I love being able to stash things away, and while I love our collapsible drying rack it usually ends up sitting in the hallway outside the second floor laundry room for days on end. We usually only have a couple of things to air dry at a time, so dragging it out and setting it up ends up being a chore.

I thought the perfect solution would be to have a fold-up drying rack above the washer/dryer. I looked at wall-mounted collapsible drying racks but they wouldn’t work with the slope of the ceiling. I remembered that in our old house we used to have some simple mesh drying racks and I came up with an idea for mounting them to the ceiling.

Unfortunately I don’t know what we did with those so I had to buy two new ones from The Container Store. Then off to Home Depot for some lightweight chain, screw eyes to fit around the plastic tubing of the drying rack, and screw hooks to hook the chain to the ceiling.

The eyes and hooks were screwed into the ceiling joists, the chain cut to the proper length for the drying racks to hang level, and ta da! Simply cinch up the chain and hook it tight so that the rack is tucked away…

…and unhook and let it drop when it’s needed for drying.

Here are the detail shots. This first one shows the screw eye screwed into the sloped ceiling a couple inches higher than our washer/dryer. This is how the drying rack will pivot up to the ceiling. We had to cut the mesh to get it around the screw eye.

The next shot shows the racks in the closed position, with the chain cinched up to the top ceiling hook. Pete made the ring from a wire clothes hanger. He also cut off the legs of the drying racks since we didn’t need them.

The last shot shows the racks in the open position. The racks are tied together with clothes hanger wire and the chain is hooked into the same wire. The ring that is used to cinch the racks to the ceiling hook just hangs loose here.

That’s it!

Tags: DIY, laundry room, solutions

The big question is: Will 2012 be the year we finish the attic remodel, i.e. install trim and hang doors? I sure hope so! It would be a huge load off my shoulders as I really hate to leave things hanging.

In the end, we probably won’t be doing it ourselves so it’s going to depend mainly on our finances. I got an initial quote from a trim carpenter for stained and varnished poplar to match the downstairs, which exceeded our budget. After I asked him to revise for installation only, we didn’t hear from him again (we have a source for materials, and I’m sure we can handle staining and varnishing ourselves once I just put my mind to it). Oh well. Our neighbor recommended his trim guy, so I’m going to call him as soon as I can match the stain on a sample piece of poplar.

Accompanying the trim project is finishing the stairway. When we remodeled the attic I didn’t know how I wanted to handle the steps so we kept the existing wall/railing that the PO built. I have a better idea of what I’d like to do now so perhaps with the expertise of a finish carpenter we can make it a lot more attractive.

Okay, so that’s Project #1.

Project #2: Garden/Outdoor Area
Following the plan our landscaper friend designed, I’m really hoping to work on our garden and outdoor areas this year. We may be able to rebuild/expand the porch/deck area first, but the first thing we really need to do is remove the rest of the concrete sidewalk along the house. We’ll probably have to hire someone to remove it and haul it away.

As for the rest of the hardscaping, it calls for a gravel patio and paver walkway linking the deck and flagstone patio together which shouldn’t be difficult to do (hard work, yes, but we’ve done it before). A row of grasses is to provide screening from our neighbor’s yard to the gravel patio. On a road trip last fall which took us through Milwaukee we saw this installation of grasses along the river. I think building a box structure like this to contain the grasses and elevate them a bit will work better both for height and to keep them from flopping over and encroaching into the neighbor’s lawn.

As far as plants are concerned, I go back and forth on my “commitment” to native plants. I think I’m going to loosen my grip on “only” native plants and incorporate more hybrids and cultivars. I’ll probably keep most of what we’ve already planted and transplant them to other spots, but we are probably going to dig up the Smooth Sumac we planted next to the flagstone patio. They were fast-growing and gave us the privacy we needed at the time, but now that they’re a few years old they’ve become a bit too invasive. Suckers appear everywhere, so it’s a constant battle to keep them from spreading. We (or shall I say, I) want to add a pergola to the patio which will require some adjustments anyway, and the sumacs will likely be in the way. We’ll see what happens.

As if these two projects aren’t daunting enough, I’m going to throw out two more just because they are also high on my really-want-to-do list:

Project #3: First Floor Bathroom
I’ve talked about this project since day one, but unless we get really ambitious I have a feeling it’s not going to happen this year. But oh how I long for a white-tiled, neutral bathroom! The worst thing about it would probably be the demo, and I think I would only tile the area surrounding the tub (in addition to the floor), so tiling wouldn’t even be that bad. We would keep the toilet, sink and tub so it really wouldn’t be that expensive. And as long as we’d have to do demo work…

Project #4: The Fireplace
Yes, the behemoth fireplace could be demo’d at the same time as the bathroom! I’ve talked about this since day one as well, at first having mixed feelings and now just having negative feelings about it. The PO had it installed and while a wood-burning fireplace with a gas starter is a nice luxury, I’ve been thinking about getting rid of it altogether lately. I think we’ve only built one fire this year and we didn’t go through all our wood last year either (I think we bought 1/2 cord). Granted, it’s been a very mild winter, but is it really worth the space it occupies?

Up until this point I had been pondering how to modify/minimize it using the existing fireplace box and just getting rid of the fake stone surround. The past couple of days I started thinking about total elimination, or perhaps replacing it with a direct-vent gas fireplace with a 12-14″ depth versus the current 4-foot depth of the fireplace plus hearth. That sucker takes up a lot of room!

