Transformations By Dorch

Some of you have asked when we plan to have it on the market. That is a great question and right now it’s all about balance.  Our original goal was around April 1, but now we’re looking to end of April. However, because we are heading into Brian’s busy landscape season  it will depend on how quickly it warms up calling Brian & Mike outdoors!  (They were out two days this past week already)! We will daily balance the needs of Dorch Landscapes and restoring the Flip all the while still cooking and cleaning and running kids here and there. I bet you have something you are balancing too.

Katherine makes the below pic look so easy but I have seen the conditioning she goes through to train her muscles to hold that pose. She has great strength and is looking where she wants to go.

We will keep looking (& working) where we want to go relying on God’s strength!

Is this art or electrical?  YES! It’s both because it’s an art to install this correctly!

Testing took place today on these outlets, they work!

Last week was all wiring AND we finalized the details on the kitchen. We want to give a shout out to RP Lumber and Crystal for all the hard work that goes into a purchase such as this.  We are pleased to support RP as well because they donated TONS of raw materials to a community service project our church did last Spring.  Check out some pics below for what we decided on.

Everything will be here in @ 6 weeks.  Gotta finish the wiring, install heating/cooling duct work and plumbing. Back to work we go!

We are experiencing a series of wonderful, warm, sunny days here. So much so the heat (to the house we live in) has been off for over 4 days! In February! Daffodils and hyacinths are green and delight us with the coming of Spring.

That being said, it is a great time of year to get on your favorite landscapers radar for upcoming projects you want to tackle, pruning that needs done, clean up from winter, that new patio space, securing mowing services and everything else on your to do list for your home and outdoor living space.

If you live in our neck of the woods Brian would be glad to help you, check out his services at dorchlandscapes.com.

This week Brian and Mike removed the external door that was the old entrance to the basement and poured concrete for the new wall.  Katherine lucked out and was just in time to write her initials in the concrete!

We are moving into getting everything into the walls, electrical first.

At the end of last week you saw the steps up (and down) were installed. Well, early this week Brian had to install a header at the base of the stairs going up because he had to duck coming down!  One thing often leads to another in a project like this.  It looks good though and he clears it! Yeah!

As the house begins to change I’ll try to help you see where we are going. Here I am standing in the kitchen, to my right are the new stairs and the room where the bathroom will be.  Straight ahead is the kitchen pantry with a pocket door and the mudroom to the right of it behind Brian & Katherine (also pocket door). From where Brian and Katherine are standing is a double wide doorway leading into what used to be the pink room.

Closets are framed out with room for a dresser/entertainment piece in the middle.  I like the gas fireplace idea!

This week brought Scott Bradford of Bradford Construction out to the Flip house to help Brain and Mike remove & replace the stairs from the main floor to the second as well as relocate the existing stairs to the basement from one location to another!  This was fascinating to me! Check out some of the stages below.

The new stairs will come out into the kitchen 5 more inches than Brian was hoping.  The stairs they took out fit the space but had been jimmied to do so and were not evenly spaced. Below, Will is standing in the old stairway to the basement.  If you look at the picture above these are located to the right of Mike ( in gray) behind the studs by the white door.  Where will they get moved too?…

New staircase going down!  Under the ones going up!  Love Brian’s design!

With the new stairs in place the house is beginning to take on a new look.  A very satisfying week.

It’s the end of the day at the end of a busy week.

A few posts ago, I mentioned we had to decide what to do about the pocket doors we wanted to install in the master bedroom, well a solution was found.  Pocket doors are being relocated to the mudroom and pantry off the kitchen.  Closets in master will be two large closets on either side of where Brian and Katherine are standing.  Mike, our idea man, said a gas fireplace in between these two closets would be really nice, I agree!

Today Brian realized sub flooring goes in before walls!  Great catch!  When I delivered lunch Mike said “Look, Lisa your hardwood floors are in”!  Does plywood count as a hardwood floor?!  Keep workin’ Mike!

A little bit of progress can make one feel so good!

