Hardwood flooring / bathrooms ready for tile

The wood floors have been installed, and the bathrooms are ready to tile.

With all of the floor leveling that was done, the front door would not swing open without cutting it down.

Carpenter very carefully cutting the door down to size.

Continue reading “Hardwood flooring / bathrooms ready for tile”

Drywall

The renovation continues at a good pace.

Over the last two weeks, we have passed our insulation inspection and had drywall installed, taped, and mudded.

Here’s a photo tour of the progress.

The tour begins in our dining room, where we opened up a wall to hide plumbing and electrical. We bumped out this corner a bit to make room for the plumbing drain. The alternative would have been to hide it behind the built-in, but it is such useful storage, we felt this was a better solution.

Continue reading “Drywall”

Spray foam insulation and chimney repointing

Spray foam insulation is considered superior to old fashioned fiberglass batt insulation. Since our vaulted master bedroom ceiling and low roof is a challenge to insulate, we decided to pay the premium for closed cell spray foam insulation.

We also hired a mason to repair (repoint) the old brick chimney upstairs. This feature was originally covered by plaster and would not have been exposed originally. While I have long argued to cover it back up, I lost that argument. So, the brick needed to be repaired.

Here is a “before” photo. The dark spots are Portland Cement (not mortar).

Someone just slopped in some concrete between the bricks in an attempt to repair them. The challenge with that is that these bricks are over 100 years old and are quite soft – the original lime mortar would have had high lime content and would also have been soft, and it must be repaired with the correct mortar so that the bricks are not damaged by a much harder concrete joint that can cause them to crack.

Below is a photo showing the joints between the bricks partially ground out. The left side of the photo below shows how the bricks looked before grinding, while the right side shows the grinding underway. It is already a remarkable improvement.

Continue reading “Spray foam insulation and chimney repointing”