TwoNineOneFour

Vote for Zorro!

2011-02-01T21:19:00.000-06:00

I entered a pic of our sweet Z-zer into Modernica's "Pets on Furniture" photo competition, and he's in this week's line up!

Yay! Handsome boy!

If you think he's as good looking on that Ironrite chair as we do, head on over to Modernica and put in a vote for him! Go Sneezer! We love you!!

Art

2011-01-09T21:04:00.001-06:00

Brad and I have a thing for art. (Or maybe I do, and he just does an awesome job of putting up with me!) In our years together, we've amassed a decent collection. So here's a look at some of our collection, and a sneak peek at our "finished" first floor.

Year of the Rooster and Chicago Ghost by Dan Grzeca.

Blue Bird Wedding by Middleburg Folk Art Studio. Behind it is a blanket made by my great-grandmother.

Rat Terrier Pillow by Julie Sola.

Our vintage Ironrite chair, a future refinishing project. (Not art I guess, but I liked the photo!)

A pile of art yet to find a home...

Our criminal 4-legged family. Back in October, I photographed our pups and Brad's brother's dogs, with a fitting backdrop... mugshot height scale. I love how guilty Rat looks in the bottom photo, and Airlie looks like she was in a bar fight (she was at the worst point in her demodex). Oh, my loveable rascals!

Our wool shag Bertoia chair is Zorro's favorite chair.

And to honor our sweet rat terriers, Hey, Ho, Let's Go! by Angela Bond hangs on the wall behind it.

(It's a bit too small for that wall, so it probably won't stay their permanantly. But for now, it's just fine!)

~~I actually don't know if our window painting by~~ ~~Emmy Star Brown~~ ~~has a name... Hmmm.~~

Greens by Emmy Star Brown! Thanks, Emmy!

One of my Christmas gifts to Brad this year was a painting based on one of our wedding photos. It was part of The Commission Project by Paul Ferney.

So there you have it! Next weekend I plan to post a better "house tour" than this... it's a bit hard to get photos in good lighting when I'm at work all day and it gets dark at 5. Such is life.

Have a good week, all!

Happy 2011

2011-01-03T11:32:00.006-06:00

Happy New Year!

The holidays have come and gone. Our guests have come and gone. Now it's back to the renovating.

The electrician should be finishing up this week, cross your fingers. (Seriously. This is week 5. He said in his initial bid it would take him a week. He'd better freaking be done this week. I'm kind of tired of him.)

Brad and I need to sit down and figure out what our next moves will be. I want to paint. But that may not be the most pressing item. I just love how finished things *feel* with fresh paint. And beautiful counter tops would be even MORE beautiful when not surrounded by unfinished drywall, right? And I guess while we're at it we can re-hang the trim that we had to pull down in order to put in that new drywall... that might help with the "finished" look...

Anyway, no pics this post. Sors. We'll try to get some up soon.

Hooray, 2011! Here's hoping you'll bring happiness and success! (And timely electricians.)

Ahh! Yay!

2010-12-18T14:32:00.002-06:00

Counters are in!

Exciting, huh!?

There's still quite a bit to do. The plumber is coming on Monday to hook up the dishwasher and the sink.

[The not-yet-hooked-up (dusty) dishwasher.]

[Our big, pretty sink. With the faucet inside of it, patiently waiting for the plumber.]

I climbed up on a stool to get a pic of the sink and faucet. While I was up there I spotted this:

Eeeeek! That's a crap load of dust! We've got a lot of cleaning to do...

Which is maybe an understatement...

Oops.

2010-12-17T13:31:00.002-06:00

Walls!

2010-12-16T17:44:00.002-06:00

Today the drywall was put up, and it looks much nicer than it did yesterday. Here are some photos of the work.

Notice the flooring that we've laid from the post the other day. I think we need to clean it.

The tile is gone! Tomorrow the island will be marble will be installed.

The big hole in the wall behind the fridge is now gone.

Pups

2010-12-15T10:04:00.004-06:00

And just in case anyone is worried about the dogs while our house is an obvious disaster, don't be! They're all happy as clams camped out in the bedroom. Or more accurately, on the bed.

Me: "Good morning, Sunshine!"

Airlie: "omg. srsly mom. dont you know what time it is?"

Zorro-lazy-bones takes his time getting up, too.

Rat, of course, is ready to take on the world.

I'm certainly jealous...

