Wedding, plus Renovation v Restoration

This past weekend, Rachel and I had the honor of taking part in the wedding of our good friends, Sarah and Tom.  I stood as best man, while Rachel read the Scripture reading during the ceremony. 

For us, it was an end to an era - of sorts.  We have attended several weddings between college friends at the chapel on campus (the same place we were wed), but this couple is likely (?) the last wedding between two people who both attended Northwestern in our era as students.  So it is uncertain when our next wedding at Alice Millar will take place.

It was fun to participate in a wedding in which we have had long-standing friendships with both the bride and groom.  Tom and Sarah are certainly a part of our Chicago family (but not in a mafia way) and so in many ways the experience was like a family wedding.

See my beautiful wife!  She stressed all week about what to wear, but after several shopping trips, Skype conferences, neighbor advice-asking, and a trip to see her sister she was able to put together a fine outfit.

Andrew did scream during the vows, but at least he did not let out a huge poop like the last wedding he attended.


Meanwhile, it is time to revisit the dilemma of house projects - renovation versus restoration. 

Admittedly, the majority of the work I have completed on the house thus far has been renovation.  The kitchen was certainly all reno - but there was nothing to restore in that room, because the only original thing we discovered was the wood floor, which was in bad shape.

We painted over all the plaster walls and trim, but there was no unpainted woodwork prior to our buying the house.

For the sake of a temporary facelift, we chose to paint over the wood paneling in the hallway and upstairs, rather than expose and restore the original walls.

The old workbench in the basement was removed, because it was falling apart - nothing I could do there.

The living room project (removal of the fireplace) ended up as a renovation, as the original brick was removed and replaced with drywall.  That project, more than any, illustrated the tension between these two philosophies.  Since moving in, I wanted to restore the fireplace - not necessarily because I love brick, but because I wanted the centerpiece of our living room to stand as a testament to the historical nature of our home.  Unfortunately, in that case, the reality of an impossible restoration made that dream crash....like a ton of bricks.

Thankfully, the story does not end there.  We do, after all, have original wood floors that were sanded to their original color.  We are happy with that, squeaks, creaks, and all.  We removed the ceiling tiles in the bedroom, exposing the plaster ceilings and crown(ish) molding.  And now...

The entryway!

A month ago, when I was away at Man Camp, Rachel began a restoration project in the entryway at our front (side) door.  She painted the paneling (ok, this is not really a restoration of anything original, but it will have to do for now.  Putting up drywall here is just not a priority) and began removing the vinyl floor tile to reveal....

The original black-and-white hexagon ceramic tile!

In the past week, I have pitched in to help finish the painting and removing the rest of the floor.  We are hoping to paint the trim and the door this week, before my Mom comes on Friday.  (if we don't finish, I'm ok with that!)  Any suggestions about colors?

Finally, an exciting discovery.  I found the records from the recently-released 1940 Archives for this house.  At that time, a Swedish family of four was renting this house for 33 dollars per month.  The Anderson household was headed by an iron worker who made 200 dollars a year.  They lived on a block with Austrians, Norweigans, and more Swedes. 

Thinking about all that history certainly makes me sway towards restoration! 

-alan

Spring break wrap-up

I last posted after a flurry of stressful spring break projects.  I am happy to say that in the time since, things have improved greatly!

We went off to Mom's for Easter weekend.  Andrew cried for a good 2 hours on the way there; mercifully he was in better spirits on the way home.  He is getting to that age where he is too old to sit in the chair for so long, but not old enough to watch a movie on a portable DVD player.  We will have to plan our car trips more carefully now.

It was a little too cold to be very active, but we did get out to the park on Saturday.  Andrew loves climbing on the playground equipment and watching other kids play, even if he is too young still to join in.

 

 

Mom bought a grill, which I helped to assemble.  Now Rachel can fulfill her dream of eating steak when we visit Michigan.  I just need to learn to cook it correctly!

