a hidden lintel, doors, and drywall...

As mentioned in the previous post, the new basement door just needed a lintel and some painting... 

... we were at work while they were installing the lintel, so I wasn't able to take any photos of the installation... you will just have to trust me that there are two 4'-0" long steel angles, back to back, behind that brick, above the basement door...

... we also had them paint the door - Behr 'Black Bean'.
CORRECTION... I had them paint the door... and it was a mistake (you were right, Bryan)... they did a very sloppy job... plus they painted the inside of the door, and even though the color looks good on the outside, it's too dark for inside... oh well... something we'll have to tackle on a rainy day.

The front door is fully stripped... plus the glass was taken out... replacement glass should arrive mid-next week... in the meantime, some plywood sheets were tacked on temporarily... 

... the locks and door knob were also removed while stripping... lock was replaced (upside down... wtf?)... but door knob was not, so Bryan had to fashion a temporary door knob out of a knotted dish cloth and duct tape... he's the engineer...

... it works!

Vestibule door was patched with bondo and wood filler, awaiting re-installation...

Stair installation is almost complete... wood paneling is pretty much stripped clean... except for the closet door...

... closet door still needs some cleaning up and new hardware.


Drywall is up, taped, mudded and primed... a huge feat since the heat and humidity were making mudding and priming quite difficult...

... getting there...

doors

I stopped counting days... things were moving along at a fast pace, however the past week things have slowed down a bit... more on that later... in the meantime... DOORS.

Part of the living room gut-rehab scope is the vestibule... which includes the vestibule door and the exterior front door. The guy who did our stairs also does doors (he's a woodworker), so he's agreed to fix up/partially restore both the front door and the vestibule door...

The existing front door needed lots of work... chips, cracked wood, missing pieces... mulitple locks... security glass, of which one panel was cracked... layer upon layer of paint, blistering and cracking...
Bo's dad, Jarek, started the process of stripping the doors... front door being the biggest challenge...

Vestibule door only needs a bit of touching up, following the paint stripping...

... the doors are incredibly heavy, so we are stripping the existing hinges and reusing them, since they were specially made for those doors.

While on the subject of doors... we decided to go ahead and tackle the basement door and lintel now vs later... things were already covered in plastic... plus we may get ambitious and decide to build a deck/balcony in September... however, the primary reason we decided to this now vs later is the fact that the existing basement door had NO lintel above it, despite the fact that there was significant weight resting on it... and we have started to see a few hairline cracks in the grout above the door... plus we needed a new basement door (the existing door wouldn't stay closed and could not be locked from the outside).

We picked up a Jeldwen door at Home Depot... not a huge selection, plus our budget was very tight... but we managed to find something... we decided to get a door with windows, to allow some natural light into the basement... best. decision. ever.

... lintel still to be installed... and door still to be painted.

8 years of floor plans...

This past March marked our 8th year at 4408... eight years... EIGHT YEARS?!?!

... hard to believe... so much has happened during the course of those eight years... yet... we are STILL not finished gut-rehabbing!

... then again, when are you ever truly finished? I'm starting to wax philosophical...

We have a very ambitious (and exciting!) to-do list planned for this year (and, most likely, into next), hinging on finances, time and no major unforseen hurdles or potholes (... there will always be the unforseen, we just don't want major...).

While assessing what still needs to be done, budget and schedule, I compiled before/after (or rather, current status) plans of the house... basement, first floor, second floor and roof. They are somewhat schematic... I opted not to include electrical, mechanical and plumbing info on this post... who wants to see that stuff anyway?! I'll try and pull together a photo before/after series sometime soon as well...

BASEMENT

FIRST FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

ROOF
(btw... the plans are flipped, in case you were a bit confused/disoriented... I clipped them from our Green Roof Grant Proposal document... )

... and still going strong!