IT STARTED ON SAWYER

Adventures in Sustainable Renovations


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Project Progress- Week 03

Over the last two weeks we’ve been busy removing all the old furniture and boxes from the house. As we mentioned in our last post “Out with the Old” we were estimating 150 man hours to remove and haul all the old articles. I think it’s now safe to say that our estimate was a bit off and the total time spent was closer to 200 man hours. With almost everything (not attached) removed from the house we have progressed to demolition. The biggest transformation can be seen in the basement- not only have we cleared the furniture, but all the walls and plumbing are out too.

We are looking forward to completing demo and moving on to stripping the roof down to the structure and rebuilding the front masonry wall. Busy couple weeks ahead, but it’s exciting to see so much change taking place in the house.

Here are some photos from week 03. You can finally see the floors and the walls!!


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Out With The Old…

One day, four guy crew, and nine hours of hauling and removal. After all that we were able to clear one floor- you read that right, one floor of our house. The upper level unit has been cleared, leaving two more levels to clean out. At this rate we expect it to take over 150 man-hours to clear the house.

The good news, is with the house cleared out by this weekend we can start to visualize the space and the end result, although a long way away. Making progress feels great and its awesome to see our project moving along.

As part of the process we found multiple interesting items that we moved to our offsite storage locker. Stay tuned for posts of “interesting Things We’ve Found in our House!”

In the meantime, check out our progress photos below.


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Project Progress- Week 01

Here is the project at week 01. This is what we are starting with. Plenty of work ahead of us.


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Closing Time

So after a mere 2 1/2 hours and about 1,000 signatures the house officially belongs to us. As we mentioned in the first post, the house needs a bit of work (understatement) and we are a bit crazy (also an understatement). The renovation we are taking on is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of stomach. Many old houses on the market today are full of charm and unknown repair problems. Our advantage is that we have a pretty good idea of what we are in for- entire front facade needs rebuilt, needs new plumbing, new electrical, new mechanical, no insulation in the walls, kitchens and baths need gutted, new roof, new windows and if we haven’t run out of money after all that, finished walls and floors would be nice too. Two of our first tasks will be to evict the family of pigeons that have been squatting in the roof and to trim the tree that is somehow growing out of the brick wall.

Sawyer-day 001

In the words of Semisonic, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end!”


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The Adventure Begins

LazarczykWedding-OlivePark

We are Bart and Andrea Lazarczyk- crazy, ambitious newlyweds embarking on our first big journey as a couple. Just two months after our wedding, we’re buying and planning the renovation of a 100 year old two-flat in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. Filled with history and character, we are working to turn this building into an energy efficient and sustainable home while preserving the details that made us fall in love with the building from day one.

We welcome you to join us for our exciting journey, one we will never forget. It Started On Sawyer!