"Blame It On The Rain".......Or the previous owners

While excavating, we noticed that the corner of the house was in pretty bad shape structurally.  The ground directly above this corner was always a pool whenever it rained. When we bought the house, there was a gutter that had been disconnected in that corner, and we noticed all of the water collecting there, so we reattached it, but it was too late because the damage was done. Water just continuously drained in the corner of the house causing the foundation to crumble. 

So we had to support the house in that corner, remove the blocks and pour new concrete in place of the blocks.

Blocks removed. Don't mind the spray painted dog, courtesy of the previous owners.

Concrete poured. You can also see our new sub pump in the corner.

"Window Shopper"

They've started to install all of the new windows!!! One thing we have been asked repeatedly has been "why didn't you just fix the old windows". Great question. We definitely were planning on keeping the ones that were in decent shape and replacing the others. Then when we started looking at how bad the original windows were and how much it would cost to fix those compared to new ones, it just didn't make sense. The old owners had already replaced a fair amount of the original windows but they were not installed correctly and the quality of the replaced windows were poor. So we thought to buy all new windows that match the profile of the old windows but offered the high quality of new windows.  So we bought 38 NEW WINDOWS!!!! Still need to buy like 14 more I believe for the 3rd floor and basement. Also, the majority of the wood siding is rotting so we will be replacing all of the siding on the entire house as part of Phase 4.

Cigar Room Windows

New half bath window being installed.

Great room window (54X81 GIGANTIC double hung window) then breakfast area windows.

Sunroom windows were all removed. We had to re-do most of the framing as well.

Parlor Windows

Great Room Windows with new sub floor

HVAC Relocated

During Phase 2 we had two new HVAC systems installed (one for basement and first floor and the other for 2nd and 3rd floors) because the old ones were completely shot. However, because the final layout of our house was not complete we installed a lot of things temporarily and put duct work in places that were the cheapest solutions at the time but not the best or final solution. So now that we are working through the final solution, the basement / 1st floor duct work and HVAC have to be completely moved to the other side of the basement.  We are building a mechanical room that will encompass the gas meter, hvac, sub pump and ejector pit, hot water tank, and central vac (yes we are installing a central vacuum). 

Old Ductwork

New location for HVAC

Trench and plumbing for new outside and inside drains

Subfloors Galore, Subfloors Some More

We've shifted our focus back inside for now, mostly because we don't need anyone falling through the floors. Our guys are continuing to rip out the old subfloor and have started to put down the new subfloor. 

Great Room missing some sub-floors

Master Bedroom missing sub-floors

Second floor hallway. They removed the banister as well because that needs to be raised up. It was about 8 inches too short.

Second Floor hallway with subfloors after being leveled

Master bedroom with subfloors

Stairway to Heav.....err Basement

With the weather continuing to be pretty nice, the concrete guys have started to pour the footers and walls of the basement stairs. If the weather was anything like it was at this time last year we would have never been able to do any of this.  We extended the landing at the bottom of the stairs because we will have a deck that goes over it so we need to ensure it extends past the future deck. 

Pouring Footer

New Footer

Building Walls of Basement Stairway

Pouring Concrete

New Basement Stair Walls. We'll be replacing the existing door with a new wider door.

"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"......Well our basement has!

One of the major things we wanted to do prior to even thinking about finishing our basement was to waterproof. We consistently get water in our basement every time it rains and we knew we needed to address that before even thinking about renovating our basement later down the road. Since we were already going to be excavating for the mudroom footers, we decided to just continue with the excavation and waterproof the back side of the house now while the yard is still ruined. (Front side of the house will get waterproofed when we re-do the front porch, Phase 4).

In addition to excavating the mudroom area and the back of the house, we are also excavating the basement stairs and rebuilding them so that they will fit under the new deck. 
The weather has been pretty mild for December, so we've been able to keep moving along.

Old Exterior Basement Staircase - We are removing this and building new

Basement Stairs Removed

Excavated the side of the house

Gas lines exposed

Backside of the house excavated

Some have been asking us if we expected such a big renovation. The answer is Yes and No. We've always expected a big job, but I think this was the point that I realized this was so much bigger then I thought. BUT it should be worth it in the end. We're NEVER MOVING!!!! Unless someone gives me the right offer ; )

We're BACK IN BUSINESS....Mudroom BE GONE!!!

So after two weeks, we are back in business. We worked directly with the inspector to have the stop work order removed and this guy was the nicest guy ever!!! Yes you are reading that correctly, this inspector was extremely helpful, easy to work with, and the reason the stop work order was removed so quickly.

Now that we have all of the correct permits, we are ready to move full steam ahead. First order of business, taking down the mud room off the back of our house.  The mudroom needs to be removed because it was built directly on top of the ground, without footers, so it's sinking. The floor from the kitchen to the mudroom was super uneven because of this. Removing the mudroom will allow us to excavate for new basement stairs, waterproof the back side of the house and ultimately build a new bigger, badder mudroom. 

Before - With Mudroom

After - Without Mudroom - oh and some windows removed too :) Andddd no grass :(

Windows Arrive!!! BUT "STOP in the name of..." a stop work order??!!

So our windows have arrived after 4 weeks, and they look awesome and HUGE!  Here they are in the Cigar Room (still more to come on that later ;) )

We were pretty excited about the windows but then this happened.....

So, in case you weren't aware, the City of Chicago permit office is ridiculously slow and a pain to work with.  Lauren and I applied for permits over 2 months ago, and we'd received sign-off on all but one item. We didn't want to wait to start our renovation because that would have pushed our timeline further into the winter, so we started a little earlier without having the final sign-off.  City says a neighbor called and complained, but I don't know why a neighbor would do that when we're trying to make improvements to the property (which indirectly also helps the neighbors' property value). The inspector  was really nice about it though which rarely happens.  He knew our sign-off was just days away, but he still needed to issue the stop work order.   We're expecting the permits to come in any day now so this should only slow us down a few days.

Support: Beams and headers

Our home is a big old house and in order to ensure that it doesn't fall down when we remove walls, we needed to support the home with a lot of huge beams and headers. In the main part of the first floor we removed three main walls which would require three new beams to support the weight of the second floor and a perpendicular beam for extra support. Take a look at the old floor plan and a new floor plan to refresh your memory.

Old layout - two walls by powder room and wall by sun room will be removed

New layout - 3 walls removed

Iron Beam for the Sunroom - the span was too wide for a wood beam. Over 20 ft gap

Iron Beam Up on the Sunroom/Family Room with a 2X4 temporary wall for support while beam is secured. This is now the Great Room

Beam where powder room was and again with 2x4 temporary wall for support

Wide open - Great Room, Breakfast Room and Kitchen

Game plans are overrated

So you may remember that we had a structural engineer come out a few weeks ago who told us that we could and should raise the floor.  Well during his visit, he also mentioned that we'd have a lot more headroom going into the basement if we were to move our basement staircase.  This means that we would be swapping the pantry and the staircase with one another.  I was actually really excited about this change because now our pantry would be inside our kitchen rather than in the hallway.

This is where the old staircase to the basement was located and where are pantry will be. Notice the curving wall, which is where the upstairs 2nd staircase is coming down.

This is where our new basement staircase will go. This is under the front staircase.