September
26, 2003 
Closing was today....we own it. Now the real fun begins!
October 10, 2003 
Visited the site yesterday. Gutting of the interior is progressing on
schedule. The basement and the first floor are next to be cleaned out.
We expect that the clean out will be done by October 24th and the
architects can enter the building shortly thereafter to measure for the
preliminary drawings. The find of the day was confirmation that there
are not 6 but 9 fireplace locations! Second find of the day...the
demolition man found several small pieces of decorative ironwork which
can be re-used as ornamentation. Too bad we can't do the same with the 8
foot cast iron radiators!
October 17, 2003
Visited the site this morning. Cleaning out the interior slowed this
week...it is much harder to move the debris from the building into the
dump truck when it is raining. The weather has turned colder and shorter
days mean less daylight, too. It's hard to work in a dark building! I
will be taking more photos in early November, after the final load of
material is removed.
November 1, 2003
The fall rains have continued to slow the
demolition. Our demolition contractor says plaster debris can
double its weight when it gets wet. Since he pays fees to the dump based
on weight not volume, wet plaster means no profit. Meanwhile, the
fireplace count has jumped to 11. Unfortunately we don't have any
mantels or moldings to go with them, as they were removed in the first
big remodel around 1880. We meet with the architect on November 5th, and
the demolition MAY be done by then. We are keeping our fingers crossed
as we look through architectural design books and think about floor
layouts...
November 23,
2003 
The weather has turned crisp, but dry.
Demolition is nearly done...have I said that before? Our meeting with
the architect to review the initial drawings was great. She offered us
three options for layouts, and her ideas helped us talk about some
exciting choices. We meet her again this week to review the next series
of drawings.
November 30,
2003 
Thanksgiving in Troy starts with the
Turkey Trot! In rain, snow or sun, hundreds of runners ages 8 to 80
gather in front of City Hall
to race down River Street and back
again. Starting with a Fun Mile run, followed by a 5K and wrapping up
with a 10K, runners in costumes are cheered on by an appreciative crowd
gathered in front of the monument that anchors Troy's center city plaza. After
checking in at Grandma's house, we build up an appetite by raking a few leaves
before enjoying our dinner. Tours have been organized to show off the
house...Rob is here from Idaho to see the house for the first time,
Lianna brought a friend from Ohio, and others are here from Pennsylvania
and Michigan. No work this week on the house. Everyone is enjoying the
holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!
December 26, 2003
Our Christmas wish for an early January start to construction was not
granted, but we have been busy none-the-less. Demolition is now focusing
on the basement and exterior deck...and removing loads of lath and
plaster from the first floor. Architects' plans are nearly complete. The
roof leaks have been fixed and the roof overhang will soon be gone. We
may make the January date for starting construction after all!
January 10, 2004 
A short row of pictures because
our remaining demolition time is short! The architect's team has handed
out sets of building permit drawings to contractors. We are working our
way through the drawings to see if we find anything we want to change.
Although there is plenty to change at the site, there's not much to
change on the drawings. Progress!
February 11, 2004 
Today we signed the GC's
contract...his work starts Friday the 13th....superstitious?
Nope! The GC tells us that our project has actually moved along much
more quickly than most. We are happy to see that our contract has a July
1 (2004) completion date!
February 16, 2004
More floor raising and leveling today, plus an on-site meeting with
one of the inspectors. We also captured a few photo moments with
houseguests this week. My apologies to fellow artist Grant Wood, but our
American Gothic couple was much more interesting!
March 1, 2004 
Floors go up, floors go down, a balancing
act below ground! Contractor George spends much time in the basement
making sure the building will stay up long after they are working in
it...Carol and I hope for at least another 150 years. When someone does
another rehab around 2160, they will be pleased that the main bearing
beam is not cut through in several places and left hanging unsupported
in the middle.
March 10, 2004
The building permit has arrived, so the real construction (not
demolition and shoring up structure) begins! The sun was shining today
as I walked through the project with contractor George; they have been
very busy!
March
29, 2004 
The work crew has been busy the past 2
weeks. All steel and micro-laminate bearing beams are in place and the
framing is mostly done on floors 2 and 3. The open view of Floor 1 as
seen above will soon be framed in, too. The architect was slightly
concerned about the footings...until she saw that the contractor had
already upgraded them on his own (note the 3 by 3 by 3 foot excavation
above...that's quite a bit bigger than the original design)! We are now
researching colors for the exterior. Although our house is not in the
local historic district, we want to keep it in character with the houses
across the street which are in the historic district. Two changes this
month...we're leaving the brick exposed in the entry and stairwells, and
are saying goodbye to the round skylight shaft that is falling down. A
square one will match the skylight better.
April 10, 2004 
We arrived Friday to say hello to
the crew and drop off a lunchtime dessert to find windows in place! It
is amazing what defines exciting when you are renovating. Imagine what
kind of truck was needed to deliver the 45 custom sized Pella windows;
we are very glad we didn't have to unload them! Many things are
happening at once. This week, the electrician, the plumber, the heating
and cooling team, the masonry crew and the framing crew were all working
at the same time. Not only are there working lights in the basement, the
pocket doors and new framing on the stairwell light shaft are in place.
