Trip to Wrigley

Big Z vs. Junior
Ok, so Griffrey is a bit past his prime. It was still fun to see him play and in this case bat against the Cub's Carlos Zambrano.

Hey, it has only been a week so there isn't a whole lot to report on. The past week the city of broad shoulders has basked in the warmth of the sun's rays. The mercury edged up past the 70 mark 3 times this week if you count today. It is a much welcome and in many ways needed development. So with the weather being so nice we found some outdoor activities to fill the week. Actually, mid-week we got incredibly fortunate and received an invitation to the Cubs game from Brian and Erica. It was Kelly's first trip to Wrigley and Brian and the Cubs didn't disappoint. The seats, Brian got them, were six rows behind home plate and the Cubs won by almost 10 runs. I ate a big bag of peanuts which added to how impressed she was with the whole experience. A big thank you to Brian and Erica.

When Saturday rolled around we decided it would be a good idea to take out the bushes the previous owners allowed to take over the front yard. It all started well with the branches and what not coming down very easily. Even the first of the three stumps came out fairly quickly. It is when we hit the second and largest stump that we began to question our ability to accurately estimate the amount of work these house projects take. It took just about everything both of us had to get that thing out. The hatchet got lots of work as did the branch trimers. Who knew these bushes had such huge root systems. Either way, we would not be denied and the bushes are gone. I have provided some before and after pictures for your enjoyment. We got about a 6x12 area now to play with. Some will go grass, the rest planted with plants yet to be determined.

Correction!!

I was informed by my brother that it is in fact not he who keeps up the blog but instead Brooke. I was wondering why the writing was so good, just kidding Tim. A big thanks to Brooke from us as we love seeing pictures of the little one. All of a sudden I feel much better about myself and my lack of posting. Hey, look at that. Two posts in a week. I guess I will see you all in June.

Workie, Workie, Busy Bee (I lie)

Life has just been hectic lately. I had to get a haircut and go to the dentist, all last week. As a result I have been unable to keep up the frantic pace of updating this blog once a month. Its tough to imagine that my brother is able to handle a new born, running his own business, is a volunteer firefighter, and he still updates his blog more than me. I guess the busy excuse kind of falls apart. Well, I am just lazy. Not that any of you were buying that I was too busy excuse. Anyway, Kelly has been busy traveling for work so I guess that is my excuse.

But enough of my rambling. Let's move on to what has happend to the little American Four Square at 330 N. Humphrey Ave. We have taken the past month or so to do some decorating. Which means a lot of walking around stores looking for stuff. Stuff that doesn't do anything, it just looks nice. So it does do something, it makes the house feel like a home.

The picture below shows the newly painted door that leads to the half bath. For fun, scroll back a few blogs and see how far everything has come. The bathroom is where we found the refridgerator when we moved into the house. We really like this color, it is the same we have used upstairs. The beautiful shade to the left was made for us by Kelly's mom. It brings a ton of colors and a touch of elegance to the office.

As the door swings open, over the light switch of course because we forgot about the whole turning the lights on part when we put the switch in, you will find our beautiful half bath. It has a basket for magazines and everything. What a great room.

This is the bathroom window. We kept the old ice door. We think it looks wonderful.

Returning back to the room the bath is off of, our up and coming home office. The federal government is kind enough to allow us to work from home on occation so we thought it would be nice to have a comfortable place to do this. The shade on the top of this window is again made by Kelly's mom and really goes on top of the other window. But we have it here for now. We love waving to Nolan (our neighboors 6 year old) while he is eating and all but occationally we want some privacy. The room has a lot of junk still piled in it from this weekends work but if I had to move all of that before I took pictures for the blog it would not have been updated for another month. The room has our desk, computer and a small chair for reading or sitting. We have recently learned that we have a bird's nest in the old stove's exhaust vent. It is a bit odd but we will wait until this fall before we fill it up. I am fairly mean, but not that bad.

This is the opposite wall in the office. We hung three pictures here, each of which is special. One is of the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin in Washington, DC. that I took the spring before we moved. One is of the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston that I took during our trip to visit friends, and the last is a picture Kelly took of tulips she had outside of our first apartment together. Cheesy, maybe but Kelly will punch you in the throat if you make fun.

We also painted the small room between the living room and the office. The door to the basement is in this room. We went with Mississippi State Maroon to remind us that not all places have such awful winters as Chicago does. A little bit more trim work and this area will be done. And yes those are baby gates. But fear not, they are to keep Gatsby in the office during the day.

So after a long day of painting and week in New Orleans Kelly relaxed with the dogs. They love their mom.

Inch by inch

Keeping up our blistering once a month blog update, we need to start with the most impressive news. On January 4, Tim and Brooke welcomed Teagan Alise Keeler into the world. She weighed an impressive 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. By the time her uncle got around to posting her birth on the blog, he is told she is adding weight at an impressive pace and has quite the set of lungs. In the picture shown she is about a month old. Isn't she gorgeous? Congrats to Tim and Brooke, we are so happy for you both and are excited to have Teagan as our niece.








