Day 16

A nose runs through it. DeeDee (if possible) was worse today. She spent her time covered in Kleenex like a Homecoming float, sleeping and watching the 14 hours of 'Criminal Minds' the tivo has diligent gathered for us.

The tivo is your best friend when you're sick. Quiet, entertaining, forgiving when you fall asleep and constantly looking for ways to keep you occupied. If it could make soup, I'd be out of a job.

Today was sanding day, so the guys were hidden behind plastic sheeting for most of the day. Jovan fixed the crappy windows installed by the previous owner so now they will stay open, shut, and even lock. This might be as exciting as the rest of the remodel for me, as I have been propping these things open with sticks for years.

I succeeded in ordering cabinets today, hopefully stopping DeeDee from getting any more estimates. We went with the local-built 'custom-ish' cabinets, and in the end I think its the right call. Now we have to wait at least four weeks for them to show, so we should have plenty of time to do everything else first. Heck, we might even move back into the bedroom by then.

Other than that budget-crushing obstacle, things were fairly quiet. I have to get some new pix to post, but its basically an empty box. A straight-walled, structurally sound, legally-wired box, but a box nonetheless.

Tomorrow painting begins, so that should be a thrill...

Day 15

Another day of rest (?!?) Michelle and the kids left this morning, but left behind a sinus infection lodged in Dee Dee's head. She stayed home from work not to infect the children she works with, and tried to rest in the dust and wreckage. As a testimony to how sick she is, she slept most of the day while they cleaned, taped and sanded the new walls.

We had a little discussion about the shifting dimensions and made some adjustments so that the cabinets (as yet unordered) will still fit. Then we sealed them behind a wall of plastic and didn't see anyone for the rest of the day.

We did get the doors ordered for the outside and the bedroom and learned that the neighborhood lumber yard (that we just discovered) might close down. So we don't know where the doors will come from, we just know they're coming.

Deedle was curled up in a nest of used Kleenex and refused to move, so we are still camped out in the living room. I'm starting to think she might prefer it. Although the bed is directly above the neighbors TV so it can't last.

Day 14

Sunday is a day of rest. That is, if you consider chasing two boys around the Field Museum resting. Either way, nothing got done around the house and we left it all sealed up to help some of the dust settle. We'll see how that works out.

For those who come jsut for the pictures, here are some peacful jellyfish from the Shedd Aquarium.

Day 13

Let there be walls. If you ever have trouble getting started in the morning here's one plan: Give a bunch of veritable strangers keys to your house and have them show up with power tools at 8am every day. I don't know about others, but I am up and about by 7:00 every day now.

Today was no exception. DeeDee's sister is coming so we needed to do some last minute touch-ups and move out of the living room so that they could take over our living room master suite. This included buying a bed frame, as I indavertently threw the old one out, not knowing how easily it could be repaired or how much it costs to replace. I am a one-man stimulus package these days.

Jovan wanted to put a coat of varnish on the new closet floor so we did not move before Michelle and the kids came. We went to brunch, toured Wrigley Field and even visited a cabinet store with the kids (boys love granite!). Later in the afternoon we wnt to see 'Alice in Wonderland' and did not do much kitchen-y stuff at all.

In the evening we went our for Ethiopian food. The boys are like 9 and 12 and I don't think Ethiopian food is in there 'comfort zone' but everyone survived.

At home, the guys had hung drywall in the kitchen and turned it into a real room. However, that room has slightly different dimensions than the were expecting, so there might be slight revisions to the cabinet plan. Maybe stalling wasn't such a bad idea after all.

The bedroom is done and varnished but stinks like industrial solvent. So The kids and Michelle are stasying at a friends, and we spend another night in the living room. Tomorrow should be a day of rest for the crew and a museum scramble for Deedles, me and the family. And probaly some more 'normal' food.

Day 12

Ups and downs. With heads still spinning over cabinet decisions, we went back to it. The guys were putting finishing (literally, varnishing) touches on the bedroom and insulating the kitchen in preparation for framing. I spent another day chasing the guy down about door pricing and doing a little of that 'day job' stuff.

When Dee Dee got home from work, we made our daily observations at the altar of home improvement, Lowes. Our designer was not around (apparently over-time is seriuously frowned on by Lowes and she was close to her 40 hours) but we did a comfort-level check of cabinets in question. One of the most anoying lessons I have learned in life is that quality costs money, and you can feel the difference in our top cabinet contenders. So I slide one step closer to custom cabinets.

We then explored the world of under-cabinet lighting (Xenon yeah! Hockey pucks no!) and stumbled home in rush hour traffics. We then spent the evening cleaning , as DeeDee's sister amd two boys are coming to visit tomorrow. What a lovely time for guests.

