Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
The floors are done! We got back into town Wednesday night after spending New Years with Sergey’s parents in Connecticut. Pleasant surprise – the smell was not bad, actually non-existent pretty much. And of course the floors look shiny and new.
We had sourced three bids to re-do the floors. We went with the least expensive option, which still amounted to just over $2K for the living room, dining room, hallways, stairs and a small bedroom upstairs.… 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
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
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 been very hectic around here, and not necessarily VIB related. Though the house always adds another layer to whatever else you have going on. Anywho, its been five working days since our last construction update, and what have we got to show for it? That’s what:
the beginnings of our finished tile floors! but before we get to this point, this also took place:
yes, the entire kitchen as well as half bath will have heated floors.… Read the rest
and Everywhere – a bunch of small things got done in the last four days. This can feel little progress, but I choose to look at it as indication that we are closer to the finish line than we know.
walls went over framing on the outside of half-bath (this just might be the first room that is done, done in this renovation):
Also the lay-out for heated floors is confirmed and is ready for thinset.… Read the rest
Clawfoot tub has arriveth in its final resting spot. With tub feet on and all.
It was a glorious site to behold when we got home on Friday night. Because this week our contractors are on vacation. I don’t think I could have gone on for another week without a shower.
**Full disclosure: Our very kind friends actually invited us to stay at their very nice, not dusty, clean, with running water apartment for 10 days while they went on vacation.… Read the rest
A sneak peak into something awesome! Ta-da: Our upstairs bathroom floor.
Beautiful, huh? We are still so far away, and its moving sooooooo slowly. but at least we like where we are going with this. Here’s the floor with additional layer of thinset before the tile was put down:
There is some progress in the small half bath downstairs too. We got a ceiling frame and noise maker vent fan was installed.… Read the rest