10 Days 'til Christmas

2010-12-14T23:50:00.011-06:00

We’ve been slow to post details recently so I figured I’d give everyone a brief update. Does anyone remember those photos we took right after closing? Well the place doesn’t look nearly as nice currently. We’re in the middle of our holiday rush because my parents and my brother and his wife will be coming for Christmas. To say we have a little work to do before then is the understatement of the year. Here are a few quick current photos I just took with my phone. (Sorry for the quality.) Needless to say I didn't pick up before I took them.

The foyer floor is laid, but not yet polyurethaned... and is really dusty.

The living room / floor-staining room.

We put up the Christmas tree in the dining room, but it has since been surrounded by future kitchen stools, tools, supplies, and other clutter.

Jessica's busy laying the cork floor in the kitchen.

Where the sink used to be. It's been moved to the island. And the giant (unnecessary) hole in the wall thanks to the plumbers.

Jess warned you all earlier that the kitchen was bad! She wasn't kidding! Just over a week to go and this all should be back to semi-normal.

New Light

2010-12-14T12:56:00.003-06:00

Arrived today...

Not sure if we should put it in the kitchen or the dining room yet... I'm afraid it may be a little too small for the dining room.

Right now our kitchen is a freaking DISASTER! The old floor is out, the counters are out, the walls are out! It's a big, ugly shell of a room... with pretty cabinets. The electrician will finish up in a day or two. Then we'll be clear to hang new drywall, lay the flooring, get the countertops installed, and get the plumber back out to hook up the new sink and dishwasher. UGH. I'm exhausted already!

Holy Sh*t!

2010-11-13T16:11:00.005-06:00

Thursday night Jessica walked into the house and the first words out of her mouth were "Holy Sh*t!" This is because I began removing the drywall in the kitchen. While there was kind of a cool look to the 50s plastic tile in the kitchen, it doesn't work at all with what we are doing aesthetically. We wish we could have only removed the tile, but the old glue for the tile has left removing the drywall as our only option. Furthermore, we need to remove the linoleum tiles in the kitchen to lay the new cork floor. As a result, our kitchen (and due to the dust, the rest of the house) is more disastrous than it was before.

Valedictorian

2010-11-09T14:16:00.005-06:00

Airlie graduated from her puppy class! (On Halloween. Thus, tutu. I'm a little slow on the blog updating...) She was one of, if not the best student in the class. Very attentive, a quick learner, and extremely eager to please! She's pretty much a rock star.

We're in Agility training now, and we'll hopefully start beginner obedience in January!

In non-dog news, Brad and I are working our butts off on the house! The flooring is all laid in the living and dining rooms and we're getting ready to start some demo in the kitchen. We have a lot of yellow plastic tile and gross flooring to remove in the next week or so. Then we'll be adding an island (with a dishwasher! Woo Hoo!), continuing the cork flooring, painting the cabinets, replacing the hardware, and installing new electrical. Our hope is to have the first floor (minus the bathroom) done by Christmas. It's gonna be tough... wish us luck!

Oh, Rain. What am I going to do with you?

2010-11-04T12:54:00.003-05:00

Our plan has always been to install rain barrels to catch all of our roof runoff. Of course, we didn't plan on moving ahead with the rain barrel systems until we had replaced the roof and gutters. No use trying to catch water at the end of a downspout when most of the gutter is rusted through...

But, of course, this happened. Now we're preparing for a new roof, and we're suddenly in need of barrels.

I wanted these:

But I just got the quote and they're CRAZY expensive for some big hollow chunks of plastic! So we're on the hunt for new barrels. The problem is, we need a grouping in the back of the house to catch the water from the back porch roof and the south side of the main roof, and we need a grouping in the front of the house to catch water from the front porch and the north side of the main roof. We can line up the barrels along the side of the house in back, but the space between our house and our neighbor's is only 2'-5". (Yay, city living!)

It gets more complicated up front...

The north side of our house is right on the lot line. So, no room to put barrels on the side of the house up front. We're left with a space about 13" wide to the north of our front porch, or the area under our front porch steps. This is where the big money barrels I REALLY wanted would have worked wonderfully. They are only 7 1/2" deep! We could have stacked a few next to the porch and a few more under the steps and called it a day.

So, here are some others we're looking at:

This is pretty. Maybe a couple of these would be okay visible in the front yard, with some larger, uglier ones under the stairs... Like this:

This is a beast. It may not fit under the stairs...