Since we already have a gas line for the starter I would think it would be a pretty easy thing to install. Building built-in bookshelves on either side of it would be more difficult and something we’d have to pay to have done. But it would look sooooo much better!

What do you guys think? Anyone have any experience with the current direct-vent fireplace offerings?

Tags: attic renovation, bathroom, fireplace, garden, to-do list

It’s that time again folks, when I recap the bungalow accomplishments (or lack thereof) for the past year and set goals for the new year. Are you as excited as I am?

To start, it definitely wasn’t a banner year, both for blogging and for remodeling. That said, we did accomplish one of my major goals for the year: Paint Kitchen Cabinets. More details can be found here if you’re interested.

We made some progress on the never-ending attic remodel by installing knee wall access doors, even if we had to hire our contractor to do it for us.

We managed to install bi-fold doors for the utility and master bedroom closets ourselves. The custom doors, which we ordered online from Kestrel Shutters & Doors, sat on the floor for about a year before we finally installed them last May. They came with the hanging hardware and overall we’re very pleased with the quality of the doors. We worked our way through most of the hanging instructions and they worked pretty well but needed some final adjustments, which we finally tackled this past Sunday. Unfortunately the doors still need to be stained and varnished. I’m hoping this post will spur me into action so that I can finally cross it off the list.

You can see the fixed-louver doors for the utility closet at the top of the stairs in this photo. The closet in the master bedroom has solid doors with panels that look very similar to the rest of the doors in our house.

Here you also see the final paint job for the stairwell (off-white on the top left, “Kangaroo” beige on the right and bottom left) which was another pending project from last year. I had to set up a scaffold of sorts to reach everywhere but it wasn’t too difficult to do.

Other than that, I managed to spend more money on various things. Most notably we said good-bye to our sofa, which didn’t hold up nearly as well as I expected. I really didn’t like how it fit in the room anyway and had hoped to find a nice sectional sofa that would accommodate more people if we wanted to watch a movie or football game with others.

I stumbled upon the one below over the summer for a great price at Domicile Furniture. The big selling point was the low back that allowed it to fit through the door without having to remove the legs, unlike our previous sofa. It fills the space perfectly, just like I wanted.

We had our electrician friend add a receptacle on the wall opposite the sofa so that we could move the TV to this wall (previously located where you see the chair, below). This room was our master bedroom before the remodel and now works well as our TV room.

In the dining room, I recovered the chairs using different fabrics that went well with the teal in our roman shades and the deep orange wall color.

In the previous house we used these chairs in the kitchen, so they had a striped, predominantly red fabric on them. Definitely too kitchen-y. They also needed more padding, especially for long Thanksgiving dinners!

Outdoors we added a few more plants, but we also had a landscape designer friend come up with a plan using some of the existing changes we had already made, like the flagstone patio on the side of the house. Based on our other desires, she expertly made our outdoor area more cohesive by expanding the porch and adding a gravel patio area for a moveable fire pit and spot for our adirondack chairs. We’re hoping to work on building those this year in addition to adding a pergola over the flagstone patio. Fingers crossed.

Finally there was the unexpected addition of Henry and Ella who are a never-ending source of entertainment (and sometimes frustration!). They are currently wrestling and chasing each other all over the house. It’s hard to get a good shot of them because they always seem to be in action!

Next up, the official Goals for 2012!

Tags: dining room, doors, garden, planning, purchases

Closets are one of those projects that you intend to work on one day, right? Whether it’s completely disorganized and jammed with junk, doesn’t use space efficiently or is in need of a fresh coat of paint, once you shut the door the looming project simply disappears—until you open the door again. Ugh.

Back when we had all our woodwork stripped and refinished, we chose not to have the closet woodwork done. It was costing a big chunk o’ change already and we had to cut costs somewhere. I figured one of these days I’d do it myself and give them a fresh coat of paint too. There are also some cracks in the plaster of most of the closets but Pete is usually able to fix those without much effort.

When I buy or subscribe to magazines I hold onto them for a while and eventually thumb through them, tearing out helpful how-to articles, inspirational photos or products to look up online before I recycle the magazine. I have a file box just for home-related articles that I keep nicely organized. One such article was a front closet makeover from an issue of Real Simple which gave me the idea to add floor-to-ceiling cubbies to our front closet—because see that large gray snake in the back? It’s the cold air return for our central AC which the PO had installed.

When I read the article I thought, “Hey, something like that would hide that ugly duct AND provide storage for hats, gloves and whatever else finds its way into closets.” I tore out the article and set it aside. Occasionally I would look for a cheap shelving unit, but neither IKEA, West Elm nor any other budget resources had what I needed. They were all a bit either too wide or deep.

I thought we might have to build something ourselves, but finally I came across Way Basics. I can’t remember where but it was exactly what I needed, and eco-friendly to boot! Along with a few storage baskets I ordered 2 of their Triple Cube Plus bookcases to stack and place in front of the duct.

They arrived in no time and were easy to put together.

Then they sat in our living room for a while, winter coats strewn across the sofa while I started to strip the woodwork. It was a fairly simple task but I had a few interruptions that took precedence. My simple weekend project turned into a nagging 2+ months-long project.

I finally had the time several weeks ago to finish stripping and varnishing the woodwork and then paint it using colors I have on hand.

Of course the closet rod brackets had been painted white along with everything else in the house (including the closet rod) but the paint didn’t come off the brackets easily when Pete tried to soak it off so we had to replace those. We secured the Way Basics cubbies to the wall with wood screws and cut and attached the closet rod to the cubbies.

