The Goal:  Tear off the roof on the backroom, finish enough framing to get the plumber and electrician working, and maybe just maybe install new windows.

Well, that kind of got scrapped before the weekend even started.  We planned on finally having our permit after 10 nauseating weeks.  Alas, we achieved plan approval on Friday at 4pm after a lot of red ink and copying by Matt in the Village Hall Building department making final revisions.  However, we did not have all the necessary updated licenses and insurance for our contractors to get the big yellow card for our front window.  Thus, we scrapped the brazen idea of ripping off the back roof in broad day light without a permit.  Also our current electrical service run through where we want the gable to end, so we realized we have to wait for the electrician, who is going to put in a new service.  We’re still on fuses, and are changing the one to the garage every other week with Liz’s projects out there. But it sure would have been fun.  Stay tuned for my Wizard of Oz themed parable on the permit review process in the Emerald Oak Park.

Then our windows plan was in ruin.  Our Jeld-wen windows from Home Depot arrived on Friday morning with a possibility of next day delivery on Saturday.  The only problem was all the back room windows were missing our cottage style grills.  So two hours at Home Depot and much wrangling over the phone, half the windows were going back and the replacement windows for the bedrooms and dining room were be delivered early Saturday morning (I got a call at 6:30 AM when I’ve been working nights for the past month, argghh!).  But this window saga was happening at the same time as the rush to get our permit, so Matt had to leave me to fend through the westside CTA.  I love and hate (late buses) the CTA, but never have I smelled anything so foul as somebody who was s*itting behind me on the Cicero bus.

So, we changed up our game plan with little trace of disappointment and in the end got everything we needed done.  We decided to focus on the framing, knowing that the electrician would have a little that he couldn’t do in the roof of the back room, which only consisted of two lights and a fan, because the existing roof was still in place.  We started by cleaning up the masonary well that once separated the backroom and kitchen.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t such a clean job.  There was dust everywhere, especially on the cat.

We started demo-ing the old kitchen and pantry window so that we could frame in the wall.  Then we started to frame in the new kitchen window.   This made us curious on how we were going to finish out the other windows, like how deep the windows would be set on the sill.  So naturally, we moved to set one of the replacement windows in the dining room. 

Tackling any new job always requires some time, you got to find the right tools, figure out installation directions, and change up your mind set.  But the first window was a success and Matt, Dad and I were drunk on thrill of completion, so we decided that we would finish the other two dining room windows in the set. Sure enough we couldn’t be stopped and before you knew it we had two holes in the kitchen, brand new windows in the dining room and three bedrooms, and we late for our dinner date with Liz’s mom Pat, and I’m sure grandpa Frank was getting hungry because he eats early and is in bed by 8PM.  Knowing that Pat has made the work crew a great dinner is always a motivating factor and sure enough we were hurrying frantically to get to a stopping point and sit down to the feast.

Sunday started off slow, with little to show for our number one priority:  to get enough done so that others could come in and work on the electrical and plumbing.  Of course, every work weekend requires at least one trip to Home Depot, and sunday morning started with a long list of long 12 foot 2×10′s, concrete, mortar, bolts, and caulk.  Dad’s truck has not made a trip to Chicago in a while now, so it was up to Matt’s Mazda to haul the 12 footers back to the house.  Luckily even though the safety flag flew off in the first two minutes of the journey everything made it back safely.

Sunday was busy, especially when Randy (II) showed up unexpectedly to help out.  In fact, it was slightly controlled chaos.  There was debris flying everywhere from crumbling masonary walls, long 9 foot studs for the kitchen wall, chords for the various saws, levels, and mom scurring back and forth between Randy (II) and I putting up the kitchen wall, Dad filling in the blocks in the old pantry window, and Matt taking down the remaining original masonary wall dividing the kitchen and the back room.  I don’t think Randy’s sensitive acoustic engineering ears did well with the loud saws and nobody could handle the window being open long because the gail force winds were blowing through from the rapidly changing weather.  But Sunday was a resounding success with a new kitchen window and filled old window, a framed wall and a beam in place between the kitchen and back room.

Monday all we had to get done was the plumbing wall in the bathroom for the tub and moving the bathroom door so that the tub could fit in its new place.  This wall is only about three two and a half feet.  What made it so horrible was the sinking feeling that the right thing to do was get rid of the existing mildewy ceiling rather than dropping a ceiling a foot lower and leaving the old ceiling.  After fixing the bathroom door better than it was before and covering the exterior of the bathroom with sheetrock, we realized what we must do.

