Bringing our 1936 home into the 21st Century

A critical part of work before any renovation is to photograph the spaces before any work begins. We did not know this, but will explain some reasons why below. Fortunately, we took pictures as avid amateur photographers and emerging bloggers. Today, it saved us a bunch of money. We are nearing the end of the…

In the week since our new kitchen became largely functional, we have enjoyed our limited use! In the intervening days, the tile subcontractor finally finished the new bathroom tile and grout—fully six weeks behind schedule—and the plumber installed the bathroom fixtures. That means we can use (to a limited extent) the kitchen and the bathroom.…

One of our investments was refurnishing our mudroom Most of our hand-made pieces are on site, but we can’t install until the paint is complete and the ram-board floor protectors are removed. But we do have our pretty spectacular light installed:

It is time to celebrate! Crews finished the electrical work and installed the new appliances and our contractor—while supervising that—fine-tuned features of our cabinets. Here’s a mini tour: We plan to move in extremely slowly so that we know how best to use the space. That’s also prudent because there is still quite a bit…

We take electricity (and internet—more on that later) for granted in 2023. Barring storms or neighbors trimming trees, the electricity is a constant. Of course, during the renovation, we have had no power to the kitchen-in-progress and bathroom. Today, the electrician took us back to the early 20th Century for the first time in four…

Studying South Bend history spurred me on a new daily walk route and illuminated even more information about what South Bend was like moving toward the industrial age. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, South Bend was a booming town built largely on innovations between the Oliver Steel Plow company and Studebaker, which was…

Two of our contractor’s senior carpenters completed installation of our replacement cabinets that had to be reordered because a design measurement error: We’re not sure what happens tomorrow, but we know that the bathroom tile is on site and that T will be back to finish the cabinet install. On Friday, appliances are planned to…

Exactly six weeks after we learned that our designer mis-measured for our cabinets, our replacements have finally arrived and are being installed tomorrow! We are thrilled despite the many delays. I will say that despite the big delays, our contractor tried very hard to keep things moving, if only incrementally. In addition, because J1 (one…

After six weeks of very little progress, we start week 16 with some real insights and future steps toward a functional kitchen—quite a bit because J1 returned on the task last week. Last week, he installed most of our (extensive) kitchen tile, highlighted a problem with the counter installation and worked with our Project manager…

After a series of very frustrating weeks, today one of our favorite contractors, J1, arrived. We were thrilled because he (like J2 and T) are among the most careful and painstaking of the crews. This meant that our project hadn’t hired another subcontractor to install the kitchen tile, but one from the primary contractor that…