Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
In between our awesome trips, hanging out and hosting- through the entire renovation process, really – friends and family, we continue working on our end of the renovation process. This entails mainly thankless tasks that are hard to get wrong – demolishing, stripping old paint, priming and painting, and of course endless of hours of research of how tos (plaster) and best products ( kitchen hardware has been the bane of my existence).… Read the rest
Oh we have come so far! Look – we have a toilet paper holder!
But more importantly, we have finally added storage.
We had to get custom cut glass because the wall niche isn’t standard. but who cares?! we have storage. we can finally “move in” to our bathroom.I have had these knitted baskets with all of our bathroom crap sitting and waiting, waiting and sitting for probably a month now.… Read the rest
I was very happy with Thursday/ Friday progress.
Exhibit A: Plaster walls. Its actually hard to see the difference in pictures, but the base coat went on Thursday and top coat was all done on Friday. There is a big difference to the touch though – base coat is kind of grayish and is pretty rough and almost sticky —
The top coat is white and smooth.
Overall I am very happy with the job they did skimming the plaster and so happy that we decided to stick with the original decision to go with plaster on all walls which are redone (the rest of the house mostly has plaster walls save for a few places that will be redone eventually).… Read the rest
Sergey and I took a week long vacation – wednesday to wednesday – but the work continued while we were gone. I thought it worked out pretty well actually – anytime there was a question the contractors would text with a quick picture and we would follow up when we had time. We were still a bit nervous coming home, but this made us happy:
A couple of notes here: the dishwasher still needs a front panel – it will match the rest of the cabinets.… Read the rest
Awhile back – actually way before any concrete plans for this renovation materialized – I came across these pictures of penny-tile floors and thought – that might be cool thing to do at some point somewhere in the house. Sergey was totally on board. In fact, I think he actually sent me a picture of the penny time floor for inspiration. It’s not that often that we agree on a particular project or look from the very beginning so this idea was definitely filed in the “for sure, maybe” file.… Read the rest
Now that breakfast made at home is hardly an option – due to cooking, clean up, and time constraints we have a new Saturday favorite tradition. A walk down North Capitol to get the requisite delicious items. First up is always Catania Bakery – not because its the closest, but because they run out of delicious Italian pastries by 9 am or so. And its not going to be a good day if you miss out on these exceptional apple croissants, the bread is excellent as well.… Read the rest
So I have been hoarding these pictures thinking I would do one big post about the ‘otto’ renovation (get it? say it out loud!) But I am not the most patient person it the world, plus I have enough of these for at least several installments. So, here we go :)
Otto really enjoys scaling things, so the pile of Ikea cabinets was his idea of perfect kitchen. His mediation pose says it all – no need to adjust anything here, i am quite pleasedthankyoumovealong.… Read the rest
A quick note with a few minor but important details. First up the tile. The reason its not done yet? well apparently, our historically correct, unglazed tile floors did not take too well to grout. As in it refused to come off once dry. Typically the grout is supposed to be spread liberally and then excess wiped off. Well I am sure our contractors were not pleased when they realized this wasn’t correct.… Read the rest
I guess the tile floor is another one of those super time consuming projects? A week and a half in of work (not by us, by the contractors) the kitchen floor is nearly complete. I really love the tiles and the dark grout, which together have come out looking quite nicely.
Here’s last 8 work days, or so – first up, Mr Otto enjoying the new tiles (actually this is his look for can I please go outside now?!)… Read the rest
Its gonna be awesome. And this black and white and gray bathroom is really going to shine with some color love. First up – our bath mat. i heart it so much.
Yes, a real wool, oriental rug remnant. picked up at Ruff & Ready for $5. I got it a few weeks ago, and we have been using it as a regular bath mat, and so far its worked really well, it feels comfy and dries fast.… Read the rest