovated (I guess it depends on how you define "renovated," but, gulp, we don't quite qualify for that one either). 

He suggested I contact the Water Department and talk to someone there to see if I could qualify. So that's what I did, with shaky hands and a tremor in my voice. After all, if this call went badly, it could cost $20-30 thousand dollars, which would, realistically, force us to abandon the project a few feet from the finish line.After being passed on to a couple different people, I got put on the line with Donna, who's in charge of the Private Drain Program. And I just told her everything. I explained how we were rehabbing our house, how it was a place that had been abandoned for years and that we were planning to make it our home and that we weren't scammy developers trying to flip a piece of property for a quick buck and that if we didn't qualify for the program we would likely have to quit work on it. Throughout my whole spiel, Donna listened carefully, and then she did the unthinkable. She said she wanted to help.

She told us to go ahead and schedule a city inspector to come out to the property when we had a sewer guy on site so they could scope the sewer and confirm that it was broken on city property and not ours. She said in order to get around the issues that would make us not qualify for the program, that we should "make it look like you're living there right now." So that's what we did.

The inspection was scheduled for Monday, so I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday making it look like we were currently living in the house. I put potted flowers out on the front porch. I bought and hung paper shades in the front windows. And I moved just enough furniture into the front of the house so that if you looked in through the front door, it kind of seemed like someone with a very minimalist design philosophy was living there. The morning of the inspection, we slept on a blowup mattress and we brewed coffee in the kitchen and walked the dogs and had them sitting on the front porch when the inspector showed up. Basically, imagine the end of Blazing Saddles and you pretty much have it. The sewer guys showed up first and began rodding out the sewer line. Shortly after that, the inspector arrived. There were a lot of questions. The inspector kept asking me how long we'd lived there, what was going wrong with the sewer, who had been doing my sewer work before this. It was hot, and I was sweating, and it felt like I was going to crack at any minute. My strategy from the outset was to play dumb -- lots of shrugs and I-don't-knows. I did it so well, in fact, that I think he got frustrated with my stupidity. But it worked. Eventually, the sewer guys were able to confirm that the break in the line was on the city's side of the sidewalk and that I would be responsible only for repairing the sewer on my property. A few minutes more of grilling from the inspector and he signed off on the repair. Once our side of the repair was done, he came back to do a final inspection where he marked on the street where the sewer needed to be repaired. About a week after that, city workers showed up, tore open the street and repaired the sewer main. Two weeks after that, Streets and Sanitation workers showed up and permanently repaired the asphalt. It was done. The ordeal that took up that latter six months of the project was complete. And we were free to get serious about moving into our house.

Below, you can see a photo of the City worker cutting open the street to fix our sewer line. And below that, you can see another worker filling in the hole after the repairs were made. (In that second photo, you can see evidence of my flower-pot ruse.)

I have to admit, dear reader, the mere act of typing this story has re-triggered my PTSD from that whole ordeal. Fixing your sewer in Chicago is a scary process, and no one really wants to give you any straight answers. For anyone in a similar situation who may have followup questions, feel free to use the comments section below to reach out to me. I'll happily share whatever I know.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 38: Tying a Ribbon Around It

It's been a long, long time. Apologies. Huge apologies. Let me explain. The last post in this series took place just before we passed final inspection on the house. What I didn't anticipate was how much everything would accelerate once we got the go-ahead to move in. 

First of all, the painting had to be done. Because of how much the project had gone over budget, we were left to our own devices when it came to painting. I managed to finish the ceilings while I was teaching my summer classes and Natalie and I attacked the walls on the first floor during a "vacation." This was incredibly labor intensive, but we managed to get the ceilings on both floors and the first-floor walls done before we moved in. Then, once we'd moved in, we still had a number of projects that were absolutely necessary to take care of. But we couldn't take care of them until we'd refinanced, so that was yet another hurdle that had to be cleared. Since then, the improvements we've made to the house include: building a new garage, constructing a rear walkway, building a fence in the backyard, installing security cameras, leveling the backyard, switching the gutters so they drain to the north side of the building, installing shutters and blinds, re-venting the hot water heater (so it doesn't randomly shut off when you least expect it to), plus just general moving in and home-making. 

Add to that the fact that I had my second book come out this past fall so I was doing a lot of publicity for it, plus I'd taken on two overtime classes at school in order to help cover some of these extra expenses. So yeah, kinda busy. At any rate, life seems to have slowed a little bit since then. At least enough for me to catch my breath and finish what I started with this blog series. So here goes. My intention is to do a couple more posts that focus on a individual aspects of the project. I will try to include before and after pics whenever possible. 