But these are kind of cool:

They're big bags-o-rain! Rain bags. They hold just over 100 gallons and lay flat, perfect for under a porch. Not sure how multiples work, though...

Then we could just line a bunch of these up along the side of the house in back.

They aren't 7 1/2" deep. :(

But they are 14". Which is still good.

Anyone out there have any rain barrel experience? Suggestions? Comments on the wonderfulness of rain?

Not a dog post.

2010-10-25T21:45:00.003-05:00

So Brad has commented that I'm posting a lot about our dogs... Hehe... oops. I forgot this was supposed to be our home renovation blog. :)

So here's some super awesome stuff about our ongoing renovation!!

Right now, I'm working on finishing our drawings. We initially planned on doing a lot of the work over time, but now we're considering bidding the whole project out to knock it out in one fell swoop. We'll see just how much doing it all at once will cost us before we make that final decision... For all who are curious just what our plans are:

Plans in AutoCAD.

Interior Elevations in AutoCAD.

Ha. Okay. So you can't quite tell just what's going on from the screenshots. Basically, right now we have one 'finished' bedroom in the attic and the rest is raw space. We plan to add a bathroom and master bedroom, as well as fully updating the rest of the house. This may be better... Click the images to see 'em larger.

So, what do you think?

Helpers.

2010-10-25T20:27:00.003-05:00

So we still haven't taken a good "finished" pic of the living room floor... BUT, I have good pics of my helper dogs ON the new floor!

Fat Rat.

Airlie Bear.

The Bear is getting BIG!

Sneezer and Fatty. My guard dogs.

Zorro, aka Sneezer, aka Sneeze Beez, aka Beezer, aka Zeez, aka Z, aka Smiles.

We've been dog-sitting for Brad's brother while he's on his honeymoon! This is Bella.

And this is Cowboy. Cowboy likes to try to eat the cork floor. He's not such a good helper...

Sorry, Cows. I outed you.

Flooring

2010-10-18T18:03:00.004-05:00

The floor in the living room is now laid. However, we have not put the urethane on yet because I nearly cut my thumb off (okay that's a bit of an exaggeration) when I was cutting the last piece. Luckily Jessica's first aid experience from when she was a life guard came in handy.

We haven't taken a "finished" shot yet, but here is Jessica slaving away.

Go Cats!

2010-10-04T14:06:00.003-05:00

Zorro and Rat are pumped for the K-State game on thursday!

Living Room Art

2010-09-28T15:43:00.006-05:00

Last weekend, while taking a break from work and renovations I started to design artwork to be placed on our main living room wall. The sketches started as some sort of graphic representation of where Jessica and I are from, how we met, and how we’ve ended up in Chicago. However, I soon realized I was making this thing way too complicated and it was becoming very ugly. I pretty much started over with the aspects I liked and then showed Jess. Her eye and new vantage point was exactly what the design and my brain needed. The design then became this:

It is the state of Nebraska (where Jessica is from) overlaid on the state of Kansas (where I’m from) to create a conceptual version of the Chicago flag. Since I know nothing about sewing, Jessica is going to create the design as an actual flag. We’re then going to frame the flag so it doesn’t look straight out of a dorm room.

So... our roof fell off...

2010-09-10T14:36:00.003-05:00

Well, part of our roof.

The wind gusts here in Chicago were major a few days ago... Our poor old house couldn't handle the pressure.

Looks like the new roof may be coming sooner than we anticipated.

Noguchi Coffee Table

2010-09-02T21:44:00.003-05:00

Jessica’s mastery of Craigslist has paid off again. We just scored a Noguchi Coffee table (retail $1349) for $245.

Intro to Landscaping

2010-08-31T00:31:00.007-05:00

My first year of college I debated entering Landscape Architecture rather than straight Architecture. As most of you are aware I ended up selecting architecture. As a result, I never had to deal with learning the names of thousands plants. Fast forward eight years, and I'm now undertaking this task.

