324 North Irvington Avenue

2009: Year in Review

2010-01-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

Instead of posting regularly in 2009, why not skip the whole year and write one post to sum up the entire year?

Needless to say, 2009 felt like a whirlwind. We can't believe 2010 is here already! In case you were wondering, here is what we were up to in 2009...

We worked from home when we received a foot of snow overnight:

We finished up our bathroom remodel (more pics):

We spent a fun weekend in Las Vegas (more pics):

We became "Aunt Justine and Uncle Nick" as our good friends welcomed their son:

We closed up our outside cellar entrance (more pics):

I went to Portland for the AIGA Leadership Retreat:

I played softball with my co-ed company team (not always in the rain):

We went to beautiful Colorado (more pics):

And almost immediately headed to Chicago for Lollapalooza (more pics):

We got certified as Open Water Divers:

Nick went to Los Gatos, CA for the annual carwash Enhancement Group:

We threw a crazy Halloween party (more pics):

I was promoted to Manager of Design Solutions at ExactTarget:

Posing at our holiday gift exchange and lunch.

We went to Hawaii and got Advanced Open Water certified (more pics):

We celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary:

We drove to North Carolina to spend Christmas with the Parsons:

What a great 2009! We're excited to see what 2010 brings.

Welcome to the family, Riley!

2008-12-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

Sometime this fall (we can't remember exactly when), a cat started hanging around our house. The first time we saw it, we thought Claire has escaped from the house since this cat looked very much like she does. Although a bit skittish, the cat seemed nice enough. After some convincing, it got close enough to let us pet it and we started giving it food and water every once in a while. After a couple weeks, we started to wonder if the cat had an owner or if anyone in the neighborhood knew about it's situation. We put a collar around it's neck with a note asking if anyone saw the note to give us a call. A couple days later a woman down the street called and said that the cat had been hanging around her house for the last couple years. Since the cat had been living outside for quite some time, we thought we'd leave well enough alone but continue to provide food and water occasionally.

Well, as the weather grew colder, the cat barely left our porch, and even seemed interested at the prospect of coming inside. Nick built her an insulated shelter to stay warm, and we planned to take her to a clinic to get checked out. Without knowing the cat's history, we weren't willing to risk infection to our other cats before getting "outside kitty" checked out. Nick spent a couple hours at FACE, getting her de-wormed, vaccinated and tested for FeLV and FIV. With a clean bill of health, Nick brought her home and invited her to stay inside.

We've since dubbed her "Riley" and considering the circumstances, she's adapted pretty well to life on the "inside." She barely moves off of our bed, and purrs immediately when petted. Welcome, Riley!

More bathroom remodeling fun

2008-12-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

We've talked about the bathroom several times on the blog... we've been collecting the tools and supplies we need to "oil rubbed bronze-ify" our full bath upstairs for several months at this point. When we bought our house, the bathroom had bright gold fixtures and trim - all nice, but not quite our style. We had also noticed a sewer gas smell from time to time, which we believed to have been caused by improper or insufficient venting of the drainage pipes in the bathroom.

Nick put his plumbing skills to the test and connected the sink in the bathroom to a nearby vent pipe in the wall. While doing so, he created quite a disaster of the drywall behind the pedestal sink in the bathroom. Since we'd been meaning to paint the bathroom for months, we decided to take this "opportunity" to go ahead and patch the drywall, paint the bathroom, and begin installing all our oil rubbed bronze goodies. He also patched the drywall near the medicine cabinet where there used to be an outlet, and some other various smaller holes.

While I was visiting her parents in North Carolina, Nick painted the bathroom. While we liked the moss green color we picked out on the swatch, once it was on the walls I realized that our shower walls had pink undertones that were only emphasized by the green on the walls. "Back to Sherwin Williams", I said and returned with some sample containers of a deep red and dark beige. I never considered painting an accent wall in a bathroom before, but after talking to the guy working at Sherwin Williams that day, I thought it might be a good idea. You can see our samplings in the pictures below.

The current state of our bathroom is: No tub, no sink. That's right, we've only had the shower and toilet in there for a little over a month now. We are hoping to finish this off soon, and will even be ordering the new shower door in the coming weeks.

Here's what you've been waiting for: pictures of the mess!

The new vented drain pipe

Where the sink used to be, and Nick's drywall patching

The clawfoot tub and sink, waiting to be re-installed

A sample of the beige on the wall next to the shower (and the rejected green paint!)

A sample of the red

Did I forget to mention that we also decided to strip the paint from the trim around the door? The casing and trim around the door had several coats of paint and couldn't really take another. We've been using a heat gun, chisels, chemical stripper, and an orbital sander.

A closer shot.

Arbor Ailments, Part Three (and Four?)