Day 11
Women. You can't trust 'em. Things were coming along nicely. The bedroom was getting painted, plumbing was being rerouted, electrical wires were getting pulled and DeeDee had the day off and was helping with all the the little details. She stepped out around noon to go to the library, and said she'd be "right back."

Two hours later, I had to go to a meeting and she was still AWOL. No big deal, but the dos is nervy as is and i didn't want to leave her alone. When she came in, she had done the unthinkable... she had visited another cabinet shop. This one is local, very custom, and not shockingly more than the big box. The woman form the shop even came over in the evening to measure herself and take a look. I really need fewer choices not more, and damn her for her thorough nature.

The prince of darkness came about 3:00 to finish roughing in the electrical. Chicago demands wires in rigid piping so he has run a metal habitrail throughout the kitchen. Unfortunately, when he was cutting what he thought was previous electrical line he discovered the live gas line used for the lights 100 years ago. I did not see it, but they claim there was just a small flash. Blowing up the building is not in my budget.

He recovered quickly, and pulled wires until after 10:30. We were getting ready to escort him out in our PJs. You have to admire the diligence, though.

Tomorrow we've got floor guys coming to take a look at the floors, and in theory the bedroom will be done. Where there's life there's hope.

Day 10
Now we're cooking. DeeDee had the day off so we could make headway and I could still pretend to have a day job. We went to the neighborhood lumber yard, and got door estimates that won't choke the banker so that might be another hurdle cleared.

She nearly signed off on the cabinet plan, with some minor options left to make. That will take the longest, so our dawdling is going to stink when the rest is done.


DeeDee went to the Depot to get the paint (yay, one trip I got out of) for the bedroom. They put up a coat, and when we checked it out at the end of the day it was the wrong color. We had narrowed it down to a few shades of gray, but it wasn't the one she thought she was picking (it was the one I chose). It looks real good in there, though, so I think its a keeper.

I made appointments with floor repair guys for tomorrow, so we'll have a whole new set of issues to report on. I can feel then envy that you readers have for me. Speaking of issues, they are also starting the plumbing tomorrow (so we're going to turn off the whole building for a while).

That should go smoothly.

Day 9

Let the blur begin. I missed one day of updates and I have no memory of what happened. There was banging, there was dust, and there was yet another cabinet 'consultation' but beyond that I got nothing. The last trip to Lowe's cabinets got me a number I can live with, so that problem is almost knocked.

Doors are a different matter. We're looking to fill a 36x102 space with a transom door, and once you take one step down the custom road you're looking at $1200. I'm trying not to be cheap here, but its a back frackin' door and I don't want to pay that much.

By the way, it seems that our electrician is nocturnal. The first day I thought he just wanted to get a jump on things, but today he wanted to work til 11:00. There are kids sleeping upstairs from us, but beyond that I'm ok with him working late. I might have to check to see if he 'sparkles' when the sun hits him, though.

Day 8

One step forward...

The crew is making real progress, if the rapidly increasing dust quantities is any indication. The kitchen is frames and shimmed and there may actually be right angles in there now. The refrigerator cubbie has been removed and the new closet is framed out. Considering the typical Chicago-style closet, this is going to be a whopper. Over 7 feet long and 36 inches deep, in many neighborhoods it would be considered a bedroom.

Of course where there is openings there are door choices, so we got sucked back into the Home Depot late last night. And, of course, stock=heinous so we ended up with a special order door, and a new entry door to boot (and another hit to the doo-dad budget). These also take time, so the bedroom won't be "done" for a few weeks either.

The electrician is now on the team, so now we lose power fairly often, which is adding a level of difficulty to this 'work from home' business. But at least they can work together and be aware of what each is doing.

Lastly, Dee Dee and I went to revisit a cabinet store so she could take a look at the more affordable option. I overheard two employees discussing the brand in question (Cardell) and questioned them. Off the record, they said many unflattering things out the packaging and quality control and quietly suggested we look at other options. Welcome back to square one.

So now I have my squadron of cabinet consultants revisiting their plans and I've built a scary-ass spreadsheet of specs to make an 'informed' decision. I definitely put less effort in deciding where I went to college than I have on these cabinets. But this decision needs to be made because they all have a 4-week lead time and I'd really like to be done by Memorial Day.

