649 6th

recovering

We got the cushions back for the three piece couch sectional. The foam is not quite as dense as it needs to be to drape over the springs. Other than that they look pretty good...

fall

Fall comes and we find ourselves firmly planted in year two of our renovation. Not a lot of words as of late mainly because house work has become so routine it's sometimes beyond comment.

Work is happening. Maybe not at the rate we had planned, but it is happening. The big plan had us finishing the kitchen by Thanks Giving-- that's not going to happen. One step at a time.

After our late summer flurry of reconstructing the back wall of the house and roofing the kitchen the task at hand was putting it back together. As you can see from the photo we used standard fiberglass insulation. Now you may wonder how this jives with our "green" building approach. Well, it doesn't. Here's the problem (and it's so lame I can't believe it's my alibi) getting green materials in the small increments we need for this house is nearly impossible. We found it out with the Hardi Plank exterior and were right back there when it came time for insulation.

There's gotta be some sort of collective buying power that the Home Depot 2 blocks away has that it could package greener options and still make a profit. In fact I have a whole new integrated marketing plan worked out for Home Depot. If any of you out the know or are the CMO please drop me a line (if I were prone to emoticons I would insert a winky here.)

As you can see from the photos the kitchen is beginning to come back together. The soffit framing has been installed and all of the ceiling insulation (well let's say "most") is up. Electrical is the next thing. The schematic has been designed. It looks like we will run a sub panel off of the main to run the kitchen and bathroom. We did the same thing with the second and third floors. In fact the only thing left on the original electric is the dining room and basement. I expect before it's all done we will rewire that too.

After attempting to use the bathroom sink to do dishes we realized what a wrong headed notion not having a kitchen sink was. We got the old sink out of the backyard and made this nifty 2x4 stand and were back in business. To drain I rigged up a funnel with a piece of tubing (think beer bong) and we were back in business.

Finally, after having sat in the back yard all summer it was time to clean up and reinstall the radiators. We wire brushed the multiple coats of paint off of them revealing the natural metal color. The surface was finished with a clear mat sealant and they were reinstalled (carrying those things up nd down stairs makes you realize exactly how heavy they are). Just in time too the cats are very happy to have them to hug as the evening temps begin to drop.

kitchen map