Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
After 3 weeks of non stop big jobs, it’s back to the small ones. After we did the living room, the Irishman told me we’d bang out the kitchen the following weeknend. I was ready to shriek “NO!!” But he saw for himself how many loose ends needed to be tied up. So I worked…
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Yep, as of today, they’re done! (pretty much.) And some fun things had to happen for this. After I got to a certain point in the room, I didn’t have enough boards that were the same width to run the length of the room, so I was coming up really, really short. Off to the…
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So more house fun I haven’t told you about yet: I was in trouble with my homeowner’s insurance company because my policy is apparently for occupied houses. This means they could have denied a claim if anything happened that I actually needed my insurance. They kindly gave me a little more time, and as of…
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Before we get to the basement, let’s resolve the insulation issue. The contractor fixed everything I complained about without giving me any trouble at all. I have to hand it to them for that. It’s still lumpy, but there’s now a good air seal everywhere, I think. And if not, they’re coming back a fifth…
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So last week the insulation was to happen Tuesday and Wednesday, which means that Tuesday night was to be very busy getting some drywall up. The good news is that we ended up having more time than anticipated. Now for the bad news…. On Day 1, the contractor showed up, circled around looking for parking,…
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But it’s not nearly as terrifying this time.
Well first of all, happy holidays everyone! Yes that photo was staged. And I heard it for even having the trash can there long enough to take it. Now the trash can population on the screen porch has been in flux, reaching a maximum of 9, then declining to 4. There are two more ready…
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“I wanted a fire with dinner, and you put a #&%$ing trash can in my living room!” The trash can was filled with firewood. And by firewood I mean construction waste. Specifically, wooden construction waste that had never been painted, varnished, glued, or pressure treated. My poor mother has agreed that it can all go…
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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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