The first storm was so powerful, and so damaging, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich designated DuPage County a state disaster area. I have heard conflicting reports as to what the strom was. These reports range from a storm with a bunch of microbursts to a low grade tornado. Nobody seems to be able to get the story straight. Doesnt really matter, the damage is done. Hell, even the O’Hare tower was cleared for the safety of the controllers. SO you know it was bad.

I lost power for 4 days. I also took about 6 inches of water in my basement due to the power failure killing the sump pumps and the battery backup not working like it should have. I lost parts of the big tree in my backyard, and my landscaper, Nick Renello (630-532-9301), was on top of it the next morning, removing all of the debris from the yard. By the way, Nick came up with the inexpensive solution to my back yard flooding problems I mentioned last year (See This post).

“It looks like a war zone” said one of my closest friends and neighbors when he arrived. Trees were uprooted and broken, very few streets could be negotiated in my neighborhood since they were blocked by fallen trees. The last estimate was about 1500 trees down in our town.

I have to give credit though. The village was on top of things. Our trustees were out talking with residents. I spent several hours with Trustee Dave Hegland at the Funky Java coffee shop on Friday, which had both power and internet access, thus giving me a lifeline to my websites. Dave was full of alot of information and made me feel a little more in tune with what was happening. Our Public works deparment worked through the night on Thursday clearing streets so you could get from place to place, our Police department was out almost immediately helping with traffic, and our Fire department spent several days helping homeowners do many things you wouldnt think of, such as refilling oxygen bottles for VP residents that were without power.  I commend all of them. As I told Bob Neimann, our Village Manager, I couldnt say I was satisfied with the Village’s performance, instead, I had to say that I was quite impressed.

ComEd did a great job as well, suprisingly. They called in many many crews from other states and had our power restored much faster then I could have hoped. Even Comcast had Cable back up pretty quick.

I saw many of our residents out helping others. Extension cords could be seen running across streets to share power from generators, and I saw alot of neighbors were helping other neighbors with tree removal. I love it. This is what a neighborhood is suppose to be.

Here are a few photos I took the night of the storm. (click the image to see it full size)

         

 

and now – all cleaned up:

As you can tell by the hammer – I started to try to remove the bathtub. Being that it’s cast iron, it was pretty heavy, so I’ll have to wait for my buddy Dave to help pull that out. Yes, we’ll be removing it in one piece. Cast iron tubs are very hard to cut and very hard to break – so pulling it out in one piece is the only real way to do it. Hmm — Might make a nice garden planter in the yard…

I broke some of the existing ceramic floor tile to investigate what was beneath. You can see 3 layers. The current tile, below it is an old asphalt tile floor, and beneath that is a real old mosaic tile which was most likely original to the house. That makes it 80 years old!  Shame I cant restore that..

Here is a cross section of the walls I’m dealing with. You can see the plaster and lathe on the right – and then you see a layer of drywall and then, what im guessing another laywer of plaster topped off by wallpaper and then paint. Lots of changes for this bathroom over the years. Im not sure what I’ll be able to do here. Im hoping to take the floor down to the mosiac, but I may have to pull the entire floor and put down a new subfloor…  Ugh – not fun.

A real dissappointing find as well, no insulation in the exterior wall. (seen here between the horizontal boards)

This means its not likely ANY of the walls in the house are insulated. A tough fix. About the only logical way to fix that issue is to reside the house at some point and in the process to use a foam board insulation on the exterior of the house under the new siding. Not a cheap proposition, but one I expected to do at some point.

SO, thats day one of the bathroom remodel. This is the first of 3 bathroom remodels by the way. Also – the fixtures arrived today. The new whirlpool tub, toilet and vanity. ALthough, Home Depot delivered the wrong size vanity, and will be switching them tomorrow. I have to say this for Home Depot, they do make mistakes, but they rectify them without complaint. When I put in the Sliding Glass Doors, they sent the wrong doors, which we didnt learn until the install was almost complete. Home Depot not only replaced the doors the next day, but also credited me 50% of the door price for my troubles. I am really impressed with their customer service.

More to come…….. Hope all is well…

 

 

 This will be complete renovation. I am going to be taking the room completely to the studs and removing the walls. When I replace them, we’ll have tile 5′ up the wall except in the bath which will be completely tiled. 

Materials Ihave already bought will be delivered on Monday, and I expect to get started with the demolition on Monday as well.

One thing I have been  thinking about since I’ll have a rather large tub by comparision, is changing the water heater. I have a 50 gallon gas water heater. I have been thinking about a tankless water heater. They save a good amount of energy because they heat the water as you need it and dont store water like a conventional water heater. Because they heat the water as you need it, you dont run out of hot water. So you can have 3 people take a shower one after the other and have hot wated for all three. They also qualify for a $300 energy tax credit. which cuts their $800 price tag considerably.

 Down side, I dont know if its really all that much savings month to month. So it may not be a urchase qualified by the numbers.

