VIB Chronicles

The Real Deal

After two years of thinking and planning for the new kitchen, it finally feels for reals. you know how? well it happens when you go from this:

to this:

and many many of these:

Pretty cool eh’

We have been working with our architect friends who were kind enough to help us way back when we were just preparing to prepare (i.e. putting together our kitchen registry for the wedding).

We have spent probably a total of 40 hours in the last month just on our own (and over several sessions) with IKEA kitchen book getting the cabinet layout just right.… Read the rest

Éminence Grise

The other day, I was sitting around, looking at this:

and it just really looked awful. and I thought, to hell with waiting to demolish the kitchen, even though that is exactly what i would like to do right now. unfortunately (or fortunately) we have to wait a few more months before we can begin in order to line up all of our financial sources to begin. we are thinking mid march, but that’s a subject for another post.… Read the rest

Sourcing for the Kitchen

Ok, so our walls and floors aren’t that great, but do we really need to redo the kitchen? Especially if to do it right we need to do a gut. After all, right when we moved in, we made our kitchen work with some paint, fabric and craigslist purchases. It may not be the most comfortable or pretty, but really it works. for now.

And yet, the odds actually aren’t looking all too good.… Read the rest

To Gut or Not to Gut

That’s a trick question, because the answer is yes. We are planning to do a complete gut of the kitchen – because its necessary (and maybe because we want to, a little bit too).

walls: Currently, the drywall on the right hand side of the kitchen (where all of the appliances are) is actually about 7 inches from the actual brick wall – half a foot! in an urban house! so obviously that’s coming down to make room for valuable floorspace.… Read the rest

Register this!

Its getting down to six or seven weeks before Sergey and I are done with wedding time suck have a lovely ceremony and celebration with our families and friends. (The house hasn’t been totally neglected this summer – we are tackling a big ‘to do’ project, though its only thanks to Nikita, Sergey’s brother who is staying with us, and hired help – more on that later.)

VIB is getting a pretty sweet deal out of all this anyway.… Read the rest

Roses Bloomin’, Rockets Burstin’

Turns out that there was good reason for us to work hard to get our little patch of dirt yard cleaned and sunny. the roses are in full bloom and we aren’t even at the end of May yet!

On a side note – there are tons of little bugs on roses – they don’t seem to be impeding the blooming, but look kind of icky up close. not sure what those are, and whether i will get around to getting rid of these.… Read the rest

Six Months Out

an update, and likely (fingers crossed) the last post on this issue for another 6 months or so. when we noticed the paint bubbling in our wall, we had immediate panic.

6+1 (six called by us -a general contractor, 3 masons, one mold remediation specialist and a roofer- and one by our neighbor – an hvac contractor) contractor visits later, it turned out the water damage on our wall was coming from a condensation that build up because the furnace at the house next door had no outlet, unbeknownst to the owner.… Read the rest

Renovation Inspiration and Musings

Before we purchased the house, I was pretty excited about renovation as a process. Disclaimer – Sergey was much more cautious about the whole thing. For one, he grew up with parents who are renovators. And two, he understands much better than i do, the value of relaxing.

This is my long winded introduction to Capitol Hill House and Garden Tour we took last weekend.

We were planning on some serious inspiration, after all renovations on the hill have been ongoing for at least six decades (the tour started in the 1950s), so there is a lot of examples there!… Read the rest

Mystery Spot – Solved!

When we called the roofer, I was really not convinced that that much water managed to get through tiny cracks. and on top of that, we have seen very hard rains, while no active leaks were produced. but we were really hoping that a roofer would help us out with where the water was coming from.

So, I consulted PoP, and found Adam’s Roofing (no website). Adam, is, awesome. He checked out our roof, gave us maintenance advice (including on small cracks) and said that no water is coming from the roof– which *good news!*… Read the rest