a picture's worth...

a thousand words... and all of them are along the lines of "holy crap, we did it"...










now, on to the next adventure... doing jeremy and lina's house...

and now thanks to our sponsors...

we interrupt this blog to thank the many fine manufacturers, companies and products that have gone into this project.

special thanks to:

- brooks lumber, located across the street from the old tiger stadium, where marc travelled four, sometimes five times a day. special shout-out to carlisa the cashier, who started to anticipate marc's needs to the point that she was telling him what he should buy next.

- "bill" the plumber, whose off-licence plumbing job under the house saved us a whole lotta trouble and pain

- ikea, which provided us with more gear than we could ever imagine could fit in a kitchen. but surprisingly, it all did.

- target, for providing the kids with much-needed entertainment devices

- cedarland, los galanes, slows BBQ, beirut by night and panera bread for keeping us fed

- honeybee market (la colmena) for providing us with nearby milk and cream

- tecate, corona, and many other beers for keeping us, um, hydrated

- DAP expandofoam, varathane, martha stewart paint, aluminum tape, shiny bubble insulation, acme mold and mildew remover and a zillion other products of that nature

- larry (marc's dad) for loaning his circular saw (and bringing it back after we returned it to him, because we realized we still had stuff to saw)


no thanks to:

home depot, whose hot water installer charged us three times as much for a drip pan as they sell them for at lowe's

enterprise rental cars, for swapping our cool pontiac vibe for a less-room PT cruiser

fedex and ups for being sticky about shipping stuff to canada

the weather, which has been stinking hot. all the better to dry the paint, though...

and now back to our regular programming...

the home stretch...!

we're almost there. almost there! so close, we can almost taste it. or that could be the taste of windex, fantastik, silicone sealant or other such substance that lingers in your nostrils and affects your tastebuds... not that i'd know or anything.

but yes. we're in the home stretch. really truly in the home stretch.

the kitchen is done, all but for brushing the nice countertop oil on the countertops and getting the grout sealant onto the floors (and hey, you can't see those in a photo, so i'm going to post pics now).



oh, i suppose we also need to get the bathroom door put back on. um, right. details...



but overall, it's looking nice and shiny and fresh. the kids especially like the way they can play on the wide open floor without anything in their way. who needs furniture, anyway?



even the back porch, which was formerly known as "the scary room" and generally a place we didn't like to go (and yes, where we found the cat corpse), is actually nice now. with the ceiling insulation and the big insulated steel door, the heat gain inside there is way less. oh, and now that the furnace doesn't vent directly into the porch (yikes), it should be a lot nicer and, um, safer too.



after marc put on the door, i put down the floor. we still need to get door trim up. details...


so now, what's left? a few more bits. the front porch still needs handrails, and the front bedroom needs one more coat of varathane, and the crawlspace insulation still needs to be done. and a few more doors need to be installed/reinstalled. like, oh, the bathroom, for example.

but we're racing against the clock. we have one more full day to do it all. can we make it?
stay tuned...

it gets weirder

freakout of the week---
we found this in the laundry room.



of course, no renovation is complete without one, right? no clue how long this guy had been there. he could've been there since before we moved in, in 1998. he could've been one of ours who went missing. or he could've been one of the ones who lived here with marc's mom. no idea. but anyway, he was given a decent burial by sacha and billy, who happily dug a hole in the back garden...



meanwhile, magritte and molly were dancing to their own drummer (presumably the sound of marc pounding nails into the back porch roof over the laundry room)...



the result was this, though:



that'd be the insulation/vapor barrier stuff that goes beneath the roofing stuff. marc says that in the process, he's learned what it feels like to be cooked in a solar oven.

but the kids have learned more alternative foodstuffs. like this...



yup. gummy candy that glows in the dark. ain't that america. happy 4th of july, everyone!

using our noodles

so, we're getting closer to being done, and that's a good thing, because we've got potential tenants coming tomorrow and thursday to look at the flat.

now, it's mostly stuff that's on the outside of the house. like, oh, the back porch roof:



yup, last thunderstorm we found out this thing leaked something awful...so marc's been up on the roof, taking it apart before fixing it again, hopefully before the next thunderstorm.