2008-10-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

We'll (hopefully!!) conclude our series of "arbor ailments" in 2008. In the beginning of September, we walked outside one morning and it suspiciously felt like April all over again. Our friend the Mulberry lost another (much larger this time) branch into our poor neighbor's yard. Yes, that's right - the same tree lost three large branches in one summer. We again called several local tree services, and this time it was recommended that we remove the entire tree. We were told that the Mulberry (which happened to be one of the few large, healthy trees left in our yard) had been allowed to grow past the point where it could support itself, and would continue to lose large branches (and likely next time into a nearby garage.) We reluctantly agreed to the removal of the Mulberry, and also had a large redbud extensively pruned. Our yard is much less shady now, and we're hopeful that the additional sunshine will contribute to thick, green grass in the spring.

HOWEVER, just a couple days after we were faced with our Mulberry-removal, we exited the house in the morning only to discover the lovely sight you see below:

Yes, that's a 5-foot branch sticking up through the roof of the garage. As you might imagine, trees were not my favorite thing this summer. Luckily my very handy husband climbed on the roof (the following day) and had the hole and shingles repaired in a manner of hours. I was pretty upset by this whole string of tree-related events, but also count us very lucky that this was the extent of the damage caused by 4 separate incidents. Here's a look from the inside of the garage - you can see the end of the branch poking through the hole.

lastly, check out the massive spider I found on our porch the other day. I don't mind spiders as long as they stay outside - they eat all sorts of bugs that I'd rather not have around. I did some poking around online and I think it's a grass spider - the web is quite intricate and contains a couple funnels.

Who wants a level floor? I guess we do...

2008-09-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Neither Nick nor I can remember when he started working on the project in the basement, but we thought it deserved a blog mention. Nick has been removing concrete and dirt and experimenting with different ways to support and level the first floor of our house. After many years of different types of supports in the basement, the floor in our kitchen/dining area is very uneven, and our stairway has begun to slope to an angle. The installation of steel supports on hydraulic jacks in the basement will remedy these problems over time.

This one is to be continued...

Arbor Ailments, Part Two

2008-09-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

Phase two of "arbor ailments" reared it's ugly head in August. The same Mulberry tree mentioned back in April decided that it no longer had a need for one of it's two trunks. This time the branches were wedged between our garage and the neighbor's garage. Nick spent a couple weekends sawing away. We had a tiny area of damage to the shingles on our roof but nothing major. Again, more of an inconvenience than anything else. We also had to dispose of the huge pile of refuse we created, so it sat in our driveway until mid-September. Again, to be continued...

Bushes begone!

2008-08-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

We recently attacked another bush in our yard - there was an awful, prickly, fast-growing behemoth in our front garden area that was painful to prune and blocked views to and from the street. Nick donned a trio of gloves (yes, all at the same time) and went to town. The resulting root ball had scary nuclear-looking yellow branches and wasn't finally removed until weeks later when it started to grow a new bush!

Summer Travels: Cedar Point and NYC

2008-07-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

We headed to Sandusky, Ohio over the 4th of July to meet Justine's family for a weekend of fun at Cedar Point. Michael, Nick and Justine rode their favorite coaster, Millennium Force, at least a dozen times and also enjoyed the 120-mph Top Thrill Dragster.

At the end of July, Justine was headed to New York City for a client onsite, and Nick decided to join her for an extended weekend. It also happened to be Nick's birthday! We enjoyed 5 days of non-stop eating, drinking, walking and gawking. It was the first time either of us had been to NYC and we can't wait to go back.

Check out our pictures on Flickr.

Gutters and bushes... what fun!

2008-06-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Later this spring, we realized that we were unintentionally growing seedlings in our gutters so it was time to bring out the extension ladder for the first time. Nick tackled the house while I took care of the garage. Needless to say this was pretty gross.

We also spent some time in the yard - weeding, watering, making sure the grass stayed green. We also tackled the bushes on the north side of our porch. Since a couple were dead and overall they were large and distracting, we tore them out:

A little bit of bathroom remodeling...

2008-05-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Nick installed the built-in medicine cabinet that we ordered from Lowe's several weeks ago. Although messy, it was a quick project and adds a nice touch to our bathroom. Our "oil-rubbed bronzing" plans continue - we have most of the materials to finish the transformation (paint and hardware) but have not yet purchased the most expensive piece - a new shower door.

Arbor Ailments, Part One

2008-05-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

At the end of April, our summer of "arbor ailments" started. We went outside one day to find that the 40-foot Mulberry in our backyard had deposited a large branch in our neighbor's yard. Luckily there was no damage to either properties but the branch was certainly in an inconvenient spot. After a couple tree service quotes, a check was written from the "emergency/house" account and the branch removed. The rest is to be continued...

We (finally) move upstairs!

2008-04-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

(NOTE: After originally posting a large entry encompassing April-September in September 2008, I went back and post-dated the entries for archival purposes.)

So I guess we fell off the blogging bandwagon, huh?

While quite a bit has happened since April, no "major" house projects - and sadly, not much of our ambitious list - has been started let alone completed. After our big tearout upstairs I think we needed a break (mentally and financially) from all of the house work.

