Kitchen Cabinet - before and in progress

In the existing kitchen, there was a built-in cabinet (pictured below). Because this was my great grandmas, I wanted to find a way to keep it . The first thought was to move it downstairs and incorporate it into a future kitchen remodel.


The very top few feet of the cabinet (shown below) would have to be removed, because the kitchen and dining room downstairs have ceilings that are a good 2 ft shorter than upstairs.

When the cabinet was removed in 2 pieces, it became apparent that the only way to get this thing downstairs would be to take it apart into more pieces or send it off the back porch (like was done with the blue bathroom furniture). Neither of these seemed like good options. So we decided to find a home for it upstairs in the reading room. Basically it will be on the same wall as it was previously just on the other side.



Right now both pieces are in the kids' bedroom and will need to be put together in the reading room.

Below is what it looked like in the kitchen after this was taken out. The first shot is the floor and the second is of the wall. As shown in the bathroom/laundry room pics - this is where a toilet, bathtub and linen closet will go.

Steve is giving me a hard time about the amount of blogging I have done today. What better way to celebrate your anniversary, right?

Laundry room/bathroom Part 2

Here is what the laundry room/bathroom looks like now. This is the nook for the toilet. Originally it was going to be on the wall to the left of the sink but it didn't work plumbing wise. I think it will be better to have one toilet that is not next to a window.
Steve and PT are standing where the bathtub will be (to the right of the toilet).

Below is the area above where the vanities will go. They have started marking where the sconces will be hung.

This is the innards of the plumbing for the sinks. Yep - that's right - double vanities!!!

Plumbing for the toilet and bathtub....

Here is more of the laundry room setup. The first shot is just with the framing. The second and third show the progression of the plumbing and electric .

This final shot shows where the old entrance to the attic was. It is being moved out into the hallway. This wall will be for the bathtub on the left and linen closet on the right.

Laundry room/bathroom in progress Part 1

Underneath the yellow linoleum was this lovely yellow and green linoleum. We decide not to save this...


In order to do the plumbing on this wall, they needed to frame it out because the plaster was too fragile.

This is the wall where the kitchen cabinet was. In the corner will be a toilet area. Where the orange tool is standing will be the bathtub shower. In the unseen corner will be a linen closet.

Kitchen ...soon to be bathroom/laundry room

I didn't take many pics of this room before.

Here is the kitchen sink, which we are hoping to reuse somehow in phase II when we remodel the downstairs kitchen.

This wall where the kitchen sink was is going to have the 2 sinks/vanities.

This corner (to the left of the window) had a stove, which is now in the garage. The thought is to rehab this also. Going forward this will be walled off to make the laundry room part.

The wall not shown has the kitchen cabinet, which I will show before/after in another post.

Master bathroom in progress

Here are some shots of the master bathroom in progress.

This shot shows where the door used to be. We always suspected that the one on the right was not original because it is shorter than all of the other doors in that room.

It was kind of weird to see the radiator hanging out there. They ended up removing it and draining all of the radiators.

Below is the plumbing for the toilet. Yes - it will be great to have a view out the window while taking care of business...

Master Bath - before work began

Our neighbors reported a flying blue toilet, sink and bathtub. Here are some before shots of the master bath. It's a tight space - so I did my best to get some good shots.

This picture below is one of my favorites of the bath tub and light. For whatever reason the electrician said it would not be possible to keep this set-up. Doesn't everyone need an exposed light above their bath???

Room by room

A few vacations, travel and family gatherings have made it nearly impossible to stay up to date with the blog. My thought right now is to do room-by-room posts on where we are at...and if time...where "we" are going.

One would think that hiring someone to "do" the work would give all sorts of time to blog about it? My guess is that I will be much more anxious to show off progress - when it's hey - look it what i spent my entire weekend doing.

I am sure the next few months will test that theory. Enjoy the pics...

Just a couple

Imagine if you will...

The problem with being on the road while your house is being worked on is that you are completely at the mercy of your husband to update you on what work is getting done.

Yesterday - Steve informed me that they took the plaster out of the master bathroom. In doing so, they discovered that there was an opening for a door on the wall were the sink was. I'd insert a picture here - but for now you just have to imagine.

This door would have connected what we are calling the master closet to the master bath. We know that the master closet used to be the back hallway and there was a stair case into the kitchen. We also know that this back part of the house was not original. Now it follows that this room was added but may not have always been a bathroom. I have often stared at the bathroom and closet doors and wondered why they are different heights. It makes sense if one is not original.