Before we left, we had planned to go bowling to take advantage of $1 per game bowling at the local alley in the AM hours.  However, will all the activity in the living room we never had time.  I had ripped out several feet of floor boards along the wall where the fireplace was, so that I could seamlessly install new wood.  

 

I went for the cheap option - unfinished stock oak boards from Home Depot.  The size was perfect but the color is so-so.  As long as some furniture is in the corner, though, we will be ok.  It was fun to use the nail gun (borrowed from the neighbor) and the finish sander I picked up on clearance a few months ago.  Add that to my list of new skills.

After coming home from Michigan on Sunday, we had a chance to go bowling on Monday because I had a bonus day off.  Andrew liked hanging out on the alley and crawling around on the slick wood floor.  In game two I rolled 230+ and had the mom's on the next lane cheering me on :)

 

The rest of the week was one of the busier of my life.  Grades were due on Friday, to end the 3rd quarter.  I was a little behind because I had some things leftover from break.  There was also a hole in the living room wall and a dusty mess - which had to be dealt with because there were people coming over on Saturday.  So each day I got home from work, put in a few hours worth of drywall work, cleaned up, and graded for a couple hours.  Thankfully Rachel pitched in on both tasks after Andrew went down.


Rachel and Andrew had to find alternate places to play (and do chores!) with the living room off-limits.

We were worried about the drywall, because the wall was not flat and being able to fill the space without looking too ugly would be a challenge....and the previous drywall challenge in the kitchen did not reveal my most stellar work.  But with a renewed sense of urgency, I laid nice wide swathes of mud in three coats and furiously sanded it smooth on Saturday morning.  By 10am, the wall was painted and the job was essentially done (except the trim).

I left at noon to go to Wisconsin, having only partially cleaned up.  Rachel spent time that afternoon scrubbing and rearranging, so now the place is downright spacious!

Wisconsin was a lot of fun - I am the best man in my friend Tom's wedding, so we traveled to Lake Geneva for the bachelor party.  I won in bowling and Catan, but was sufficiently humbled in basketball and ping pong so I think it all evens out.  Now pictures to show from that trip....but you wouldn't expect any, would you?

There is a wedding this weekend to look forward to - and then the ACT will be given for the first time at Ogden next week.  The academic year will be over before I know it.

Finally, Andrew is showing more independence, particularly at mealtimes.  He points to request what he wants to eat.  He grabs the spoon from our hand if we try to feed him.  And he has not quite gotten a hang of using plates yet...

 -alan

Juggling

Spring break is well underway, and I find myself in a funk on a beautiful Tuesday.  Why is that?  Well, our house is a mess.  Prior to vacation, Rachel and I talked some about house duties and things to be done during this time.  We prioritized and scheduled....but of course, the schedule was over ambitious.

So far, I have built a gate for Mom's house (where we will be going on Thursday through to Easter), organized more tools in the basement, and installed shoe molding in the dining room.  Yesterday, Tom came over and we spent the day dismantling the faux fireplace in the living room.  (Yes, THAT fireplace which I was unsuccessful at stripping and restoring)  There is now a giant hole in the wall and a pile of bricks against the side of the house.


Before
 

 Prying out the bricks

 
 Passing bricks out through the window




After!

The living room is more or less "off-limits" right now, as we moved out most of the furniture and there is dust on everything.  I removed some floor boards and prepped to install some new lengths, as there was a cutout in the floor surrounding the brick.  More shoe molding is painted and ready to go in.  There is a sheet of drywall in the basement waiting to be hung and painted.  Oh, and don't forget about the plan I was supposed to make about plumbing improvements to the upstairs bath...

So plenty has been done, and plenty left to do.  I just wish I had only one project to consider.  Oh well, now I know for next time.

And don't even talk to me about the pile of weeds that is my front yard!

But the next few days will provide a break....Rachel and I will go on an afternoon date tomorrow, and we will head to MI on Thursday where I will not have to worry about all this!


No, Andrew wasn't hit with a brick....in an unrelated incident last week, he fell and inflicted this nose bleed on himself.  Rachel showed him his image in the mirror and he was appropriately horrified!


-alan