The State Tree of Illinois Is Now In My House!!

Some more drywall last night, including finishing up the "lip" above the island:

The also "mudded up" some of the blemishes (including a crow bar hole that I accidentally created in the guest bedroom) in various spots, but are coming back for the big work today and tomorrow -- taping up seams, finishing corners, etc.  The walls will really start to look like walls!!

Bigger news for today, though, is floors.  We went with a combo of rift and quarter sawn white oak.  The conservationist in me is embarrassed because those techniques waste the most of all other forms of cutting hardwood.  But the aesthete in me couldn't be happier.  They are super yummy looking. To boot, at the turn of last century, nearly a million children in Illinois voted to change the state tree from Native Oak to White Oak, so there's that.

So, here is the raw flooring in the hallway leading to the bedrooms:

We are still working out the finish for these, but are hoping for a final finished product to look a bit like this:

which are the floors in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

More photos of more floors later tonight or tomorrow!!

Walls are Going Up!

The drywall guys were in over the weekend and yesterday.  For contrast, here is Margot's room to the studs:

And last night after drywall:

Some of the other areas of the house:

There will be no Sheetrock installed on the ceiling here.  That is where the Cedar (on the left and right of center in this pile) will be going!

Contractor says floors are starting to go in Wednesday or Thursday of this week!!  Its going to start looking like a house again, very quickly.

So Excited About this Project, I've Got Wood!

Ceiling cedar has arrived on site.  I've not seen it yet in person, but it looks excellent from here:

This is going on the ceiling in the living room / dining room.  Custom milled tongue and groove clear cedar.

Finally . . . some more drama . . .

UPDATED - (see below) So THIS happened a few hours ago.  Not sure the precise progress so far, but I would imaging that they are fitting the skylights in place as we speak.  Nice that there is no rain today.

This is from my GC's phone, via instant message.  I hope to have a few other photos tonight -- will swing by on my way home.

Also, FWIW, I know that few are following this so closely to know that we HAD planned on moving next Tuesday.  That has been kicked.

Through the graciousness of our landlord, Gina Fecheimer, we've extended our lease for two weeks.  New move-in date is November 14.  Feel free to say "thanks" to Gina on our behalf by recommending her as an agent for your next North Shore home sale or purchase.  She's fantastic!

UPDATE:  Another photo of the skylights as installed:

Shiny Bathroom Update

While the real professionals are tending to the real upgrades, I've been pretending to be my own mini-Bob Villa with our second bathroom.  Margot calls this the "shiny" bathroom (owing to the reflective wallpaper) but I've shied away from calling it that (knowing that I was going to remove that wallpaper), and instead refer to it as "the Pink Bathroom" or "the girls bathroom" or "your bathroom."

Structurally, it will not change much at all.  I'm swapping the existing faucets -- 8" spread, two-knob -- for a single-hole.  This:

Will get this:

 And look a bit like this:

Several "lessons" learned from this DIY

1.  My clearance was not sufficient to operate the faucet back against the wall, so I've got to mount it on an angle.  Whoops.

2.  The supply lines are a funny size, so I'm going to have to shell out $20-30 for adapters (as well as the time chasing them down), so the "bargain" is less of a bargain, although pretty stellar still at $35 / faucet.

3.  Measure your dang size for the faucet opening.  I didn't and now I'm going to have to mount them on the right or left holes rather than center.  (shhh, later, I'll describe this to people as a 'feature' rather than a 'bug' i.e,. a funky "design choice").

As for the removal of that heinous wallpaper.  I've got about 3/4 of it stripped from the walls and pass number two will remove it from the ceiling.  Then patch some of the plaster damage (from water previously, not from me, miraculously).  Then prime. Then paint.

From there, swap out the shower fixture and re-caulk everything and we should have a serviceable bathroom for a while before "Phase 2" starts.

Shiny wallpaper scored but otherwise intact.

Shower / tub area with wallpaper removed down to the glue on plaster (above the tile), removed to the plaster (adjacent to the tile) and only shiny topcoat peeled off in the far left of the photo.

The wallpaper came off in more or less four layers.  1.  Shiny top.  2.  White second coat.  3.  Tan undercoat of paper. 4.  Glue on plaster.

Stripped to the glue above the shower.  Shiny still intact on the ceiling.

Various states of removal.

More to come as we proceed . . .

Updates . . . Hardwood Floors are On Site!

Its been two weeks since the last post.  Not a ton has changed from an outward appearance perspective.  But that's about to change -- QUICKLY.

So, I'm going to squeeze in a few posts here before we step things up to warp speed.  Among the things that are going to start moving quickly is the installation of ceilings and floors.  Floors arrived this morning and are starting to acclimate to the house.  Rift and quarter-sawn White Oak from Las Hardwoods.

Mason, our architect, inspecting the product.

A shout out to Las Hardwoods - for anyone needing product.

White Oak getting used to the living room / dining room.

Sleeping next to the old insulation.

Sky Lights

We weren't even thinking sky lights when we are thinking of our renovation but our architect suggested them.  On the plans, they are here, over the island in the kitchen:

There'll be three in a row.  The middle will open and close with a remote, which is rather fantastic.  And all three will have remote-controlled shades, also awesome.  Below is a clip of the kitchen floor plan, showing the position of the island.

Growing up, we had a skylight in our kitchen also.  A single skylight coming down a tube.  I had that image in my head for the longest time even when we were doing this.  Recently, I noticed the framing for the three skylights had been completed.  It then finally dawned on me that there wouldn't just be one narrow tube of skylight, or even three tubes of skylights.  But instead, the proximity of the three means that there is one GIANT hole / tube in the kitchen leading up to the skylights.  Its hard to photograph, but here's my best effort:

Here's one shot of the opening indicating the placement of the three skylights.

A wider angle shot of the opening.

Our architect, Mason Miller, tending to something completely unrelated to the skylights (the actual lights, I think).  For reference, he's standing in the middle of what will be the dining room/area, about four feet east of the kitchen island.

And the opposite side view of the whole.

Seeing this, I'm now realizing that this is not just going to provide a huge amount of natural light in the kitchen, but its going to add a lot of additional volume to the space.