Today Steve came home and was excited to see more garbage in the dumpster - some Kohler boxes. He thought this meant that they had installed some of the bathroom fixtures. Since we did not purchase anything made by Kohler - he quickly came to the realization that this must have been from another job site.

When he went upstairs - he didn't even notice (at first) that the hallway had been extended. The existing blue dining room (soon to be reading/craft room) had a book case in it. The book case was added to frame in a doorway that connected this room to the hallway/stair case. It is so odd to think about what it will look like to "see through" that wall into the room.

Finally, in the existing kitchen (soon to be kids bathroom) - they took out the kitchen sink and have started to prep the kitchen cupboard to be removed.

As excited as I am about all this change - its scary as well. I have only known these rooms as they looked for the last 30+ years. The cleaning out and wallpaper removal that I have worked on are merely cosmetic. Crazy it is going to sound - I am going to miss this space as it once was.

We are doing alot to preserve the footprint of the upstairs. It was like a time capsule up there. You could see (and at one time smell) what life was like up there. The kitchen will never again be a place where cookies are made. The dining room will not be a place for hosting friends for dinner. My grandpa's bedroom will no longer be a place of boyhood dreams.

It seems odd to have these connections to these rooms since I never baked in the kitchen, dined in the dining room, or even saw a bed in grandpa's bedroom. I do take comfort in knowing that the kitchen will now be a host to the smell of clean laundry and bubble bath, the dining room will be a place to relax with family, and grandpa's bedroom will hold toys to be played with in the same rooms my mother and grandfather played in. I also know that prior to my family living in the house - these rooms had other purposes - before the house was a 2-flat. So I guess my "memories" are all relative (no pun intended) and that the house will continue to change as the needs of its caretakers change.

On the road again...

When you go more than a few days without posting, it is hard to figure out what needs to be left unsaid. I will do my best to keep to the key moments over the last few weeks.

Previously on 108 North...

We had just found out about the water line and were headed for our first cruise. The trip was great and we have lots of fond memories like....being detained in Mexico and leaving 1 cell phone in LA. The Gs safely made it back to 108N and the phone...well...Steve just got the shipping info today - so he promises it will be here shortly.

PT got to vacation with gma, teach and ellie in chambana and had a grand old time.

The house...while in spite of best hopes of progress while we were out of town...little was done inside. The electrical did get updated - so that's a start.

The week of the 4th - which I keep referring to as 2 weeks in 1 - dragged on. Seriously what kind of a joke is it have a holiday mid-week? Tues felt like Fri, Wed felt like Sun, and Thurs felt like Monday AGAIN. Remind me when this happens again in a few years just to take the week off.

We celebrated like it was 1812 at that band concert on the 5th. It actually was nice that work hadn't really started on the house. I just know there will come a point when having people over will not be feasible. We also got news on a new addition for our friends. Not sure if this has been announced - so will just leave names out for now :) We're so excited for you guys!!!!

This morning I left the house bright and early for ORD and a business trip to Houston :) Steve went for an MRI - his back/leg have been messed up. He also reported in that the dumpster is in the driveway, which I hope is an indicator of lots of work getting done this week.

Tonight I am procrastinating because I have work to do. The hotel offered a free movie and popcorn - so I just got done watching WF and JH in Blades of Glory.

Now this...this is complaining...and a long one...

Steve and I both have had a pretty rough work week. Sometimes planning to go on a vacation feels like more work than it is worth. That is not to say that vacations aren't necessary.

It just seems like this week has been full of things that take longer than you thought and no real time for planning - throw in less sleep than normal and you have 2 cranky, frantic people.

Will shift a little blame to the dog who this week decided might not need the huge comforter in his cage to keep him warm in our un-air conditioned house. He is really found of all blankets and will bury his head under the throw on the couch just to cover his eyes from the light. It clearly made sense to us that he must be getting warm under the comforter. In hindsight he may not really mind the heat. Our little black pup will find the one inch of sunlight on the porch and bake himself until he is panting and we take him inside. He's not like some other dogs we know in Champaign who have taken to bask in the shade. In any event, pretty much every night this week he has woken us up during the middle of the night barking and refusing to go back into his bed. At least once in our drunken sleepiness we have ended up letting him sleep in our bed just to make the barking stop. So apparently we need to give him back his blanket so he will sleep through the night.