Last week I researched perennials that are excellent in the Chicago's climate (most of which are native) and developed a list for the landscaping of the backyard. That list is as follows:

Short

Common Shooting Star - Dodecatheon meadia

Ozark Sundrops - Oenothera macrocarpa

Carpathian Harebell - Campanula carpatica

Yellow Corydalis - Corydalis lutea

Bloody Cranesbill - Geranium sanguineum

Blue Phlox - Phlox divaricata

Maiden Pinks - Dianthus deltoides

Medium Height

Canada Colombine - Aquilegia canadensis

Wild Geranium - Geranium maculatum

Hosta

Coral Bells - Heuchera sanguinea

Columbine - Anquilegia 'hensol harebell'

Lanceleaf Coreopsis - Coreopsis lanceolata

Dwarf False Goldenrod - Solidago spacelata

Sedum - Hylotelephium

Virginia Bluebells - Mertensia virginica

Tall

Blue Star - Amsonia tabernaemontana

Wild Sweet William - Phlox maculata

Obedient Plan - Physostegia virginiana

Black-Eyed Susan - Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii

Butterfly Weed - Asclepias tuperosa

Rose Mallow - Hibiscus moscheutos

Golden Columbine - Aquilegia chrysantha

Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea

This back yard project originally wasn't going to happen for a little while. However, yesterday I was at Home Depot getting supplies for laying our cork floor and noticed that perennials were on sale... Two hours later I had a cart that looked like this:

If you're knowledgable about flowers, you'll notice I wasn't exactly disciplined in my purchases. I just couldn't pass up the mums and that orange Asiatic Lily. Plus, Home Depot only had the following flowers:

A type of Corydalis

A type of Phlox, but not the Blue Phlox

Hostas

Coral Bells

Sedum

Black-Eyed Susans

Coneflowers

By today our backyard looked like this:

Additionally, a few bulbs found there way into the flower garden. I'm thinking seeds from the remaining plants might just get scattered around in certain areas, but this is yet to be determined.

You also might notice our new "tree" (steel pipe) sticking out of the ground. This will be the location of our future birch.

Airlie bear

2010-08-30T21:57:00.003-05:00

Meet Airlie! The new pooch in our pack. Our red merle mutt.

The shelter said she's an Australian Shepherd mix... but I'm not so sure about that. She's really leggy and has a short smooth coat. So I'm kinda thinking maybe Catahoula? Whatever she is she's super cute and sweet as pie!

She and Fat Rat are buddies. Zorro isn't really friends with her yet. He mostly just ignores her.

Yay! Puppy dogs!

Cork dork.

2010-08-30T20:44:00.003-05:00

Here it is! Our cork flooring.

It'll take a lot of work to get it all down.

We'll be working room by room, and so we don't end up with weird areas of overlap in the stain when moving on to the next room, we're pre-staining each tile. It's a pain in the ass. But I think it'll end up looking better overall.

I need a pedicure.

Hi, again!

2010-08-30T13:37:00.003-05:00

Sorry, all, for the excessively long blog hiatus. We've been super busy the last couple months with family stuff. AND we've been working hard on the drawings for our attic addition! AND AND, we got the cork flooring delivery! AND AND AND, we've added a new member to our little pack!

But, I forgot the camera memory card at home... :(

Bummer, huh?

So pics will have to wait until this evening.

I'm sure the suspense is killing you...

Sofa!

2010-06-21T17:27:00.002-05:00

We found a sofa on Craigslist on Saturday. It happened to be only a few blocks north of our place... so we carried it home. With multiple rest breaks along the way. 100 bucks!

Zorro REALLY wants to help Brad take a nap on it...

The New Roof - a fundraiser

2010-06-18T16:36:00.002-05:00

So this is far from as philanthropic as the title makes it sound...

As some of you may recall, our house came with a few pieces of abandoned furniture and a bunch of doodads and knickknacks. And we don't want 'em.

So over the next few weeks, I'm gonna try to sell it all. Craigslist, Ebay, Ebay Classifieds, Apartment Therapy Classifieds, Etsy. I'm calling it our New Roof Fundraiser... 'cause we need a new roof. And new roofs cost money.

We could also stand for a new sofa:

And a chandelier:

I'll keep y'all updated.

Urban Heat Island Effect

2010-06-15T10:33:00.013-05:00

Sorry we haven’t posted for a little while, we’ve been busy getting estimates for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, plastering, and a new roof.

One of the biggest problems with traditional asphalt shingle roofs is they attract a lot of heat. This causes two problems.

1. Contributes to Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI)

2. An increase in annual utility bills

UHI occurs in metropolitan areas and is essentially a micro-climate version of global warming. Beyond the obvious problem of creating an increase in utilities during summer months, UHI causes modifications to wind patterns, an increase in precipitation in and downwind of cities, and even an increase in pollution. While I do not have any statistics on hand, I have seen numerous different statistics and documentation on these matters.

