State of the Home Rehab Address — 2018
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 40)
Before and Today of our Living Room, Kitchen, and Library Room
Before and Today of our Guest Bath, and Master Bath and Bedroom
Hello 2018
The past year has quite easily been one of the most difficult if not the most difficult of both our lives. It has been constant stress, heartache, headache, and often tears. It has challenged the strength of our relationship as well as the strength of our wallets and will.
But after looking back and seeing how far we have come, we are just so proud of what we have been able to accomplish. We still have a long way to go, both inside and outside our home, but it finally feels like we’ve reached a tipping point. Being able to live in the house certainly has made most if not all of the difference on our stress levels. We know that we can take a break at any moment, be it for a nap or a well-deserved vacation, and there will still be a livable home to come back to, and that’s an incredible feeling. We’ve felt like we’ve been treading water for such a long time, just trying to keep our heads up out of the sea…and finally it feels like we’ve found a little patch of land to rest.
Fatigue Takes Over
Now, when we started this whole journey, the plan was certainly that we’d end with beautiful freshly painted rooms, free of the old home wallpaper and mustard-colored paint woes. In order to get there, Brandon and I have largely taken up painting on our own, removing wallpaper, sanding baseboards and trim, painting behind radiators, and largest being drywall work and painting of our 3rd floor.
As of last week, we have painted all of the 3rd floor rooms and trim, our Master Bathroom is largely finished minus our windows, we have painted behind every radiator in the house, our laundry is painted, and our guest bathroom is primed and ready for final paint. In that time, in combination with all of the other work we’ve been doing in our yard, basement, and other rooms, my wrist has decided to give out… for the past two months. I have now resorted to physical therapy to try and rehab my wrist back into shape, and have largely recovered it, but painting the rest of our home has now become a much more daunting task.
Brandon’s least favorite activity is painting, he absolutely hates it. So with my wrist issues, he and I have made the call to get someone else to help us finish this stage of project. Calvin Garfield, our trusty contractor gave us his recommendation, a man named Jeff Mueller of RollerWorks Painting and Wallpapering. He is semi-retired from 35 years of professional painting, but agreed to take on our project with one of his friends.
Professional Painting Officially Begins!
Jeff and his partner Kurt started work on the house last week and have quickly turned our house into a construction site once again. With tarps, tape, and floor covering everywhere, they are tackling our prep work at full force! Our front door has been patched and repaired, and while they had the door off its hinges, Jeff and Kurt took the time to shine up our mail slot.
They have most of our interior doors removed to be sanded and sprayed, most window hardware is removed as well, and while we have that old hardware removed, they have been using a wire wheel brush on a motor to clean all of the old layers of paint off to reveal the metal once again. The hardware looks a million times better, and while it takes a lot of time to do, we are excited to give these hinges, clamps, and handles a fresh face.
We’ve been very happy with the initiatives they have taken on their own to ensure that we’re 100% happy with the final results. We’re especially excited to see all of our windows with a completely fresh face!
Some Odds and Ends
We had a few other things we’ve been starting to tackle. Firstly a mini mortise lock that goes to our back sun room french doors was busted many years ago after someone broke into the vacant home before we bought it. We took it out of the door and tried to determine what to do to fix it. We decided to search at some local antique shops like Detroit Antique and Prop and ended up in Ypsilanti at Materials Unlimited to try and find a replacement but to no avail. The mortise is smaller than most, so its odd dimensions make it difficult to find a replacement.
Materials Unlimited directed us to an older French gentleman who lived down the street from their shop and so we took the mortise to him. After giving it a thoughtful look over, he told us he could repair it and we made a deal. We look forward to getting the lock back in a week or so good as new to use in our door again.
Window Treatments
The last few months of living in the house have left us with little privacy. With no curtains or drapes, places like our bathrooms leave us very exposed and it has lead to me sticking towels or random pieces of fabric around our sash cords to regain some privacy when we shower. After a weekend visit from my mother, she decided it was time to do a little window treatment work, and so we purchased some clearance curtains at West Elm in Birmingham that we liked. After taking some measurements and a stop at Bed Bath & Beyond for some tension rods, my mother went back home to Columbus and 5 days later, we received freshly sewn café curtains for our two bathrooms in the mail!
The cafe curtains allow us to still feel like we can look out and make for a nice feeling of consistent bathroom privacy while still showing off our leaded windows. We still plan on adding some drapes to finish off our Master Bathroom that we bought at West Elm, but for now at least we have some privacy that isn’t such an embarrassment from the street. We added some nice heavy curtains to one of our guest bedrooms too. Now when family and friends come to visit they’ll have a little more privacy and can keep the light out at night.
Some Interior Design Planning
Finally, with our intention being to make it onto the 2018 UDCA Home Tour this September, Brandon and I have been starting discussions around decorating and furniture. We have started some conversations with a local interior decorator and have been using her to find things like wallpapers and layout/furniture ideas for us.
As far as our budget goes, we think we should be able to freshly decorate our library/lounge room, and will use mostly current furniture we already have to decorate our main family room. Between our own bedroom furniture and some family given furniture, our bedrooms should all be pretty much covered, which at that point leaves me to figure out our dining table bowling alley project, a bunch of rugs, and some bedroom window treatments.
Fireplace Woes
Finally as painting begins, we have decided to take a good, hard look at our fireplace. It has started to lean off the wall and a crack runs around the entire perimeter and on the inside. Inside our fireplace needs a lot of work, there is clearly some damage inside that needs to be addressed before we can comfortably have a warm fire going. Our Mason, Franco, stopped by and gave the fireplace a look. It is entirely made of plaster, and so Franco plans to build a crate around it so that it can be safely removed from the wall without cracking and repairs can take place. We are hoping to have him start next week so that we can enjoy a fire before it starts to warm up!
Our journey isn’t over
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