Our bedroom furniture was delivered in early April, and we officially moved upstairs! The bed and nightstand is from the Nolan collection, and the bookshelves part of Sloan (from Crate and Barrel).

After buying (and then returning) some pre-fabbed closet organizers from Lowe's, Nick built some custom shelving and we finally moved our clothes out of the pantry downstairs and into the bedroom closets upstairs! The dresser that was in the kitchen moved into my closet as well.

Haircut Time

2008-04-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

My mom and sister visited in mid-April, and my sister and I cut more than 8 inches of hair to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. We had been growing our hair out for almost two years in honor of our grandmother that passed away from cancer in July 2006. Beautiful Lengths partners with the American Cancer Society and HairUWear to provide real-hair wigs to women with cancer. Below is a couple pictures, or visit my Flickr Album for the whole series of photos from our experience.

Upcoming projects

2008-04-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here are upcoming house projects in progress or on the docket:

1. Installing a 9-light antique bronze chandelier above our staircase:

This isn't the exact chandelier, but it's close (from Lowe's):

2. An ongoing process we've termed "oil-rubbed bronzing" the bathroom upstairs. The previous owners did a complete remodel of the bathroom less than 5 years ago, so everything is brand new, but the gold/brass fixtures just didn't match our personal style. So far we've replaced the shower trim, shower drain, toilet flush handle, sink faucet and some accessories such as a towel bar and switchplates. Left to complete are the clawfoot tub supply lines, toilet supply line, clawfoot tub faucet, shower door, sink drain, and the installation of an in-wall medicine cabinet we got on special order at Lowe's.

We found a great online vendor of supplies for older clawfoot tubs and other historic-home remodeling finds - clawfootsupply.com. Needless to say we've become one of their better customers...

The box!

New cast-iron register grills that are nearly exact replicas of the rusty, broken ones that are likely original to the house:

Oil-rubbed bronze gooseneck faucet for the clawfoot tub:

3. Painting the windows (white on the inside, beige/cream on the outside) and installing new pulls and sash locks

4. Creating and installing trim in the bedrooms and hall upstairs (white)

5. Painting the upstairs bathroom (green walls and brown trim)

6. Painting the hallway (beige)

7. Replacing the exterior window trim on the North, South and East-facing sides of the house. West-facing trim was replaced by the previous owners, but the remaining trim is rotted and deteriorated in many spots

8. Caulking and painting holes and cracks in the siding

9. Replacing or repainting the shutters on front upstairs windows

10. Repainting/touching up the front porch

11. Installing steel support beams in the basement in order to level out our uneven first floor

12. Installing an attic fan to improve ventilation upstairs

13. Repairing the very rotted, falling-apart, leaky and scary-looking outdoor cellar entrance

WHEW! That's quite an ambitious list... stay tuned...

Almost one year later...

2008-04-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

We've been bad with the updating again, but I guess that just adds to the suspense, eh? Here's a short list of activities that have occurred upstairs since the last time we updated:

Doorway at top of staircase removed
Window restoration completed (no paint yet)
Drywall - hung, taped/mudded, sanded and finished
Ceiling fans removed and thoroughly cleaned
Primer applied to walls/ceilings
Paint applied to walls/celings
Ceiling fans installed
Carpet installed

The biggest stressor (for me, anyway) was choosing paint colors, blinds, and a new fan. I've enjoyed making the upstairs "our own" but there are just too many choices out there, and I am indecisive by nature.

We're probably going to live for the next year without any trim, jambs or doors - we received a quote from a contractor to complete all the finish trim (crown molding, baseboards, trim around windows and doors...) for nearly $11,000. After running some numbers, we realized that we could buy all the proper tools and materials for about half this. The concession is that it will take much longer for us to do it :)

The biggest news of all? We'll finally "live" upstairs almost exactly a year after we bought our house!!

Below: Removal of doorway at top of staircase (once we had all the plaster removed, we realized that the doorway/jamb was not original - it was likely added at some point in the 40's when our house was split into apartments.)

The hallway and bedrooms with drywall in place and finished:

A closer shot of the (primed and dirty, but refinished!) window:

Spare bedroom with paint (no carpet yet - enjoy the blue floor while you can):

Master bedroom with paint (again, no carpet yet):

And the grand finale - paint AND carpet!

Our new pet

2008-04-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

While we were working out in the yard this weekend, I found a snail that Nick subsequently became fascinated with. The snail's eyes telescoped in and out of his body and rolled around on the end of the tentacles... video and pictures below!

You might want to turn your sound down... I didn't realize there was music in the background and some funny noise due to the transitions... thanks, iMovie!

Untitled from Justine Jordan on Vimeo.

Sunshine brings outdoor projects...

