Buttoning Things Up
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 29)
Saying goodbye to the Queen City
This past week was an emotional one for Brandon and I. Brandon finally had sold his former home in Cincinnati, and so we made the journey back in order to pack things up and close with the new homeowner. We had one last night in the home with friends and family for a party. We got to enjoy catching up as well as saying goodbye to all of the people Brandon and I have come to know here in the 10 years he’s lived in the house. We enjoyed our goodbye gifts of Cincinnati Skyline Chili to take home, and the next day we began packing things up.
As all of Brandon’s things were loaded into a truck by the moving company, Brandon and I saw the house for the last time, empty. We shed a few tears together, remembering all of the things that had happened in the house over the years, and said goodbye. A wonderful young woman purchased the house and as we closed, she told Brandon that the things in his house, the books on the shelves, movie posters, and decorations, were what convinced her that his home was the right one for her. “Your personality sold the home just as much as the house itself,” Brandon’s realtor let us know after the closing.
Sanding, Sanding, and More Sanding
After returning back to Detroit, Brandon and I got back to working on our staircase and spindles. After several solid days of work, I finished sanding all of our primed spindles, and now they are ready for final coats of paint. Brandon still has a few days of work left on scraping the grand staircase, but soon enough it’ll be ready to be primed as well. We come to the house every single day after work and sand and scrape from about 6 till we’re hungry and tired, but it’s amazing how long this work takes when you can only do it in 3 hour increments!
Tile Work
Finally, as we continued our work on the staircase, our subcontractor, Val, was working on tiling our shower! We had a grey quartz material brought in to act as our bathroom thresholds, shower bench, and the base to the niches in our shower, which really tied the bathroom together and added some contrast. I asked Val to give us a dark colored grout to add to the high contrast aesthetic. We plan on painting the walls of our bathroom a dark navy, so I think the black grout on white subway tile will make for a very dramatic room!
Next, Val will be working on the floor tile to our shower, which is a small matte black hexagon tile with black grout as well.
If I had any advice from watching this subway tile go in, it would be that you should really be sure you’re not too much of a perfectionist if you want drastic black grout like this. The dark grout definitely shows imperfections in the spacing of tile more than a white grout would. So if you can’t handle a tiny amount of unevenness, going with this kind of high contrast tile/grout may not be for you in a large shower like this. It’s not perfect, but once all of the items like sconces, chandeliers, mirrors, paint, and countertops are installed, it’ll look just fine.
Next week:
We are being measured for counter tops next week and will expect them to be installed about 2 weeks later! Christian has also begun work on reinstalling trim, doors, and case/base around the house. We’ll likely be working on the stairs more and doing some repairs on windows while Christian is installing trim.
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