635 Bentalou- Final Touches

Our house at 635 N. Bentalou in Baltimore is only a few days away from completion. We're excited to see the finished product- it's definitely the nicest rehab in the area, but we're going to price it slightly less than most of the other recent sales. The only major things left to do in the house are to finish the kitchen (appliances and countertops), the floors and clean up the exterior.

Here's how the floors look after the first sanding. They still have a ways to go, but the natural color is starting to come out. These floors have a real nice light tint that will look great after the polyurethane is applied.

This is the main floor after we hung all the light fixtures and painted the columns. We used the same black accents on the stairs and on the railing upstairs.

Here are the stairs before the carpet was applied:

This is how the upstairs landing looks after carpet and final paint. If you scroll back to the beginning of the project, you'll see how much better this area looks with more light!

1709 Ruxton- Day 21

The Ruxton house is coming along, albeit slightly slower than planned. This house needed new central air, electric and framing, and it's taken forever for each trade to complete their tasks. What ends up happening is that each person blames the other for delays, and then nothing ends up getting done. For example, this sequence of events actually happened last week:



1. Framers come and leave because electrician has turned off the electric, which they need to power the framing guns. Framers go to work on Bentalou house.

2. Electrician comes and leaves because he doesn't have the front door key, which framers took. Electrician leaves to work on job 45 minutes away.

3. HVAC guy comes and leaves because old supply lines to radiators are in the way. Says he can't finish until framers take out old lines. HVAC guy goes to finish another job.

4. Framers blame electrician for not having power to power saws to cut lines; electrician blames framers for taking key; framers and HVAC guy blame electrician for cutting power.

5. Nothing ends up happening for the day!



In any case, we're finished with the demo, some electric is done, most of the ducts are in, and all of the framing is finished. Here are some pics of what the house looks like now:

This is the new kitchen. We had to put in a bulkhead because the ductwork sticks out in the corner, and we decided to take the bulkhead all the way across the room. It'll look pretty good once the cabinets are installed, and the ceiling is so high that it doesn't make the room feel any smaller.

Here's how we frame out the ceilings in the bedrooms where there was previously drop ceiling:

Here's some new ductwork in the hallway. It's actually framed out now (this pic was early in the day), but we need to wait for our rough-in inspection before we can cover it with sheetrock.

This is how we framed out the tub surround in the upstairs bathroom. We also were able to put in a stand-up shower in the bathroom we created in the first floor. Three bedrooms and two baths will be really convenient for the family that buys this house.

This is how Roger prefers to sit when he frames out the ceiling.

After all of the inspections are finished throughout this week, we're going to work full speed to finish this house. After all, we've got more projects lined up for the summer.

Thanks,

Dave

635 N. Bentalou- Almost Done

We're into the final week of this project, and we're excited to be finished. Over the weekend, the floors were refinished and carpet was installed in the upstairs bedrooms. We're going to put in the countertops, applainces and fixtures this week. The countertops would have gone in sooner, but we had to custom-order them because of the unique shape of the island piece. The fixtures also would have been put in, but we decided to wait until the alarm system was installed to avoid any problems with theft.


Here's the upstairs jacuzzi tub with the new ceramic tile.



This is the current status of the kitchen. You can finally see the big window in the rear that had been covered for the last few weeks. The island is installed, but covered with the cardboard box.



Here's an action shot of the cornice being painted. On the right, you can see the finished part, and on the left, the original. We're keeping the awnings up until the last possible moment. This house is really a "sleeper" from the exterior until the awnings come down the the front lawn is spruced up. You'd really have no idea how much work was done on the interior by looking from the front.



Another tub picture...



This is what the upstairs hallway looks like as of Friday. The skylight really helped to open up the space and make it feel larger. We're going to paint the handrails black with white spindles, which will add some more "pop" to the interior.



Check back later in the week to see all of the new changes, including the hardwood floors, carpet, countertops, alarm, etc...

Thanks,

Dave