2008-04-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've always said I have a love/hate relationship with our house - there are some things I love about it (the character!) and some things I hate (little/no/poor insulation means HIGH gas bills!). One of the things that I love/hate is our sump pump. I adore the former owner who waterproofed and installed the pump pump in our basement, but I have always wished that it didn't drain into the middle of the backyard, creating a mud puddle when it rains, an ankle-twisting hazard when mowing the lawn, and a general eye sore at all other times.

This weekend we enjoyed some beautiful weather - about sixty degrees and sunny - so outdoors we went! Nick bought some extra PVC pipes and a trenching shovel and we set to work diverting the sump pump drain to a more appropriate spot.

The digging up of the original drain and the aforementioned hole:

A view of the new ditch that heads to the side of the yard:

The new drain in place:

Ditches, both old and new, filled in with dirt:

The hole filled in!

The new discharge spout in the sideyard:

After we dug up the yard, it was our intention to put down some grass seed in areas where the backyard was a little bare. After Nick hand-tilled nearly half the backyard, we now have a mudpit instead:

Keep your fingers crossed the the grass seed we put down turns into beautiful, thick green grass!

It's been 3 months!?

2008-02-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

Much has happened since we last updated on November 24th. I created 6 new entries that chronicle the last several weeks below - they are post-dated in the order that they would have occurred had we blogged regularly. Hope you enjoy!

Treasures in the walls

2008-02-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

It always seems that we find objects of interest in the walls when we start tearing them down. Along with the requisite 40's-era newspaper, we also found several pieces of old cloth and what looks to be lace, more knob-and tube wiring, and a section of wall with several very old layers of wallpaper.

Windows: Restore or Replace?

2008-02-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

More decision-making came when we asked ourselves what to do with our windows. We knew they weren't in great shape - all had several coats of paint on the sashes, ropes and hardware that allow the window to function, one was painted shut, some had rotten parts, most of the ropes had been cut, etc. Finding people with the skills and patience to restore the windows proved difficult, and after researching replacement windows, we were torn between just tearing the old ones out and preserving the historical integrity of our home. Aside from that, since we reside in a historic district, there is an approval process to making any modifications to the outer facade of our home.

We ended up hiring Robb Ryan to restore the windows. Here are a few shots of his handywork thus far. He hopes to be done with the work by Feb. 11th.

A before/after of the pulley (and surrounding wood) that holds the rope that allows the window to open and close:

The old, iron counterweights in the space between the window frame and the studs:

While we were only slightly optimistic that Robb would be able to restore the windows to the point where we could re-stain the wood, it looks like they were damaged beyond this point. We plan to paint the windows a nice, neutral shade of white and will post pictures when they are finally complete!

And so it begins...

2008-01-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

After we finished hemming and hawing our options, checked out how our savings account was doing, and called in some drywall and window pros, we got to work. We called in a bigger dumpster than last time and researched the best way to tear out plaster. Nick devised a plan which involved rare earth magnets, our shop-vac, a circular saw and cable ties. He used the magnets to locate the studs in the walls (which lathe was nailed into), cable-tied the shop vac to the circular saw to suck up some of the dust, and started making vertical cuts in the walls. This actually led to the relatively tidy removal of large chunks of plaster and lathe tiles.

As you can see, this still left the plaster and lathe that remained on the studs, which was easily knocked off and collected in buckets to be hauled down to the dumpster. Once work was complete, we found some more interesting things in our walls, had exposed the beauty that is the brick chimney that runs through the center of our house and made a really, really big mess.

The source of our coming insanity

2008-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

As we (or Nick, really) attempted to prepare the upstairs for the installing of carpet that we bought in October, we found ourselves patching plaster, attempting to remove wallpaper, exploring paint colors and wondering if our windows were salvageable.

Below are examples of Nick's amateur plaster craftsmanship:

And here was the icing on the insanity cake:

x

Once we realized that the hallway (and likely most of the rest of the upper level) was covered in multiple layers of paint over old wallpaper, we tried to strip it (and then tried to hire someone to strip it)... only realizing that the wallpaper was likely the glue that held the decades-old plaster together.

After getting a couple quotes for contractors to come in and strip the wallpaper and repair the plaster, we finally decided that it was worth the time, money and effort to gut the entire upstairs (save the closets, which we already gutted and drywalled, and the bathroom, which the previous owners remodeled) and replace all the plaster with drywall.

Why we didn't do this when we did the closets is something that we'd change in hindsight, but live and learn, I guess!

Fire and Ice

2007-12-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

Early in December we had our first big snow in our new home:

Which called for us firing up the cozy gas fireplace:

Hardwood Hallway

2007-12-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Sometime near the of November, we had Brazilian Cherry hardwood installed in the hallway upstairs. Isn't it gorgeous? I (Justine) was really conflicted with all the choices available - light, dark, red, brown, laminate, engineered, exotic... while the Brazilian Cherry doesn't exactly match the other woods in the house, it has a beautiful warmth, and we can always stain the wood downstairs to match - or install the same wood there, as well. It will darken and richen as it ages and is exposed to light and we're pretty happy with it.