Now on to 330 N. Humphrey and the all the trials and tribulations it has brought. We are getting closer to the end. There is still a good amount of painting to do and a small amount of plumbing but for the most part the house functions and we don't have to spend every waking moment working on the place. Below are some pics of the progress.



A working crapper. I can't tell you how nice it is to have the half bath up and running. Well...for the most part. The sink is yet to be plumbed so that doesn't work, but the toilet does and we all know that is most important. No more running upstairs every time one has to use the bathroom. That and two toilets are always better than one.



Below is a picture of one of the windows in the old kitchen. We had a few problems with the painters tape. Mainly it kept taking the paint off. But we were able to overcome those challenges and with a few extra coats got the room painted. I also discovered that painting a ceiling results in plenty of paint speckles on one's glasses.








Ok, I have been a bit delinquint in ordering the stove hood so that is why there is a blank spot above the backsplash. The backsplash almost caused Kelly and I to split (not really) but we cut some things off it and gerryrigged some wires and everything turned out ok. The light even works which I truly thought out of reach for quite a while. The new stove is pretty sweet, very much enjoying the convection. The first weekend it was in we made the biscuits we bought back in August before we realized that the old oven didn't work. There has never been a better tasting biscuit. I lie David, your's are better but these had sentimental value. You were there when we bought those biscuits and couldn't make them. It was pretty upsetting.









So here is the sink area all finished. The trim is painted, the lights are up, the hotwater dispenser is in, but still no dishwasher. That is a story for another day but to make a long story short, the new one is damaged beyond repair and we are saving for a replacement. The damage happened during delivery. Who would have thought you should turn your new dishwasher upside down to inspect it before signing for it? Live and learn, I suppose.






Here is a picture from the living room looking toward the back. It turned out pretty darn close to what we wanted.


























So with much of the work completed we have begun filling the house with the things that make a house a home. These shelves are in the kitchen, on the south wall toward the back. This kind of stuff really helped warm up the house and as much as I dislike putting shelves up, I am enjoying watching it all come together. Of course, now we have to buy all this "stuff."


Finally, the paint is creeping its way upstairs. The same color that is in the living room goes up the staircase and is the color of the upstairs landing area and hallway. We need a second coat upstairs but we are getting close.

Holy Crap, we are almost done

Christmas in Mississippi

Back by popular demand, the 330 N. Humphrey rehab project blog makes a comeback. I know we have been away for a long time but we comeback with a huge amount of progress. Since our last update we have finished putting drywall up, mudding and taping that drywall, trimming out the windows, and have almost finished painting. We decided we needed to speed things up so we hired a contractor and his crew to help us out. While we were in Missississippi for Christmas they drywalled the mudroom and half bath and did the trim work. Although it took longer than expected they did good work and we were able to start the final phases when they left.

The Mud Room

We are still not sure what this room holds for us. We decided to put some wainscoting up around the bottom half of the walls so we could use the room more for the dogs. Right now the idea is home office with some space for the dogs. We think the wainscoting will help us keep the room clean. Here is a picture of Kelly scraping off some of the old paint on the window trim so we can start painting them. As you can see at this point the the room has been primed.

The mud room looking back at what will soon be the new half bath.

Here is the same window but with our paint on it. The ceiling and crown molding has not been painted yet but we are getting there.

Here is a picture of the wainscoting. The chair rail is not painted yet. It will be the same color as the wainscoting below it.

The Kitchen:

We are so excited about this room because it is the largest of the project rooms and without it we have eaten more spaghettios than any adult should be subject to eating. Below is a picture of the new window that is over the sink. The trim isn't painted yet but the rest is. The lights in the soffit make the top look lighter than under the cabinets but it is the same color.

One side of the kitchen. We are ordering the hood for over the range.

The other side of the kitchen.

Sweetness, we have running water in the kitchen, what a concept. In case you don't have it, I recommend it. We had it through the refrigerator a while ago but that still left us without a sink. Over the weekend we had that hooked up and now we can do dishes and everything. It is pretty cool. Kelly did a great job on the whole thing. She designed it all, picked out all the colors and materials, and did a heck of a lot of physical work on the project. And yes those are dirty dishes in the sink. I never thought I would be so proud of having dishes in the sink.

Here is the new window in the back. We put the table under it and were able to eat at it for the first time tonight. Sconces will fill the holes to on each side. It is fun to watch the dogs play through this window.

The countertops.

The living room

This room creates problems because it does not have insulation in its walls, it faces west, and it is where our thermostat resides. In trying to better regulate the heat in the house we got a programmable thermostat. It is doing better but that room is still much cooler than the rest of the house so occasionally the upstairs will be a tropical upper 70s while that room is in the low or mid 60s.

We also painted this room but still have to finish the trim in here as well. The shades are also new. They aren't Kelly's long term preference for the room but we needed something for privacy and to help insulate the old windows. Well, I will try to keep up as we finish up. Hopefully the pictures help.

