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The Thompson Flats- It's all in the Details

The last two weeks have been very productive, although we're working on a lot of the small things that aren't so visible. Outside, we finished the majority of the brickwork and started framing up the rear decks. Inside, the fire sprinklers are complete, as well as all of the utilities. Now it's just a matter of finishing all of the insulating so we can start hanging sheetrock on Monday of next week.

The brick on the side and rear has all been laid. The only additional brickwork is around the large bayfront windows in the front of the building, which hopefully will be finished by the end of the week.

Today the masons were working to clean and then seal the new brick.

Inside, we finished waterproofing the tubs and showers. Here, Camillo installed felt paper and then cement board. After the boards were installed, he sealed all of the joints with thinset mortar.

About a quarter of the building has been fully insulated. We were slowed down a bit by the plumber, who was still installing the gas lines and asked for some time to finish. He'll be done tomorrow.

The Thompson Flats- Getting Closer to Completion

The building at 2106 10th St is moving along very quickly. There are 10-15 guys here working every day, and it's amazing what one can accomplish with so much manpower. On Monday, the plumber and electrician will begin their rough-ins, and the HVAC guy is coming on Weds. I've been busy selecting kitchen cabinets, because these take 4-5 weeks to build and we'll need them at that point.

We're aggressively looking for another project, and we have a few things in the works. Hopefully next week I'll be able to announce the next one!

All of the front windows are installed. It's amazing how much light they let in.

This image is from the roof, looking down at the space between our house and the one next door. The mason is on scaffolding about 15 ft off the ground. They're using the cinderblocks to build the party wall, which makes the building stronger and also is crucial in case of fire.

On the other side, more masons began the brick wall.

The basement is framed and the carpenters spent the day framing it up.

The Thompson Flats- 2106 10th St- Framing

The Thompson Flats building saw a lot of progress this week and is really starting to look great. We finally had a week of warm, sunny weather, which really helped. Also, with The Twelve Twenty-One Condos done, we can focus all of our attention to getting this building complete. Instead of having 5 or 6 people working here every day, we're now at 10-12 people per day.

This picture is from this morning, when we poured the basement slab. The guys had to stay really late last night and come early this morning, but they got everything prepared in time for the concrete delivery at 11 AM. We had some motivation to move fast because we wanted to have the basement finished before the big thunderstorm that we're supposed to get on Monday.

Upstairs, the loft area walls were framed up. The carpenters were waiting on some more materials to finish the roof portion, but this will be finished on Monday. It will be a big relief to finally get the roof on so we can stop having to use a huge blue tarp every night to protect the wood.

It's a little tough to see, but here is the wall framing for the sliding pocket doors to the middle bedroom on the first floor.

This is the framing of the first floor unit. We're almost at the stage where the plumber and HVAC guys can start roughing in their trades. We'll probably start this next week.

The welder came by at the end of the day to install the front rail, and it looks awesome. We wanted something simple but modern. I think we succeeded!

12th St- Done

The top three units of our condo development at 1221 12th St NW are finally complete and on the market. We had our first open house on Sunday and more than 100 people came through between 1 PM and 4 PM. Not bad! We don't think it will be long before all of the units are under contract. We're still working in the project to finish the two basement units, but the hard work is done. The condos look amazing! We're very proud of the finished product.

2106 10th St- The Thompson Flats- Another Floor

The framing is moving along quickly at the new condo building, and we're very close to topping out. The third floor is framed, and all that's left is the small loft space above. Our plan is to start framing out the interior walls and begin the plumbing in the basement next week.

Here's the current progress. We had really high winds last night and it pulled of some of the Tyvek on the top left side. This isn't a problem- the housewrap is just loosely held in place at this point. Next week we'll come back with scaffolding and seal all of the seams and make sure the building is tightly protected from the elements.

1221 Condos- Almost Done

We've set the date for our open house for one week from this Sunday, which is April 18th. That means the clock is ticking to get all of the little tasks done to get these condos on the market. Tomorrow is an exciting day because the granite is being installed in the kitchens, bathrooms and fireplaces. Not only does this make the kitchens look complete, but it allows us to install the appliances and tile backsplash.

The biggest task remaining is refinishing all of the original pine floors and installing new oak floors in the basement. The floors had decades worth of nails and scratches that had to be removed, plus several layers of polyurethane.

The bigger areas can be done with the large sander shown above. However, the edging has to be done with a small handheld sander. They do this first, and then come back with the big one. This is what it looks like when they first start a room:

This picture pretty much shows up the current state of the project. Almost there, but lots of details remaining. Note the missing countertops, appliances, glass in cabinets and bulb in pendant light. These are the types of things that will be completed in the next week.

The back parking area is nearing completion.

1221 12th St NW- Almost There

This project is really entering the final stages. We're at the point in the project where everyone comes back to finish. Today, there were several plumbers, electricians, the HVAC company and our carpenters working in the house. We're looking forward to next week, when we'll start refinishing the floors and installing the new hardwood floors in the basement.

This picture of the second floor unit will give you a pretty good idea of the current condition of the building. The paint color looks perfect (thanks to Jaye at Red House Staging) and all of the trimwork is complete. The lights are all in, and the furnaces are set, ready to be turned on when the gas meters are installed on Friday.

All of the cabinet frames are installed, although now we need to go back and install the inset doors. The cabinet frames were covered in plastic to protect them during the construction.

This picture shows the new tile, paint and wall-hung sinks in the hall bathrooms. The colors really work together well.

Here is the master bathroom on the first floor. The Kohler dual-flush toilets are in, as well as all of the marble and ceramic tile. We had the marble vanity tops measured yesterday and they will be installed next week.

The drywall guys finally got to work on the plaster section of the bayfront windows. We kept the trim entirely intact on the front to preserve the historic character, so it will now take a lot of work to patch and skim the plaster.

Here is the hallway in the back bedroom unit. The brick is all cleaned and ready to be sealed.