1133 6th St- Coming Along

Our condo conversion project has reached the point where it looks like chaos, although we've made a ton of progress in the last few weeks. The basement has been excavated and we've begun framing out the new floors. This week our plan is to finish framing out the floors and begin building/installing the steps. We're still debating whether or not to build the steps on site or order them pre-assembled. I'd really also love to start putting down the radiant heating system in the basement this week if time permits.

Here's what the interior looked like after we removed the joists between the first and second floor.



This is the same floor but looking towards the front door. The worker on the left is about six feet tall, so you can really see how tall the ceiling heights are in this building. Pretty amazing.



We used cinderblocks to fill in the voids that were left when we removed the old chimneys.



We also used cinderblocks in the front of the property to build a retaining wall where we dug out to make access to the basement unit. These blocks have a brick facade and will look just like brick after they're painted.




All of the joists that we tore out were donated to Community Forklift. This non-profit organization recycles and resells building materials. The joists here are from old growth forests and are over 100 years old. This wood is stronger and straighter than any wood you can buy now. I would have loved to have used them in another project but I just didn't have anywhere to store them.



Here is the same first floor as the photo above after the second floor joists were installed. We used engineered joists because they're stronger, have less flex, and allowed us to span from party wall to party wall without posts and beams.



Framing the front wall in the basement.



You can see the new underpinning in the basement. They dug down almost four feet. What an undertaking! The ceiling height is great. Right now there is only a small opening for the door, but this will be enlarged to make way for the new full-size door.

Silver Spring Remodel

Over the last few weeks we completed a full makeover of a brick split-level house in Silver Spring, MD for a client. The house was livable when it was purchased, although very outdated. The homeowner wanted to redo the kitchen and three bathrooms, as well as adding a screened-in porch and deck in the rear yard. In addition, the young couple wanted to repaint the entire house and update the lighting. While we were there, we replaced all of the shingles on the roof on the entire rear of the house where an overhanging tree had caused moisture damage.

The house came out really awesome. Construction took about six weeks, which was pretty great for the amount of work that was accomplished. The before pics can be found here, sorry I couldn't figure out how to copy them from the program:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=sgqhppe.8z4o0pri&x=0&y=bc9s9a&localeid=en_US

Here is the after:

On the exterior we repainted all of the siding and exterior trim as well as recasting the front concrete steps, which had cracked and shifted over time.



The new kitchen has stained white cabinetry with granite countertops. We also removed all the old linoleum flooring, leveled the floors and installed new tile.



The previous kitchen had no island. The island was added to increase counter space and provide a place to eat.



Here is a picture of the new screened-in porch. This space will be great in the warm weather, and at some point could be easily enclosed to add more living space to the house.



Here is the new deck and a better view of the sunroom. Previously there had just been a large concrete pad that was in poor shape.



The homeowners used several different colors throughout the house.



The bathrooms were all totally gutted. Here is the master:



And the hall bath:



A small room in the walk-out level was converted into a home office.



This is the basement bathroom. It was difficult to renovate because a large gas pipe runs along the wall underneath the vanity and could not be removed. We ended up making this vanity out of a wood block countertop from Ikea.



The second living room was painted and new carpet was installed.



In the lower level we installed a ton of shelving which was purchased for practically nothing from a Linen's and Things bankruptcy sale.