Radiators… They Make Great House Warming Gifts :D
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 31)
Steam Punk
So after waiting only about 1 week from drop off, we received a call from Federal Industrial Services on 8 Mile Road that our cast iron radiators were ready for pickup! So on Tuesday I called a moving company, A Plus Movers of Detroit, and they came by same day to pick them up for us!
We are so happy with the look of these radiators! Compared to how they looked before, now they are all clean, shiny, and uniform! It was raining hard outside all day as the movers were returning the radiators inside, so I was really scared to move the largest of our radiators down a wet ramp off the truck. With all hands on deck, including Brandon and Christian, they were able to get the largest radiator back into the house.
Sanding and Painting
While Christian worked on installing our new baseboards and trim where necessary, Brandon and I got to work on sanding window sashes and prepping our staircase for primer! We sanded down old paint on the windows and re installed them with new sash cords so that our life will be much easier down the road once it’s time to paint. We then moved on to the grand staircase, wiped all of our sanding work clean and started priming! While paint dried, I also began doing some wood-filling on our bowling alley that we will be turning into our dining table.
After that first primer coat we noticed WAAAAAAY more holes in the wood than we thought were there, so Brandon did a second pass of filling holes and prepping for another coat of primer. Years of carpet staples meant we had thousands of holes on each riser to patch.
Planning for exterior paint
We’ve been working on getting some exterior painting quotes to repaint our house before winter hits. Our trim and storm windows are in such bad shape, we want to be sure everything is properly painted and protected for the next winter season. After about 6 quotes, we are in the final negotiation stages with the painter we expect to use, and are now working on making some color decisions. After tackling the front door with a scraper we discovered it’s original color, an emerald green. We have decided to try and return the house to at least most of it’s original colors, brown trim, emerald green windows, and brown timbering with cream stucco. We may decide in the end to do all windows brown too and stick with the green door as the only color pop, but we haven’t fully decided yet.
Next week
We have our counter top install as well as the beginnings of installing our brick to the kitchen wall! Should be some exciting activity in the days to come!
Our Journey isn’t over!
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