It has been a week and a half since starting the bathroom, and the once-overwhelming task of gutting a bathroom is now coming under control. Since my last update, I have been spending my time working on the mechanicals - the new circuits are complete, with additional lighting and outlets. New supply lines have been run upstairs so that there will be adequate water pressure (I hope). Yesterday I started on the shower/bath hookups, which I should be able to finish up today. The big hold-up has been the new waste line that I have to run for the new bath. The plan is to run the line down to the basement, parallel to the current stack. Logistically this works out but there is limited space in the floor to plumb the trap and connections to new venting. Rachel suggested that we use up some of the space above the drop ceiling in the main bath. I will investigate this today, and hopefully install those drains.
Andrew has been getting very quick lately. His walking skills have progressed considerably, so he is able to walk from room to room. This has led to increased mischief, such as yesterday when Rachel was cooking and discovered that he had left his toys and quietly found his way to the toilet. Yuck. Thus begins 2+ years of chasing him around.
But he is still very cute and fun to play with. Here a couple of recent videos.
It is easy for my mind to get lost in these big projects. There are a thousand little things to get done, and a few big things... and my thoughts can easily stray as I think of the other things I need to be doing. I do not think that I am dreaming about construction yet, but I am sure that will come soon.
In the attic bath, I have nearly completed the electrical work. I had to additional circuits, because all the current load would be too high for people living full time upstairs. Now there should be plenty of juice to handle the A/C, computers, lights, hair dryers, etc.
The more difficult part is adding additional lighting. I had to learn how to install recessed lighting, since the ceiling is so low and lighting woefully inadequate. The bathroom lighting is set up, but I need to work a little more on the rest of the attic. The bathroom fan is installed, and the necessary holes have been cut in preparation for new waste lines for the bath.
Speaking of, we do not yet have the fixtures - bathtub, shower head, vanity, toilet, faucet....but we should be able to fill that in during the next week between visits to second-hand warehouses and the big box stores.
It has not been all work; last night Rachel and I went downtown to watch a Chinese dance performance. I received some free tickets from my school's Chinese teacher (via a student who did not want them!). While I am not the biggest dance aficionado, the price was right and we are more cultured as a result.
And today we went to Wrigley to watch the Tigers beat up on the Cubs. I think there were as many Tigers fans there as Cubs fans - and certainly there were more Tigers fans in the upper deck. It was Andrew's first baseball game, and overall it was a successful trip. He was an angel all the way through the 7th inning stretch...and he was tolerable after that. Pictures to come.
With all the time we have to spend together, whatever will our family do?
Don't stress Andrew, summer will be fun. You probably do not remember much from last summer, but I will be home a lot more often, the weather is warm, and we will go out and do fun things :)
Last week Rachel gave me a nasty sinus infection (nice birthday present, right??) so I was knocked out for most of the last week of school. Thankfully, most of my work was already done so I was able to sleepwalk right into summer.
Today was my first weekday off from school, and it felt pretty sweet. No alarm (other than Andrew), a leisurely breakfast, time to Skype with Mom, a few hours of work upstairs/outside, and a walk around the block before hitting up the neighborhood ice cream social. Ahhhh...this is the life.
But there is work to be done...
2 big projects for the summer: upstairs bath renovation, and the basement renovation. The upstairs bath is the priority, because Sarah and Dave will be moving in at the end of the month. It started out looking like this:
Nothing pretty, but nothing hideous. Problem is, there is no shower/bath. And there will be upwards of 7 people in this house at various times in the coming months, so 1 shower will not do.
First things first: see how this place is put together.
Much better! The framing is solid, thankfully, and no sign of mold. The fixtures we not worth keeping, and the drywall was nailed instead of screwed, so there were enough ugly nail pops to convince me to start over.
What's the next step? Good question... unfortunately, I do not have as good a plan in place for the bath as I do for the basement. I need to work hard tonight to design this place, so that I make the necessary purchases and starting piecing it back together. The clock is ticking!
While I did not go back to check, I am pretty sure this has been the longest I have gone without posting since the blog began.
So what has been happening?
Well, family is most important so I will begin there. Andrew had his first birthday in the time since I last posted. We had a wonderful time, and I think he did too. Check it out if you don't believe me.
He has been able to play a lot with his new toys - he likes riding in the wagon, reading his new books, playing (outside) in bubbles, pretending to cook his new play food, and spending not-so-quiet time talking to the parts of his quiet book.