It was going to be dirty, toxic, and only mildly rewarding, but the ceiling should come down.  So I went in with long sleeves, a mask, my trusty long crow bar and a ladder and ripped down the ceiling.  For an hour I yanked on wood lathe and plaster and was showered with blown insulation.  I didn’t move from my central location on the ladder and my back paid the price on the hard to reach corners.  But the work was done and with the help of another five bags of insulation and miscellaneous plaster debris the mess was largely contained, just in time for lunch.

The five of us sat around our dining room table in dejected silence.  We ate our Buona beef and cold drinks with great satisfaction only wanting to sleep after two and a half days of hard work.  But we had just a little more to get done before the parents left to beat rush hour traffic.  We sawed into the two inches of concrete and tile that the bathroom floor was layed on to lay in our plate, we found the three remaining nine foot lengths of salvaged two by four and finished the plumbing wall.  With a permit eminent we were ready for the professionals.

Well except for all that gutting in the basement, the backroom roof, the other windows, the cleaning, the cleaning and don’t forget the cleaning!!!

What’s wrong with the old windows?

My answer started to get so long I decided to make it a post instead of a comment.  To answer the question: They’re pretty old, and don’t work well anymore – particularly the storm windows and screens.  On some of the windows it’s impossible to pull the storm down.  Some don’t even have a storm window, a must here in Chicago.  Especially since I don’t fancy putting up plastic sheeting every winter.  Some don’t have a screen, another must since mosquitoes are highly attracted to me!

If you look at the current “lastest pics” picture, it shows the backyard, and you can see the metal frames on the windows are pretty unattractive.  This is even more true on the front of the house.

For the sunroom, we are cutting in entirely new bigger windows in some places, and so want the rest of the house to match these so they don’t look like such an addition, but are integrated with the rest.

It’s a good question.  It made me stop and think for a minute, did we really need that?  I think sometimes you get so caught up in remodeling, it can be easy to change things without a purpose or consciously thinking about why.  But change for change’s sake is not always improvement.

I enjoyed his post about this at the blog “Keepin’ It Real“  and I agree, that if you can restore you should (hence the many man hours spent restoring the trim around the house).  Particularly in these older homes, the stuff around your house is of far better quality than you could get today even if you wanted to spend the money.  If our windows were nice wood windows (the kind of casements shown in the windows post), or old counter-weight double hungs we would definitely keep them.  I have reglazed and restored windows before with the Martin’s at Greene & Burke, so that is not the daunting task.  But ours are aluminum inside and out, were cheap to begin with, and in my opinion, not worth the effort.

On my lunch break I took a trip to Costco to stock up for the soon arriving horde (the Martin’s, Matt, my Dad and Granddad), the main essentials being snacks (dips, crackers), bottled water (even though the tap water in Chicago is very good), and most importantly Gatorade. Gotta keep the workers happy, otherwise they are running out every five minutes to pick this stuff up. After work it was off to the paint store. Thor and I were determined not to repeat our earlier mistake of just buying paint and putting it up, so we bought about 7 samples of paint for the living room. It’s actually pretty nice that our Benjamin Moore store sells tiny samples that you can put up and try out for only about 3 dollars. I wanted blues, he wanted greens, and we wanted to paint one wall a neutral color. I figured we’d put them up and duke it out.

I arrived home to find Randy M already there (Janis was coming Saturday) and he had weed-wacked the yard and tidied up the wood pile. Awsome, although I had a moment where I wished he hadn’t cut back all the mint. No more Mojitos, but I guess summer’s over anyway. Mint can be pretty close to a weed, so I’m sure it’ll grow back. The guys got to work spackling and priming the bathroom add-on wall and the ceiling while I continued stripping paint off of the door jams.

Thor and I put up our paint samples, and weren’t crazy about any of them. Good thing we tried them out first! The greens were all to dull and Thor still didn’t like the blues. He thought that with the tan couch it would be too beachy. I thought it looked sophisticated and relaxing. He conceded to settle for a blue though as long as a decision was made in time to paint the next day. I think I could have asked to paint the room Barbie Pink and it would have been okay as long as he could keep to his work schedule.