Here is a close-up of some of the grain:

We also installed some shelving in our brand-new hall closet:

Closet Update!

2007-11-24T22:06:00.001-08:00

I know, we haven't updated in a long time. We've been busy! The first bit of awesome news is that the closets are 95% DONE! We hired Brandon Cook to mud, tape and finish our drywall and it was the best money we've ever spent! Brandon did an awesome job and we highly recommend his work. So far, we've primed the closets and they look great! All that is left is a coat of paint and some sort of organizational/hanging system.

I am honestly amazed at the transformation and very proud of the work we've done. I pulled together 20 photos of the closets from start to finish and they are represented in the slideshow below. I hope you can enjoy the transformation as much as we have!

Project Complete: Deck

2007-09-15T15:42:00.001-07:00

We're excited to announce that we've finally completed a project that we've started!

Over Labor Day weekend we purchased deck refinishing supplies and started what would become a 4-step process of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and sealing. It looks like we tore down our old deck and put up a new one. Although we didn't take "before" pictures, I did find a picture of the deck that was used while it was on the market. Before, the wood was grey/brown, during the cleaning process is was nearly white and now it's a nice shade of well, clean wood. And my, it does repel water:

Here is the next best thing to a "before" shot:

During:

After:

Random Stuff

2007-09-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today I decided that I was going to list the washer & dryer that we bought while apartment dwellers for sale on Craigslist. I went out in the garage to take pictures of the set, and when I opened the dryer, this is what I saw:

Apparently we forgot to remove the last load of clothes before we moved! Inside was a pair of sweatpants I'd been searching madly for but gave up for lost. If you're interested in a gently used Amana washer & dryer set, please let us know!

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This weekend Nick was trying to finish up some drywall work upstairs, and suddenly we discovered that Jake had re-discovered his favorite hiding place in between the floorboards upstairs. Why he continues to hide there is beyond our comprehension because both times he has hid here, he's promptly received a bath upon exiting. Anyhow, this doesn't look very comfortable to me:

He eventually came out but decided he wasn't dirty enough to warrant a bath.

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For those football fans out there, you may remember that the Colts won the Superbowl last year. Apparently if you win the Superbowl, the NFL spends millions of dollars to host an extravagant season kickoff show in your team's city. Indianapolis welcomed Hinder, Kelly Clarkson and Faith Hill on September 6th for a free show right on the circle. Since the office building where I work happens to be right on the circle, we had front-row seats to the madness:

Huge screen right outside my window

View from another window

People waiting to get into the concert.

Kelly Clarkson onstage.

Faith Hill

Finally, an update!

2007-08-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we haven't updated in quite a while. To be honest, there hasn't been a whole lot to update on. Actually, I guess I'm lying. My mom came and helped me tear out the madness that was our front garden and we had the Open House, but after that, we've sort of been on a house hiatus.

Here goes an update marathon consisting of all things Jordan:

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Abby Joins the Family

On July 1, we adopted cat #3, Abby. She came with the moniker "Miss Kitty," but in following the tradition of giving our cats human names, we decided to opt for "Abby." She is about 4 years old and prior to coming to live with us, mothered a litter of kittens. Abby was at the humane society since April, and we cannot understand why she was there so long! She is the absolute sweetest cat we have ever met. In stark contrast to Jake and Claire, Abby loves human attention. She loves to sit in your lap, greets guests upon arrival and will lick you to death. Although she looks a lot like Claire, Abby has a bigger nose, bigger eyes and is slightly more gray in color compared to Claire's brown/black.

Here are some pictures:

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Mom Visits and We Update the Garden

Perhaps one of our greatest accomplishments to date, my mom (Kim) flew up to Indy from North Carolina to join our Open House fun. Since my mom also has a famously green thumb, I asked her to lend her expertise to remedying the sad state of our front garden. In this case I think a picture is worth a thousand words:

before:

after:

Thanks, Mom!

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Open House Fun

On July 21st we held our Open House/Nick's birthday celebration. It was a great turnout. Although we didn't keep count, we estimate that over 75 people showed up at one time or another. Lots of beer and food was consumed, and many house tours were given. Needless to say, I didn't take too many pictures so I need to borrow some from Betty. Here are a couple:

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Jake Receives Bath #2

Although we didn't photograph this event, we did discover where he'd been hiding and getting so dirty. In one of the closets that are under construction, Jake dug through some blown-in insulation and managed to find himself between the 1st and second floors of the house. I was able to shine a light into this hole and see him sitting amongst 100+ years of dirt and dust, but no amount of treats, toys or calling would make him come out until he was good and ready.

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A Tiny Bit of Closet Work

After 3 weeks of house hiatus, Nick built and installed the last wall of the last large closet upstairs. It was quite an undertaking, as he needed to frame a hole on the wall so we could add an access door to reach the plumbing for the adjacent bathroom. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to get the pre-assembled wall into the closet and in position, but it turned out quite well:

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That's all for now, folks! Thanks for reading and hopefully we'll have more to post about soon.