Steady as She Goes

Another weekend of progress. We had a long weekend due to Veterans' Day off so we spend three straight days working on the house. Starting to feel like a real homeowner. Spend every extra dime on the house and my vacation days working on it. We also got our first property tax bill last week. After the initial shock of it being around double what we thought it would be, I took it upon myself to take a closer look. Fortunately, we discovered that our homeowners exemption had not been applied. After a few trips to the County Assessor's Office we got it all sorted out and got it back down to where it should be.

So with that behind us we moved on to inspections. Kelly had lined up three for Friday morning. Plumbing, electrical, and framing inspectors all made their way through our construction site with approving eyes. It was a very stressful time that we are thankful is behind us until we are finished. OR SO WE THOUGHT. We were told that we need an insulation inspection. What the crap?! Four inspections just to be able to put up drywall. Oh, and a tip on remodeling an old house: don't shake anything too much. A few weeks ago, while working on the electrical we needed to saw around some of our plumbing. Apparently, that shook away the corrosion that was preventing the drain pipe from the tub to the waste stack from leaking. That was ok, because the plumber was scheduled to start the next day and it was really just a drip. The plumber was great and got everything new in before turning to the leaky pipe. He fixed the leak only to find that the force he had to exert on the pipe to get it lose from the tub caused another section to leak. This section was right next to the stairs so he had some choice words for it prior to fixing it. He did a great job. We are really happy with how everything looks.

Hummm, new pipe

My brother and soon to be a dad, Tim, made his return appearance to our place. He helped us move in so this was his first visit since we started to destroy the place. He and Ron came down to help us keep on keepin' on. Since we were told we couldn't put up walls until after the insulation inspection we managed to find other tasks for them to help us out with. Ron put trim up around the windows so that our stucco guy can hopefully come soon and finish that up. He also built and put up the soffit that goes over the cabinets. Timbro pulled down the final pieces of plaster - a section over and behind the radiator in the new kitchen that Kelly and I had refused to touch for the past month. Tim and I then put insulation in the ceiling to help with the noise that comes with old wood floors. Then came the drywall. Tim, a veteran of the drywall circuit, showed me some of the ropes before we called in Ron for the hard piece. We managed to get four pieces on the ceiling.

For those of you wondering who the extra set of hands is, it's Neil Couch ladies and gentleman. Now a resident of Naperville, he came over to see Tim and stuck around to pitch in. Thanks.

I used Sunday and Monday to put all the insulation in the walls and Kelly began pulling up some of the subfloor that is in the new half bath. No pictures of this stuff, maybe next week. We also had a guy over to give us an estimate on refinishing the floors. Not as bad as I thought it would be but still something that will be further down the road. And just to bring everything full circle homeowner, I raked the leaves this afternoon.

The dogs provided their usual assistance.

Lots of Progress

You can see from the pics Matt posted last night that we made a lot of progress this weekend. On top of all of our house work, I actually got up and ran a 5k this morning-I have no idea where I got the energy!! But it felt good to finish and I'm very glad I got up and went. The race, which was along Lake Michigan, benefited a local childrens hospital. The great fall day along with the beautiful scenery made it a very enjoyable run. We worked so hard pulling the floor up this weekend that I didn't think Matt gave it justice on his posting yesterday. The picture to the left shows the first layer of linoleum. It took me about 30 minutes or so to pull it up while Matt and Ron worked on the windows. I thought "Oh, this is a breeze. It won't take long." I was wrong!The layer under this one was the first of two layers of subfloor, one of which use to have lovely green carpet on top of it. Thankfully we didn't have to pull it up but they left us a small remnant so we could see just how fabulous it once was. The subfloors were so tough. Big nails and staples EVERYWHERE. Even a little glue on some of them. Bonnie thankfully arrived early afternoon to give me a hand. She also brought us a second round of her great food to get us by while we are without a kitchen. This has been such a big help for Matt and me. Its very nice to have something home cooked to toss in the microwave when we get home. We appreciate it so much. Matt pitched in with the floor once the windows were in while Ron finished up the electrical work. It took us Friday afternoon and all day Saturday to get it torn up. In the picture below you can see a little of the subfloors, the very old 2nd layer of linoleum, and the original wood floors underneath it all. The bottom linoleum was so old it pretty much crumbled. I thought it was neat in a way that something so old was still in the house but I'm glad it's gone. Ron and Bonnie left late Saturday evening after much help and hardwork.




















Today Matt and I finished tearing out the ceiling which had a layer of drywall and then a layer of plaster underneath. No, "do it right" was definitely not in the vocabulary of our poor little house's former owners. Cheap and easy certainly were. We are now laying in bed, sore muscles and bruises from head to toe, and very happy about the progress we made this weekend. Our task for the week is to work on pulling out the zillion nails and staples still remaining in the floor. We're planning on putting laminate down throughout the downstairs, likely the most durable option with two crazy dogs : )

Gatsby's mug shot!