Cleaning, Unboxing, and Organizing
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 39)
Getting ready for guests!
Out of my own naivety, or maybe just my purest intentions to make the house feel more like home, I decided last week that we should host a small get together at our house. I had been talking to some of my friends and fellow Cincinnati expats in Detroit about having a Cincinnati food night for old times sake. Thoughts of Skyline Chili Dogs, Graeter’s Ice Cream, and, of course, goetta (a Cincinnati-German food that is comprised of steel cut oats and ground meat) danced through our heads. Without completely thinking it through, I set a date for people to come over and spend the evening with some Cincinnati favorites and invited some neighbors and Detroit friends to come along for the ride with us.
I assumed that the house would largely remain as it had been, with boxes in just about every room and an overall lack of organization. I’d simply cook some good food, and everyone would get to enjoy our little construction zone along with us. This was not an idea Brandon was particularly enthused with.
Time to clean!
Our main living room has been full of a giant floor-to-ceiling Tetris cube of Brandon’s things from his home in Cincinnati for months now. We’d stacked and stored his things there so that we could work around more easily in the other rooms in the meantime, but it was starting to cause us problems. We couldn’t find things easily within the cube, and after needing to open some of the boxes, our perfectly stacked cube was becoming much more treacherous and precarious to continue living around. Brandon decided that he wanted this room empty for the party, only 4 days away.
Organizing the basement
Through all of our party preparation, one thing we knew we’d need to manage was storage. Our basement boiler room has a fair amount of shelving along the walls, but these shelves are very old, flimsy, and very shallow, making them hard to trust for long-term storage in our basement. Brandon ordered some larger, more modern shelving from Bed Bath & Beyond, and we began the process of pulling out the old shelves and replacing them with new ones. This gave us plenty of clean, elevated space to put some of our boxes from upstairs that we weren’t ready to open yet.
Window washing
Another thing we wanted to tackle was a little bit of window washing. After putting up some of our storm windows, we realized just how dirty our windows were. All of the years of vacancy and then our construction dust left every window hazy and gross. We’d received a tip from our window fairy, Ann Baxter. She told us that steel wool was the best way to clean the years of grime and dirt from our old windows, and she was 100% right! Brandon and I couldn’t believe how well this trick worked to making our windows look shiny and clean with just a little bit of elbow grease.
THE CUBE
We spent a few nights after work and then our entire weekend attacking the cube. We began filling our sun room with empty box after empty box and packing supplies. As we went, we attempted to organize as best as we could, taking clothes upstairs, throwing junk out, and moving appropriate things to our basement to be stored long term. At first, we felt very accomplished, having moved farther through the cube than we’d expected the first night. Quickly though, we started running out of steam, and the pressure of the coming party was pushing us to our limits. After soldiering on though, we managed that last day, the day of the party to just barely finish the job. We set up Brandon’s couches, and I scoured the house for the few table lamps and our one floor lamp to bring some light into our one Chandelier-less room.
We’re really excited to finally have this room usable and clean. I especially can’t wait to use the fireplace while it’s still freezing outside!
Our party went off without a hitch! We got to share Skyline 3-way coneys, ice cream, and goetta nachos and stuffed mushrooms with our friends and neighbors, and had a ball! Our kitchen was the hit of the night, being impossible to keep people out of it through the whole evening. We loved introducing our friends to each other and introducing people to Cincinnati Cuisine for the first time.
The Master Shower Door
After weeks of waiting, we finally received our glass shower door! The installation went very smoothly, and now our entire master bath’s construction is complete! This shower has caused us more grief than about any other thing in the home, but we’re so happy to have it all together now!
Starting to plan painting and decorating
Now that we’re moved in and have a fairly functional set up at the house, our next phase is beginning to plan out the painting and decorating of the home. We’ve largely made our choices for paint, but are still considering other options in some rooms. We’ve begun talking with Elegance by Design in Ferndale about helping us come up with some layout and decorating ideas. Given that we are fairly particular about what we like, I am worried about giving this kind of responsibility to someone other than myself, but we have decided to give it a shot for now and see if their ideas are compatible with us. One of the first things they gave us were some wallpaper samples to consider, and I immediately loved a couple of them.
For our 1st floor bathroom, I think the wallpaper they chose will be perfect for the space. I found a vintage 1920s wood mirror this weekend on Craigslist for the bathroom, and the wallpaper they chose will look great with that as well. The second wallpaper is in consideration for our Dining room, soon to be bar/lounge space. It is a dark textured grey with a flocked damask design that I think would really make the room look premium. We’re looking forward to seeing what other ideas they come up with for our home.
This week we had a painter over to quote us for prep and painting of our entire 1st floor and 2nd floor hallway. Our General Contractor, Calvin of Maxwell Construction, gave us the recommendation of a great painter, and we’re really excited to get to work with him to help us really transform our home for the better with someone we can trust! We really can’t wait to see the last of the 1970s mustard yellow gone!
Our journey isn’t over
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