additional challenge of the day--

when we were on our way to pick up an enormously heavy steel door for the back porch, we stopped in at the car rental place to switch the contract from a weekly one to a monthly one. to our surprise, we had to actually return the car! as it turns out, they'd sold it! (the trouble with car rental places that also sell their cars, apparently...). anyway, we were chagrined because the cute little pontiac vibe we'd been driving was extremely useful in that it had a roof rack and hatchback for hauling loads of stuff.
they were apologetic, and gave us a free upgrade to a PT cruiser, which is fine, except it has ... no roof rack. and we were on our way to get very heavy doors.
so... we used our noodles.
pool noodles.
you can barely see them, but they're under all that stuff on the roof. they worked perfectly to protect the car and allow us to bring home the doors, metal flashing and porch railings that we needed to transport.
this probably voids our car rental agreement, but, well... what happens in detroit, stays in detroit, right?



and when the hatchback isn't as big, well, the stuff has to fit somewhere, right? those shiny things next to magritte are giant rolls of aluminum-coated bubble wrap insulation, which we're going to use in the crawl space. if you look carefully in the previous picture, you'll see lots more in the somewhat smaller hatchback. hmpf.



stuff we've done but haven't taken pictures of:

- bedrooms all but finished, including refinished floors, paint, trim and air sealing in windows
- installed toilet, sink and cabinets in the bathroom
- installed dishwasher, sink and cabinets in the kitchen (stove arrives today!)
- air sealed all the windows in the downstairs flat
- cleaned out the nasty front closet, fixed the walls and painted
- cleaned out the nasty back porch, fixed the walls (painting happens today)
- installed overhead light fixtures in the kitchen and dining room
- replaced all the heat registers and switch plates

and probably other stuff i can't remember... every day is blurring into the next. i'm going to be really glad when we're done this...
only three more days to go!

yikes.

we interrupt this renovation...

we interrupt this renovation for a vacation!

yes indeed. it was definitely time. we drove to dexter, michigan, to spend the weekend with our lovely friends adam and audrey. here they are:



dexter is a pretty little town (er, village) outside of ann arbor. it has lots of stuff like this:



we spent the weekend hanging out, eating great food and playing. the kids were especially enamoured of the STOMP ROCKET, which allowed small foam rockets to be launched to heights that would be the envy of NASA.



of course, some kids--like magritte--also discovered the joys of individual retro sports. like hula hooping.



and roller skating...



all in all, a good time was had by all. except for the part where we had to leave and get back to our world of renos.
and the part where we had to stop at ikea on a sunday afternoon. on the weekend before the 4th of july. when there was a sale on. oh. my. it was not just busy. it was beyond busy. it was as though everyone in the metro area decided to hop into their air-conditioned SUV and head on down to stock up on plastic stuff for the upcoming holiday. yikes.

here's how we felt.



now, back to the reno zone...

incendiary events

ahh, detroit. detroit on fireworks night, when kids get to stay up waaaaay past their bedtimes, lighting incendiary devices on the city sidewalks. in our case, we watched the very large annual fireworks display from the sidewalk of michigan avenue, in front of our friend cathy's place. here's the view:



and here's sacha, looking mighty pleased at the idea of his parents letting him play with fire...



of course, the kids found a better vantage point:



but the big fireworks display only inspired them to do more of their own pyromaniac activities (assisted by marc).



oh, and we did some house renos today too. including having a new hot water heater installed and finishing with the floor sander. and a whole lotta little things, like oh, cleaning out the crap from the back porch, and putting knobs on the kitchen cabinets, and that kind of thing. it's coming along. will it get done? we're starting to race against the clock... marc returns to victoria in 10 days. can we do it?

it's starting to feel more and more like a reality show around here...
stay tuned!

counter intelligence

we had to call in the experts today. yup, our good friend adam, an ikea fan from way, way, back before there was ever an ikea store within half an hour of his house, came over today to help assemble a bunch of AKURUMS, some RATIONELLS and a bunch of other swedish-influenced kitchen stuff. it was, as they say, a counter-intelligence coup.

here's some of the unsuspecting cabinets blissfully basking on the shiny floor, not knowing that they'd soon fall prey to a cordless drill, an allen key, and the dreaded fuller 313 screwdriver wielded by adam himself.