The baskets came from WayBasics too and hold hats, scarves, gloves, etc. The extra cubbies can be used to store guests’ purses.

Voilà—pretty, functional closet and no more ugly duct!

Tags: closet, entry, foyer, organize, paint

I never wrote about the finishing details in our low-budget kitchen remodel so now that the cabinets are finally painted it’s time for a wrap-up.

The plumbing in our master bathroom attic remodel necessitated a drop in the ceiling of the kitchen for clearance of the toilet trap. Instead of an odd-looking, random thing in the ceiling, I suggested that the contractor frame around the kitchen window forming a recess that looked intentional. Genius, if I do say so myself. We added lighting along with pot racks and a simple valance I sewed myself (haven’t really sewed anything since “Home Economics” in junior high so it was a huge accomplishment). It not only adds some mood lighting to the kitchen but also spot lighting over the sink.

We also bought the classic period light fixtures from Rejuvenation. The light fixture above is general lighting for the kitchen and the fixture at right is in front of the pantry.

On the opposite wall, the section in the photo below is mounted at bar height and acts as our essential drinks area (espresso, wine and carbonated water—what else does one need?). I saw the nifty under-cabinet mount for my iPad at the Apple Store, and it works great for reading recipes on Epicurious or listening to music through Pandora, Radio.com or iTunes.

The cabinets are reused upper wall cabinets, mounted below the counter in this case, so they’re much more shallow than base cabinets. We got the idea to mount the cabinets this way when we were shopping at IKEA for cheap countertops. Since we changed the kitchen layout, the old countertops weren’t going to work, but we also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on new countertops.

I saved up and used reward points to buy the Boos kitchen cart from Williams-Sonoma, which is an exclusive style for them and the one I liked the most of all that I’ve seen.

Space is at a premium in our cabinets, so this stores larger appliances like the rice cooker, food processor, toaster and mixer without looking too cluttered. It makes it easy to get to those items as well. With the counter at bar height it stows away under the counter and can also be pulled out and used as an island. Our kitchen is too narrow for a permanent island.

Speaking of counter, this was part of an “island-depth” counter from IKEA that has a concrete look (but is a laminate with fake stainless edge). Since it was meant for an island, it had the finished edging all the way around. This style was discontinued, unfortunately, but because of that we got it for something like $65. We had the counter cut lengthwise (which is a whole other story for another time) to base cabinet depth, shown below, which filled the space between the sink and refrigerator—miraculously it was the perfect width for our reconfigured base cabinets. The remaining section equaled the depth of the wall cabinets. so it formed the countertop on the opposite wall.

We also decided on butcher block from IKEA for the remaining sections: the corner counter space and a small section next to the stove. We had to jury-rig the section behind our stove with a piece of plywood to make it look continuous—this is definitely not a custom, seamless fit, but hey, it works.

Then, to expand the roll-out shelves in the base cabinets we sawed the post that split it into 2 way-too-small sections, screwed the post to one of the doors, and Pete made two full-width roll-out drawers that can hold way more stuff. We followed the instructions here on This Old House.

He did a great job building these.

Yes, you have to open both doors to access the stuff stored here, but compared to the amount of space you gain it’s a minor thing in my opinion.

Finally, we added drawer pulls and cabinet knobs in brushed nickel to go with the stainless steel. The cabinets never had any prior to this. We also replaced the hinges to ones that were more hidden. It made a huge difference.

So, all in all, it may not be my dream kitchen (I could really use more cabinet space, for one, and seamless countertops in quartz or recycled content is high on my wish list) but the changes we made are things that definitely make our kitchen easier to live with for an indeterminable amount of time.

Tags: details, IKEA, kitchen, kitchen cabinets, lighting

Never a dull moment when you’re a kitten! Look at all we do:

We sleep and cuddle!

We pose and look adorable!

We play hide and seek!

We stalk while others are trying to bathe!

We retaliate and attack!

And of course, we do things we’re not supposed to do, but it’s just too irresistible!

Tags: cats

Way back in May on the 3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour, I promised I would post photos “soon” of my then-very-messy studio space, which occupies the front half our attic renovation. (Where does the time go?!)

Well I’m here to make good on my promise since I finally snapped some some photos when it was neat and clean.

Without further ado, here’s the view as you walk past the laundry room at the top of the stairs. We wanted to keep this area open so we chose not to have doors installed in this room. It can easily be added later if our needs ever change.

The previous owner installed the roof windows which bring in lots of light. They also open manually (all have screens), and we were able to add motors to three of the most-used windows (bathroom, stairwell and one in the studio) to open/close them, controlled by a touchpad at the top of the stairs.

The next photo is just as you enter the space. The daybed on the right is the very one I coveted from Crate and Barrel. While it does fit in the nook area in front of the window like I originally envisioned, I liked my drawing table there better and it’s easier to open the windows with this arrangement.

The (sorely underused) “drawing nook” is flanked by the new built-in bookcases. I haven’t properly arranged things there, so they’re not ready for their close-up.

The computer desk is where I do most of my work. When I moved my studio here, I sold most of my old office furniture on Craigslist and bought the desk, also from Crate & Barrel (with cash to spare—gotta love Craigslist!). The work table on the right has been reused in many ways over the years and stores lots of stuff.

Another view of my work area. I do get some glare on my computer screen in the late afternoon, but I prefer this spot for my desk so I deal with it. Velux, the roof window manufacturer, used to carry blinds for our windows and we bought one for our bedroom. By the time I tried to order more (they were expensive) they had discontinued them. I was very bummed and haven’t been able to find them anywhere.