First up, the first floor. Here’s the way the entryway looked right after demo:

At this point in the process, you can see how this spot used to be an enclosed vestibule, from which you could either take the steps up to the second floor apartment or take a door into the first floor apartment. The original plans called for us to leave the steps enclosed (to save a little money) but when we saw how good it looked opened, up we decided to pay a little more to leave it open. Also, note the tile entryway which is pretty dusty in this pic. We saved it, as you’ll see below:

Next up, I’ll show some pics of the front sitting area. I don’t really have a great before pic, since it was an enclosed living room originally so I didn’t really get a good angle for a photo, so I’ll start with a photo of the process once we were about 75% done with the rehab:

At this point, we had finished the drywall. But we hadn’t installed the new front door. And, of course, the floors haven’t been stained yet. Here’s what it looks like now:

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. Probably the main thing to note here would be the shutters. We opted for shutters on the front and back windows because they add another layer of security and the look really fit with the house.

Next up would be a shot looking from the front of the house to the back:

So, this is what it looked like when we first bought the place. We’re looking down the hallway that had bedrooms on either side and the kitchen and dining room in the back. The main change we made to the first floor was to open the first floor up. So here’s what it looked like once we did the demo:

As you can see, it’s been torn open here. On the floor, you can still see the outline of the original floor plan. Here’s what it looks like now:

This shot is taken from a little closer to the back than the previous one. But you get the point. By the way, I’ve taken these photos with all our day-to-day clutter still in place. So these haven’t been doctored to provide a sanitized version. Here’s one more shot of the back of the house with a slightly different angle to show more of the kitchen:

Now, here are some shots of how the kitchen evolved:

So, above you can see the kitchen had been separated from the dining room, which is where this photo was taken from. 

And here, you can see what the kitchen looked like after it had been insulated. But not yet drywalled. The PVC piping you see there is the spot where the sink will be once the kitchen island is in place. 

And above you can see what it looks like now. The flowers are blocking the view of the sink, but I’m pretty sure you’ve seen the sink and faucet in earlier posts.

The last thing I wanted to do was show some pics of some of the special projects we worked on and how they turned out. First off, there was a set of two stained glass windows on the first floor. During the demo process, one of them got ruined, but we did manage to salvage one. Here’s what it used to look like before we did the demo:

And here’s what it looks like now:

As you can see, we stripped the paint around the edges and cleaned up the glass. Lastly, we strung some LED lights around the frame to give it a little flare. 

The other major salvage project was the entryway mirror. Here’s what it looked like once we got it out of the house:

This was after we stored it in the hallway outside our condo for a couple months. Now, here’s what it looks like in our house:

So, here it’s been reinstalled on the wall where it was originally. I touched up the columns and crown moulding with a bronze colored paint, which matches our door knobs and other fixtures. I also bought those big iron hooks off of eBay and painted those bronze too. Those hooks match pretty closely the original hooks, one of which was broken. I still need to finish up painting the base color since it’s worn in a few spots.

Okay, so that’s all for now. I’ll do a couple more posts that show the final results of the other parts of the house. Watch for those over the next couple weeks.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 37: Sooooo Cloooose

Apologies for the lengthy delay in posts. Believe it or not, there are some really good reasons for the wait. I can’t get into exactly what those reasons are at the moment, but I will happily explain everything once we’re 100% out of the woods with this project. At that point, I’ll make an entire sewer post which will hopefully serve as a guide to others who may be wandering into this issue without a sufficient knowledge of the City of Chicago’s byzantine rules and regulations.

First, a brief explanation of where we now stand. Our sewer issues have been resolved. We are now waiting on the final inspection from the City of Chicago. The first time we ordered the final inspection (about two weeks ago) the inspector failed to show up. The second time we ordered the final inspection (last week) they dinged us for some off-center concrete piers on the back deck. They also, inexplicably, requested that a temporary fence structure be built between the backyard and the garage structure. I honestly have no idea why they’d request this, since we’ll be tearing it down in a few weeks to build an actual garage. But the city gets what the city wants. We’ve fixed all the final requests they made on the last inspection, and now we await what should be the final-final sign-off. 

But I know you didn’t come here to read me griping about the city and inspections. So... on to the pics.

Here you can see the finished back porch and balcony. The handrails and balusters are now completed. For those of you who’ve been reading this from the beginning, you’ll remember that the gray and green patches on the brick were where the rear addition had been. The brick was painted because it was technically indoors. After about a year of exposure to the elements, that paint is peeling off pretty well now. I think with a little power washing, we might be rid of the paint entirely. 

Here you can see the back steps. Again, you’ve already seen this before, but now you can see it finished.

Lastly, here’s the view of the finished rear balcony. As you can see, someone’s already made herself at home. 

We’re trying to do as much work as we can before we move in, so on that note, we started staining the new stair rail. Here’s a shot of the work in progress:

We opted to go a little dark on the hand rail stain, though I think it will lighten up a bit over time. Here’s what it looks like completed:

One coat of semi-gloss and it should be good to go. 