The (Irvington) House Rules

2007-07-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks the tireless efforts of Ron and Betty Jordan, we now have an entire closet dry walled. These two are serious heavyweights of the dry wall hanging trade. They get it done. No questions asked. Trust me. Here’s the proof:

Dad (a.k.a. ‘Ron’) finished up the first closet while I concentrated on framing closet number two. Here are some pics of that work:

Our main goal in closet 2 was to create a square and level surface to drywall. We’ll see if that helps us out. Perhaps Ron ‘the drywallnator’ Jordan won’t even notice. Who can say?

The Friends’ Wedding

2007-06-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Note that the apostrophe comes after the ‘s’. That, for the grammatically challenged, means multiple friends were married (see more apostrophe rules here). Actually, it was multiple friends that were marrying each other . Our friends Andrea and Brad got married. The ceremony was held in a church built in the 1890’s.
Here’s Brad waiting for his bride:
And the happy couple at the close of the ceremony:
Congratulation’s you two!
The ceremony and reception were awesome.Here's 'Johnny B' Shortly after comandeering my wine. Good job you scurvy devil!

2007-06-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

The Really Big Show
Every once in a great while there comes a large update (or once in every third posting in our case). This is that post. We’ve got a bit to cover here so get comfortable and maybe grab some snacks or something. This post feels like a popcorn post so maybe go grab some Orville or whatnot.

Part One: It turns out they weren’t kidding
Our first activity since our last post was finishing insulation and yes, my friends, fiberglass is itchy. We were told this, but there were several things that were not passed on to us:

1.This is not a joke. Fiberglass itches. A lot.
2.You don’t feel it until you start sweating.
3.It doesn’t stop when you stop insulating. It stops when it damn well pleases.
4.Fiberglass is crunchy. Trust me on this.

We used R-19 insulation on the exterior walls and R-30 insulation along with vent channels on the angled roof. The R-30 was about twice as deep as the rafter bays so we (meaning Dad and I here) had to rig up some furring to hold it in place.

Part 2: Plumb, Square and Level
First some definitions:

Plumb- Describes a perfectly vertical surface
Square- Describes a perfect right angle
Level – Describes a perfectly horizontal surface

Once you see these definitions, you see everything that an old house is not. Our house is the "bizzaro world” of plumb, square and level. As one might imagine, this adds a whole new level of fun to our endeavors.
As you can see here, we’ve added a wall and a faux ceiling to our first closet. The installation of these walls was a bit like a the Laurel and Hardy “Who’s on first” gag. It seemed that everything we tried to do so that we could get the walls in place just caused a problem somewhere else. Eventually we figured out that you couldn’t tell as long as we took pictures from far enough away.

Just kidding.

We did learn some good lessons here that will hopefully help us out later on.

Part 3: Genesis 1:3
Wikipedia told me that this bible verse is the one that says “Let there be light”. I knew the internet would eventually be good for something. I got the lights for our first closet wired up and running. Unfortunately I mounted the switch upside down so that our lights turn “No” instead of turning “On." Oh well.

Part 4: Why call it drywall?
Yes it’s dry, but shouldn’t it be? Seriously, I don’t think I’d take the time to hang wet wall or even moist wall for that matter. I might go for slightly damp wall if it were cheaper.

We started hanging our gypsum board (a.k.a. drywall) and found that the whole level, plumb, square thing carries over to hanging drywall in addition to framing. Thanks to Dad’s help we’ve been able to cut and place some pretty large sheets (nearly 9’ X 4’) but each one is a challenge to fit. It’s all part of the charm and magic of an old house.

Part 5: This is sweet.
In an unexpected move, the concept formerly known as awesome staged a coup and provided us with a sale on the the patio furnature we've been eyeing for the first part of the summer.

Justine had gone to Lowe's to pick up some last minute drywall tools when she discovered the deal. We aquuired enough furniture to fill our deck and hopefully provide a lot of fun memories.

We purchased:
- A four-person dining table
- A six-person dining table
- A combination side table/fire pit/ice bucket
- An umbrella with stand
- Eight matching chairs.

Sweet. Now we can have the Three's Company reunion at our house.
**Note: I have never seen, nor do I know who starred in Three's Company. Lets just leave it at that.

Here's the goods:

You're Invited!

2007-06-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

In case you can't read the above, it says:

We've Moved!

Join us as we celebrate summer in our new home

Saturday, July 21st
Noon - ?
324 North Irvington Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46219

Please RSVP to 317.863.0369 or justine.jordan@yahoo.com
Visit www.324irvington.blogspot.com to view our progress on the house

Pretty Flower

2007-06-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Before this bloomed, I almost ran it over with the lawn mower because I figured it was a tall weed (like most of the things in our backyard). I'm glad I didn't = )

HOUSE - I - VERSARY !

