The Kitchen Saga - Plumbing

Now that we got all of the layers torn off the wall, we found a new surprise! We have lovingly named the mess that was in our wall Tube City.

Tube City must have started years ago when the house was built. At that time, pipes were metal (lead, steel, and cast iron.) Since the house was built, it was converted into a two-flat, then de-converted back into a single family home. Our little Tube City began to grow with each renovation. Instead of ripping down the layers on the walls to clean out the previous plumbing, the more notable urban developers in Tube City decided (in an effort to save money), they would keep building. "Progress" they called it. One Tube City engineer stated "You can just attach a PVC pipe to a cast iron pipe. If it leaks it's okay, because this is in the wall, and no one will see it."

Pipes ran up two-stories, then abruptly stopped, leading to a drastic dead-end. Some pipes connected to other pipes, but had no purpose. And, some pipes leaked, causing rotting and devastation to beautiful original wood flooring.

So, with all this progress, Tube City became one of the largest urban landscape disasters in the history of plumbing!

Tube City at it's finest!

Then, Tube City decided that it was time to modernize. The water droplets were sick of getting lost in pipes that dead-ended, or criss-crossed and curved when least expected. Every time Suzie Drip-Drop needed to get on the bus for school in the morning, Mrs. Drip-Drop would get lost, and Suzie would end up in the toilet instead. It was time for a change!

Mayor Pitter-Patter decided to bring in professionals to do the job right. He hired Dorenbos Plumbing Company for the job. Their amount of expertise and professionalism was apparent from day one. Although it took them four-days of hard work to untangle and rebuild Tube City, they finally prevailed.

The new and improved Tube City!

Now, when Suzie Drip-Drop needs to go to school, Mrs. Drip-Drop jumps straight on the Copper Express. When Mayor Pitter-Patter needs to get out of town, he hops on the PVC highway. Now Tube City is efficient, and running just as a little city should!

"Thanks Dorenbos." - Little Suzie Drip-Drop

The Kitchen Saga - Rip, Smash, Tear

Let's just say that uninstalling things can be very therapeutic!

The process begins!

Remember when I was talking about an onion?

Lots and lots of layers.

Completely clean wall... well almost :)

The Kitchen Saga - Dream

Everyone needs to work towards a goal. And, we found the perfect Cabinets for our kitchen. We worked with Builders Cabinet Supply. They manufacture the cabinets in Chicago, which saves on transportation cost and helps out the environment, by not having to use the resources to ship them. Also, since we are working directly with the manufacturer, we are getting all the options we want for much cheaper than "the other guys."

Here are the drawings they did for us.

Exterior Wall with Window

Sink with Cabinets and Dishwasher

View from Breakfast Room

Overhead View

The Kitchen Saga - Lessons

Well, I intended to get our kitchen finished within a month, and blog everything about the renovation at once. Here is what I have learned.

Lesson #1 - Renovating a kitchen takes more than a month.
Lesson #2 - A house that was built in the 1890s is like an onion. It has many layers, and some of those layers are rotting and/or asbestos. YUCK!
Lesson #3 - Budgets are meant to be broken.
Lesson #4 - Don't put off blogging until a project is completed. It jinxes the whole project. That's just bad blog karma.

Thanks Comcast, but I don't really want my TV in front of a window!

This is not really a "before and after" project because it looks exactly the same as it did, but it's better now!

You would think that moving cable is a pretty tough process. It's not that bad! Time consuming, and of course, very messy, but not bad. We had to rip off the baseboards from the walls. This was very tricky in places, because the wood stain was applied to the floor and baseboards at the same time. But after some good old muscle was put into it, everything went pretty smoothly. I do have to admit, that I had to ask for man hands a couple of times. Thank goodness Jeff and Kevin were there for that. Because I like my girlie hands. They are just not very useful when trying to pry things off the wall! After sawing about 2 inches off of the bottom of our wall we found out that we have no insulation, and the gap in the wall goes past the floor. Tall wall is tall! The worst part of the project was getting a blister on my pinkie from cutting so much drywall with a blade. I am definitely pretty handy with some things, but I will not count cutting drywall as one of them. If you are wondering, it is not hard to cut through, just annoying. The best part of the project... the nail gun. I need one of those STAT!

This is our den. We needed to move the cable from the pink circle to the blue circle.

Kevin and Jeff working hard at ripping stuff off my walls.

I learned that the tool I am using in this picture is called a PRY Bar. I thought Jeff was calling it a "Cry Bar" the whole time. I assumed it had hurt his feelings or something. But, either way, it was very useful. You just shouldn't make my husband cry. That is not nice!

YUCK! Glad we didn't leave it like this for very long.

Hey, that's me too. I am measuring and cutting drywall.

My best friend, Mr. Nail Gun!!!!!

Now, it looks like it did before. But, our cable is on the correct side of the room. Yay!

Pip Pip

Blog FAIL!

Our first project is done... success, right? Well, I forgot to take pictures... FAIL! Oh well, at least I can tell you about it.

On moving day we realized that our box springs would not fit into our attic, which happens to be our master bedroom. Our problem solving solutions consisted of using another room for the master, buying two smaller box springs, or cutting the box springs in half.

So, we bought a circular saw and chopped it!

Even though I did not do the actual sawing on the box springs, I did saw the boards we used to put it back together, and did a pretty good job. So, now along with being a master staple gun user, I can use a circular saw. I will let you know when I become a master at that.

We have been sleeping on the bed and box springs for about a week now, and we haven't fallen through! I definitely count this one as a win!

Pip Pip

 

This is before we moved in, and we only have a bed there now, but we will update, and keep you posted! 

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog about our new home in Chicago! Since this is my first blog, and I will have probably around 6 readers (including my cat, Penelope), we will learn as we go! I will share images and stories of our renovations and design of the house, and hopefully get some feedback for decorative ideas. It's a big house, but we have all the time in the world to make it our home! I am glad you are here to watch us grow, and help us along the way! Pip Pip