It's Electric! Boogie Woogie, Woogie

The wiring in the house was newer, however, we decided to upgrade the service from 100 amp to 200 amp so we could run all our electronics. Tom from Sirant Electrical helped with this upgrade.

BEFORE: 100 amp

AFTER: 200 amp

Let's Get Our Paint On!

We started painting the 3rd floor today since getting this floor done is our top priority.  Once the 3rd floor is done, Adrian and I will move in and live up there while we work on the rest of the house.  Here are a few action shots.

Vandalized walls of 6th bedroom

Good-bye tree!

While I painted, Adrian ripped up the carpet from the third floor stairs, so we can have hardwood installed instead.

Finally, Some GOOD News!!!

The other day, we happened to walk to the back of the house to look at the garage so that we could take some photos before workers started working on it and we noticed this BIG, orange sign stapled to our garage.  

Basically, it says that our garage is unsafe and that the city has added us to the "Garage Demo Program".  At first this sounded like bad news, however, we realized this could actually be good news because it might mean that we didn't need to fix it anymore.  So, Adrian called the FHA loan inspector and told him about the notice and, just like we had hoped, he said we didn't have to fix the garage anymore.  Awesome! The garage doesn't need to be fixed!  The garage needs to be demolished!  Now we don't have to waste money on this thing :)

Roof is Fixed!

Thanks to Key Exterior, our roof is all better.  The guys actually came out Saturday to fix it, so we didn't even have the bandaid on for too long.  Here are a few shots taken while they were working on it.

Roof Gets a Bandaid

So we found out what the problem was...

 

So clearly we were getting water because of this gapping hole in our roof.  Looks like some type of chimney or vent used to be up there. 

Rob from Key Exterior came out and had his guys put a "bandaid" on the hole since the forecast is showing lots of rain for tomorrow.  The photo below is the temporary fix until the guys can come back out.



Water Problems :(

We received a call today from our contractor telling us that our roof was leaking and that lots of water was coming down our walls. Since it was a foreclosure and it was obvious that it needed a lot of work, we waived our right to an inspection back while we were under contract.  The house had a good structure and we figured we'd be replacing almost everything inside the house so we thought an inspection would just be a waste of money. The only problem with this is that we never checked out the roof.  We're looking for roof people now and plan to get it checked out in the next day or two.  We hope it isn't anything too major :/

203-k Updates

The 203-k loan work has started and here are a few photos of the progress.....

AFTER - All new copper plumbing was installed.  The previous owners decided to strip the house of all the copper prior to moving out.

AFTER - New/old water heater....see the difference in size?   With 3 1/2 bathrooms and one more coming in the future we needed to Super Size our water heater.

BEFORE - Hardwood floor on the 3rd floor had been cut and screwed back in leaving 

this nice little rectangular patch job

AFTER- Floor on 3rd floor gets patched

BEFORE- 3rd floor was a little unsafe

AFTER - Added a railing

BEFORE - Drywall and mirrored closet door were bashed in (3rd floor/6th bedroom)

AFTER - Wall got patched and we got new bi-fold doors

Fences Are HOW Much?!?

One of the items that's been at the top of our list is a fence for the backyard.  We figured this was a necessity considering our yard currently runs into our neighbors' yards and since our dog Tonka would go nuts without a fence.  

We've had a few fence people come out over the last couple of weeks and give us quotes, however, we're having a difficult time justifying this cost right now considering we don't have things like a kitchen or laundry room :/  On one side we need 143 ft of fence on the other 95 ft because there is a brick wall in between ours and our neighbors homes.  So in total, we need about 275 ft of fence to surround our house which is quite pricey.  This is definitely something we'll have to think about.

Making Us Safe!

Today we had a security system installed! Alert Protective Services installed it for us and is the service provider. The main security box was put in our closet and it runs off a cellular signal.  It has a backup battery so even if the power goes out we are still protected. :)

A Little Piece of History!

We knew from the beginning that our neighborhood was historical and that is was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, however, we didn't know much more other than that. So I decided to stop by the Commission of Chicago Landmarks Office on a whim to see if I could get any additional information. And even though I had to wait 20 minutes before anyone acknowledged me (typical City Hall fashion), I'm super glad I did. 

During my inpromptu research, I found out that our house was actually built in 1895, NOT 1901 like the MLS record stated.  I also found out that our house was built by a man named Louis F. Childs and it had cost him $3,000.  Another interesting fact I learned was that our backyard (which was much larger then) was an orchard for the Childs' Family.  Given that we're in the midwest, and apples are the most exotic fruit we get over here, I'm going to assume it was either an apple or cherry orchard.

As soon as I shared everything I had found out with Adrian, we both became obsessed with finding more information.  We began searching online for anything we could find on the Childs family.  It turns out that the family had a woodcarving business which leads us to believe that he and his family carved the woodwork on our mantels and spindles themselves.

Fireplace mantel

Staircase spindles

And lastly, we found that Mrs. Childs was the President of the neighborhood Women's Club :)