Friday, January 13, 2012

The new laundry takes shape.

This laundry room was nothing more than a porch that was dark and cold and barely used by the previous owners. They had the laundry in the kitchen and used this room for storage. I finished installing the insulation this morning:


Drywall hung by late afternoon:

January 25 update:

This 150+ year house never had any insulation in the walls. Most of what we added was the fancy blow-in type. The only regular fiberglass insulation used is in this room.

The part of the job I really, really didn't want to have to do . . .

but you have to fix a leaky roof. My patch didn't work so the whole section of roof was replaced.


Job almost finished by end of day . . . did it really cost THAT much for this one day job?


On the left is the old "back porch" and new laundry room. Also in this photo, the old roofing material on the ground . . .

Friday, January 06, 2012

A new opening!

It was Saturday November 5, the first weekend after buying my new house. I was tearing out the old kitchen and pantry. My friend Phil came by and pointed out that I should open up the space, including losing a bedroom and moving a planned second bathroom.

The design change was a great idea and once that idea was planted I wanted to do it. Little did I know, little did any of us know, that that change would set off a chain of events that would prolong the renovation and change my planned November 30 move-in date by almost 40 days and counting.

IPS, my contractor, has been doing outstanding work. We are, I hope, in the final stretch. As of today, the rough carpentry and plumbing are finished. The rough electrical work is also almost finished--and hopefully will be by the scheduled inspection this coming Monday.

Today we removed the final two by fours, old enough that they are actually two inches by four inches. This created an opening between the enlarged kitchen and the former bedroom which will become a dining room/living area off of the kitchen--a great room.

A lot's happened in the past two months. The removal of the final two by fours today almost felt like a revelation. It was amazing what had to happen prior to taking them out.

Here's the new opening, Phil's design change: