Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
While we wait for the kitchen work to get underway, I have been working on cleaning up salvaged tin ceiling panels that we got at the brass knob warehouse before they closed shop last year (check out the stacks of ceiling tiles they used to have).
we have seen a number of houses in our neighborhood with the original tin ceilings still in place; they look pretty similar to these.… Read the rest
To save some money (the estimates for demolition were all over 1k) Sergey and I plan to do much of the demo work ourselves. Here’s the plan, which will probably take about a month to complete (and since it will take 4 to 6 weeks for french doors to arrive once ordered – the timing works), and should –hopefully–be all done by our 1 June start date:
1) Check to see if there is an old chimney concealed behind kitchen drywall.… Read the rest
Well we’ve finally done it – we made a decision on contractors – the plural here is the key part. The short story is: it’s complicated – we will be working with several different outfits: a builder for structural stuff, an electrician for a heavy up, and a firm to do the rest of the actual kitchen. We have penciled in 1 June as the start date!
The long story is that its too expensive for us to hire one-stop-shop pro.… Read the rest
We have made quite a bit of progress on our built in shelving unit this weekend. The first word that comes to mind to describe is HUGE! I mean we knew the dimensions (obviously) before starting but to see it in person, is really awe inspiring. Anyway, back to the actual progress report.
We are following directions from This Old House on how to make built in shelves, and so far with very good results.… Read the rest
Yep still waiting on contractor bids. As in progress is sllllooooowwwwww. Under the original timeline we were supposed to be almost done with demo right now. we don’t even have a start date. sigh.is this normal? is it how it usually happens for everyone else?
there was some progress elsewhere though! the dinning room built-in shelves. we have purchased two Ikea kitchen cabinets that will form the base of the built-in.… Read the rest
It’s my birthday, and I couldn’t be more excited for my presents this year ( well actually I love presents all the time and of any kind for any occasion, but I digress).
First up, is this special lady:
A Pink Flapper painting by Jenny Bellin. Not sure where she will go yet, but so excited to own my first ever piece of art.
Aaaand, Sergey has promised to build me a built in shelves in the dinning room.… Read the rest
We are this close to having everything finalized. We have had two contractors come out, two more are on deck.
Already I know we made (or actually repeated) a mistake with contractors. We want at least three, better four, good estimates to compare. Should have lined up 5ive to six names to call right away. Instead we had three-ish (one that came out to do a kitchen estimate awhile ago). So we have received two estimates, waiting for one more, and meanwhile now have two more builders come out this week.… Read the rest
Happy, happy Maslenitsa celebration. Maslenitsa is a Russian mardi gras – a celebration of the end of winter with blini (paper-thin pancakes, similar to crepes). Its an old Russian holiday; the celebration lasts about a week, with a different custom each day, at the end (this sunday) is the big end, with a bonfire where people burn an effigy of winter in teh bonfire.
Here’s how it went for us this year:
Otto helping with prep work
Russian tea and coffee
The spread; unfortunately I forgot to get the picture of the actual pancakes
and of course the Maslenitsa doll, in all her glory and ready to end winter
Emily making the Maslenitsa doll:
Otto is done for the day!… Read the rest
Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the fairest one of all? My kitchen bench! I got an idea for an awesome, high back, leather tufted kitchen bench awhile ago, which visiting friends in New York last fall. We had stopped into Cafe Ost in Manhattan and that’s when I saw my future kitchen bench:
I couldn’t quite get the image or the idea out of my head for quite sometime, and decided to recreate in the VIB kitchen.… Read the rest
While we keep finalizing our kitchen plans – lots of back and forth still on the details of the layout, we have started the research on french doors. the first time you hear the figure of $3,500 its certainly a shock. but as that turns out, it is actually quite a reasonable figure for an 8 foot tall door, and estimates can get much much higher.
Research was tough at first, as most show rooms carry just a few manufacturer names, and i haven’t really come across any sales people that were keen to share their knowledge on french door essentials.… Read the rest