So, one thing that happened was we had to -- for compliance reasons -- make it seem as if we’re living in the place. As such, we moved a few pieces of furniture into the house so that with a cursory glance from the front door everything would seem kosher. Here’s what that little project looked like:

Of course, no post here would be complete without the requisite sewer pic to placate all my Sewer-Heads out there. So, here’s this:

The pit you’re looking into is about ten feet deep. The part of the pipe at the top is the clean-out. Then you can see the hole where the line goes under the foundation and the part at the bottom where it goes out to the street below. 

Lastly, one fun piece for those who are into the whole salvaging thing. The original house had two old stained glass windows on the first floor. They were nothing ornate, but they did have a kind of craftsman’s charm. Here’s a shot of one of the originals:

This is kind of an incidental photo, so it’s not super clear. There was a matching one on the left. Unfortunately, when they did the demo, one of the windows was not able to be saved. The other, however, we did manage to fix up.

We were able to strip the paint off the front of the frame and clean it up somewhat. Not sure what we’ll end up doing with it. Right now, it’s resting on a buffet table, but we’ll probably try and hang it once the painting’s done. 

So, that’s all for now. We’re really close, but there’s still further to go.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 36: More Porch Work and Some Appliances

Just a short post today. Progress on the porch/balcony continues to the point where it’s actually starting to look like one. Here’s a shot from the back of the property.

First off, you can see the steps and hand railing. And you can the beginnings of the balcony up above. The joists are all in place up in the balcony and ready for the floorboards to be installed. After that, it’s pretty much just a matter of doing the balustrade and balusters. Their goal was to get the porch done by tomorrow, so let’s see if they can meet this deadline. One other item of note in this photo is the security door we had installed on the back door. You can’t see it super great here, but it's there. I promise. 

Also, we got our kitchen appliances delivered today. Here’s the stove:

Interesting to note, the gap between the countertops here is a couple millimeters too narrow, so the stove won’t slide all the way back. We’ll have to have the workers grind off a bit of the granite on both sides. Also of note, you can just make out the subway tile backsplash, though this angle doesn’t really emphasize it. Also, above the stove we have the space where the microwave will be installed. Most delivery crews don’t install microwaves and dishwashers so we’re going to go with a separate handyman for that work. 

Lastly, we have the refrigerator. Due to the relative tightness of the kitchen, we opted for a counter-depth fridge, which should hopefully give plenty of space between it and the island.

That’s all for now. We are in the final stages of this massive undertaking. We are, however, currently stuck in city permit purgatory when it comes to the outside sewer permit. So the clock is still ticking.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 35: Basement Sewer Complete and the Start of a Porch

The last mile is always the hardest mile. The last mile is always the hardest mile. The last mile is always the hardest mile. The last mile is always the hardest mile. (Repeat until the sweet release of sleep takes over.)

Progress has been coming in fits and starts. Last week saw the completion of the interior sewer and this week saw the beginning of work on the back porch, along with all the little interior details that go toward finishing the project up. 

First up, the sewer. I won’t bother to provide images of what it looked like previously, since you can just scroll through my last couple posts if you want to see that. Here’s what it looks like now:

Where there used to be a gaping hole that went under the front foundation of the house, we now have sweet, beautiful... concrete! 

Here, you can see the rest of the basement with the sewer lines now buried. The concrete was still wet when I took this photo. Unfortunately, vandals got to it before it was completely dry. See below:

Who do these people think they are!?!?!?!?!

Now for a few pics of the porch/balcony in progress:

Above you can see the view from just inside the back door. We are very close to having a back door that won’t result in a ten-foot fall if you step outside it. As you can see from this shot, our back porch will not be gargantuan. We made this decision because the backyard isn’t the biggest and we have dogs, so we didn’t want anything that dominated what little green space we had. But, with any luck, there’ll be enough room for a grill, a couple chairs and a bistro table -- just enough space to sit outside, sip a little wine and watch the sun set.

Here’s a view of what it looks like from the rear. On the left, those two posts indicate where the rear steps will be, kind of offset from the back door. On the right, you can see those posts going up to the second floor. Those will support the balcony that the master bedroom will open up onto. 

Here, you can see the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Simple white-matte subway tiles, the same as what we have in all the bathrooms. This will make for a nice finish to the kitchen area.

That’s all for now. More progress has been made on the porch even today, so I will probably post more pictures of that later this weekend. 

One more final item of note for all you sewer-heads out there: No progress has been made on connecting the sewer line to the sewer mane under the street. The subcontractor spent four hours at city hall trying to wrangle the permit, only to be told that the owner (me) never registered the property as “vacant.” Of course, no one ever told the owner (me) that it needed to be registered as vacant. And, of course, since this is Chicago, registering a home as vacant includes exorbitant fees to be paid by the owner (me). The subcontractor now has to go back once again and try to get the permit in order to complete what will likely be the very final piece to the puzzle of fixing this house. Stay tuned for further adventures on that front.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 34: Sewer 2 and a Shower Door Too

Quick update on the week’s progress so far. First off, the cast iron sewer piping has been laid. Really thick stuff and it weighs a ton. Here’s what it looks like:

Right now, the pipe goes up the the foundation at the front of the house, but stops there. Later this week, they’ll have to begin excavating the front of the house and the sidewalk to connect it to the main sewer line under the street. 