Note that I finally got the BEFORE pictures off DeeDee's phone. I added them to the 'Day 0' post at the bottom

Day 7
Sunday is a day of rest. For somebody. Who lives somewhere else. Around here its the day we pack up the bedroom and move into the living room. That, and try to scrape the top layer of dust of every surface of our home.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. Bedrooms have a lot fewer nooks and crannies than kitchens, so there were fewer places to hide things. That, and a seriously dysfunctional closet doesn't hold much. So we got everything moved in time to drop even more stuff off at the Brown Elephant (AIDS charity thrift store) and get some non-microwave food before collapsing into a heap. Our camp-out began in earnest in our new living room master suite and its not that bad. The pets seem to appreciate all the extra room and furniture options. Although wrap-around windows and its proximity to the street and high school drop-offs make sleeping in an impossibility in the short term. But they say its only a few days.

We'll see.

Day 6
Shop til you drop. DeeDee had to work today so I took the ringing alarm clock as a sign that I too should be productive (or obsessive, depending on your viewpoint). So I was on the road by 9:00 in Chicago's annual first-day-of-spring snowstorm to endure four hours of cabinet 'consultation.' I went down to a big contractor supply showroom out west to embrace some eastern European design aesthetic. You have to respect the Polish girls for coming in to work in miniature fur coats and 5" heels in a snow storm, especially first thing in the morning.

My 'consultant' was way past 50 but still sporting the heels and designed digit-style while we worked. I don't know the brand (Cardell), but she did all the pieces we wanted at two grand less than anyone so far. They have a separate counter supplier there and Anya (sensible shows and no discernible accent) quoted the quartz counter (Silestone's silver nube, fyi) at a good $1500 less than the depot. All in all, a worthwhile journey.

Just to mix things up, I then went door shopping and checked out some other odds-n-ends. This neighborhood (Fullerton & Pulaksi for interested Chicagoans) is a crazy collection of building/remodeling/repair warehouses all dumped together in a random corner of the city. Until a few months ago, I had no idea it was even there. I guess its just one of thousand largely useless bits of information that will litter my brain after this process (like the anti-microbial properties of quartz countertops).

Then it was back to the Depot for another cabinet consultation. DeeDee got hung up at work so I met the designer (Isabel) to work on a plan they had started earlier in the week. She seemed hesitant when I started changing things, but I'm pretty good at getting my way. Another tow hours of weighty comparison between 'honey' and 'cider' finish went by and now we have even more plans that look pretty much the same. At least we know what we want now.

Not including paper-and-pencil guy, we know have four plans and a price gap of over $3000. They all have a wait of like four weeks, so we're going to have to choose and then finish everything else waiting for the cabinets. I'm sure that will be the least fun part.

We went out for Al's birthday at night, although I was completely brain-dead by that point. My tiny mind was incapable of moving past the kitchen, so we passed around phone pictures and swapped 'war stories' about the inconvenience of remodeling. It will probably be months before I'm good company again.

Phase two of life disruption starts Monday, as Jovan is going to reclaim the closet for the bedroom and sand and repair the walls. So we are moving into the living room for real on Sunday. Oh, the adventure.

Day 5
We got out of this one pretty easy. The framing finished up early and Jovan and Tony (I finally learned his name) we're out by noon. I actually did some work and when DeeDee got off from her job we went to the upscale kitchen design store in the neighborhood to talk about upscale European cabinets. The guy (Jim?? I can't keep track anymore) had good ideas and was definitely more thoughtful than your average big box designer. But he just took notes on paper and said he would have something to show in a week. We might sail on without him regardless of his input just because he's slow. I guess we'll see.

We got back to meet Milan the electrician to talk about wiring. The previous owners were apparently trying to burn us to death in our sleep and none all the old wiring was anywhere near code. So we need to pull new wiring from the box, create logical circuits and bring things up to at least 20th century standards. An by 'we,' I mean I will write checks and nod while other peeople play with scary wires.

Milan went over the details thoroughly and then started pacing and looking anguished. He went back to his notes and then stared out the window. Then, he re-explained the problems of working in old buildings and how a typical electrical job is priced. After this protracted preable, he finally gave me a number. At this point, it was well below expectation and completely workable. It took another 20 minutes to convince him that the estimate was fine and that he could start Monday. I've worked with him before and he is very conscientious, but I hope he can make a living the way he prices.

We then went out to watch the mighty Spartans barely defeat New Mexico State. Huh? That's the magic of the tourney. I mention this only in that I have no brackets for the first time in over a decade. It just slipped away. I'd hate to think how many real events I'm going to overlook while I'm comparing door frame thicknesses and base cabinet drawers.

Day 4

I got to be out of the house for the first time since Sunday's packing marathon. Lo and behold my productivity still stunk as I searched online for doors and other 'doo-dads' (now the official term for all the things destined to crush our budget.

