Day 43- HVAC and Plumbing Started

After a few days rest for the 4th of July holiday, we're back to work as normal on the rehab. We've made several important advancements since the last blog posting, such as framing the basement, finishing the HVAC duct work, installing the rear doors, finishing the parking pad and installing new steps to the basement. The kitchen cabinets have been ordered and will arrive in two weeks, and we started work installing the new windows throughout the house.

On a slightly frustrating note, we had our first break-in last night, although nothing was taken. It appears that the would-be robber knew the combo to the lock on the front door (rather disconcerting), entered the house and removed the hinges off the front plywood door. He then put the hinges back on incorrectly, left the lock open and left the house without taking anything. My only guess is that he took the door off in preparation of removing something large (such as a washer or jacuzzi), didn't find it in the house, and then attempted to cover up his entry by trying to put the door back into place. We're actually lucky that he (or them) made it apparent that they had broken in, because otherwise we wouldn't have known to change the locks.

In this picture below you can see the new concrete parking pad. Our house is the one wrapped in the white HomeWrap, which will be covered in vinyl siding in the next few days. We're really pleased with the way this turned out- often times in Baltimore sellers will advertise a parking pad, but it really could only fit a Mini Cooper, if even that. Ours is large and easily accessible from Orleans Street. There will be three large windows in the rear of our house, but we just covered the openings up until the windows are installed.



This is the new basement. It has a rec room, a large full bathroom, a work station with a desk and several closets. You can also see the new oak stairs on the left. These will look amazing after they are painted and stained. We covered them will cardboard to protect them for the time being. This picture is a few days old- there's already all new duct work throughout this floor.




These are the new ducts on the main floor. We were able to use the thin ducts that run behind the framing and eliminate large bulkheads. This also allowed us to fit the two bathrooms on the second floor. Other projects on this block were only able to fit one bathroom upstairs because of the large return necessary with traditional ducts. We felt the extra expense was far worth the convenience of having another bathroom.



On the next post, we should have pictures of the new fence, new installed windows, siding on the rear of the house, plumbing and electric. Thanks for checking the blog!