Another big development: the master bath shower door has been installed:

Here’s what it looks like now. It’s a slider, which I’m happy about since I have a (perhaps unfounded) hunch that hinged shower doors tend to leak more than sliders. 

Now, just to give you a sense or the change we’re looking at, I’ve decided to throw in a photo of this exact spot before any construction work began:

Wow, am I right? In its previous incarnation, this space was the upstairs flat’s kitchen area. The window has been bricked in. Other than that, it’s got the same footprint now as it did before. But it sure looks different!

We’ve also got the bathroom mirrors installed as well, as you can see above. This is the master bath, which now feels pretty much complete.

And lastly, here’s the first floor bathroom sink. We opted for a pedestal sink here since we felt like that really helped give it that older feel. Plus, it’s not a big bathroom and a pedestal leaves a lot more space.

That’s all for now. Hopefully, we’ll see some movement on the back porch this week, in which case I’ll have another update later.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 33: Jealous of My Sewers Yet?

Work began on the sewers this week. Right now, they’ve excavated the entire basement drainage system. Next week, with any luck, they’ll lay the new cast iron pipe and fill it back in with cement. In the interest of cataloguing even the most mundane of work on this project, I’ll throw in some “before” and “not-before-but-not-quite-after” pics here.

First off, I’ll give you a shot of what the whole basement looked like before the excavation began:

This is looking from front to back. The thing that looks like a pile of garbage on the right is a pile of garbage.

Here you can see the extent of the excavation. The main sewer line goes straight to the back of the house, though there are a couple drainage lines veering off to the right as well. I’ll provide a better image of those in a minute.

Here you can see the partial excavation they did some time ago at the front of the house. It was from this partial excavation they were able to determine that the rest of the sewer would need to be redone.

Slightly different angle than the previous shot, but you can see how the dug up part now links with the rest.

Here’s another shot looking toward the back of the house. 

And here is a better shot of the two side-drainage channels.

This last shot is of an old clogged pipe. Notice how it’s basically solid with sediment. That’s why they all had to go and be replaced.

That’s all for now. 

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 32: Final Floors and Other Stuff

Apologies for not doing an update earlier. Summer life has picked up its pace, and I’m finding that, as the project drags on, my enthusiasm has waned. I know we’re close to being done, but it’s really, really hard to feel that way from this perspective. It’s like every marathon I’ve ever run -- the last three miles are the hardest and the longest.

With that said, we are allegedly close to the finish line. The last few big ticket items are the sewer and the back porch/deck. After that, it’s just a matter of touchups and punchlist items to take care of. 

The first thing to show is the cabinet hardware has been installed. 

You can see the aged bronze cabinet pulls and handles. This may seem like a small change visually, but it does make the kitchen feel disproportionately more functional. 

Another big addition was the completion of the master bath vanity.

As you can see, this thing is a bit of a battleship, but the bathroom is plenty big and if the vanity were any smaller it would probably throw off the proportions of the whole room. Of course, the water hasn’t actually been turned on since there’s no sewer and there’d be nowhere for it to drain other than the puddle in the basement.

Next, as a sign of what’s to come, they’ve poured the concrete footings for the back porch/deck. 

The above shot was taken from the back door, which right now looks out over empty air, at least until the porch is put in. It’s not going to be a massive porch, so those footings will be more than enough to hold up.

Also, they’ve installed the interior door knobs and handles. Here’s the style we chose for those:

The last big piece of news was the floors got their final coat of polyurethane. Here are a couple photos of what that looks like now:

The above shot is taken on the first floor, from the front of the house looking back toward the kitchen. The coat is more of a satin finish, so it’s got some gloss to it, but it’s not quite as shiny as this photo perhaps seems. 

Here’s one more floor shot, which gives you a view of the tile entry pad and the new stair railing. 

I figured I’d end with a slightly anachronistic addition to our new home. For the most part, we’ve tried to go for finishes that roughly match the style and era of the house itself, which was built in 1905, near as we can tell. For the doorbell, however, we opted to go a bit more high tech. To the left of the door, you can see the Ring Video Doorbell. Whenever someone rings, I get an alert on my phone, and I can see a video of who is at the door, as well as communicate with them. The funny thing is we don’t have wifi at the house yet, but since we live across the street, it’s able to pick up our wifi signal from there. Pretty strong reception.

That’s all for now. Next week should be the sewer and the back deck. At that point, we will be very close. We’ll see if we have the stamina for the final push!

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 31: Following Some Side Projects

Things are starting to happen quickly now, as the projects rounds the last turn and heads down the home stretch. I’m probably going to do at least a couple posts over the next three or four days. In today’s post, I’m going to follow the progress of a couple different side projects.