2007-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was our one week House-I-Versary (pronounced like anniversary but with "house" worked in there). We’ve been “moved in” for 7 days. In celebration, we made or first normal dinner in the new house. We took a picture of our dinner but the lime-chicken fettuccini we made looked a little less like food and a little more like previously consumed food in the picture so we’re substituting this pic with a nice cupcake.

Cat Baths and Weddings

2007-06-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Jake has been in hiding ever since we moved. This is expected behavior from him; every time we move he typically hides for about a week or so while he adjusts to the new surroundings. Well, we removed the vent covers upstairs while we were working, and apparently Jake decided that the ductwork might be a good place to hide. He made an appearance Thursday night and the normally snow-white fur on his belly and feet were a nice shade of medium gray and he was tracking dust and dirt everywhere. Jake promptly received his first-ever shower/bath (which he did NOT enjoy) and immediately went back into hiding (perhaps permanently this time). I'm not sure if you can tell from the pics how dirty he was:

Nick also received several bloody scratches from the ordeal.

The next day we left for South Bend to attend a good friend's wedding (Nick was a groomsman).

More pics are available at: flickr.com/photos/jordans-indy

Long Time No Blog!

2007-06-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering, we haven't forgotten about the blog! Things have been quite hectic with Justine starting her new job, packing and finally moving into 324 N Irvington Ave! I have been taking lots of pictures and will update the blog by post-dating entries over the next day or so as I catch up on what has happened the past couple weeks. Scroll down for updates!

Moving Day

2007-05-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend was busy one! On Saturday we attended Nick's brother's high school graduation, a friend's Crawfish Boil and dinner out with Nick's family to celebrate. On Sunday we made our way down to Cincinnati to attend the annual Bill Family get-together to celebrate Nick's upcoming graduation. Finally, Monday was moving day. It was hot and humid but we somehow packed everything we own into the first floor of our house. There are literally boxes everywhere. Since the last blog entry accurately depicts the state of affairs in the upper level of our house, our bedroom is currently on the main floor in the "den," a small (approx 8' x 8') room off the living area, our dresser is in the kitchen, and our pantry is standing in for the closet.

Phase 2 Begins

2007-05-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Menards delivered our building supplies and this is now the lovely state of affairs in our garage:

This past weekend was spent removing some old knob and tube wiring, drilling holes through some floor joists to run some new wiring, removing the old scary breaker box (but to keep for later cleaning and framing) ripping up scary leopard-print linoleum, laying down new plywood subfloor in the sections of closet that we expanded and insulating the formerly uninsulated closets.

Exciting purchases included a circular saw and an industrial-strength mop and bucket to attempt to tackle the filth accumulating on the floor upstairs. These pictures show a section of floor before and after the pass of the mop, as well as what the bucket of water looked like after I mopped about about a 4' x 10' section of hallway.

The Dumpster Cometh

2007-05-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

To make room for the construction materials being delivered from Menards, we had to get rid of the huge pile of demolition debris residing in our garage. This involved obtaining a permit from the city and contacting Ray's for a construction dumpster to haul our mess away. Since our detached garage faces toward and alley behind the house, we instructed Ray's to place the dumpster in the alley for ease of loading the debris into the dumpster. After several failed attempts to deliver the dumpster in its intended spot, it ended up in front of the house. This meant that Nick and I (admittedly, mostly Nick) hauling the mess through the back access door to the garage, through the backyard, through the small trellis door, around the side yard, through the front yard and down the steps in front of our house. I think Nick was sore for a week after performing this unexpected duty.

Moral of the story? Get the construction dumpster WHILE you are making the mess rather than AFTER.

Laminate, Hardwood, or Carpet?

2007-05-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

We were pretty dead-set on putting laminate upstairs, but have recently began to question our original intent. We now have several additional options we are considering when it comes to finishing the floors on the upstairs of the house:

1. Sand and attempt to refinish the existing planking upstairs. It is currently covered with what could be lead-based paint, which means we would have to do the job ourselves (the contractors we contacted wouldn't deal with painted floors). We would have to put carpet or another type of flooring in the closets due to some damage and unmatched flooring.

2. Rip up the existing planking and install a new plywood subfloor under new hardwoods OR carpet throughout.

3. Install carpet OR hardwoods over the existing planking.

4. Install carpet in the bedrooms/closets and hardwood in the hallway - again we have the choice of leaving the existing planking or ripping it up and installing a new plywood subfloor.

Thoughts and opinions are welcome!