Andrew is just itching to take his first steps, but Rachel said she knocks him over whenever he is about to try, because he is not allowed to do it without me! (I think she is kidding. Maybe?)
We recently met one of our former students from Chengdu at O'Hare, as he transferred from international to a domestic flight. I hope he remember us when he is rich.
I was the best man at Tom and Sarah's wedding - fun times! (Being in a wedding is hard work. I need to make sure only to made friends with married guys from now on.) Ok, seriously it was an honor and I enjoyed it all. Congratulations again!
Rachel has taken on a new role, volunteering her services to the college counseling department at the local high school. She has always had a secret desire to help kids transition to college, so she is planning a transition event for graduating seniors. They will network with one another and representatives from their matriculating colleges. This is coming up in early June.
Meanwhile, her latest playdate was cancelled due to threat of a strep outbreak, but it is now rescheduled for later this week. She will host a Mandarin play hour - she will lead stories and simple songs in Chinese for local moms / babies.
We helped the Weddles move from their long-standing Bridgeport home into their new digs in Jefferson Park. It has been rewarding to have them closer by - selfishly for their babysitting and manual labor, but more generally because you can never overestimate having good friends nearby.
My school year is wrapping up fast. Transitions of staff are already underway, and there are only 2 more real weeks of school left. Actually, the second week of that is a wash because of Memorial Day, review for final exams, an end-of-year standardized test, and final exams. So this is really the last week...and I am showing a movie in 3 of my classes. Ha! Nice planning, Alan.
So why too busy to blog? Well, our recreational time has been used up playing house. We started a couple weeks ago to plan in earnest for our summer renovations. We need to get a jump on projects this year - Sarah and Dave will be temporarily moving upstairs at the end of June, and Becca and Stephen will be visiting in July. So there will be a whole mess of Millers here 6 weeks from now, and they need suitable places to sleep (if not for their benefit, than for our own sanity).
So what has been done do far? Well, it began with basement demolition. Rachel and Eric helped me rip out a wall and all the paneling from the basement exterior walls, so we could get a good look at the condition of the foundation.
Things are in good shape, overall. There are two minor foundation cracks, and a little bit of mortar that needs patching. In all, spending $130 on a foundation crack repair kit and a bag of mortar is a far better deal than the multi-thousand dollar bill we feared.
Last week, I rented a truck to buy and transport the starting materials for the basement project: we now have a garage full of foam insulation, subfloor tiles, and of course all the junk from the demo. Yuck.
This is the overall plan: to finish half the basement, making it into a media / play room with an open floor plan. This will also provide temporary Miller lodging as needed. I will lay the subfloor and insulation, followed by drywall, and then we hope to get carpeting for warmth and soft play. Don't worry - I am taking precautions to make sure we are safe from all but the most catastrophic of floods. Simultaneously, I will be renovating the attic bath, to add a shower/tub. This will serve as guest quarters, but one day we play to install proper kid(s) bedrooms up there.
We had plans to add a bath in the basement, but this project was cost prohibitive based on plumbing estimates. Instead we will work on renovating the main bath - which was supposed to be job #1, but has somehow slipped down the priority list.
To that end, Rachel scored a great find at a local garage sale - 21 boxes of floor and wall tiles, in a variety of styles. Perfect for bathroom floors and shower walls!
Finally, good news to report on the window treatment front.
You should not be surprised to find out that vertical blinds and small children to not mix. They are much too inviting to pull on! (actually, they do not mix with Rachel either, but we won't go there) We had lost close to 10 slats in the living room alone, and had run out of options to rearrange them. We never liked the blinds in the first place, but needed inspiration for what to get.
We never really got the needed inspiration, but I simply got tired of waiting. A year ago, we had written off the blinds at Ikea based on color. Desperate, I suggested we take color samples back to the store and try again. Thankfully, the color, though not perfect, would work. However, the size was not quite right. Undeterred, we bought them anyway and hoped for the best. Back at home, I discovered that someone mixed the wrong size into our pile, so a few of the boxes would REALLY not fit.
Despite the many roadblocks, I sized up the blinds and found them to be 5/8" too wide to mount them inside the window frame. Rachel did not want them mounted any other way, so I improvised. I sawed each one down to size and restained the end to match the color. I am very happy with the end result!
One more thing - new patio furniture! A table and set of 4 chairs, bought from a neighbor on deep discount. Sunny Sunday morning, come quickly!
Just for fun:
There aren't too many costume parties in May. Oh well!
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!
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...
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!
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