Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
A/C unit has been delivered. that means its HAPPENING. cool air is coming.
today the unit is supposed to start functioning, tomorrow will be construction of an intake valve to suck the in the hot air upstairs. happy happy.
i am lucky to have job where i can take days to work from home, so i am supervising (and writing this up during a quick break) and will be writing up about the experience.… Read the rest
The VIB is pretty lucky to have the original cast iron stairs at the entrance.
Unfortunately, the iron is looking pretty rough in spots (worse yet, eroded at parts) and I wouldn’t be surprised if it hasn’t been touched since 1897. To prevent further damage, the rust has to be stripped and new anti-rust primer and paint reapplied.
Without further ado, here’s what we spent a good amount of time during 4th of july weekend doing:
1) remove rust by scrubbing spots with a wire brush – we used wire brush attachments for an electric hand-held drill.… Read the rest
Over the long weekend I wanted to take some time to get a few quick projects done, to feel more accomplished (it helps really!)
It has been hard to keep track of all the things we want and need to do, and we always end up picking up and leaving projects here and there. So I Sergey decided that we needed a to-do list that is always in place – a chalk board!… Read the rest
Well the good news is that up until yesterday its been beautiful weather especially at night, which means that VIB’s been cool. And since its been cool, the fridge is once again operational. So, cool house = working fridge.
Bad news, its going to be hot for the rest of the summer. hotter than usual. i don’t even know what that means, cause usual summer weather in DC is HOT.… Read the rest
I tried vinegar, I tried digging, the vines just come back, with a vengeance. I did dig up the flower bed after we finally got some rain yesterday (its been hotttt!)
And then I gave up on the organics and just went with the real, chemical, toxic stuff. on the vines growing next to the cement wall. I am hoping to plant climbing roses there.
that is of course if the squirrels don’t get them.… Read the rest
I was giddy with excitement when I found out about VIB’s birthday (you have to admit that’s pretty cool, to find on the day of, that it is in fact that day!). It turns out that tax records, which are cited for house building date at time of sale, are often wrong.
And you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to find out when the original permit was issued (well at least if your house is inside the District).… Read the rest
I was at the D.C. Community Heritage Program Summer Symposium and found out that Today’s the Day!
Yep, the permit to build was granted on June 22nd, 1897 (not 1907 as tax records indicate, and which apparently are most often wrong).… Read the rest
When we took out the carpet downstairs, we were pretty happy to find hardwood floors underneath. They seemed to be in pretty good condition, but they needed a very good cleaning and perhaps refinishing.This is the floor in our foyer:
Given that refinishing would run us into thousands (for the whole house) and should probably be one of the last projects anyway I decided to give the foyer floor a try myself.… Read the rest
Happy Summer Solstice 2010!
(Hopefully the longest day of the year means I have enough time today to finish the project I started this weekend)
The hooks are from the Brooklyn Flea that I got several weekends ago.
I filled some mason jars with stones found at the dollar store, put a wire around them, and added citronella candles to help with mosquitoes. but these can also work as flower vases.… Read the rest
Yes, I know we haven’t been posting very much. That’s cause we haven’t done much:
A) its been hot;
B) Sergey keeps on insisting that we need a social life – so we haven’t even been home before 10 pm this week, with the exception of Monday (I for one would be just as happy scraping paint off moldings as drinking beers in the park/bar, but not so with the Mr.);… Read the rest