Hey day

Allow me to introduce a new player to the house game….meet Apple. Apple is a super awesome friend of ours who has come to stay for a bit and help out with the house.

The Notorious has a full-time job. I have a full-time job (and no house renovation skills). Life lately has left little time to get much done.  

Enter Apple.

First a quick review...

We did recently get new windows. Which is kinda like being robbed of all your money. But less fun.  

 

We also had the roof re-sealed and silver coated. Now it constantly looks as if it has snowed. Which is pleasant.

And we had the roof done b/c “we” “finished” the bathroom. And days later Philly got a 100-years rain and the new ceiling leaked. Notorious had to strike it with a knife to allow the water to pour out into the tub. Yes. Pity us. 

 

We still need a new bathroom door. The old one is…well,

Oh, and we upgraded the electrical system from a 100-amp service to a 200-amp service. Plus, a new service line. We now have more breakers available than we have electrical items.

Onward and upward tho. Peep game on the kitchen.

Kill shot to HoPiKi.

Of course the demo has had it’s hiccups.

The ceiling(s) once torn out comprised something like 3000 lbs of trash. I promise we don’t hate the earth, but our house really, really does.  

Hiccup.  

The wall we want to take out to open up the first floor was (1) questionably load bearing and (2) housing both water pipes and hydronic heat pipes. The water ones are no big deal. The heat ones cannot be moved easily until we turn off the boiler and drain it for the season.

Hiccup.  

An amazing surprise awaited the guys in the ceiling corner. Apparently, and I regret to say I was not around to witness this, when they tore out this particular ceiling area the room FILLED with black ash and smoke/dust.  

The kitchen is an add-on. Most rowhomes in Philly were built with “kitchens” in the basement. Sometime in the last 100-years, kitchens were added on to the backs of homes. Ours is no exception. But along the way some questionable design choices were made. Like to hide an old, upstairs fireplace in a wall w/o ever terminating it well or cleaning it out.

 

Apple retells the story with affection. Says he hadn’t laughed that hard in years. Said it was a wall-slapper, take-a-knee kind of laugh. Says it was made all the more funny by the Notorious’ reaction which was not laughter. Said he looked like he was either going to cry or go punch out a car window. He laughs about it now.

Hiccup.

The catfaces are black. (Typing this just had me wrapped up in a revelation that animals have no race. Well, that’s just beautiful.) We’ve had to construct a plastic wall to keep them out of the construction zone. Man, they are jerks. They time the door opening and bolt from all angles – pretty sure even from above – to make it into the wreckage.

 

 So, that’s that. Dining room tear down today. I’m going to help but as cats w/o boundaries as my witness, I will NOT go to the dump again. 

xoxo,
e.