Week 52 marks one year since the purchase of our property and the start of demo work! Looking back, we have learned a TON over these past twelve months. Our original budget for the project has been completely shot (its had to double), our original projected scheduled completion date has already come and gone, we’ve had permit delays, design setbacks and changes, contractors walk-out on us, and contractors re-negotiate scope and price due to many unforeseen building conditions. Its been a very hectic last year. We are excited to finally see the project taking shape and at this point of construction, we are possibly seeing the slightest glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. We are happy for the progress we have made and anxious for the progress that’s yet to come. That said, we’ll keep going day by day until this project is finally done!
This week, we finally found a concrete contractor who could build our front stairs. This is at least the third or fourth contractor we have met with and agreed to pricing with, but the previous contractors flaked and never showed up. I mentioned this in previous posts, but we’ve this behavior has not been completely unusual as many contractors are telling us that there are so many construction projects in Chicago at the moment, our project is not large enough to be worth their time. Our latest concrete contractor did end up showing up as agreed to and he started with building out the form work for the stairs. Later in the week, he came with the concrete and poured the steps, as well as sidewalks on both sides of the building, and a concrete barrier wall between the front yard and the brick facade. Our contractor suggested and built the curved detail into the retaining wall (see picture below) and a sloped curved sidewalk to even out an elevation change that Andrea and I were especially pleased with.
Next, the first floor kitchen cabinetry was delivered to the project. As discussed in Wk 47, we chose to go with cabinet manufacturers who minimized the usage of formaldehyde as the binder in the manufacturing process. For our kitchen, we went with white cabinets which will go with a white kitchen island as Andrea has been hoping to build a white kitchen ever since we started this project! With the cabinets on site, our carpentry contractor went ahead and installed the upper and lower cabinets, and everything fit as expected (to our relief, since this floor had less room for margin of error compared to the 2nd floor unit).
In the master bathroom, the tile contractors finished grouting the shower tiles and they went ahead and sealed the tile. With that work complete, our plumber installed many of the shower and vanity plumbing fixtures. All fixtures were selected in the low-flow variety (expect for the one rain shower head), meaning that the shower heads are all 2.5 gpm or below (ours are all around 2.0 gpm) and the toilets are all 1.28 gpm.
In the 2nd floor unit, the appliances for the kitchen have been delivered and installed. For this unit, we went with a standard stainless steal look (all energy-star appliances). The fridge is a wider set than typical for a rental unit, at 33-inches, and we made sure that the exhaust fan over the oven exhausts to the outside. Combined with the excessive amount of countertop space, these appliances and features makes for a nice “chefs” kitchen that we can advertise to potential renters. Anyone who cooks a lot in a kitchen with only a recirculating fan over the oven can testify, exhausting to the outside also has the great benefit of getting rid of all of the grease that over time would otherwise settle on everything within 10 feet of the oven.
Finally, as we have reused a number of old wooden millwork pieces throughout the project and many of these have old paint / stain that needs to be cleaned off. We have hired a specialist contractor to strip and clean the old millwork back to original condition so that we can properly stain it and match with the new millwork. This contractor has started working in the railings in the stairwell leading up to the 2nd floor. He uses an industrial strength marine stripper to apply to old varnish, which peels away layer after layer of the old finish. He then uses steal wool to sand away the old color to get to the wood underneath. So far, the railing and other details he got to this week are looking good!
IT STARTED ON SAWYER 