Pole pole

August 22, 2011

(pronounced pole-ey, ploe-ey.... or something like that, I can't phonetically spell).

As I'm sure I've mentioned in a previous blog, as I learned in Tanzania, that is Swahili for slow slow......

Although that feels to be the space at which this house is progressing, I'd have to say that we are actually moving at an OK pace right now.....

Alok and I were looking through some old pics today. They captured one of our two house projects that we had prior to buying this house (and by house, I mean painting or putting up a back splash in our small Chicago condo project)..... He's going to kill me for putting these up....




The kitchen... to be transformed from bright yellow and white to chocolate brown and some fancy named french yellow......


Surveying the space..... where to begin...


Uh oh, we have to get behind the fridge!

We weren't so great at getting after pics ;-)

OK, back to the house of the matter. Alok has been continuing to work on leveling the walls and ceilings for drywall, as seen here:


Apartment area almost finished


Dining room area


Dining room


More dining room


In case you have no clue what I'm talking about.... if you see these little strips as seen above, that is what he is putting on the walls. They are using 2x4s or something for the ceiling if you care!


Hallway strips


Foyer



Strips under the stairs.....

I also took a look at Alok's new closet:


And he wonders where all his work clothes are


I took this pic to illustrate the amount of dust in the house... that now resides all over his work clothes and shoes. They are starting to look like the shoes we pulled out of the wall.

Alok and I also had a very exciting debate as to whether to leave this door (seen below) or to remove it. There is a window in the closet that I could have captured if I thought about it that he thinks will let in light, I say shut it off because it's storage. BTW, he proceeded to win the debate about talking all about the leveling of the floors, yada yada.... and I gave in since I have no clue what he's talking about ;-)



Jessica

(I don't know what this is bold and underlined, but I'm too tired to figure it out)

Level with me

August 20, 2011

Alok and some family members have been hard at work getting the walls and ceiling ready for drywall. Here are some pics:



Those little pieces of wood on the wall are what we use to level it out.... and by we, I mean Alok, Craig, and Robert.


The ceiling. The string apparently helps with leveling.


Dining room ceiling


Living room ceiling and wall


Ceiling in the living room


Foyer



Now, the issue is that all of our ceilings and walls will be level, but our floors and our doorways will be more noticeable un-level. That's OK though. We'll take what we can get ;-)


Compare the doorway to the ceiling.... although I can never hold the camera level either.


We also had our deck powerwashed in preparation for the painting that is about to occur:













We even had this back little deck powerwashed. What a difference some water makes:


Before... notice the moldly green tint

After:





We also had some branches and all hanging limbs removed.







While that looks better, what is going on over here:






This weed or weed-like plant is growing all over our yard.... and in some places is waist high!

Apparently, we have some very fertile soil (and some really bad gardening abilities). Maybe we should just make this our farm area and plant some corn here.

I also noticed this snork-like pipe coming out of the roof that was placed here by the HVAC people!!



That's all for now.

Jessica

If you were this porch....

August 18, 2011

What color would you want to be painted?







Alok has an idea from asking "several people." Those several people happened to be just 2 people whose opinions I actually trust, but several opinions never hurt. I'll wait to tell you what they said (unless they comment here!)

And don't think too long. We need to decide by this weekend. Remember that we are historical, so polka dots and plaid are frowned upon.

Jessica

Supports

August 13, 2011

A lot of work has been happening to reinforce the house so that it stays upright.

The first part was to reinforce the area under this bathtub:




To keep this from happening:




Here it is (this supports the bathtub above and should make the pocket door work):



















Supports going all the way into the basement.

Supports were also added in the basement to help with the whole "cutting through every floor joist" issue:


New supports




New poles

This is the area that is being supported now:


Butler's pantry



This was definitely sagging, but now actually feels solid!

Although we still have awhile before drywall, the pre-drywall work is starting:


Those sticks help to make the walls so they be at the same level as the trim. Alok also notice that none of the ceilings are remotely the same depth, so that will take some work.

I also noticed this part of the stairway that now just looks really funny without a wall behind it:


We also finally had some of our dead trees/roots taken out, as seen here:





Although this one is still suspended in the air....


Jessica