New Year, New Home!
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 38)
Planning the Move
With 2018 drawing near, Brandon and I were working as quickly as possible toward moving into our Detroit home. I had called my landlord to our rental home in Royal Oak and let him know at the beginning of the month that we were planning on being out by Jan. 1… which meant we were committed to getting out our things and cleaning very quickly. Our roommates, Megan and Adrian, were planning on moving into the new house with us to take over the 3rd floor, and so they too had to prepare and move all of their things.
Out Go The Tools
With all of our doors freshly installed, the only thing remaining to work on for them was the creation of “blanks” for the balusters of our main staircase. Cal and Christian spent many hours taking raw wood material, cutting and planing to perfection until they had the 12 or so blanks they needed. These blanks were then dropped off to a shop where someone is turning the wood and matching them to our balusters we need replaced.
Once these blanks were finished. Cal and Christian began work to remove all of their tools and workshop from our master bedroom and home. They then began tearing off all of the Ram Board and protective floor coverings they had down underneath their tools and in the rooms and hallways. With a few days of effort, our house quickly transformed once again, feeling clean, warm, and even closer to finished than we remembered.
Saying goodbye to Calvin and Christian that week was hard. Up until that point, they’d essentially spent every day, including most weekends, with us in the house. Now it was time for them to start ramping up on a new project, while they phased out work on our home. We gave them some big hugs, I definitely held back a couple tears, and they promised us they’d be back in a week or so to button some remaining things up. Maxwell Construction definitely became one of the biggest parts of our lives in 2017, we’d spent many days and nights talking over Hot ’n’ Readys and working side by side into the night, and it was just hard to imagine our home without them in it now.
Glass Door Beauty
One item we had been waiting on for a long while was our leaded glass vestibule door. Our window repair subcontractor, Ann Baxter, had finished the door many months ago, but had been holding onto it for us to keep it protected from a possible construction accident we would regret. Finally, it was ready to come home. Christian spend many hours refitting this door into the doorway and ensuring that the wood was stable and strong enough to handle the large glass panel being re-installed. Ann and her partner dropped off the glass and reinstalled it on our door, which Brandon and Christian worked to strip paint off of, and it really sets a great tone for the whole home! Ann Baxter did an amazing job with all of the lead and stained windows in our home, and we look forward to continuing to work with her, and maybe even learning from her, as we continue to rehab and work on our windows in the future.
Moving Out, Moving In
I started by taking a load of boxes every day after work, slowly bringing my things to the new house bit-by-bit (my Beetle doesn’t hold much). Starting with summer clothes, books, and gadgets, I had gotten the house down to just our daily use clothes and larger furniture like our beds, desks, TV, and couches. We spent Christmas in Ohio with family, and then a day or two later, Brandon’s parents, with their mini-van, and a friend of mine, Marc, who owned a truck showed up to help us move some of our bigger items. It took 4 full car trips (One with Adrian’s car, one with the truck, and two with the mini-van) to get everything to Detroit.
Brandon got to work replacing a few remaining old plugs on the 3rd floor in preparation for Megan and Adrian’s space. By installing a GFCI outlet on each circuit, we now have modern outlets that are safe for them to use.
With everything in the house now we are working to focus on organizing what is necessary for living right now, and setting aside other boxes for later. We’d love to keep as many things boxes as possible for now, since it’s so much easier to paint in an empty room than a full one. But we did manage to set up a sort of temporary living room with a few chairs, and old love seat, and my TV for now. We also set up our master bed in the master bedroom, and WOW the bed looks so tiny now! Brandon’s old home in Cincinnati barely held his queen bed, and now we have so much room!
Now all that remains to be moved is a desk from my old place and some cleaning before I hand the keys back to my landlord and bid him goodbye.
Up Next…
We’ve got some more work to be done on our master shower, a staircase goes back in place, hoping to find a painter to help us with our 1st floor, and more!
Our journey isn’t over
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