It was a busy week at 159 First Street. The next day, we showed friends
Mike and Tim around the house, and then stopped by Uncle Sam's
(Troy Pub) for lunch and a giant piece of cake. The four of us couldn't
finish it. Next time we should skip the appetizer and save room for
dessert.....on second thought, we'll just invite more folks to
share...<G>
May 2, 2004
 
Quite a bit has been happening, but the photos are still not up. The
light shaft has a new skylight, the floors have been patched, the
electrical work is more than half done. We have been thinking about
exterior colors and more. Michael Lopez of TAP, Inc gave us some good
ideas, and contractor George has put up a few samples for us to look at.
Decision time will be soon, as he is hard at work ripping off the bay
wood cladding in order to rejuvenate the facade. Also on the near
horizon: kitchen cabinet final decisions.
May 13, 2004 
![maywindow1[1].JPG (145497 bytes)](images/maywindow11_small.JPG)
With warm spring weather now here, much of the work is happening
outside! The bay cladding has been rebuilt on the 2nd and 3rd floor
levels, and George is doing his best to make the 1st floor look great,
too. The rear entry was stripped of a badly designed shed roof to make
way for a cleaner design. The newly installed windows on the sides have
been dressed up by re-pointing the masonry. Masonry repair continues on
the sides and back; the crews are enjoying the sunshine and the breezes
but not the carpenter bees that are being evicted! PS: Happy
Birthday, LKG!
June 6, 2004
George did his best, and the bay looks
great! Masonry repair had been completed; we now have 4 sound walls from
top to bottom. Our block is looking really spiffy, as the three
buildings next to us are getting face lifts! Now that the city of Troy
has officially designated our block as an historic district, everyone
seems to be interested in renovation. Other good news, the mortgage
finally kicked in and we were able to pay some bills! For a while, we
thought the house would et done before the mortgage! Some disappointing
news on the sprinkler install...due to the need for extra permits and
inspections (we are the first rehab under new sprinkler rules, so
surprises are bound to happen), our move-in date has been pushed back to
August. Oh well...
July 5, 2004 
We can happily report that the
long delay is over! The sprinkler plans arrived just before the 4th, and
work will start up again when parts arrive from Texas. It was very difficult watching other
houses being rehabbed as ours sat waiting for sprinkler paperwork, but
things should get back on track. We've been weed whacking the back yard
and making arrangements for tree removal. Sometimes trees grow in the
wrong places...but why let them grow to 60 feet? Meanwhile, exciting
things have been happening in our neighborhood, as our contractor George
Morin has given a number of the houses on our block a much needed series
of facelifts.
July 29, 2004 
The sprinklers are here! Hooray! The
sprinklers are here! What a relief. We have been waiting for them since
the end of May. Bobby our plumber was hard at work this afternoon
running the flexible piping through the holes he had drilled...he has
been almost as anxious as we were waiting for the parts to arrive. Other
things were happening on the exterior to keep the project moving
forward, though. Scotty the famous lunch tree engineer removed the 3
huge Alianthus trees which had taken over the backyard. One of them was
rotted through the middle, so we were lucky to get it taken down before
it fell on our heads. George's crew repaired the two rear decks and called in
the iron workers, who installed the railings. Don't they look
great?
August 14, 2004
 
We were featured in a newspaper article in yesterday's
Albany Times Union. Erika Groff wrote a neat article about neighbors and
community building. The print version contained 3 black and white
photos; my favorite picture showed some of our new neighbors joining us
on the front steps. It felt great to be there with them. The sprinkler
system has a few more steps to be ready for testing, but we hope to see
that accomplished next week. We are keeping our fingers crossed, as the
delays have pushed everything back. We
still have insulating, sheet rocking, flooring, painting and interior
finish work to follow.
September 24, 2004 
Wonderful news! The sprinkler system has
passed the test and the insulation team began work today!
September 30, 2004 
Even more wonderful news! The sheet rock was
delivered and the rockers began "rockin' " today! Carol and I
have already picked out the paint colors for the interior, too.
PROGRESS!
October 31, 2004 
While work continued, we took a
break! We visited Cleveland, seeing the city's finest museums and CWRU's
best student. Later we took a weekend tour of the Adirondacks, checking
out the leaves before snow arrives. With the sheet rock complete, tapers
began work. Evidence of further progress is above.
November 12, 2004 
Wow! It snowed today! It's a good
thing that things are moving along. This week the tapers finished
sanding, and the floor preparation began for tiling and wood patching/refinishing. Photos
above show floor patching in progress, and wall color
re-re-re-reevaluation. Oh yeah, almost forgot...we have a new sewer line
now, and the back yard has been cleaned and leveled. A busy month so
far!
November 28, 2004 
Happy Thanksgiving! This week the painters finished wall priming,
completed the ceilings, and applied first coats of final colors. Tiling and
grouting the kitchen came next; the rest of the tiling and wood patching
will be done by December 1st. The old hardwood flooring will be
refinished and new hardwood floors installed soon after. Photos
above show floor tile and more.
December 26, 2004 
We got the C of O and moved in
before the holiday. Much remains to be unpacked and sorted. Merry
Christmas!
March 8, 2005
See how the
house looks now; our work in progress continues...<G>
|
![maywindow1[1].JPG (145497 bytes)](images/maywindow11.JPG){kind=small}