And that, dear readers, concludes our tour. Hope it was worth the wait!

Tags: attic renovation, studio

Now that we have curious little creatures in the house again, I was determined to finish one part of our attic remodel: closing up the knee wall access points.

This was one of those projects where we thought we’d save a little money and do it ourselves. Well, that’s fine if one has the time and inclination to finish it but when it doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day living then trust me, it falls toward the bottom of the to-do list.

After a year or so of living with the exposed framing, Pete finished it off with drywall but I wasn’t going to paint it until we had doors for them. I didn’t want regular doors though. I wanted them to be flush with the wall without trim and painted to blend into the wall as much as possible using magnetic push latches to open them. From time-to-time we talked about how we were going to do it but words never sprung into action. Eventually I bought hardware for the doors but still no action.

Next thing I know another year has gone by and when Henry and Ella arrived I told Pete that I was going to call our contractor to come in and do it before we allowed the kittens to venture upstairs. Pete was more than happy to relinquish the project and two of our contractor’s guys arrived later that week and finished the project in one day. It probably would have taken us a week solid to do it ourselves. Sigh.

They not only finished the 3 access doors, 2 in our bedroom and 1 in my studio, but they also finished my window seat in the bedroom as well as two bookcases in the studio. Photos for those to come.

Tags: attic renovation, doors, storage

Now that 2011 is almost over I noticed that I never set any house project goals for the year. Based on the 2010 goals and accomplishments (or lack thereof), the unofficial goal for 2011 would have been to finish whatever was left for 2010 (and 2009 for that matter). Alas, the most daunting project — install doors, baseboard and window trim on the second floor — is nowhere near being finished, so unfortunately that is sure to land on the 2012 “Wish” List.

I’m happy to report, however, that Painting the Kitchen Cabinets is complete and ready for its close-up!

The kitchen was remodeled sometime in the 1990s by the PO with stock oak cabinets. The sides of the pantry are that “printed wood” melamine so not great quality but still totally usable. Not being able to afford to completely remodel the kitchen, we made as many changes as we could by reusing the cabinets but changing the layout to suit my tastes. It sat that way for a good six months before we finally tackled the opposite wall, which had originally been partially repaired with sheetrock and sheetrock-over-plaster. Completing that project allowed me to once again paint the kitchen, hopefully for the last time in a long time.

I never liked the look of these cabinets, and I successfully painted the cabinets in our previous house so I’ve been planning to paint these cabinets for a long time. Since we added an unfinished sink cabinet to accommodate our new farmhouse sink and also had a handyman/electrician friend build a shelf for the microwave (which I failed to document) those had to be finished in some way anyway. Matching them to the original cabinet finish was not even considered.

My how-to guide was this article in This Old House. It was there that I learned about the Fine Paints of Europe.

I had a couple of missteps, the first of which was priming the cabinets and expecting it to hide the grain. I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time painting the cabinets with the end result being “hey, look at our painted cheap oak cabinets”. Unfortunately this was going to add lots more time to my little project because I learned that in order to hide the grain I first had to apply Brushing Putty, an oil-based primer that went on fairly thick and had to be sanded smooth. Pete helped me with the door sanding part of the project which took us one loooooonnnnnng Sunday to complete.

Here’s a close-up of the brushing putty on the cabinet frame after sanding.

Then, even though Brushing Putty is an oil-based primer, I had to cover it with their “regular” oil-based primer. At least I decided to buy the oil-based primer in the first place (for a more durable finish) rather than their acrylic primer.

Speaking of cost, this brand is not cheap as you may suspect, even more costly than Benjamin Moore and other higher-quality brands. One “eurogallon”, which is really 2.5 liters or 2/3 the volume of a U.S. gallon costs around $120. Yikes. On the plus side, the paint goes a long way and 1 eurogallon easily covered all our cabinets in 2 coats with paint to spare.

The photo below shows the microwave shelf our friend built. We originally had the short cabinet on the right hanging just below the countertop with the microwave sitting on top of the counter. This not only gives us more usable space on the counter but finishes this wall of cabinets nicely — and luckily our microwave was the perfect size. He also added a receptacle in the space to hide the power cord.

I painted all the cabinet doors in the basement on sawhorses and after drying to the touch hung them by teacup hooks we screwed into the top of the upper cabinet doors/bottom of the lower cabinet doors per the This Old House How-To instructions.

As for color, you may think that I painted the cabinets white, but the photos above all show the Brushing Putty stage, and that primer can’t be tinted like others. Initially I thought I would paint them white, but after playing around with color schemes in Photoshop there was no contest with my final choice:

Oh yes, a black satin finish was much more striking and I am soooo happy with the outcome. No, it does not make the room look dark. If we had an entire wall of cabinets it might be a different story, but the kitchen faces south and we also get some morning light so it’s plenty bright.

But back to the missteps: the other one I thought I made was brushing the paint on vs. using a paint sprayer. I’m very experienced with painting, however as careful as I was and no matter how lightly I feathered my stroke there was still some evidence of brushstrokes. I ended up calling Fine Paints of Europe’s customer service to discuss my dilemma and the extremely helpful and soft-spoken man there explained that their paint is used to finish the cabinets on really high-end kitchens. He said that they do not want the factory look that a sprayed-on finish would give but rather the handcrafted look that a brushed-on finish provides, so some evidence of brushstrokes is actually preferred.