The first side project isn’t really a side project, but rather was something we decided to do after the demo was complete. If you’ll recall, this building used to be one of those old Chicago two-flats which were extremely common back around the turn of the century. As such, the entry vestibule and stairs going up were completely walled-off from the downstairs living space. We always planned to open up the entry vestibule, but we hadn’t planned to open up the staircase going up -- mostly because we were trying to save on our budget as much as possible. But once the old plaster and lathe were torn down and we could see what it would look like with the stairs open, we decided this would be one of those expenses that would be well worth it down the road. So we bit the bullet. Of course, getting the new balustrade and balusters to match the top part of the handrail would be a challenge. The style was simple and blocky -- definitely nothing flashy, but different from what they sell on the mass-produced market these days. First off, here is a picture of what the stairs looked like without a handrail:

For the record, those are the original steps. We had them sanded and stained to match the rest of the floor.

Here you can see the first step. Basically just the newel post, unwrapped.

Here you can see the next step. The rail and balustrades are red oak, which is the wood that the stairs and floors are made of. The newel post has been wrapped in red oak as well.

Above, you can see it with the completed ornamentation on the newel post. It’s not a perfect match for the balustrade upstairs, but close enough that only I (and the readers of this blog) will know the difference.

Lastly, you can see an up close shot of the ornamentation. Very simple and clean, which was the way most of these early Chicago buildings were made. 

The next side project I want to discuss today is one that’s near and dear to my heart. As I’ve already detailed in other blog posts, we’ve tried to preserve as many of the original features of the house as possible. Sometimes those attempts have been successful; other times, not so much. By far and away the preservation project I had the least amount of confidence in being able to pull off ended up being one that turned out better than I could have expected. 

In the original upstairs unit dining room there hung a crystal chandelier that clearly had seen better days. Like most of the original features of the house, it wasn’t some spectacular luxury, but it had a certain simple charm to it. I could imagine a family saving up and indulging in its purchase in order to give their dining room a little more style. And I enjoyed imagining all the conversations and life events that that little chandelier presided over throughout the decades. When we told our original contractor that we wanted to try and save it, he couldn’t believe his ears, saying it was a dumb idea and a waste of time. He even tried to tell me it was only cheap plastic and not worth saving. (It’s not plastic. And he’s no longer our contractor.) When the demo commenced, we managed to extract the chandelier and bring it back to our condo. Here’s a picture of what it looked like when we brought it back:

Yeesh! Pretty gnarly looking, right? The demo guy was very careful to point out to me that the wiring in it was most definitely not up to code. And that probably would have been the end of that, if it hadn’t been for my father coming out to Chicago to help me with some of the side projects on the house. He seemed to think rewiring a chandelier was no problem, so we set out one weekend to do exactly that. 

Here you can see the cloth-wrapped wire. Not good. Not safe.

Here you can see the scorched candle tubes, with more suspect wiring. 

Surprisingly enough, one trip to an electrical store and we were able to procure new candle tubes and wire and within the span of an afternoon, we were able to rewire and clean the old/new chandelier. Last week, the electrician hung it in the stairwell:

I took this picture in the late evening, so that blue at the top of the picture is the light coming in through the skylight. I honestly didn’t think we’d be able to salvage this piece. Thanks to my dad, we did.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 30: Unbearable Light Fixtures of Being

As promised, I’ve got a few pictures of the light fixtures to post. 

First off, here’s a bedroom light fixture. It’s pretty hard to photograph a light fixture in a way that makes it seem remotely interesting so you’ll just have to imagine that this looks pretty cool. We’ll have the same fixtures in each of the bedrooms, but I won’t torture you with any more photos of them.

Here you can see the hanging pendant lights over the kitchen island. the fixtures are a little low, so we’ll have to have the electrician raise them maybe six or eight inches. Also, you can see at the very top of this photo that the can lights in the ceiling are now finished as well.

Here’s how those hanging pendants look from the back of the house facing toward the front. In the background, you can see that the pillars have been wrapped. I can’t remember the name of the material, but it’s something denser than sheetrock so as to avoid too many incidental bumps and scuffs.

Here you can see the outdoor sconce next to the front door. It’s LED, baby, so you can bet I’m leaving that sucker on all the time!

Here’s the same view from a little further back. In this shot, you can see the sconce on the second floor balcony. Also, you can see the house number on the front pillar. (Yours truly installed this himself, so...) Lastly, on the bottom left you can see the dug up earth from our sewer escapade. We’re still about a week away from having the permit approved for the really nasty work, so this dirt is just from the initial repairs.

That’s it for the new light pics. There was also progress on the master bathroom, so I’ll conclude this post with a few of that.

Here you can see the master vanity has been installed. We’re just waiting on the granite countertop before we can finish off this room.

Lastly, here you can see the master shower is almost completely finished. Just a little more grouting remains on the bottom few rows of tiles. (And, of course, a door would be nice too.)