Here are some shots of the laminate we were considering:

Baseboards & More Dirt

2007-05-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

The weekend of the 11th we found ourselves looking for things to accomplish while we waited for Menards to deliver a paycheck's worth of drywall, insulation and other building materials to start the next phase of our upstairs improvement project. In order to lay down the new flooring upstairs, we need to remove the baseboards. Alas, we found that the baseboards had likely been either removed or replaced and screwed into the plaster walls with 3" wood screws rather than finishing nails. Removing the baseboards involved me crawling around and digging at every small divot in the wood with a utility knife trying to figure out if a screw laid beneath the paint and caulk while Nick followed me with a pry bar, screwdriver and electric drill. Needless to say, this was a dirty, annoying process which was captured with the following photos:

The First Lawn Mowing

2007-05-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Nick's chosen title for this entry was "we can't have nice things." I shall explain.

On Saturday we purchased The Lawn Mower. Every first-time homeowner both delights and dreads this purchase. We dropped $199 at Lowe's for a Troy-Built push mower with bagging and mulching capabilities. It's big and red and pretty and cuts some mean grass. As I was halfway through mowing the front yard, it spits out a large chunk of black plastic that I vaguely remembered being attached to the backside of the mower. Oops:

I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but we came to the conclusion that it was an unnessary part of the mower. The rest of the plastic came off shortly thereafter:

The good news is that I finished mowing the lawn without further incident:

Demolition Complete

2007-05-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

We finished Stage 1 : Demolition this weekend. We have completed the tear-out of the flooring and 4 closets from upstairs and have measured the rooms to order building materials to begin construction. After knocking out some non-supportive studs we will have expanded the closet space in two of the bedroom closets:

Before (with studs):

After (without studs):

We also have some flooring samples on their way as well as a couple appointments for some estimates. We are a little weary to complete the floor installation ourselves due to unlevel surfaces and out-of-square corners. We'll see what the prices look like!

Here are some more "highlights" from the weekend:

Our normally beautiful, but currently filthy, staircase:

A huge pile of old, crumpled insulation bags that we found in an unused space between the linen closet and the chimney (can you say "fire hazard"?) These were promptly removed:

A view of the ceiling of the linen closet (and into the attic):

The filthy handprints on the walls:

Lastly, what we looked like when the night was over (and no, Nick was NOT wearing a black undershirt):

Old Newspaper Findings

2007-05-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

More demolition this weekend yielded more old newspapers stuck in the plaster. I finally found a date on one of them - 1941! I also found part of a front page that I neglected to bring back to the apartment to photograph (but I will soon!) Here are some clippings of note:

A filled-out crossword puzzle:

An advertisement for war bonds:

Ads for '39 and '41 Plymouths:

Demolition Weekend

2007-04-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend we tore out the carpet from upstairs, as well as the plaster walls and insulation from the upstairs closets. We made one heck of a mess and will be sure to sleep well tonight. We also found some interesting things beneath the walls of our house—one was a piece of old newspaper stuck in the plaster that had to be from the early 1900's—I couldn't find a date but in the crumpled mess was an ad for a new house—the price? $14,875.

We also found an old breaker box from the knob and tube wiring behind a board in the closet:

Nick removing carpet:

Nick and Brian removing carpet from closet #1:

That same closet, with shelving removed and the pink painted floor revealed:

The same closet again, with the drywall removed:

The lovely blue-painted floor in the 2nd bedroom:

Most of the carpet that we removed from upstairs:

The huge mess of drywall, plaster, lathe, insulation and general grime that now resides in our garage:

Proud Homeowners

2007-04-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

We closed on our house today! We met the sellers, Michelle and Russ, who were very helpful and shared a lot of great information about the house and its history with us. Here we are on closing day:

We cannot recommend our realtor, Carole Liszak, high enough. She and her team were extremely helpful throughout the buying process and put up with my endless phone calls and questions. Thanks, Liszak Team!

Pictures

2007-04-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures (with the seller's belongings), and I will put more up as I have time.

Living room:

Back deck:

Entry/foyer:

Front Porch:

Closing : April 26th

2007-04-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

We officially set our closing day today - we'll do our final walkthrough at 3:00 on April 26th and then head over to the title company to sign all the documents and fork over a little bit of our cash, and a whole lot of our mortgage lender's!

The lease in our apartment isn't up until May 31st, so we'll spend the time between closing and the end of our lease refinishing the floors upstairs and possibly re-doing the closets as well (the plaster needs to be torn down and replaced with drywall, along with the addition of some sort of organization system.)

We also locked in our interest rate today - we got a great rate for the current market at 6.125% without paying points or tons of closing costs.

It's Official!

2007-04-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

We're done with negotiations and everyone has signed the contract. I'm still shopping around for homeowner's insurance rates and we're researching contractors to refinish the wood floors under the carpeting upstairs.

Home Inspection

2007-03-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today we had our home inspection - it went very well! There are some minor things that need attention (a valve installed on the water softener, a couple electrical outlets that need attention) and we learned that the cellar bulkhead (the outside entrance to the basement) likely needs to be torn out and the foundation patched.

A big surprise was a wasp's nest the size of a basketball in one of the side attics! Luckily, it does not appear to be active at this time.

Initial Offer

2007-03-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

We put in our inital offer today - we'll see what happens!