Category: Uncategorized

Buying a home is filled with assumptions, at least someone confirmed by inspectors. We assumed the unfinished kitchen floors were oak (no). The inspector said the roof was sound (but neglected to tell us that it was toxic asbestos). We knew the siding was wood, but we imagined it was pine given the prevalence of…

Saoirse loves our two most common workers with our main contractor; I’ll call them J1 and J2. (I am obscuring their names for their privacy). J1 is apparently in training to be a project manager for the company, and he would be great at that, despite the fact that I would miss his serious skill…

We got word this week that our new kitchen appliances had been delivered and the seller asked when we might be able to install them. The builders estimated 4-6 weeks, which means between late June and early July. We know that the cabinets will be installed before the appliances, but we don’t know when all…

I typically avoid putting things off because I hate the stress of looming deadlines after my newspaper days living with them constantly. But I have learned during the renovation that procrastination can really pay off when we have no idea what challenge is around the corner. We first learned that as we delayed what would…

As we entered our seventh week yesterday, I found myself overwhelmed with the worries, the dust, the noise, the constant people, and, just the whole process through which—so far—we can’t really see a significant payoff. Today I’m trying to resurrect some sense of equanimity and refocus on how the results will be well worth the…

And more behind the amazing video I shared!  A neighbor mows his grass this afternoon on property that has a rich history, but only fairly recently anything like lawns. It begins about 500 years ago when the Potawatomi (with other tribes) migrated from the Atlantic seaboard to millions of acres around the Great Lakes, including…

In perhaps the first few minutes of our initial consultation with our salesperson/designer, M, we stressed that our current, externally venting range hood absolutely had to continue to vent outside and be more powerful than the one we had. Five and a half weeks of construction in (and a year or more after that conversation…

Society pages in old newspapers are so silly and quaint, right? Not to a researcher! As I researched the neighborhood close to what would be our house, I found early references to the house that is next door to us. It was built in 1927 and first owned by a family headed by a commercial…

Ripping out walls (or sections of walls) installing plumbing, electrical, and then installing new walls Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. means bins and bins of dirt and each day. The crews do an amazing job of trying to minimize how much of this gets beyond the direct work areas and they spend…

As you might recall, our kitchen had light from two small windows, a center overhead light and a small light over the sink hidden by the hated scalloped trim. Before previous renovations, the kitchen had many more light sources and switches to enable their function that we can see from the demo. The powder room…