of course, not all the pieces were ready to submit to such torture. some even had to be further bedevilled by both adam and marc, who took a hole cutter and cordless drill to their helpless frames. let me tell you, those solid wood ikea countertops? yup, they're solid. yup, they're wood. and yup, they're hard to cut. marc actually scorched the cut edges with the saw. wowee.



meanwhile, magritte was busy wiggling away at her loose tooth.


said tooth finally departed from her mouth as we were all about to get on the peoplemover for a ride to comerica park, where we'd hoped to sit in the baking 33 degree heat on the bleachers and catch a detroit tigers game while sipping $8.50 budweiser and nibbling $6 hot dogs. alas, the game was actually some kind of big deal, and it was sold out. (on a tuesday? in june? in detroit? wow, things -have- changed around here.)
anyway, no game, so we and adam and audrey and their adorable kids went for a pleasantly air-conditioned dinner, where we were surrounded by TV screens playing, guess what, the tigers game.
the tigers lost.
but we won.

be-floor and after

while sacha's busy practicing to become the fastest cherry-pitter in the midwest...


the rest of us are hard at work on more renos (now there's a surprise...).

marc worked on making the floor look shiny (it's got a few more coats of stuff to go, and then there's the other room that hasn't even been started yet). but it's coming along!



meanwhile, i donned dustmask and eye protection once more to go into battle with ikea cabinets.


no, it isn't so very dangerous assembling cabinets with an allen key and a pair of pliers. it's just that the sander in the next room kicks up a whole lot of dust, and in order to co-exist with it, well, i need to swelter under an itchy hot dustmask and a pair of ever-fogging, sweat-inducing goggles. did i mention it was 33 degrees here today?

but at least there were a few breaks.
first was the screech of tires, followed by two gunshots, followed by another screech of tires. we hit the (newly sanded) deck and then when it seemed all clear, checked in with all the neighbours who were also wondering what the heck it was. one bullet hit the brick of the corner house, which the neighbour living there said sounded like chunks of drywall falling in. someone said they saw a guy running like mad up the block, wearing a white t-shirt and a blue towel. hmmm. anyway, nothing like a little excitement like that to remind us we're back in detroit after all.

and second was a lovely dinner with our friends ken and kim, and their five kids. the gaggle of kids had a blast bouncing around on too much sugar, and the grownups had a great time bouncing around on questions of ethics and government (ken has a certain high mucky muck job in politics, so it got pretty amusing. he may be the last ethical politician left...).

and third was a late-night drive through downtown detroit, which has a few things different from last time we were here, like, oh, lights. and stores. and people out after 11.
incredible but true. could this actually be a real city, after all?
stay tuned...

tenant intentions...

the floor is done!!


now that we've got a kitchen floor, plus a new fridge, and a new dishwasher, plus a whole lot of kitchen cabinets and counters and such all ready and waiting to be installed, we're starting to realize we've got to install tenants pretty soon, too. we've posted an ad on craigslist, and will place one in the metro times tomorrow for this week's edition.

of course, if we could believe all the folks who say they want to rent the place, or say they know someone who wants to, or say they'll pass the word around, well, we could have dozens of tenants.
now, of course, there's the question of will they turn up, let alone pay the rent once they're here?

let's see. for possible tenants so far, we've got:

--the older guy the woman next door knows.
--a buddy of one of the cuban crew who helped with the early stages of cleanup/tear-out
--a buddy of another one of the crew
--one of the crew and his dog
--the guy who delivered the kitchen stuff from ikea today (hey, he says, at least he knows it's going to be nice)
--a buddy of the aforementioned guy
--a guy who the crazy lady down the street recommends. he's out of work now, but he used to specialize in off-licence pharmaceutical delivery and occasional informal insurance policies. and rodrigo down at the corner can give him a good reference. um, yeah.

accomplishments of the day:

--cleaned up the last of the grout bits from the kitchen tiles
--sorted out all the various components of eight different ikea cabinets
--assembled one cabinet
--buttered more floorboards with wood filler
--sanded more floors to the next stage
--cleaned the upstairs bathroom
--constructed a giant cardboard target for sacha to use with his slingshot
--fed the children lunch before 4 pm.