I know this is nothing compared to the sleepless nights that parents had but it just added to a crazy week. Today, we got a call from the contractor (who has yet to do more than draw circles on my walls were light switched and outlets will go) - to say that the city is making us upgrade the waterline....a $12-$15k expense we weren't really planning on...

Did I mention we are leaving on vacation in a few days? woo hoo...we should make sure to pack those bags and bags of money we have laying around....

So it's time to re-look at our plans...because the budget is the budget. The good news is that the electrical work will get started next week when we are gone - which will be nice. We have to narrow down where we can cut corners, delay things or what we can do on our own.

Gosh...was my last post some kind of foreshadowing???

Not complaining....just documenting

I am used to operating under such things as a "schedule" or what one might call a "plan". I have even caused Steve to arrive 45 minutes early for his own birthday party in order to satisfy my need to be "on time". Furthermore, I am used to getting what I want, when I want it.

Needless to say this attitude and need for timeliness of actions does not bode well for someone entering into a large house project, which requires the help of people who are not maritally bound to meet my demands of getting things done when I expect them to be done.

We are leaving shortly to go on a cruise with some friends, so the plan was to have things underway so that work on the house could get done in our absence. This was in compliance with "my plan".

I bought things and ordered things to comply with said plan.

Friday we were scheduled to "start" with the electrical box upgrade to 200 amps. This has now gotten pushed back until late Monday. This means that actual work can't start until Tuesday. No problem....just getting to be 2 weeks later than we originally thought. So I can see how this quickly turns into a slippery slope with these kinds of projects.

Yesterday we got a call that the bathroom tile was in. Yeah! We decided to go get it on Sunday since Saturday was jam packed with activities. Steve and I headed in the direction of the tile store in separate cars since there was a chance that 130 sq ft of tile would be too much for one car. On the way, we stopped at Kohls to exchange swim trunks I had bought Steve for our trip. He picked out new ones and I got in the returns/exchange line for a bit. I sent Steve on to the tile store so that he could get his half.

After 25 mins in line, I was pleasantly suprised to learn that Steve was able to get all the tile in his car. So I headed over to my parents to pick up a suitcase to borrow. We chatted for a bit. My dad went in to the ER last night for kidney stones- so there was a bit to talk about. So far no sightings of the "golden nuggets" (as my mom is calling them).

By the time I got home, Steve had already taken all 20 boxes upstairs. I was happy to have gotten out of manual labor - but a little disappointed when I realized 7 of the boxes were the wrong tile....

We loaded up the tile and I called the store. "Oh Chip must have put the order in wrong".
Admittedly the order was slightly confusing since 130 sq ft was of 2 in all white hexagon tile with a white square and 72 sq ft was of 1 in hexagons with an ebony center hexagon . Sounds like the same thing - it's not.

I conjured about my best Grandma Rose* impression and was off to give them a piece of my mind. By the time I got there I wasn't willing to start making a scene until I gave them the chance to make things right. They claim to be ordering the right tile and it should be in Thursday. God help them if it's not.

Yes I realize it's not the end of the world - since the likelihood of the contractor laying tile while we are gone is slim. I still feel like it is my natural born right to be a pissed off customer when I don't get what I want.

*Grandma Rose was a former inhabitant of the house, who chose to speak her mind when given bad customer service and well to be honest sometimes they deserved it and sometimes they didn't. She wasn't a public cusser - though she did own a necklace that said "Oh Shit" - but had she waited in that Kohls line - they would have heard how ridiculous it was. And she would have been right. Nothing is more infuriating as a customer than to see 1 person at a customer service desk and other workers nearby not coming over to help. I know perfectly well that the person I am seeing is probably not trained for customer service and is probably tasked with putting away returned stock...it just doesn't make my wait any shorter.

The little woman will do it

I only wish I had a picture of this, but last weekend Katie and I worked together cutting the lawn. (I am alternating using the push mower and the gas mower hoping to get to a point were I am using the push 2 times for every time I use the gas - to save some oil. The reality is that the push mower doesn't cut as well as the gas mower.) So it was time to cut using the gas, but Katie wanted to try using the push. She cut a good sized portion of the lawn just pushing and I did the rest with the gas. A passer-by even gave Katie the thumbs up for plugging away. Needless to say, I was impressed by her not just trying but doing. Now on to the renovation's - starting as early as Friday. We got our first permit to start work!

In honor of Memorial Day

I thought it would be fitting to post a few pics of a former owner of the house in his navy uniform. I believe that some of these were my grandparents engagement pictures...

My apologies for how these are scanned. I need to go back and re-scan them!