Week 39 of the Restoration (03/24/2008 – 03/28/2008)

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Let there be light!

This week Dimitris was able to get the electricity running and some fixtures installed. Having light in the house made our restoration feel more real for all of us. The amazing part of the house is the incredible natural light that flows into most all of the rooms. If it’s a sunny day – you won’t even have to turn on any lights within the house. Melanie even got involved w

Week 38 of the Restoration (03/17/2008 – 03/21/2008)

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

20 Guys in 20 days…will we finish in time for our first Home Tour Date on April 5th?

This week, all the guys were working at a feverish pace: baseboard and crown molding installation; back and circular staircase restoration

What was cooking this week? Installation of all our kitchen cabinets, counters and island!

Mike Dugan, Dave Perry and crew from Kitchen Tune-up did an amazing job getting in all our quality kitchen cabinetry in this week. Talent and experience made the job look easy – everything was installed in just 3 days . We’re planning to paint the cabinets white next week, along with getting the floors

Week 36 of the Restoration (03/03/2008 – 03/07/2008)

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Short and sweet this week…the house got plastered!

We finished most of the plastering this week. Great skill and effort went into plastering underneath the stairs within the circular staircase – lots of twists and turns – wow – these guys really know what they’re doing. The magic is also creating super smooth walls with the plaster – making the walls feel like g

Week 35 of the Restoration (02/25/2008 – 02/29/2008)

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Week 35 was a Restoration Transformation!

The Icynene and Fiberglass insulation went in this week and we got our insulation approval from the town. The Icynene guys looked like moonwalkers spraying this monster foam that seemed to voraciously expand like some hungry movie blob waiting to takeover the house.It also seemed the temperature in the house went up 10 degrees once the insulation was

Week 34 of the Restoration (02/18/2008 – 02/22/2008)

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

390 Mount Hope Street wins the Inspection Trifecta! (electrical, plumbing and rough framing)

We got our final rough framing inspection approval this week. We passed with flying colors. Just some minor requests to install a few joist hanger brackets and installation of fireblock insulation which we took care of the next day.

Week 33 of the Restoration (02/11/2008 – 02/15/2008)

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Two Down – One to Go!

Our electrical and plumbing inspections passed this week – our rough framing is Tuesday next week and we’re expecting to pass with flying colors. Our plan is to also finish with insulation next week with an insulation inspection and start sheet rocking the beginning of the following week. We decided to push our Home Tour ahead to April 5 & 6 so we can leave plenty of time to do the finish properly.

Week 32 of the Restoration (02/04/2008 – 02/08/2008)

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Systems All Go!

All the home’s systems and structurals – the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and rough framing are close to completion. We’re expecting to call all the inspectors by mid-week next week. If we can get a big thumbs up right away (we hope), we’ll get insulation in early the following week and then sheetrock and plaster soon afterwards.

The salvage wood floors installationin the family room is also close to completion – along with the new back staircase, wet bar framing, back door and storm door.

Thanks to Fernando, we decided to install salvaged wood floors in the kitchen (same salvaged wood floors as in the family room) so we would not have any major step transitions from the family or dining rooms. The floor in the kitchen is original – but has become more of a subfloor, which was at a lower level than the other room’s floors. The salvaged wood floor we are now installing in the kitchen will also give the illusion that the floors always existed because of the connection with the family and dining rooms.

John, our master carpenter, finished building the generous bench in the kitchen area. The design had to incorporate the headroom needed to walk down the stairs to the basement. We had to also relocate a kitchen window near the bench to the left side of the kitchenand installed a beautiful leaded glass round window right near the bench. The round window was actually found in the basement – the best kind of find – free!

The basement has now been fully parged – it’s not livable, but feels clean and useable. Chuck was able to get the furnaces running at full speed. The comfort level increased (the house is now a comfortable 58 to 60 degrees), and we will now start to reinstall all the forced hot water fancy radiators within the home.

The guys have seen many more people stopping and ask how things are going. The buzz is building and the interest level in our home is high – hopefully that will translate into lots of traffic for our Home Tours and Open Houses. We’ve even seen the traffic to our web site double in the last few weeks. Melanie and I are hoping to see everyone soon at our Home Tours. Lot’s more to do – we’re going strong!

Week 31 of the Restoration (01/28/2008 – 02/01/2008)

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Just one foot made the difference.

The back staircase ended up needing to go one foot longerinto the master bedroom and it changed the whole layout of the master suite.

We wanted to give more room to the part of the bedroom that would have the bedroom furniture – so Fernando opened up a wall between the sitting room and bedroom area – now exposing the circular staircase wall. We also closed up some doorways and made the master closet door entrance from inside the master bathroom. The result is now a wide open, beautifully shaped room with lots of interesting architectural details. We lucked out.

Eric and John were working in the basement. John finished the basement stairs so they will pass code. Eric built all the formsand the cement was poured into the areas that were just dirt and rubble. These areas will now be great for storage.

The third floor is ready to go now – we just need to finish the master bedroom and family room floors and we’ll be able to have all the inspectors come out on Wed or Thursday next week.

The good news keeps flowing. We were just told that the Boston Globe Real Estate section will be doing a front page article in March on our house restoration! So much effort, thought and love has gone into this home restoration – I just hope that everyone else sees what we are trying to do.

Week 30 of the Restoration (01/21/2008 – 01/25/2008)

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:00:00 GMT

It’s like buying a (Salvaged) Stairway to Heaven…

Eric finished framing out the family room ceiling to accommodate our back staircase. One of the most challenging aspects of the home has been solved this week– purchasing and installing a salvaged second (back) staircase to the second floor. After we found out we could not use the servant’s staircase because it did not meet code – Melanie used&

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