oh, and what have the kids been up to? good question. they've been amusing themselves quite well.
magritte's been drawing a lot:



and they've been making up all sorts of games and things, with the occasional breaks to go outside and fly gliders, kick a soccer ball around, fire slingshot ammo at the house, or make friends with the neighbour kids. but mostly, they seem to like spending time in their lair:

minor triumphs!

the kitchen floor is done!! i'll post a photo when the camera batteries recover from the shock.
i got the grout finished today, and while it still needs to be sealed, it's looking quite fine if i do say so myself.

minor triumph of the day:

- cherries from our trees! yellow ones, red ones, pie cherries, sweet cherries...mmmm. this is why i planted those trees back in 1999. they're huge now and provide lots and lots of fruit. we won't be here when the apples and pears are ripe, but it looks like there'll be quite a few.





- challenge of the day:

putting wood filler into the cracks on the hardwood floors after my spreader-thingy broke. ended up doing the rest of the job with a spreader so small, i could've done as good a job with a butter knife.

- excitement of the day:
marc waving a lit torch around as he used it to disconnect the old bathtub faucets

- departure of the day
the old fridge and stove are both gone. the stove had been out in front of the house for a week or so. it finally disappeared. we credit the stove fairy (a demented and larger relative of the tooth fairy, that takes away old decayed stoves when houses no longer need them, leaving empty beer bottles in their place).
we're leaving the fridge out to see what happens. we're hoping for full beer bottles at least.

the cake-construction conspiracy

i've long suspected that there's a conspiracy behind the whole renovation mystique. yeah, sure, you think it's a big macho tough guy thing to do, but i'm now quite convinced there's a whole other side. and it's all about cake.

yup. ever notice how much building products resemble dairy products?
check it out:
spackle...cream cheese
expandofoam...whipped cream (the kind from a can)
paint...cream, or liquid whipped cream
grout and tile adhesive...cake mix (just add water!)
caulk...icing
wood filler...cheez whiz

and the list goes on... clearly, it's all a big conspiracy. the tough reno guys want us to think they're doing something really difficult, but actually.... it's a piece of cake.

of course, when you're baking you never have to wear something like this...



and for those interested in today's progress notes, here you go:

--final adhesive of floor tiles completed
--grout bag acquired (oooh, pastry bag!) so that grouting can start in the morning
--more sanding done. one more room to go for the first round.
--much crap, junk and tools consolidated and placed out of the way of the sander.
--tub surround halfway installed (don't ask)
--four trips to the neighbourhood hardware store
--one trip to lowe's hardware superstore
--one load of laundry washed and folded
--one nearly new aluminum step ladder acquired from a woman drinking beer in a truck and holding a "garage" sale on a corner by the freeway, in front of a building last used by a campaign for Hoffa '96. $15.
--nutritious dinner prepared and served before 9 pm by the lady of the house. the one in the safety goggles.

the 'hood

a brief intro to detroit history, here. our house is located in corktown, detroit's oldest neighbourhood. it was originally the home of immigrants from county cork, ireland, hence the name. now, it's a well-integrated neighbourhood, with some original irish-descending residents, lots of latino folks (mexicantown is nearby, and most families living there come from the jalisco area of mexico), lots of black folks (including the cuban ex-patriates who make up most of our reno crew) and lots of youngish white folks like us who like the old houses.
here's ours:



and here's what's behind our house:




the big building behind the tree (i promise, i'll get a better picture at some point) is the old michigan central train station. it's been closed since 1979, when the railroads decided it wasn't busy enough in detroit to have a big passenger station anymore. we wish it was still open--it'd be so convenient!--but as it is, it's a nice view.
it's owned by the same guy who owns the ambassador bridge (i'm not making this up--there really is such a guy!) and he's waiting for someone to present him with the right amount of money to do something with it. so far, proposed plans have included a casino, a new police headquarters, and a hotel. but this is detroit. nothing happens fast. and usually, nothing happens.
here's another view, just to the right. this is immediately behind our yard.



and this is our back yard. well, part of it. house needs paint. ohboy does it ever...