Well…I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen a $300,000 kitchen up-close and personal so I can’t compare my craftsmanship to theirs, but that’s what I’m going with. All-in-all I’m very pleased with the end result and I can already tell that these paints will provide a very durable finish for our cabinets.

Tags: before-and-after, how-to, kitchen, kitchen cabinets, paint

Yeah, been a while. No good reason other than trying to minimize the amount of time I have to spend at the computer, and most of that time is taken up by work activities. I’m trying to lessen computer-based work in the coming year, so we’ll see how that goes. Maybe my blogging will increase a little but no promises.

We continue to make progress on the bungalow, but seemingly at a much slower pace. I’m going to attempt to post about all the updates we’ve made over the past year or so, at least just to remind myself that we ARE making progress even though it doesn’t always seem like it.

But first…I’m going to start out with introducing our newest additions to the family:

Yes, I resisted as long as I could in getting new pets but as the vet told me when I had to put Günter to sleep, “Sometimes they pick you.” This was in response to my telling her that I didn’t know if I could do it anymore (have pets) because it tears me to pieces to have to say goodbye to them.

I was definitely getting used to a pet-free existence and even dog-sat a few times for friends. It was nice to spoil them and then send them back home to their owners.

Then in mid-October I had to go to my father’s hometown in southern Illinois for a relative’s funeral. It was a sad and unexpected death but it was nice to hang out with my cousins and aunts. As we all gathered at the farm for a post-funeral cookout, one of the main topics of conversation was about the four kittens who resided in the machine shed. It went like this all evening:

“Someone’s got to take these kittens!…Once the cows are sold no one will be around to feed them!…They’ll either get run over or eaten by the coyotes!…I wish I could take them but [insert excuse here]…”

You get the idea. Since my only excuse was “I really don’t want to have pets right now,” I found myself feeling guilty and selfish about not wanting to give a good home to helpless kittens in need. So after several phone calls to Pete, who was surprised that I lasted over 10 months without a pet, I finally relented.

I couldn’t manage to get them that night so two of my cousins and I met at the farm early the next morning to herd some kittens after a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a cat carrier. (I refuse to shop there normally but I had no other choice in rural Illinois at 7 a.m. on a Sunday.)

Initially I planned to take the gray kitten and the mother, who was a tortoise-shell and still a kitten herself, as they seemed to be the most tame and sociable. The orange kitten seemed a little wild and uncatchable the night before and the fourth, a male tabby, was definitely more feral and wouldn’t let anyone near him. When we arrived the next morning with a bag of kitten chow, the tortoise-shell was nowhere to be found. We were there a good 45 minutes and couldn’t find her anywhere. The tabby (which is the type of cat I usually gravitate toward) was still uncatchable even with kitten chow, but the gray kitten went easily into the carrier and the orange kitten was much friendlier that morning, so he won the lottery and found himself in the carrier with his sister. Perhaps his mama was sacrificing herself for him.

Except for a few small “mews” from the orange kitten, they were perfect angels during the 4-hour ride home plus a stop to meet friends for brunch in Champaign-Urbana. My mom even made us stop along the way to make sure they were still alive—she couldn’t believe they were just sleeping.

As for names, I decided that: since it was because of my cousins that these little kittens came into our lives; since they came from my dad’s hometown; and since neither my cousins nor my sister and I would have existed without my grandparents, they would be named in honor of them: Henry (orange) and Ella (gray). While some people may think it’s disrespectful to name a cat after a dead relative, my grandparents have been gone since I was a teenager, so I like the fact that I think of them often this way.

And on that note, I hope you and your families had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Tags: cats, changes, family

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour! Be sure to visit all 10 or so bungalows on the tour (links from-and-to the next blog are provided at the bottom of each bungalow’s post). As always, comments and questions welcomed and encouraged!

Built in 1929, our bungalow is a classic Chicago-style brick bungalow, one of about 80-100,000 bungalows built in the Chicago area between 1910-1940. On last year’s tour, I outlined the main, common characteristics of a Chicago-style bungalow, so now I’ll point out a few things that set our bungalow apart from some others.

• Bay Front. Some bungalows have a flat or squared front (probably the majority are this style), while other, more elaborate styles are called octagon-front because of their large, almost round bay of windows. Visit The Bungalow, Chicago-style pool on Flickr to see the wide range of styles in the Chicagoland area



• Brick color. At a distance our face brick appears red, but it actually has a wide range of colors, from reds, browns and grays to olive green and yellow ochre. Other brick color styles are blonde or checkerboard, or they’re more solid-colored, like typical browns and reds
• Art Glass Windows. This is my most favorite feature of our home. Only approximately 1/3 of all bungalows were built with art glass windows, and of those I’ve only come across one other bungalow who has a similar pattern to ours.

We bought our bungalow in 2007, moving two houses away from our previous 1960s-era raised ranch home (a perfectly good home, but devoid of character and charm). We are still in contact with the previous owner of this house, and he recently discovered the blog (Hi D!).

That’s pretty much the overview. You can check out the highlights of many of our projects by looking at last year’s tour. This year I thought I’d highlight our biggest project, the Attic Renovation, since I’ve never properly documented the “after” photos (or shall I say “almost-after” since we still have plenty to do!).

When we moved in, the attic was completely unfinished, just your typical attic except for the 200 sheets of sheetrock scattered about that the PO bought 10 years prior, intending to finish the space one day.