Anyway – I saw this toilet – Hmmm – I gotta wonder how it would work out:

 

Kinda cool but — Eh, I thiink I’ll go with the Kohler – 

We had our 3rd annual LVC Christmas Party – For those who dont know, LVC is an online car club and forum, www.LincolnvsCadillac.com. We are starting our 4th year. Members all over the country get together now and then for a car show or party. We hold the Chicago area party at Johns Pizza in Addison every year. We had a pretty good time, which we always seem to whenever we get together.

 Had Dave and Chris over for Christmas eve. Dave especially was a little – ‘Merry’ – but vodka will do that to ya.

 

A few days after Christmas, I cooked a little something special…. Braciole -Poor Jimmy missed out since he couldnt be bothered to come by or even answer his phone that day, but the rest of us really enjoyed it..  

New Years Eve / Day was alot of fun. NOT. Our sewer line backed up and had to be rodded out. I spent New Years Eve keeping the tub drained of sewer water – making sure it didnt overflow.. New Years Day I got to pay a plumber $450 to rod the lines and free the blockages. This also cause a leak to spring in the tub drain, so I had to remove the basement ceiling since it was all full of water. Because of this leak, I have to pull the tub in the main floor bathroom to repair it.

I didnt plan to start remodeling that bath yet, but since I have to tear it half apart, I might as well do it. So later this week you’ll start seeing posts about doing that. Basically, I am going to gut the room and replace everything. New Whirlpool tub, new tile, vanity, sink, toilet, lighting – the works. So look forward to posts abot that coming soon. Here are a few pics of what im starting with. As you can see, it really needs it.

  

In other news. We lost President Ford and James Brown, Saddam was hanged. Oh, and the Bears got whooped by Green Bay. When will they learn that Grossman sucks.

SO – I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and I wish everyone a prosperous and happy 2007.

 

 

    

(Click Images to see larger image)

The plan is to stud out, insulate and drywall the whole room. Then install counters and cabinets around the room. Unfortunately, I cant really do much with the ceiling but clean it up. Maybe I can paint it black or something, but thats about it. Too may conduits to move.

Also planned, is a new sink. I cant stand those cheap plastic sinks, which is what we have. The new sink will also have a sprayer so that you can easily give a small dog a bath in the sink. I will also be doing something with the floor. Im still contemplating this and will most likely install a simple and inexpensive vinyl floor. Easy to keep clean is what im looking for in this room.

I also will be dramatically improving the lighting by replacing the 4 bulb fixtures that hang down with 4 fluorescent fixtures which will be mounted in the ceiling joists. What the photos dont show is the furnace & water heater off in an alcove on the one side. This area will be enclosed as well to complete the finished space.

In the photos you’ll see our brand new washer and dryer, a housewarming gift from my Father and StepMother.  Thanks Guys!

Someone recently asked me why I am bothering with this. Well, a few reasons. First, I really dont like the dank, dusty room. Its cold and dirty and I want to fix that. Second, I would like it to be nicer with some custom amenities I have thought up, like better storage for laundry baskets, large counters where you can fold clothes, and a few other things.

One more reason. I believe the laundry room is themost overlooked room in the house when it comes to home improvement. Why? Well, its well known that the woman of the house usually decides if the house will be purchased and I have to surmise that a nicely done laundry room that will make her job easier will increase the value of the home. In this case we have the luxury of a large room for laundry, about 13×13, and its located off the basement, which I will be finishing soon. So for a family this could be ideal where Mom can do laundry, be comfortable, while the kids play in the finished basement / family room.

This wasnt as easy a task as it normally would be. Our kitchen cabinets were hand made at some point and aren’t built to exact standard dimensions. So, I had to not only remove the old cabinet, but build a replacement for it.

Here you see the old stove and hood that was there when we bought the house:

and, with a little work (and still in need of painting, the installed microwave and new cabinet.

I havent decided what to do with the center of the cabinet yet, but im thinking a simple glass shelf in the center. I plan to replace all the kitchen cabinets in the coming months, so no sense doing more then I have to. I figure I can hide the outlet with a plant or something and that’ll be ok for awhile. So, now I think we can finally clean the kitchen and stop the plaster dust getting all over everything.

Ok, well, I have it almost complete now. Just a little putty and paint left to do, but basically finished.

Here is a view of the deck with the doors installed…..

Its a long way from how it was when we got here – as you may remember…

One thing I didnt mention before. We got the door from Home Depot. Unbeknownst to us at the time it was delivered, they sent the wrong door. After we cut the hole in the house for the door to be installed, we realized the door was wrong. I have to hand it to the guys at Home Depot. Knowing it was too cold to not have the door in, they told us to go ahread and install the door we had. They came the next day with the correct door and compensated us $350.00 for the trouble. My hat is off to Home Depot.

I also installed some deck lighting. I gotta sa, these things are great. They are 8 low wattage lights (7 watts a piece) and run off a timer. So they are inexpensive to operate. but they give enough light that you can be on the deck (or use the deck stairs) any time during the night and see where your going. Installing them was easy enough, jst a little cramped being under the deck.

