Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
The other day, I was sitting around, looking at this:
and it just really looked awful. and I thought, to hell with waiting to demolish the kitchen, even though that is exactly what i would like to do right now. unfortunately (or fortunately) we have to wait a few more months before we can begin in order to line up all of our financial sources to begin. we are thinking mid march, but that’s a subject for another post.… Read the rest
an update, and likely (fingers crossed) the last post on this issue for another 6 months or so. when we noticed the paint bubbling in our wall, we had immediate panic.
6+1 (six called by us -a general contractor, 3 masons, one mold remediation specialist and a roofer- and one by our neighbor – an hvac contractor) contractor visits later, it turned out the water damage on our wall was coming from a condensation that build up because the furnace at the house next door had no outlet, unbeknownst to the owner.… Read the rest
When we called the roofer, I was really not convinced that that much water managed to get through tiny cracks. and on top of that, we have seen very hard rains, while no active leaks were produced. but we were really hoping that a roofer would help us out with where the water was coming from.
So, I consulted PoP, and found Adam’s Roofing (no website). Adam, is, awesome. He checked out our roof, gave us maintenance advice (including on small cracks) and said that no water is coming from the roof– which *good news!*… Read the rest
Repointing, retucking, otherwise known as…its gonna cost you.
masonry is expensive. replacing historic mortar is even more expensive.the quick and dirty on historic mortar vs regular cement as I understand it: old bricks and mortar were manufactured differently than today. Old brick and mortar – breathe, expand and contract with the weather. New brick and mortar – don’t breathe, and don’t expand or contract. problems occur when old mixes with new.… Read the rest
One of the most interesting bits to hear would be about all the different workers and contractors that have come through the house. we have moved onto to getting mason quotes, because several weeks ago we discovered this:
On our side wall by the stairs. it didn’t look like that initially. first we saw squiggly lines. then the paint started bubbling, and it came off quite easily to reveal this. so we opened up our reference guides, and started making calls.… Read the rest
with all the time i spend these days in thrift stores and flea markets, its obviously hard for me to resist picking up an extra good treasure when it surfaces. such as this one:
The National Geographic 1966 Map of Asia. $14, Ruff and Ready.
Sergey says that the water damage looks like the iron curtain from the cold war.
I love the map’s color pallet and its the perfect size for the wall.… Read the rest
The Brass Knob warehouse was a treasure trove that we were lucky to discover soon after moving to Bloomingdale. You could also get a pretty good deal if you know how to make one (I can’t, my palms start sweating and I get flustered at the thought of having to haggle).
But anyway, a few weeks ago, we got 6 buckets of 100-year old leaded tiles for $60, courtesy of Sergey!… Read the rest
at least in one of the spare bedrooms! we finally got around to finishing up the drywall box-out for our A/C vents. I spent last couple of weekends with joint compound and mudding and taping knives (I have learned so much!).
It was a bit difficult at first, I kept getting air bubbles in the tape and couldn’t get the compound to spread evenly, but I eventually got the hang of it (or so I thought)
With the next layer of compound it became apparent that air bubbles managed to hid in the tape and were making themselves all too apparent.… 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