Almost two years ago now, we started construction on a master suite, laundry room and “flex” or bonus room, which now serves as my design/illustration studio space. We hired a contractor for most of the heavy work but chose to do a lot of the finish work ourselves, such as installing the bathroom tile, laundry room tile, doors and all the trimwork. Needless to say, as you’ll see, the doors and trimwork have yet to be installed—and while I dream about it being finished and behind us, alas it doesn’t prevent us from living in the space—the pitfalls of DIY I guess. Now on with the tour!

The first view is looking toward the back of the house in what would become our master bedroom.

The same view, with the dormer addition to allow space for the bedroom and master bathroom. The roof window was moved into the bathroom and provides the only natural light there.

And as it looks today. We are making some progress on doors for the storage spaces in the nook area. I plan to make the doors flush with the wall using hidden hinges and a push-latch, painting them the same color as the walls. We have enough leftover, original doors (e.g. from a kitchen pantry that the PO tore out) to reuse them for the clothes closets and bathroom/bedroom entries, but they need to be stripped and stained to match the rest of the house first.

The master bathroom, in progress.

And as it looks today. If you’re interested in the tile we used, you can read more about it here and here.

Moving toward the middle of the house, the attic stairs were too narrow and steep, with very shallow treads. We had to steal 6″ from the kitchen to widen the staircase, and the pitch of the staircase was lengthened, which created a small wedge in the hallway ceiling on the first floor. With our tall ceilings it goes pretty much unnoticed.

Here’s the before-and-after. The (unfinished/need-to-be-stained) bi-fold doors at the top of the stairs contain a storage closet and HVAC.

And a couple views of the small laundry room next to the staircase. We installed Marmoleum linoleum tiles for the floor—while not cheap, they’re a very eco-friendly product (which we use wherever possible) and I’d highly recommend them for flooring.

As for my design/illustration studio space at the opposite end of the house looking toward the street, I’m afraid it’s a huge mess we’re out of time, so I’d like to invite you to come back soon for the rest of the tour!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our bungalow—thanks for visiting!

Next Tour Stop: El Paso Four Square
Previous Tour Stop: Tiny Oak Park Bungalow

Tags: attic renovation, before-and-after, Chicago-style bungalow, history

There were some really interesting cloud formations to our southeast this evening. After summer-like temperatures in the 80s and 90s the past few days, it was still really muggy this morning. By late this afternoon though, the temperature had dropped into the 50s—and just like that we’re back to early spring weather!

(Sure do wish those power lines would go away!)

Tags: clouds, weather

As a Chicago-area homeowner/renovator/blogger I was contacted a couple months ago by Smart Sealed Insulation who offered us a free energy audit. As an owner of an 80+ year-old brick home with zero main-floor insulation, of course I jumped at the opportunity.

We’ve had an energy audit before and even though we have been slow to implement recommendations, I was interested to find out not only if things have improved but if recommendations differed. I was also very interested in finding out how effective our attic insulation is, since our attic remodel was completed after the first audit.

Smart Sealed sent a team of three who went straight to work in various parts of the house. While the usable square footage of our house was carefully calculated,

the Carbon Monoxide output from our stove was analyzed

and our HVAC units and water heater were diagnosed.

The blower door test depressurizes the home to detect where the greatest air loss is occurring

and this infrared device shows changes in temperature where insulation is missing or air leakage is detected.

The entire test lasts several hours and we received a full report via email. I can get into more specifics as we rectify our problem areas, but here are some of the highlights:

Voids in our spray foam insulation were discovered. Smart Sealed offers insulation services in addition to energy audits, and they will return after a spray foam insulation installation to check for voids and gaps like this that may have been missed.

We used another company for our insulation and they didn’t offer this service (while Smart Sealed owners and staff have been in the home-building business for years, the company is relatively new and was not in existence at the time). I wish our insulation installer had done this though, and instead of trying to fill these voids ourselves, I think I’ll be contacting them to see if they will rectify this.

The exterior of our house was inspected (something our previous energy audit didn’t do at all), and they noted leakage from our gutter causing water damage on the brick below as well as recommendations on placement of additional downspouts.

Our original windows were deemed to be in good condition, however there are a few places where air infiltration occurs so they recommend that sash seals and/or V-strips be installed, which is something that has been on our To Do list. This will greatly reduce the relatively significant air leakage the home is experiencing from the windows. (Take note, those of you who are contemplating replacing your perfectly good wood sash windows with vinyl replacements—don’t do it! The cost of installing V-strips is a tiny fraction of the huge expense of window replacement not to mention the huge loss in aesthetic value!)

Many issues we have in our house are easy to figure out, like the air leakage around windows and doors. But what is really nice about an energy audit is that it will give you a detailed action item report and recommendations so you can tackle the problems as funds/time become available (although most of these fixes are very low cost and relatively easy for the DIYer). Most energy audit firms, including Smart Sealed, can be hired to make the fixes for you as well.

Full disclosure: Although we received this energy audit at no charge, in return we were not required to post a favorable review of the company or advertise their services. We have paid for an energy audit in the past (performed by another company), and I can honestly say that Smart Sealed conducted a much much MUCH more thorough job in comparison. Their team was highly professional and knowledgeable and I would not hesitate to recommend them to others.

Contact Smart Sealed Insulation for an energy audit or if you’re interested in insulating your home:
Smart Sealed Insulation LLC
5366 North Elston
Chicago, IL 60630
773-283-9000

Smart Sealed is offering a free energy-loss consultation (this is not the same as an energy audit). An energy-loss consultation is a half-hour examination of the home by a member of the Smart Sealed team who may offer some practical suggestions or can determine if an energy audit is recommended for your home. If you hire Smart Sealed to perform an energy audit, as a reader of Bungalow Chronicles you would receive a 10% discount if you hire Smart Sealed to fix the weatherization issues they discover (at a total cost of $1500 or more up to the cost of the audit).