You can find these at HomeDepot.com – they cost about $70 for the entire set. I like these so much I am going to get a second set and install them down the privacy fence along the driveway.

The most notable difference, besides new asphalt, is that the driveway has been widened on the left to extend all the way to the fence. I widened it for a few reasons. First, I wanted a little more driveway width so that I can now comfortably park 3 cars side by side. Second, the space on the left was a space I figured would never really look good and would be a gardening nightmare. (I hate pulling weeds).

Originally I was just going to widen the driveway, but after our little flooding incident (see this post) I figured resurfacing the driveway was a good move.

What they basically do when they resurface is to simply place a new layer of asphalt over the old. The driveway actually becomes stronger in the process (assuming the old driveway isnt all broken and potholed.

Ok, so this morning I the paving company (Fahey & Sons from Melrose Park 630-543-6323) was finally able to get a day of decent weather to do the job. They started by cutting a 8 inch wide section of the old driveway out where it meets the concrete garage apron and the front part of the driveway (which we did not replace) This is done so the new asphalt can be seamlessly mated to the old parts.

Then they cleaned up the edges with shovels and a bobcat and filled in the left side with gravel, using a roller to compress the gravel base.

Now they start laying asphalt.

They then roll the asphalt and its done. The whole operation took about 3 hours. The cats were mesmerized by the whole deal

Here is the completed driveway.

You can walk on it almost instantly. But you cant drive on it for 24 hours and you cant park on it for 3 days. It doesnt need to be sealcoated for the first year.

Many people think asphalt driveway is lessor to a concrete one. Im not sure I agree. Once concrete cracks, your stuck with it until you are willing to dig it up and replace it. Concrete also costs about 4 times as much. But asphalt has to be sealcoated every year or two or three. In the long run, the asphalt is still cheaper.

Either way, I think it looks pretty good. We are going to place some low voltage lights along the fence to light the driveway a little bit. Next week, the yard should be completed. Unfortunately, we were delayed too long to seed the grass now, so I either have to wait until spring or lay sod. I havent decided, but im leaning toward sod so it’s done and over with. I would hate to have to live with mud all winter.

The sliding glass door is in and almost completed.

Its more finished then the photo shows but I didnt take any pics as it was dark when it was completed. As soon as we have a decent day, I’ll get pics of the finished deck with the door and you can see how nice it looks.

So, my list is slowly getting shorter. I have a handful of projects that I am working on to some extent and need to finish. These include:

Finish insulating the garage and putting plywood on the walls as well as installing the other shop lights
Finish installing the microwave and rebuilding the kitchen cabinet
Finish stripping the oak trim in my office and getting it up
Paint the upstairs bedroom
Install the new washer and Dryer (arriving Monday) and finish the laundry room

This is just the stuff I have already started and have materials for. Looks like a busy winter.

Like the litte fireplace? I thought it was a nice touch and Hobo had it on sale for $100. It runs on propane and give a nice atmospere.

Next, the sliding glass doors go in, the driveway gets done and the yard last. I decided to redo the entire driveway instead of just extending it to the fence. Reason being mostly the flooding we had a few weeks back. SO we are going to redo the driveway and make it 3″ higher to help with the water. Additionally, it’ll make the surface easier to define with the yar and should look pretty good overall.

Then we can finish the yard.

It should be completed tomorrow.

The footings were not fun to dig. Tree roots were the least of the issue. Turns out, there was an old well back there, and we had to dig through that to get to the right depth. (thats what the bricks you see are from)

I’ll get some more pics later, but the deck should be done this weekend and by the end of next week, the sliding door, yard and driveway should all be done. MAYBE even the garage interior.

Here is the result….. Now, this was the result of what is being called a 10 year storm, but nonetheless its a problem. Notice the neighbor yard has NO water…

The back yard is / was alot of clay and not graded well at all. We started to fix that with a little bobcat today. We are also widening the driveway. Here are some photos to start.

This is the yard as it was when we got here:

A little bobcat and some time….We get the new drveway section dug out and the backyard grading started.

Even found an old Railroad Rail buried

Then we got rained out and had to stop work…

We still have to lay topsoil and rototill the yard, plan seed and an erosion mat. Should be quite nice for next year.

Here you see all the lumber and the new sliding glass door, just waiting to be installed. Unfortunately, Villa Park, IL is very slow at issuing building permits, and it looks like I might not be able to start the deck for another week.

What I wanna know is – where the hell did my work bench go???!!! Actually, if you lok closely thats insulation to insulate the rest of the garage, and a bunch of new shop lights that wil be installed.

What a mess though huh?

Oh, got my temporary office set up. Still refinishing the woodwork, thats a harder job then I thought….. But, not too bad. This is the room that had red painted paneling on it.

Hopefully, the landscapers can finish tomorrow. The pavers are suppose to be here either tomorrow or the day after to handle the driveway.

Ill post more soon….

Take a look at our progress by clicking here