Friday

Neither Thor or I had to work, so we got up and pick up where we left off starting at 8am. Not my normal choice, but Randy is an early riser. When Thor and Randy headed off to start staining the crown molding (dark walnut) and baseboards I wasn’t quite ready to go, and so sat down with the paint sample books and the TV to pick out some different colors. Settling on some blue greens as a compromise, I took the colors out to Thor for approval. Now the trick here was to delay the decision for so long that he just doesn’t care any more as long as a decision is made since he had wanted to start painting yesterday. Literally. Blue-greens were now okay, we choose one and a nice neutral for the other wall and I was off to the paint store.

Unfortunately we were looking at the Sherwin Williams color book, and the store I thought was Sherwin Williams was Benjarmin Moore, and there are no Sherwin Williams stores nearby. So I spent an hour trying to find a color to match the one we had choosen. You can imagine how successful that was. I brought the paint back and they slapped it on the walls. It took about 5 minutes for us to decide we hated it. Absolutely hated it. It just wasn’t quite right. Too intense, too pastel, too green…too… We never quite put a name to what was quite wrong other than yuck.

We got the ceiling painted and the opposite wall painted a nice creamy marshmellow color in the living room and entryway while I rubbed lacquer thinner on the door jams until I felt like my arms would fall off. It took several atta-girl’s to get me through. In between I spent about an hour trying to figure out what trim was stripped and ready to go and what needed to be done, and where the heck it all was. I think we only had one completed door frame, but several almost done pieces.

Thor and I ran off to greet my Dad and Grandad in from Houston while Randy and Matt continued to slave at poly-ing the crown molding and baseboards. They ended up at Fitzgerald’s/Wishbone for dinner. Yum.

Saturday

Thor and Randy left early in the morning to get new paint. They were going to try to see if we could get the cans we had already bought modified, and if not, then just buy a new can. A side trip to the hardware store later, and they were back while I continued on the door jams. Matt showed up around this time and we took a break to enjoy baked goods from the Turano bakery around the corner. I think that place may soon prove to be deadly for Thor’s and my diets. While breakfasting I had been watching a home improvement show.

"It's fun watching someone else doing work for a change"

I stopped to take a picture of my workers watching others work, only by the time I got back, it wasn’t DIY shows but bra commercials that were on. Go figure.

Then it was back to work with Matt now working on the trim, Thor and Randy painting on the new color and me STILL cleaning up the door jams. There was a theme for me this weekend. When Thor started putting up the blue, he began regreatting our new choice. He told he me he was starting to like the green color. I think the bright blue was just scaring him more then the green. I told him that liking it now was not an option, and he agreed because the last thing he wanted was another delay. Personally, I still hated the green, and I loved the new color. Still love it actually. I think it looks great with the floor and the new wood trim. Once we got enough of it up, I think that Thor got over his trepidation and started to warm up to it quite a bit.

Right about the time the painting was done, Thor made about our 3rd trip to the hardware store that day and Matt and Randy started on the crown molding. From the moment the first piece with up, the room started to look more finished and put together. Some how Matt and Randy managed to get the entire living room and dining room molding and baseboards put up, (including new registers and quarter round) by dinner that night.

I left early to spend some time with my grandfather and dad and help get dinner ready for the horde. As we talked getting hungrier and hungrier waiting for the Martin’s to arrive, I got to catch up with my family and hear how my grandfather was settling in after his trip from Houston. Finally I gave in and gave the Martin’s a call. Matt answered. Me: “So…are you going to be over any time soon?” Matt:”Oh, well we just got our second wind, we put the trim to the office up, and it looks great, so we thought we’d do a few more.” I convinced them to give it up and come over, promising it could be done tomorrow, because the Lee’s were all starving. You don’t want to see my sister when she’s hungry. Finally they all arrived, and we all settled in for a family dinner. It was great to relax some where that wasn’t a mess for awhile.

Sunday

Sunday started off like every other day, an early start, more trim cleaning, more door jam cleaning, more staining, and more crown molding and baseboards. In the middle of it all Thor got called in to work, much to his frustration. He clearly felt bad to be leaving while we were all working. My family stopped by at one point, and I got to “show off” our house. It has definitely looked better, with tools and plastic everywhere.

I think we were all tired by the end.  I am tired just writing about it (Matt could barely stay on the ladder any more). But one goal kept them going – finishing the front bedroom before leaving. Thor got back just in time to see the last piece go up, and then we finally got to relax for good. We had dinner together and then the Martin’s were off. Thor and I were left to sit gratefully in our new living room and admire it, feeling blessed to have had such great helpers this weekend. Thank you!