For those of you who believe Fox News over scientists and that global warming is fake, you can’t argue against saving money off your utilities. A lighter more reflective surface will drastically decrease your monthly payments compared to a traditional asphalt shingle roof.

We decided to go with a light-colored standing-seam metal roof. These roofs are economical, durable, and they will look good on our house. From snow to sun exposure to hail, standing-seam metal roofs hold up very well in extreme climates (such as Chicago). Additionally, they have an excellent SRI (solar reflective index). So as a result we will have a good looking roof that is durable, economical, and earth friendly.

Re-claimed Brick Patio.

2010-05-31T12:29:00.008-05:00

It was such a beautiful day yesterday we spent the day working on the backyard. This is an "in-progress" photo. By the time we finished it was dark out, and today is just a miserable overcast day. The granite pieces we've found scattered around (was at one time edging, but it is not just buried in the yard) are the edging barrier between the recycled brick and the yard. Now we just need to tear down the chimney in the attic to have enough reclaimed brick to use as pavers. The eventual goal is too also build a pergola that extends from the house.

Today's project: Painting the living and dining room!

House: 1 - Awnings: 0

2010-05-20T16:21:00.005-05:00

YES!!

Awning #1.

DOWN.

(Thanks, B-Rad!!)

Cork Flooring

2010-05-18T17:19:00.015-05:00

When we purchased the house we already knew that we would need new flooring in most of the rooms, because the adhesive used in for linolium and tile floors that were popular forty years ago destroys the aesthetic of the wood floors. Then we tore up the carpet and discoved the floors in the living and dining rooms weren't in very good state.

So we decided to just re-floor the entire place. We looked at many different options, but we wanted something that was sustainable, durable, and obviously looks good. Our solution? Cork flooring. It comes in either 1'x1' or 1'x2' tiles and is relatively easy to install. Now we are just debating on the color. I'm more for C and Jessica is more for 2.

Let us know if you have an opinion. Keep in mind that the walls will be different shades of grey, the trim will be white, and the electircal outlets and switches will be white.

Our helper.

2010-05-13T16:08:00.006-05:00

So much for my claim that Zorro is a good helper... This is how he "helped" with the painting of the porch floor.

The big footprint in the middle is a result of Brad's rescue mission.

Sorry for the crazy eyes and the horrible mess of boxes and mops in the kitchen... you know how it goes.

Rendered

2010-05-13T15:58:00.007-05:00

A quick rendering... new paint and a metal roof. 5 bazillion times better.

Maybe only 2 bazillion...

Progress

2010-05-12T22:16:00.005-05:00

Paul and Gin came to help us this past weekend. We got a TON done. Thank you, guys! We really appreciate your help!

Remember these bushes?

(Not sure how you could forget. This is only our 4th post...)

Anyway, I REALLY didn't like these bushes. I don't know why. They're just fat and bulky and full of soggy newspapers. Not awesome.

But yesterday I came home to this:

Ha! I was strangely conflicted... I wanted them gone, but I sort of felt like it was sad, unnecessary plant-death. Thank you for your service to this earth, bushes. You'll be replaced with some pretty trees or flowers.

BUSHLESS!

The boys

2010-05-12T21:44:00.005-05:00

Zorro and Rat are good helpers.

As long as helping involves a tennis ball...

I betcha wanna see more...

2010-04-30T17:27:00.005-05:00

Freakin' awesome pink paint and carpet. Only a few hours after closing that carpet was out of there. The floors beneath aren't as great as we'd hoped, but we'll address that issue later.

The house was built in 1879 (I think) but appears to have been 'gut-rehabbed' in the '50s. The cabinets rock. So does that stove. I dunno... we'll see what happens with this. Definitely some new paint and flooring. Probably new counter tops and fridge. Maybe an island... with a dishwasher.

The bathroom is all kinds of ugly.

Front stairs. Don't know what we'll do with these yet, either. Definitely needs new flooring... not that gross fake wood vinyl. The plaster walls are in excellent condition everywhere in the house, except here. They're cracked and crumbly. We'll see.

MORE LATER!

And we're off...

2010-04-30T16:15:00.004-05:00

Well, here we go! After more than a year of house-hunting and several failed attempts at a purchase, we landed this baby. It's just what we've been looking for. Sturdy, roomy, space to expand... though it's a bit (or a lot) ugly now, we're ready to take on the aqua monster! With a bit of elbow grease and hard work, we'll whip this baby into shape!