Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
Ah its good to be home. Sergey and I took an unexpected trip to Russia, a second home for us both. No serious reasons, thankfully, just an unexpected and opportune alignment of circumstances.
In my hometown of Petrozavodsk (yes it was cold).
Meanwhile progress has been chugging along here. Thank you to Kirill for keeping a watch here and sending us pictures. Here’s a recap of what happened over the last four days of construction.… Read the rest
We have made quite a bit of progress on our built in shelving unit this weekend. The first word that comes to mind to describe is HUGE! I mean we knew the dimensions (obviously) before starting but to see it in person, is really awe inspiring. Anyway, back to the actual progress report.
We are following directions from This Old House on how to make built in shelves, and so far with very good results.… Read the rest
Yep still waiting on contractor bids. As in progress is sllllooooowwwwww. Under the original timeline we were supposed to be almost done with demo right now. we don’t even have a start date. sigh.is this normal? is it how it usually happens for everyone else?
there was some progress elsewhere though! the dinning room built-in shelves. we have purchased two Ikea kitchen cabinets that will form the base of the built-in.… Read the rest
It’s my birthday, and I couldn’t be more excited for my presents this year ( well actually I love presents all the time and of any kind for any occasion, but I digress).
First up, is this special lady:
A Pink Flapper painting by Jenny Bellin. Not sure where she will go yet, but so excited to own my first ever piece of art.
Aaaand, Sergey has promised to build me a built in shelves in the dinning room.… Read the rest
why did we have to stop work on the drywall?
well, we had another fireplace estimate for work necessary to get our fireplace in the dining room working. it went well.the guy told us we may have to take apart part of the wall on second floor where the chimney is to do the necessary work. so we stopped the drywall project.
and now we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting for an estimate.… Read the rest
This is pretty much a Sergey project, since it required major building and drilling action. The first part also took a good part of the weekend.
As I mentioned, we did a lot of research before going for it. As a visual person, this guy helped me lots. Also, DIYdiva provides excellent, detailed overview of putting up drywall here.
first up, we took the opportunity to add some insulation surrounding the gap of the AC duct work.… Read the rest
Part II of the A/C project is covering up the duct work. We were quoted around $1k. Obviously I though that we could at least try to do it ourselves. The worst that happens is we spend a bunch of money on materials. I don’t necessarily think that our time would be wasted per se, as learning what is involved in the job would at least allow us to talk to contractors intelligently (and maybe convince me that we should hire people to do this professionally).… Read the rest
We made it! its been all cool over here at VIB for the last 2 days (and hopefully for good). I am happy to report that the fridge is also working very well.
Here’s a re-cap of how it went. We used Argent –out of 5 estimates, only Argent and one other firm pointed out the need for a hot air intake upstairs. Sure, we spent extra to put that in, but what’s the point of CAC if it doesn’t work upstairs where you sleep?… Read the rest
A/C unit has been delivered. that means its HAPPENING. cool air is coming.
today the unit is supposed to start functioning, tomorrow will be construction of an intake valve to suck the in the hot air upstairs. happy happy.
i am lucky to have job where i can take days to work from home, so i am supervising (and writing this up during a quick break) and will be writing up about the experience.… Read the rest
Well the good news is that up until yesterday its been beautiful weather especially at night, which means that VIB’s been cool. And since its been cool, the fridge is once again operational. So, cool house = working fridge.
Bad news, its going to be hot for the rest of the summer. hotter than usual. i don’t even know what that means, cause usual summer weather in DC is HOT.… Read the rest