It’s the Final Countdownnnnnnn
Rebuilding a Vacant, Historic Detroit Home (Episode 65)
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again
“Sorry it’s been so long!” With the holidays around us, it’s amazing how quickly time flies by. We have lots to catch you up on, so let’s get right to it!
Landscaping
When we last updated you, our major plants had been placed in the yard, and irrigation had just been complete, but we still were waiting on our new lawn. B&D Garden Design brought in all of our remaining plants and sod and did a lovely job transforming our years-neglected yard into something new and worthy of our historic 1927 Detroit home…
But first, we had a problem. In the process of installing our irrigation, several problems were discovered. We not only lost power to our secret hammock spot, our driveway gate stopped working as well! Brandon and I spent the better part of two days digging up all of our painstakingly buried conduit to find that we had accidentally severed not one, not two, but three lines. The low voltage lines to our driveway gate, our driveway gate sensor, and our power line to the hammock were all severed. After locating each line cut, our electricians arrived on the scene to pull new wiring and correct the issues. A little frustrating, given how careful we tried to be in marking everything as well as we could, but at least the problems were fixable.
Once our necessary wiring repairs were made, B&D got to work bringing our yard to life. Mulch, some final plantings, edging material, landscape lighting, and finally the lawn were brought in and everything was carefully put in its proper place.
A few small tweaks to our irrigation and lighting later, and our yard is suddenly an enjoyable space to spend time for the first time in nearly 2 years! We immediately started having some great firepit hangouts with neighbors and friends and enjoying our outdoor space for the first time in a long while.
Those who have followed us for the past 6 years know that our yard has been a long, winding journey of neglect, discovery, recovery, and reimagination. I decided to go back and look at old images of where we came from and I am stunned by just how different every conceivable angle looks now. There are pieces of the old yard I miss… the large triple-trunk maple tree we had to remove early on due to rot, the “Secret Garden” feeling that came with the overgrown bushes, roses, and secret stone paths we found buried under 8 inches of dirt, and the large side yard that came with having our driveway on the other side of the home. But all-in-all it is clear that our yard needed a proper “reset,” and much of what I miss will return overtime as our new plantings mature and fill in. We couldn’t be happier with all that B&D Garden Design accomplished with our space, and we are so excited for the many happy years of enjoyment of our yard that are to come.
The Befores
The Afters
Moving On… to Structure Exteriors!
Once landscaping wrapped up, Christian finalized all of his work on the sunroom and garage exterior trim. Our new crisp sunroom exterior was given its final coat of paint and the only thing remaining outside became our stucco work.
We ended up deciding to use EIFS for our exterior rather than a true stucco. We did this for longevity and the benefit of not needing to paint, as the color is mixed into the material before application. The result was our garage suddenly looked finished very quickly, with only a small amount of electrical work and finishing touches to remain. Christian, Cal and Alec erected our remaining mini pergola between the garage and mudroom, and the EIFS was caulked to the trim to make it officially ready for winter!
Finally, our electricians returned to finalize all of our exterior lighting and add the final touch to our pergola, a fan! We researched ways to ensure our pergola would stay comfortable in the summer and more natural ways to reduce things like bugs in our space and decided that an outdoor-grade fan would be a great compliment to our patio for hot, muggy, and buggy days. We used Big Ass Fan’s outdoor-grade metal Haiku fan, and Christian and our electrician, Brian of Electrimax, worked painstakingly to ensure the electronics would be as water-protected as we could muster. I pre-painted the conduit black after Brian bent everything the way he wanted, and we assembled the fan and all of the electronics and installed!
Next… Woodwork!
With the exteriors finished, Focus turned to the “Final Frontier,” our sunroom interior. Our favorite woodworker Roman arrived, and he and Christian got to work on all of the intricate custom trim inside the sunroom. They began by constructing the pockets for our shades at the ceiling, built to hold and hide each motorized shade for our massive walls of windows. Next, they assembled the beadboard ceiling, followed by the skylight surround which was built on the ground and then lifted into position and screwed into place.
Once the ceiling was complete, it was time to move down to the walls. The window sills were created first, with our extra deep sills on the north and south window walls custom fit to each window it traversed. Then panelling was created below each window and surrounding our doorway. The final touch was a small piece of cove installed inside each panel to give it that little tertiary detail that will set this whole space off once we paint.
The Garage Lift
With the sunroom trim finished, our last project for Roman before he left us for good was to complete the trim on our garage lift. The metal structure built by Motor City Metal Fab was all there and the lift worked, but the wood deck/platform itself needed creation and the matching beadboard needed to be added to the bottom so that when not in use, our lift was nearly invisible.
We installed large black, square rubber feet on the corners of the lift so we could bring it all the way to the floor without marring or damaging the beadboard. With that and a final touch of stain to the edge, our lift is nearly invisible when up. All you can see are are inset C-Channel tracks on the wall. We are SUPER happy with this strange DIY custom project we decided to take on. Between our Fiverr structural engineer, Motor City Metal Fab’s creation of our structural components, and the hard work of Christian, Calvin, Alec, and Roman, we are so thankful for everyone’s help with this weird little cherry on our new garage sundae.
What remains?
So with our garage construction work complete, all that remains out there is projects for Brandon and I once Christian packs up his wood shop. We have shelving, tool boxes, and general organization to do out here so we can finally get our basement empty of all of our garage stuff and get all of my bikes and mopeds in a proper place.
With the sunroom woodwork finished, prep for paint is underway. Christian has masked off our brick wall and has been spackling and filling holes in prep for primer. Alec is expected to return Friday and paint is expected to begin next week!
Outside, we have a couple small-ish projects. Some, like our 2nd floor deck off the bedroom (above the new mudroom) will have to wait for warmer weather next spring. But there is one final project Christian wants to finish before the end of the year… our trash doors and trellis. I have a rough drawing of what we have planned, and Christian has created a construction plan for how to build the doors and trellis. With the ipe wood being so incredibly heavy, we expect each door to weigh somewhere around 200lbs, so quality construction methods will be necessary to avoid sagging overtime.
Once the sunroom is painted, we will be able to install our sun shades and radiators in the space, and then furniture can move in! We still need to pick out a a dining table and a light fixture for our dining table, but we can feel the finish line drawing closer everyday. I expect when our next update rolls around, we will have some amazing updates to share as we wrap up all the hard work on our sunroom. Thanks so much for sticking with us this far… and we can’t wait to show you where we and this crew of skills tradesmen have been heading for these last 2 years!
Our journey isn’t over
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