I thought you’d like to see some side by side pics of the progress we have made so far.

Continue reading “Let’s See Where We’re At..”

Today one of the things Brian worked on was getting the pocket doors ready to install in the master bedroom.  He ran into a problem.  The height of the closet he wants is 76 inches and the pocket doors are 82 inches.  He’ll have to decide to either cut off part of the bottom to make it fit (this entails making sure the closet doors don’t look funny because he’ll have to cut inches off them as well), enlarge the closet to accommodate the bigger pocket doors (this makes the room smaller) or see if there is another size door he’ll be happy with. All in a day’s work.

We are in the process of deciding on flooring for the main level. The main level flooring was torn out and currently is in it’s original state as it was at the turn of the century.  Time and settling have created areas where the floor is uneven.  Some of the new vinyl floorings are excellent products but on it’s own will show any inconsistency in the floor.  So we’re checking out some products that will look good and play nice with the age of the home.

The best test we did on these samples was throw crumbs and dust bunnies on them to see on which sample they showed up on the most.  Reality is I’m not sweeping every day!

The flip house now has electricity!  Scott Bradford of Bradford Construction came out and installed the new panel and after a small snafu where the electric company hooked us up to the old panel we have light! And more walls!

The past two weeks brought more walls up.  Take a look…

Oh so many more walls to go!

We are excited!  Scott Bradford of Bradford Construction came out to the Flip house to see if we would be able to remove a support wall and install a header.  Our kitchen layout depended on this being able to happen and he confirmed it can be done!  Whoo Hooo!  Now to get it done!  Last week he came out and he and Brian got it done!  So exciting!  This all happens so fast when I write about it!

When Katherine & I walked into the house for the first time to see the header installed I was very excited and saying things like “Oh Brian this looks fantastic” and without missing a beat she looks around and says “What? It’s a mess in here!”

The guys have been hard at work this week.  Demo has slowed and is almost completed.  Wall’s are beginning to go up. Brian also spent most of the early part of this week getting bids from local businesses to purchase the kitchen.  A lot of legwork and time goes into this process.

Flip House Flashback…

Now for something fun!

Did you know you can cook on top of a space heater?  Hot sandwiches taste great in the 30 degree temps. Brian & Mike work in daily.  Cast iron skillet and aluminum foil do the trick. Yum!

It’s easy work to get up in the morning and know you get to tear stuff apart however the end is coming and Brian is now having to look at what happens next and this requires purposeful planning and research, mostly done during the quiet hours of early morning with hot coffee.

Main level…

Brian also found layers of newspaper under the flooring in the upstairs hallway that dated back to WW II.

Today was a great day for me, I was able to help tear down walls. Living room walls coming down.  A hammer & pry bar became my best friends.  The hammer I was using was a Christmas gift from a long time ago.  Memories, they can come back like a warm blanket or a storm. This memory was a warm blanket and I enjoyed being wrapped in it while I worked. Once upon a time I wasn’t so good with a hammer and because of my skills received a Christmas gift: a hammer with a hole drilled through the end with a wrist strap attached.  Makes you scared to know why I received THAT gift doesn’t it!? YEARS AGO (back in the 1900’s) I was helping a dear friend and her dad do some work in their barn.  I was working with her dad, whom I affectionately called “Fast Marvin”, when the hammer flew out of my hand.  I tried to pretend it didn’t happen, retrieve it quickly and get back to work when I hear “I saw that kid”. If he could see me tearing plaster off of lathe with the hammer he made for me, he’d smile and say “Good job kid” while keeping his distance.  His gift of time invested in me I still treasure.

Tearing the plaster off today also required pulling LAYERS of wallpaper off the walls.  There must have been 6-7 layers.  My mind goes to wondering what life was like in the house when those layers went on.  I remember my own Mother putting wallpaper up in our home as a kid.  Those long sheets of pretty colored patterns and bucket of glue.  The look of focused attention on my mother’s face.  Isn’t it refreshing to give yourself to a task and be satisfied when it is done.