Little Chicago Bungalow

Above I am breaking up the concrete sidewalk with a jackhammer – just kidding!

Excavation and pouring of cement is a grueling laborious effort and I don’t envy the crew who is doing the work for us. Sam at Urban Construction, Inc. is handling the job for us. He doesn’t have a website so here is his contact information:

Urban Construction, Inc.
Contact: Sam
5151 Foster Avenue
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 895-9415

One of the pre-existing conditions of our house when we bought it was the horrible condition of the garage. The previous owner used it as a storage space which resulted in a family of very happy rats to move in. Amazingly they chewed through the concrete floor and plaster walls.

Here is a list of how we are cleaning up the garage:

• Exterminate the rats from the garage, yard and alley.
• Remove the previous owners crap from the garage.
• Replace the garbage cans with new ones (did I mention that the rats chewed these up too).
• Called the City of Chicago for a request to spray for rats in the alleyway.
• Breakup existing concrete floor of the garage, haul away, build up with gravel to be above grade (did I mention that our garage was below grade = flooding from the alley), pour new concrete floor, patch plaster walls.
• Install a new garage door (old one is going to fall off any day now).
• The roof is not pitched so it has become sunken and will need replacing.

From here.

I like how it looks wrapped in kraft paper and string.

Beautiful doors of all shapes, sizes and aged with character are labeled by project locations for easy coordination.

Today in the rain Adam and I trucked down to 47th and Kedzie to visit the newly opened Rebuilding Exchange. We were pleased to meet Megan, who chose to leave Salvage One in order to devote her time with this new project. She and a handful of young modern thinkers were unloading a new shipment from a demolition salvage in which we happily scoured.

Personally I fell in love with a pair of round windows (not shown) but Adam encouraged some restraint.

Wood building materials salvaged from sustainable demoltion practices range from oak flooring, moulding and raw lumber.

Ironically I forgot to bring our door dimensions, but we scored a pair of red industrial lights for only $25.

Valentine’s Day in the morning and truffles the night before.

We celebrated my g-ma’s 88th and cousin’s 21st birthdays over dim sum, then spent the rest of the day sanding the living room walls.

The floors keep changing colors throughout the day.

Last Saturday night we had a romantic date to Home Depot = awesome. I started scratching off goo and paint from the windows. Time spent on each window = 2 hours. Adam ripped up more dog-pee-stained-carpet from the attic in which I could hear him cursing from downstairs.

From then to this week is a blur. Adam pulled his groin hauling ass carpet to the alley so he skipped yoga and prepared for floor sanding by taping up all the electrical sockets and 20+ canned lights. Both sets of parents saw the house + Mrs. Neill saw the house: don’t know what order or when. Did I say it’s a blur?

Above are the floors prior to staining. Electric outlets + ceiling lights are wrapped as a protection from sawdust.

Tuesday: Jenny and Matt convinced me to get my floors done professionally. Got three estimates, 2 from Polish men named Stanley, one of whom got the job. They started sanding Friday and will be done on Wed. I found Stanley from Angie’s List.

Friday: rented a carpet shampooer and bought an ice pick. Adam cleaned the basement carpet while I deiced the sidewalks. For breaks we swooned over the newly sanded and dark stained floors. I did laundry which was a mistake because I learned the return vent is in the living room which was the main room being stained. The result: fumed smelling clothes. Gross.

Saturday: warm! 9am jog with the girls. They did 3 miles with me like there wasn’t any winter break. While Adam continued to shampoo the carpet in the basement, I shoveled a winter’s worth of snow from the front of the garage door. Our next door neighbor Miguel and his daughters took pity on me and kindly helped me finish the job. Did I mention that our garage is lower than grade + invested with rats = melting snow was flooding into the garage, mixing with rat feces then flooding back out into the alley? I had no choice but to move the snow away from the garage. By the end of the job I wanted to bleach my skin and burn my clothes.

Already we’ve done so much work and hardly scratched the surface of what we have planned. Here’s an outline of what we need to complete before we move on February 20th, 2009:

• Remove existing trash from property including curtains, furniture, dishes, food, misc.
• Remove carpet from the attic
• Carpet shampoo the basement
• Remove quarter rounds from baseboards
  
• Sand + stain wood floors in the living room, 2 bedrooms + hallway
• Clean windows of paint + 2 other types of goo, then caulk
• Spackle, sand, prime and paint living room + 2 bedrooms
• Ongoing nightmare will be the garage: exterminate + rebuild

Above, an unforeseen washing machine breakdown.

The day we closed on the property was a Friday night, one which we spent consolidating the previous owners belongings and ripped out the dog-pee-stained-carpet from the attic. I got a little carried away and started removing all the electrical switch plates. Shortly after the Helliges came over with their cute little tool bag (we shortly got one too) to help us fix what I messed up.

Things you should do when working with electrical:

• Make sure that the power is off before you start! Find the circuit breakers and turn them off.
• If you forgot to turn off the power, do not touch a screw driver onto any parts of the electrical switch.
• Let someone else do the work unless you enjoy labyrinths + problem solving.

Previously we have had a great experience with Brunswick Electrical Corporation owned and run by Al Kanarowski.

[ Excited to paint the walls white ]

[ You can see more photographs of our work in progress here ]

We are now into the second week of home ownership after wondering if it would ever happen. Four and a half years ago Adam and I started looking at properties in Chicago in which we engaged in 3 real-estate contracts. Then on September 10, 2008 we signed onto a short sale waiting 5 months to actually close. So here we are! Our dream of owning a home is finally a reality and our little Chicago Bungalow is a perfect for us in all ways.