Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
Looks like we won’t have to take apart the chimney after all. Although it does indeed exist on the roof as well as the second floor bedroom, it was actually taken out in the kitchen! I wont count our lucky stars because who knows what surprises await us, but for now, this is definitely in the plus column.
Another plus? this was kind of fun (smashing things up almost always is) and took just a few minutes from start to finish.… Read the rest
While we wait for the kitchen work to get underway, I have been working on cleaning up salvaged tin ceiling panels that we got at the brass knob warehouse before they closed shop last year (check out the stacks of ceiling tiles they used to have).
we have seen a number of houses in our neighborhood with the original tin ceilings still in place; they look pretty similar to these.… Read the rest
To save some money (the estimates for demolition were all over 1k) Sergey and I plan to do much of the demo work ourselves. Here’s the plan, which will probably take about a month to complete (and since it will take 4 to 6 weeks for french doors to arrive once ordered – the timing works), and should –hopefully–be all done by our 1 June start date:
1) Check to see if there is an old chimney concealed behind kitchen drywall.… Read the rest
Well we’ve finally done it – we made a decision on contractors – the plural here is the key part. The short story is: it’s complicated – we will be working with several different outfits: a builder for structural stuff, an electrician for a heavy up, and a firm to do the rest of the actual kitchen. We have penciled in 1 June as the start date!
The long story is that its too expensive for us to hire one-stop-shop pro.… 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
We are this close to having everything finalized. We have had two contractors come out, two more are on deck.
Already I know we made (or actually repeated) a mistake with contractors. We want at least three, better four, good estimates to compare. Should have lined up 5ive to six names to call right away. Instead we had three-ish (one that came out to do a kitchen estimate awhile ago). So we have received two estimates, waiting for one more, and meanwhile now have two more builders come out this week.… Read the rest
Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the fairest one of all? My kitchen bench! I got an idea for an awesome, high back, leather tufted kitchen bench awhile ago, which visiting friends in New York last fall. We had stopped into Cafe Ost in Manhattan and that’s when I saw my future kitchen bench:
I couldn’t quite get the image or the idea out of my head for quite sometime, and decided to recreate in the VIB kitchen.… Read the rest
While we keep finalizing our kitchen plans – lots of back and forth still on the details of the layout, we have started the research on french doors. the first time you hear the figure of $3,500 its certainly a shock. but as that turns out, it is actually quite a reasonable figure for an 8 foot tall door, and estimates can get much much higher.
Research was tough at first, as most show rooms carry just a few manufacturer names, and i haven’t really come across any sales people that were keen to share their knowledge on french door essentials.… Read the rest
After two years of thinking and planning for the new kitchen, it finally feels for reals. you know how? well it happens when you go from this:
to this:
and many many of these:
Pretty cool eh’
We have been working with our architect friends who were kind enough to help us way back when we were just preparing to prepare (i.e. putting together our kitchen registry for the wedding).
We have spent probably a total of 40 hours in the last month just on our own (and over several sessions) with IKEA kitchen book getting the cabinet layout just right.… Read the rest
Ok, so our walls and floors aren’t that great, but do we really need to redo the kitchen? Especially if to do it right we need to do a gut. After all, right when we moved in, we made our kitchen work with some paint, fabric and craigslist purchases. It may not be the most comfortable or pretty, but really it works. for now.
And yet, the odds actually aren’t looking all too good.… Read the rest