That’s it for now.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 29: The Kitchen: A Retrospective

There was a lot of activity late this week, but the big development was the installation of the countertops. Once those were in place, a lot of other projects were able to get started, so this was a big development. Ruminating about the sewer problems has been a mental hurdle to overcome, so I figured it might be a good time to post a few “before” and “after” photos to illustrate the difference this project is making. This series will revolve around the kitchen, since that room is now getting pretty near completion. 

So first off, I’m going to run through three shots that generally look from the south of the building toward the kitchen area. I don’t have a great “before” shot that illustrates this angle from the beginning because the kitchen was walled off from the dining room initially, and now the dining room is really just a part of the kitchen area. So this first shot was taken immediately post-demo.

As you can see, the area has been stripped down to the brick on the outside walls. And you can see the studs in place where the wall separated the kitchen from the dining room. Now, in these upcoming photos, the angle changes somewhat, so it’s best to use that back door on the left as a point of reference. That door location hasn’t changed, so it will help you see the angle I’m shooting from.

So, here’s the kitchen after the framing and insulating were completed. The back door I told you to use as a reference is on the very, very far left of this shot. 

Here you can see the kitchen has been half-sheetrocked.

And here you can see the kitchen basically finished. Obviously, there are no appliances yet. And we still need to install a backsplash and install pulls and handles on the cabinets, but you get the general idea.

This next “before” shot is going to be of a narrow patch of the kitchen where the pantry and refrigerator will eventually be. 

You can see the old plaster and lathe. Also some lovely, lovely linoleum which we were sadly unable to save. That little tiny window on the left we bricked up. That cast iron sink on the left I sold to a guy out in Batavia who is doing a remodel of an old home and wanted to install period sinks. (This was an idea I toyed with for a while, but quickly abandoned when I realized how heavy those sinks are and what a complete hassle -- and investment -- it would have been.) And the empty space on the right is where the pantry and refrigerator space will be. 

Now here is an “after” shot of the same area with a slightly different angle.

Just to orient you, the counter in the upper left of this shot is where that cast iron sink used to be.

These last couple photos will show the change when looking from the back of the house toward the front. Again, because the earliest “before” shots of the first floor were completely blocked due to all the walls, the first “before” I’ll show here was taken after the initial demo.

Pretty self-explanatory here. This is probably a shot I’ve even used in one of my earlier posts.

This “after” shot was taken from just inside the back door. Hopefully, it illustrates how the back of the house is now connected to the front, and how the kitchen extends into the rest of the first floor living space. 

This last shot just shows what the kitchen island looks like. You can see the t-shape, which I’ve mentioned before in earlier posts as well. 

So that’s it for this post. The electricians were in the house all day today installing light fixtures, but I haven’t had a chance to photograph their work yet. I’ll be doing another update this weekend once I’ve had a chance to snap some pics. 

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 28: The Fight Moves to Many Fronts

Work on the house seems to be intensifying these past few days. Real progress has been made on one of the most visible aspects of the project: the front door. But first, a few other items of note.

Last week, we made a trip out to the suburbs to pick out the granite for the countertops. If you’ve ever watched a home improvement show, you’re probably familiar with the routine. Still, nothing can quite prepare you for walking through warehouse after warehouse of massive granite, quartz and marble slabs. It starts out fun, then quickly gets overwhelming. We arrived before the design consultant, so we got to wander for a bit before she came to guide us. This was nice because it gave us a chance to get a grasp of what we were even looking for, since many aspects of our project had changed since we initially picked out a granite type. At any rate, we managed to find a style we liked after only about an hour of warehouse time. First a photo of what the whole slab looks like:

For perspective, those slabs are about 7 to 8 feet tall and 12 to 14 feet wide. Now here’s a shot that shows the detail:

Another big development this past week was the staining and sealing of the wood floors. I’m just going to post a series of pics here with little explanation since I feel like they don’t need a lot of individual setup:

Obviously, there’s a lot of variation depending on the light. And that’s kind of what we were going for. The wood looks pretty dull in this last photo, but i included it so you could see how it looks with the tile entry pad.

Now for a brief update on the sewer situation. Well, it turns out it was about as bad as we’d feared. But there’s not much choice when it comes to fixing a sewer. As my friend Zach said, If you don’t have a working sewer, you’re just camping. So we went ahead and initiated work on that. Here’s a photo that perhaps gives you an idea of the gnarliness of this project:

Yes, that is a clay pipe and, yes, it is caved-in and, yes, it is completely packed with god knows what. Now imagine that running the entire length of your basement and out to the sewer. So, yeah, gotta fix that!

Lastly, I figured I’d end this week’s post with some nicer photos. The new front door. 

First off, the above shot shows what it looked just after they took the old door down. 

Now here it is installed. That lighter patch above will be stained to match the color of the rest of the door. Also, as a bonus, note the mailbox on the right, which I hung myself this past weekend. 

