Chicago Duplex Down Rehab

I found a local union pipefitter to install the new gas lines running from the front of the building throughout the house. He's doing a great job so far, Peoples Gas will be in on Wednesday morning to hookup his work to the main line coming in, and install the meters. Dino connected the plenum to the furnace and main trunk this morning, then we worked on the remaining ductwork the rest of the day. I would plunge cut the 4x10 opening for the heat registers, and Dino would bring up the boot from underneath the floor. We're going to run two 3" PVC lines from the furnace almost straight through to the roof for the furnance intake and vent. I'm not sure how we're going to make the holes through the roof. I think I'll need a coring drill. I need one anyway to make the holes for the bathroom/toilet room venting. Since the SANIJET tub arrived on Wednesday, Eric and I were able to carry it into the bathroom to figure out the placement, etc. There are a lot of things g...

Lots of the rough framing has been completed, including the new stairs. Evie's cousin, Dino, is a full-time HVAC repairman, and he's installing the entire forced-air system. Dino, his friend Eric, and I spent all Saturday installing the ductwork. We ran into a couple of interesting problems. The old (but really solid) floor joists are 9 1/2 inches deep, so we couldn't run 6" round into a standard vent boot that would allow orienting the vent parallel with the windows. We're using the "torpedo" on all the vents. The vent will be perpendicular to the wood flooring, rather than parallel with the windows. I think it will look fine since the flooring installer will put in the wood registers flush with the floor. You'll barely see them. Once the entire system is installed, I'll have some photos of all the bells and whistles. Eric (standing on stairs) is a design/build architect helping out with the design details, and giving me second (and third) opin...

Sorry for the post on the unrelated topic. We received a parking ticket for "within 20' of a walkway". There are two official violations that could apply, but do not. 09-64-100(f) Park within 20' of Crosswalk where official signs are posted $60.00 On the side of street that the car was parked, there were no applicable signs posted. 09-64-170(c) Stand/Park Vehicle 6' High or greater within 20' of crosswalk $60.00 The Honda Accord is not 6' or greater. So, this was an unjust parking ticket. The Honda was parked approximately where the black sedan is.

This door is in terrible shape, it has been abused. I don't think it will be reused.

This is my favorite door of the lot. It was on the old bathroom downstairs, likely not in its original opening, since it was planed down 1 inch on the hinge side. It's unfinished on one side, I think someone had previously stripped this door, but only put polyurethane on one side. It has some nice wear marks that you would have to pay for at Resoration Hardware! :) I definitely want to reuse this door, just have to find the place for it.

This door was at the top of the stairs to the english basement (now being converted to master bedroom). This door overall is in good shape structurally, but has had a latch and debolt lock installed. Also, on the back side of the door, there are huge scratches from a large dog. This goes to show why I'll never want to have large dogs in the rental unit on the 2nd floor! I think the deadbolt hole can plugged with wood.

This door was on the old tool room. Nice hardware, no additional holes were made, no planing. Just needs stripping!

The guy from Wisconsin that came and pulled the flooring sent me a photo of its new home. It will be sanded and finished in the summer, but you can already tell it wasn't meant to die in a garbage heap yet.

This is a brand new water meter! OK, not too exciting for most people, but if you live in Chicago and have been paying your water bill 'flat rate', you know a meter is the way to go. I was paying over $850 a year for water on their flat rate plan, and I expect that bill to go down significantly with a meter. This meter has a RF transmitter on the outside of the building, electrically connected to the meter through the wall. The plumber pulled up the existing 1 inch I.D. (inner diameter) water line and ran the copper coil to the back. At the front of the house, he left a 2 ft. horizontial span of copper. The City Water dept. came in and installed the meter for free. I'm looking forward to my first water bill! How often do you say that? The bad thing is the location of this meter is right at the front of the master bedroom. We'll box it in and make a bench or TV stand out of it. The city insisted the water meter be installed at the front interior of the building...

What's "under slab insulation" ? Before pouring the 4" concrete floor in the basement today (hooray!), Rick installed R-5 1" 25psi foam insulation on the entire floor. This will provide some insulation from the ground and keep heat from escaping through the floor, particularly in the bathroom where the radiant electric mat will be under the tile. The bathroom tub drain area is boxed out so the plumber can install the p-trap when the tub is installed, rather than putting the drain now and having to move the tub to the exact location to meet it. Also, the custom curbless shower pan is boxed out so we can put a sloped base around the drain.