Next I suppose I should have my “blogging energy” audited—I’m hoping to get better at filling in the gaps and holes of my blog in the next few months as we do the same to the house.

Tags: audit, energy efficiency, save money

In the back of the house off the kitchen, the majority of Chicago-style bungalows have a narrow, enclosed porch running the width of the house. Sometimes they’re still an unfinished 3-season space, but often they’ve been remodeled to create a small room. Our next-door neighbor uses theirs as a small TV room/mudroom, while another friend’s was completely incorporated into a large kitchen/dining space (along with the second, main-floor bedroom) by a previous owner’s renovation. For the most part though, because of its narrowness (I’m guessing it’s only about 7 feet deep, max), it seems to be a rather awkward space to furnish and use.

Lucky for us, we have a full-size, completely bricked-in space off the kitchen giving us three bedrooms on the main floor versus the typical two. It’s not large, about 11′ x 12′, but its location as well as its six windows facing east and north do not really make it a good bedroom.

As I recall the PO wanted to make it into a laundry room (thankfully that didn’t happen). When we first moved in we used it as a TV room. While I was pretty happy with it at the time, it wasn’t ideal because of all the natural light.

Once we remodeled the attic and moved the master bedroom upstairs, the main floor master bedroom became the TV room. With only two windows facing north, it’s much more conducive to watching TV.

Since then I had been trying to figure out what to do with the room off the kitchen without having to buy more furniture or remodel. A couple of obvious options were breakfast room or home office.

The room is really too big for our home office since my business space is now in the other half of the remodeled attic. We only need a small area for bill paying, etc. to keep home and business affairs separate. It’s also too big to be a breakfast room, although I tried it out using one of the (three) surplus tables we have tucked away in the basement. It just looked weird.

After hanging out at our friends’ bungalow (with the large, remodeled kitchen) and seeing all the beautiful, lush indoor plants in their former enclosed porch space, I thought adding some greenery would be a good start to our sunny space. Then my mom decided to buy a smaller sofa, so we took her old one (still in great shape) which happened to match perfectly with our existing Flor carpeting and paint job. Add in a mid-century coffee table that I’ve had for years, and we have the start of our home office/sunroom/spot-for-reading-the-newspaper-while-sipping-coffee-and-grabbing-breakfast room.

Opposite the sofa (which is a sleeper if we ever need it) are more plants and the ubiquitous IKEA chair that was tucked away in the basement.

The home office space consists of an antique dressing table that I’ve been using as a desk instead, along with an old DIY stereo cabinet which now holds files and receipts. We added the shelving and I finally have a suitable spot for my small collection of teacups.

Finally, the closet, which was one of the completed projects from 2010, was repaired, painted and fitted with shelving from The Container Store. It’s the perfect spot for storing gym gear, winter coats and recyclables.

And there you have it: we have a new, fully-furnished space that’s cozy and functional, and the only money we spent was on shelving and plants!

Toward the end of November I could tell that our 13-year-old cat, Günter, who had been diagnosed with a malignant form of mast cell tumor disease last April, was on the decline: he wasn’t playing much anymore; he was spending more time on the heated bathroom floor; he became more finicky with his food; and he pretty much stopped greeting me at the door or coming to me when I called him. I was doubtful that he would last until Christmas.

Sure enough on a Saturday in mid-December the iris in his right eye suddenly changed from green to gold. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew it couldn’t be a good sign. It didn’t seem to bother him, nor did he appear to be in pain so I kept a close eye on him and hoped to postpone taking him to the vet until the following Monday when I knew there was a good chance I would have to let him go. I spent the rest of the weekend cuddling him as much as he would tolerate.

No matter how much you try to prepare for the inevitable and how much you know it’s the right thing to do for your pet, it’s always the most difficult decision to make.

On Monday afternoon, December 13th, after confirming the disease’s progress, we said good-bye to Günter.

Considering I didn’t think he was going to last through the summer, I’m so grateful that he remained relatively healthy for as long as he did. The house is awfully empty without him though and while Pete doesn’t believe it will last right now I can’t bear to have another pet around because this just tears me apart. I know there are so many wonderful pets who need a good home but at least for now the freedom from worry, hairballs, vet bills, etc. is somewhat liberating.

Even so, the pets I’ve had will always hold a very special place in my heart — maybe one day there will be room for more, but not for a while.

Tags: cats, family

This is a bit late now that it’s already February, but I thought I’d review what happened around here in 2010 before figuring out what I’d like to accomplish in 2011.

My goals for 2010 seemed modest at the time after everything we accomplished in 2009, but as it turns out we fell way short.

I was hoping that we would make progress on finishing the attic remodel, but as of now there are still no doors installed nor any trim. Part of the problem is that the doors need to be stripped and stained and the wood for the trim needs to be purchased and stained, not to mention installed. I used to strip furniture a fair amount way back when but for some reason I feel paralyzed about starting this project. I just need to start small, set up a little area in the basement and at least play around with stain colors to match the first floor. I don’t think it’s a custom stain, so I’m sure I’m imagining it to be more complicated than it really is.