Finally, here’s a shot of the front door from the inside. Making newer doors fit into old entry ways is pretty tricky. The workers spent the entire day working on getting this sucker installed. You can see they’ve drywalled around the old doorframe to make it fit in.

That’s it for this week’s update. There may be another update later this week, depending on what else goes down.

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 27: A Little Good News and Some Very Bad News

Just a quick mid-week update to show what the cabinets are going to look like, as well as relay some bad news.

First, the cabinets have been hung. Here are few photos:

This first shot shows a general overview of what the kitchen area will look like. Against the far wall, you can see the cabinets are a kind of oatmeal color with gold detail. The gap in the center of the counter is for the oven/stove. The gap on the right will be for the dishwasher. On the right will be the pantry and refrigerator. (I paid a model to pose in this picture to provide perspective. Big bucks!) They haven’t installed the crown molding yet. That will come later. In the foreground, you can see the kitchen island. One thing to note, we chose different colors for the cabinets and the island. This was something we were unsure of, though we’re pretty happy with that look thus far.

Here, you can see a closeup shot of the back wall cabinets. This gives a better sense of the color and detailing. The open cabinet doors will be glass when all is said and done, thus putting our janky Ikea plates on full display. 

Here you can see a shot of the side wall, with pantry and refrigerator area. Due to the tightness of this space, we are going to opt for a counter-depth fridge, which will hopefully allow for enough room to maneuver. 

Here is a better shot of the island. One thing that’s fairly unique about what we’ll be doing (according to our cabinet guy) is that our island will be t-shaped. Basically, this will end up being an informal table for up to five people. The kitchen sink will be at the head of the t.

So that’s it for the good news. Now for the bad news. 

The rains have diminished enough so that we were finally able to get an assessment of our sewer situation, and the situation is not good. At all. The issues we had anticipated inside the house are generally within the parameters of what we’d expected. The problem is from the foundation of the house out to where the sewer line connects to the general sewer at the street. It is a hot mess, and the clay tiles are caved in. Thus, we will have to redo the complete sewer line out to the street, which -- after permitting and complying with all city regulations -- is enough to make you want to gasp for breath, assuming that your heart is still beating to make breathing even necessary.

At this point, we’re too deep into the project to back out, so we’ll have to reassess some of our other expenditures to see where we can hopefully cut back to make this feasible. The most depressing part of the whole thing is that it’s to FINISH THE DAMN SEWER -- a part of the house no one will ever see or appreciate. Don’t be surprised, after all is said and done, if you come over to visit and I end up taking you down to the unfinished basement to brag about what a wonderful sewer line we have, because at that point, it will probably be my pride and joy in this whole project, if only because of the amount of money it will cost. 

Hopefully, the next post will have better tidings. 

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 26: Cabinets and Floor Stains

It’s been slow around the project the last few weeks. We’ve been unable to take care of the sewer due to heavy rains in the area. And a scheduling issue (finishing the baseboards quicker than expected) made for several days of inactivity. But now that the floor guys are back on the job, we should be seeing an uptick in progress this coming week.

First off, we settled on a stain for the new hardwood floors. We wanted to go with something a little on the darker side, partly because that was the color of the original floors and also because, after ten years of living in a condo with lighter reddish floors, we felt like we’re ready for a change. Here are the four colors we had to choose from:

As you can see, we had everything ranging from a very, very dark brown on the left to a lightish hue on the right. Ultimately, we chose the color that’s next to the far right one because it gives a nice contrast in the woodgrains. It makes them stand out and gives the floor a strong texture. Here is a close up of what it looks like:

So far they’ve sanded the second floor and will start doing the staining on Monday. All told, the sanding, staining and sealing of the floors should take about a week. The workers did, however go ahead and do a small part of the staining on the first floor so that we will be able to begin installing kitchen cabinets on Monday. Here is what our kitchen looks like right now:

These little finished spaces will enable the cabinet guys to begin installing them right away. Which didn’t come a moment too soon, because the cabinets got delivered to the house on Friday. Here is what they look like right now:

Obviously, not much revealing in that shot, but at least you get a sense of how they’re packed for delivery. As for cabinet colors, we opted to go with two different hues. For the bottom cabinets, we chose a darker brown color, which will wind up being a hair lighter than the floors. for the top cabinets, we chose a kind of oatmeal color. Here’s a shot of one of the top cabinets:

So that’s all for now. We’re hoping next week will see a lot more changes. These things come in fits and starts, and it’s fairly dispiriting whenever there’s no progress being made. Just to give a sense of how long this has taken, this past April 25th was the one-year anniversary of our original purchase. It’s been a long time coming, getting to this point. And I know we have more work behind us than ahead of us. But it’s hard to not get a little itchy to have this thing done and just be able to enjoy it. 

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 25: [Insert Tile Pun Here]

I’m either getting a little lazy with my blog titles or I’m just having a hard time coming up with a clever pun for this past week’s work. Either way, as you can probably guess, the big theme of the week was tile. So here goes:

Here you can see the first floor guest bath shower with the subway tiles installed. No grout in this shot yet, but it gives a good idea of the look we’re going for.

