Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
So we’ve been through the brick and the cornice. Finishing off the Phase 2 façade work means replacing the windows. Remember what I have? Total junk. I was glad to learn how bad they were because I didn’t want vinyl windows under any circumstances and I can replace these without feeling guilty. To review: I…
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Actually I’m making decisions now because I have to. And by that I mean reclaimed lumber is on sale at Philadelphia Salvage for this week so if I decide things now I’ll save a lot of money. Here’s the a sketch looking into the kitchen from the living room. I don’t know if you could…
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I’m defining “stop worrying” loosely. Here’s the deal. We decided that a good thing to do next was frame out supports for the new ceiling in the back bedroom (which I gutted bare). Then we realized that this framing will need to be attached to the back wall, where I’ll be pulling out one crappy…
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Maybe it’s a sacrilege, but yes, I’ve undone the worst of my house’s eponymous crookedness. I’ll only be doing this to one room, mind you. The back bedroom, which had been uncomfortably crooked, is now within 1/8″ of level. And it was built strangely with strips of wood 2 feet apart supporting the floors, and…
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I reached a real milestone this week. All the bagged plaster is gone! That doesn’t mean I won’t find bits of it here and there, but I’m officially done hauling it out. And to celebrate, I vacuumed my car. I’ve also finished taking out the flooring in the back bedroom. All of it. Those boards…
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So my last post terrified a few people. That post’s after pictures showed my demolition debris under control, though certainly not gone. I’ve been chipping away at it slowly. I’m also finalizing how to deal with the roof, insulation, electrical, and chimney work. There’s not much to see this update. You may be discouraged. I…
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It’s been a little while, and the work I’ve done lately has been thankless. I decided to tear out my 3 layer thick living room ceiling, 2 layer thick kitchen ceiling, and the ceiling and walls in the wood framed parts of the back bedroom. Here’s what that looks like. Don’t be scared.
I planned for this to be at least somewhat instructional, but the video got mangled and came out extra fast. All the better for you, I cut all the educational parts out. Michael Bay’s got nothing on me, here’s 47 efficient seconds of smashing action!
Five men and a tub. The big news for the past two weeks is, we got all 325 pounds of it up the stairs. And no one died, and as far as I know, none of them hate me. I love love love this tub. This is probably less exciting than I think it is.…
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Update: I’ve concluded that separating one of my sinks from the bathroom (and keeping it open to the upstairs hall instead) will not work in the space I have. It may have been handy, but I’ll be sticking with a fairly conventional bathroom with two sinks. Continue reading if you want to see my thoughts…
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