Our biggest project last year was probably the kitchen. As you may or may not remember, I had poked a (rather sizable) hole in the wall hoping to find the remnants of the original built-in ironing board cabinet. We tore the rest of the wall out, which was part drywall and part drywall-over-plaster and re-drywalled everything, also installing a recessed cabinet where the ironing board cabinet used to be. We added some lighting, purchased a new stainless steel fridge, bought a moveable butcher block cart that I had been saving up for, and painted the kitchen (check out the painted kitchen timeline here). I never got around to painting the kitchen cabinets, however that’s definitely on the short list this year.

I also got sidetracked and scraped the old paint down to original plaster in the hallway. That job has yet to be finished.

We did make a number of cosmetic changes in various rooms and also added some wall decor. I’ll start documenting those a little better here.

Outdoors we planted more native perennials and built a raised vegetable garden bed.

Other than that, the only other things we accomplished on the list were repairing and painting the office closet, and (kind of) painting the second floor stairwell (I need to set up some kind of scaffolding to really reach some areas).

Looking over everything here, I guess we didn’t completely slack off. We’re not going anywhere, so I need to remind myself that we can sit back and relax once in a while, right?

Tags: completed projects, goals, kitchen, painting

Yeah, we had a little blizzard here.

Lots of wind gusts made for some interesting snow drifts in the yard.

Apparently we didn’t close the storm windows properly in a couple of windows, so we had snowdrifts inside (in between the storm window and double-hung).

And we had a little snowdrift inside our garage because the door doesn’t seal tight against the floor.

We’re pretty much all dug out now, but frigid temperatures are supposed to hit tomorrow.

Hope you’re snug and warm in your part of the world!

Tags: snow, weather

I’m interrupting this extended break to announce that yes, just as I suspected it would happen one day, the PO (Hi D!) found the blog! (Of course this was back in November right when I was debating about whether or not to continue the blog and I’m just getting around to announcing it now. Oh well.)

But it’s all good—he already knows how I feel about the bathroom, and likewise, I don’t think he’s crazy about my wall color choices, among other things. Like I said before, we haven’t held back on snide remarks to each other about our “decorating” choices, but I’m certainly grateful for many other things he did, like updating the electrical panel, tuckpointing, and installing central AC, as well as being a good neighbor for so many years when we lived down the street!

I’ve been gearing up to write some new posts, mainly in the hopes that it will help motivate me to start a new house project. At the very least I need to come up with some goals for 2011. So if anyone is still reading this, stay tuned, and thanks for sticking with me!

Well, I’m here to report that we’re still unmotivated to work on any house projects. The custom bi-fold doors for the master bedroom and utility closets are still lying on the floor, the pull-out shelves in the pantry are still falling apart, and I’ve done nothing about painting the kitchen cabinets besides buying the primer. So there it is.

I guess it’s not too surprising when one has been pretty much going gangbusters for the past 3+ years.

I did finally come up with a living room arrangement that I’m happy with. I found the area rug at Anthropologie and I like the way it creates a little conversation area. This arrangement also helps to detract from the huge fireplace (although it may not look that way in the photo).

Outdoors, we’ve let the garden take care of itself. The plants we bought earlier this summer are all doing well.

The oak tree we planted last year shot up a main branch, and the tree is now taller than I. Pete is worried that it’s not perfectly centered, but I remind him that nature isn’t symmetrical and I’m sure it’ll be fine in the end. It’ll be interesting to see what the tree does next.

Elsewhere in the garden, the chipmunks have been entertaining to watch. There are three who seem to fight over turf, and a chase ensues through the prairie and into the neighbor’s yard. We tried to let them all get their fair share of bird seed, although it’s hard to tell them apart.

In other critter news, Günter, while still terminally ill, has been doing well. I really didn’t expect him to last the summer, so I’m grateful that he’s still with us and appears to be feeling fine. He will turn 13 sometime this month.

On the personal front, after almost two months we’re still going to the gym regularly — at least we have some motivation somewhere. I was happy to discover that it wasn’t the exercise I didn’t like, it was more the gym itself that was sorely lacking in the past. This gym may cost more than the other, but I’m definitely getting my money’s worth.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some photos of our fine city. There’s nothing like spending a warm summer evening in downtown Chicago, whether at the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park…

or at sunset with a view of the skyline from the Shedd Aquarium.

This weekend promises more summer-like weather, so we plan to enjoy the outdoors in our kayaks, perhaps for the last time this year. Hope you have a great weekend too!

Tags: cats, Chicago, diversions, garden, living room, oak, rearrange, wildlife

That’s how I’ve been feeling about pretty much everything around the house. It’s been a chore just to keep up with the mail.

I think I get this way a lot around this time of year. I get fed up with summer. It just seems to zap my energy. I can’t wait for fall — the cool, crisp air is invigorating.

This past week, I’ve been trying to work up the energy to clear up the home office area. Looking at that mess stresses me out, yet I can’t bring myself to dive in.

At the moment it’s sharing a room with our “casual” eating space, which is currently covered with dry goods from the pantry. Some of the pull-out shelves were apparently too heavy for the glides and they kind of collapsed. We bought some new drawer glides but haven’t done anything about installing them.

I’m reluctant to start that little project because I really want to paint the kitchen cabinets, so why bother installing them just to take it apart again? And even though I already bought primer for the cabinets I’m not going to start a painting project until the weather is cooler.

Ugh, it’s a vicious cycle, this motivation/procrastination thing. Maybe I’ll just take a cue from the cat and nap until October.

Tags: kitchen, kitchen cabinets, painting