It's been a noisy day working from home today. Between the hammering, sounds of crumbling stucco and the occasional clank of metal being pulled out from the walls, we've had a long day enduring a moderate sized renovation of our back kitchen storage area. The 1917 era windows and supporting walls around it had rotted down to a brittle state, and a city inspector ordered our landlord to replace it to code. Sadly, that meant losing the original windows...
Renovation Aggravation: Living in a Construction Zone
But to our landlord's credit, he has installed some energy efficient sliding windows, and the wall has been reinforced and plastered tomorrow. We preferred the original wood panel siding, but when you're a renter, the role of preservationist is mostly theoretical. We only hoped that while the walls were being opened up the workmen would find some unique and notable historic artifact (we have found crumpled newspaper from the 40's before). Alas, no Antiques Roadshow quality discoveries yet to be had.
Here's the hope tomorrow is a quieter day of plastering and much less hammering so we won't have to endure clenching our jaws and splitting headaches!
Comments (13)
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Antiques Roadshow! I totally forgot about that show... I used to have the biggest crush on the Keno brothers!!
view Beth1's profile
the two parts of the house we will be renovating will be the kitchen and the laundry. i can live without the laundry for as long as we've estimated... but our kitchen is in the same big room as the living room. oh well... a means to an end.
view venus_thames's profile
We gutted our bathroom and then realized we needy to destroy the pantry to get to some plumbing, so now the pantry is gutted too. These are the smallest rooms of our home, but it has taken over the whole place. It's not just the pantry items in the cabinets and the dishes in the bookshelves that bother me. It's the circular saw under the dining table, the dry wall leaning in the living room, and the constant dust that gets everywhere that really gets me. We're saving a ton of money by doing it ourselves, but sometimes I wish I could just call someone to come and finish the job quickly. That said: I'm really jealous right now!
view chottomotto's profile
Welcome to my world since June.
view jenzoe's profile
welcome to my world since august...
of 2007.
view staticfritz's profile
During our big renovation, we planted a time capsule in our walls that was filled with things that were discovered during our demo (we scanned them first): a union card, an auto ad, a 1940's expo ticket, etc. We also added things of our own. It makes me happy that all of this history remains in the walls, even if noone ever discovers it.
view wig3000's profile
p.s.-- I'm curious as to what the AT community has to say about plaster vs. drywall.
May your demo zone transform quickly, Gregory!
view wig3000's profile
This is the part of the process they never show you on HGTV. Here are a few others, from my perspective as a kitchen and bath designer who has worked on hundreds of remodels in the last five years:
HGTV:
A full-scale kitchen or bath remodel is completed in 30 minutes.
REAL LIFE:
A full-scale, full-service kitchen or bath plan and remodel are completed in 30 days or -- more typically -- longer. (Yes, I know there are one-week bath firms out there, but their scope is somewhat limited.)
HGTV:
The happy homeowners see their re-done room for the first time at the 25th minute of the show.
REAL LIFE:
The homeowners are on site the entire time and see their room at all phases of the project. These include the scary "there's no sink in here" phase, the dusty, noisy construction phase, (which you now know very well!), and the touch-ups at the end phase long before my personal favorite "everybody hugs each other" phase.
HGTV:
A designer magically appears when you need one and knows all of your wants and needs after a five-minute meeting.
REAL LIFE:
You spend significant amounts of your free time looking for a designer, interviewing designers and, if you're lucky (or hire the right person first), spend hours sharing your preferences and needs with someone who will factor them into your remodel.
HGTV:
Budgets are rarely, if ever, discussed.
REAL LIFE:
You're dealing in real dollars -- your hard-earned dollars -- and the professionals you hire need to respect your budget and advise you if a choice you make impacts it.
Good luck! Jamie
http://www.jgkitchens.com
http://jgkitchens.blogspot.com
view JG_Kitchens's profile
We just completed a month long project of having a basement wall rebuilt and french drain installed along with refinishing the floors in the kitchen and painting the cabinets. We hadn't planned for the projects to line up timewise but it was just how it worked out with the contractors' schedules. Talk about a disaster area! We had an eight foot deep trench around the place for almost two weeks, not to mention having our house on jacks with one wall missing for a couple days. Thank god it's over!
Best of luck to you! Hope it is over soon and painlessly.
view amyewine's profile
Our first house renovation took 6 years. This is a breeze.
...about the sliders -- I had an architect allege that they are the least energy-efficient of window types.
As someone with an architectural conservation background, it is painful to see historic wood windows replaces with... those. We stripped, repaired, reglazed and repainted every wood window in our house. After we sold it, my thought was that I hope it staves off the nest attempt to replace them by a few decades.
view mschatelaine's profile
Ugh, those sliders are horrible!
view SubwayKnitter's profile
No insulation before drywall/plaster?
view baltimorerowhouse's profile
Back in the day, Frank Gehry would have considered this project finished.
view spinsLPs's profile