This shot shows the floor tiles with part of the shower tiles. The idea was to have a kind of classic look with the tiles, to match the entryway tiling we preserved from the original house (more on that later).

In the above shot, you can see a closer look at the floor tiles after they’ve been grouted. 

In the shot above, you can see the partially finished master shower. Still sticking with the subway tile theme, but this one will have a simple black stripe at about six feet high, just to break it up a bit. Also, you can see on the right side of the wall, there will be a nook for shampoo and soap, etc.

That’s it for the new-tile section of this post. The other big development of the week was the completion of the hardwood floor installation. The very last bit they had to do was the area around our entryway tile pad. So here’s what that now looks like from the entrance:

As you can see the new hardwood comes right up to the edge of the pad, with a transition piece to make the elevation difference feel more gradual. There were a lot of tricky aspects to this part, since we had to be careful to not change the floor level at the base of the stairs, or else we would have had to redo the entire staircase to make sure it meets code. Phew. Bottom line is it’s a little funky, but hopefully not anything you’d notice too much once the floor is stained. Here’s what it looks like from the inside:

Once we get those tiles cleaned up, it should look pretty cool.

Lastly, here’s an action shot of some of the future inhabitants of this house. Looks like they’re already making themselves at home!

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 24: Floors and Doors

Last week’s progress entailed a lot of stuff you’ll never see or know about from visiting the house, such as redoing the basement stairs to bring them up to code and installing the cement board in the shower stalls. It also entailed some actual visible stuff, such as finishing the hardwood on the first and most of the second floors. Also, we saw some progress in the delivery of the interior doors. So without further ado, here are some shots of last week’s activity.

Here you can see all the interior doors hanging out like they just arrived at the Annual Door Convention. Also, you can see the stacks of baseboard and casing on the ground to the right.

Here you can see the door installed on the first floor guest bedroom. We opted to go with eight-foot doors on the first floor because the ceilings are so high. It gives the place a more open feel. Plus, it will be helpful in case any NBA centers come to stay with us. On the second floor, we opted for normal seven foot doors. 

Next, I’m going to run through a series of second floor shots of the hardwood being installed.

Above you can see the progress after the first day of floor installation.

This was after day 2.

And this was after day 3. (Excuse the deep shadows.)

Above you can see the baseboard being installed. It’s measured out here, but not yet attached.

This shot shows the tricky curved wall and how they’ve braced the baseboard to hold it in place.

This last photo shows the original entryway mirror we managed to save as they began their demo. This thing is built like a battleship. Hat tip to the Polish crew who helped me move it from the house to our condo where we could do some restoration work on it. Hat tip, also, to my dad who helped me with the restoration. Below, you can see a shot of what it looked like when we salvaged it:

A fresh coat of paint helped a lot. Also, I’ve ordered a set of coat hooks that resemble the originals which were painted and broken. We’ll refasten those once the mirror has been reattached to the wall. Lastly, hat tip to my general contractor who helped move this behemoth from my condo back to the house last week.

As for this coming week, the big agenda items will involve tile in the bathrooms. And, with any luck, we can begin the process of clearing out the sewer, with the hope that it’s blocked with just sand and not tree roots or pipe cave-ins.  

[gianocromley]

South Side Chicago Rehab Pt. 23: Starting to Finish

I’ve been told that once the flooring starts to go in, that means you’re starting to reach the finishing stages. So it was with some relief that I popped over to the house this week and saw this:

Piles of red oak flooring stacked strategically throughout the house. Two days later, installation began. Note that the plan has been to lay the new flooring directly over the old flooring, which would save us some money on installation, while still ensuring that the floor would be structurally sound. Here is what it looked like after a day of installation:

Above you can see the new flooring as it sits near the front of the house. In this shot, you can see the old entryway tiling which we plan to keep, plus some plywood inlaid where the old floorboards were too mangled to keep. You can’t quite see it here, but there is a layer of protective cloth material between the old floorboards and the new ones.

This shot shows the flooring at the front of the house. You can see here how the workers were able to preserve the curvature of the front wall.

Here’s a shot looking from the front of the house toward the back. A couple items to note: on the left, you can see two huge slabs of marble that used to be affixed to the wall of the entryway. We kept them, though I have no idea what on earth we’ll do with them, since they weigh about 250 pounds each and I don’t have a lot of stone-working experience. (If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.) Also, in the upper left portion of the photo, you can see the black material that’s sandwiched between the old and new layers of flooring.

Here you can see a shot of the floor taken from the back of the house looking toward the front. Once it’s installed, the plan is to stain the wood a darkish brown color before finishing it. 

This last shot is one of those nice surprises you occasionally get when you’re going through this process. We always knew the first floor of the house would have floor vents, but we assumed they’d just be normal metal vents. Instead, the installer is using wood vents that match the existing flooring and helps them blend in nicely.