Dee Dee was home and they framed out brick box, stealing precious inches from our 25x11 space. She went to the depot and got a second opinion on the cabinet plan (pix to come). The also got an estimate on the coveted 'Silver Nube' countertop to the tune of $4000+. At theat point I want to be able to eat on it, cook on it and have it give me deep tissue swedish massages. But oh well, we want what we want.

I'm actuall going to try and get work done on Friday and then try to find cheaper sources for a couple things. I'd rather watch the tourney or sit in the newly returned sun, but these are not choices for the intrepid living room camper.

Day 3

Little victories. Jovan came by this morning (an hour behind schedule, but better than horror stories about contractor time) to discuss options moving forward. It looks like we can get everything we want. To do the corner sink under the window we will have to rip up the basement ceiling (and repair it), but he seemed OK with that. I might even get the condo association to move the washers out of the middle of the basement floor because of it.

The floors look fixable, but the differing wood types might be present an ascthetic challenge. If matching stain is not possible we can do a decorative stripe across-- might be fun. Everything else is good to go. Now we have to get to a big box store and draw ourselves some cabinets... and start spending some real money.

Day 2

The new normal. We got up, got ready and went off to work (or at least DeeDee went off, I'm staying here in the short term). Dawn showed us the layer of dust that snuck through the tarps and covered every surface in the place. Our bathroom-based coffee maker worked out well and (other than trying to set up this blog) the work system seems functioning.

Jovan brought a third pair of hands today, and while I have not looked since 8am, the sawing and banging rages on. But the time I worked up the nerve to go back there, the wreckage had been cleared away we're left with a 10x25 brick box with dangling wires everywhere.

The discoveries include two cross braces where they took down a wall, mostly functional hardwood flooring (although it look like maple in the kitchen and oak in the former bedroom, some crazy subpar wiring and a problem realizing my hopes of moving the sink to the other side. But that is a conversation for tomorrow. We are not planning any work for tomorrow, so maybe I'll get a chance to leave the house.

Day 1

Our man Jovan arrived as promised with another comrade in tow (I never got his name, but I'm guessing by the time we're done we could be pretty close). We were as ready as we could be, without our living room kitchenette ready for action. We pulled out the appliances and brought the fridge into the doorway of the living room to complete our new 'kitchen.'


The the destruction began. I tried to hide in the office and the banging, sawing, crashing and ripping began in earnest. Punky was in a full-on panic for hours, eentually settling in on top of my feet and the cords under the desk, and George (in proud cat fashion) vanished. By 6:30 Team Jovan had called it quits and I pushed past the tarps to take a peak.

In a word-- Dresden.

Cabinets and appliances out, and nearly all the walls and ceiling plaster piled up in the gangway. Jovan said he had a truck coming in the morning, and I hoped so, or my neighbors were going to turn on me long before I expected them to. Slats and wreckage covered the floor to a depth of a couple feet. All the lights had been removed so the photo evidence is pretty sketchy, but is what not a place you'd want to linger.

Unless you're a cat.

Upset that his access to back yard was blocked, George spent much of the evening knocking away our diligently placed covers and wandering the destruction. And whining. Lots and lots of whining. DeeDee and I had a lovely dinner of leftover tortilla soup and enjoyed one of our last few nights in a bedroom. They're underestimating how much destruction there was might buy as a couple more days in a big bed. Yippee.

Day 0


As I have every intention of repressing these memories once this project is complete, I thought it might be interesting to track the process of gutting and remodeling the kitchen and master bedroom of our condo in Chicago. Plus, when they find us drooling and gibbering in a corner playing 'hot potato' with the severed head of out contractor, the police will have a better idea of why we did it.

We were a little surprised yesterday when our contractor (Jovan) came by to discuss the timetable for our kitchen/bedroom remodel and said he could start Monday at 8am, giving us the weekend to nail down our ideas and empty the kitchen.

Saturday turned into a whirlwind tour of home improvement stores, leaving us irritable, tired and not too much closer to proper decision-making.

Sunday was less pleasant, with the long slog of boxing and storing the kitchen and dining room for what might be a months-long process. Its fascinating to take a room apart and individually survey the tings you thought were worth keeping...canned olives from a store that changed its logo years ago, a chia head from the '90s, or a ceramic dachshund cocktail decanter with matching shot glasses (we're SO keeping that).

In the end we had a pile of boxes stashed away and two empty room, and still had time to roast a chicken and make brownies (as sort of a ritual last supper and two get rid of some perishables). We collapsed in a heap and awaited the next dawn.

DeeDee took a series of before pictures that we will post as soon as we can, so that the world can be amazed at how far we have come. Until then, you will just have to believe me when I say, "ew."