Adventures in Renovation

So I was reading thru my Terence Conran 'Ultimate House Book' today and I came up with a brilliant way to fix those weird protrusions in the wall in my house: turn them into built-in bookcases. The way the house was built there is a skinny brick vent that goes up the walls behind there. Whoever built these houses made that part of the wall wider for aesthetic reasons. It kind of looks like a fireplace should be there or a mantle of some kind at least. But their hollow walls on either side of the brick vent.

It would be great to knock out the plaster on either side, expose the vent/chimney thing and fill that space back in with built in bookcases that go floor to ceiling. Not that this is anything I can worry about now of course. It'll probably never happen. I'm still worried about things like water and electricity on the second floor. But if I had all the time and money in the world... Well, I probably wouldn't even live in Baltimore if that were the case.

Anyway, I love my Terence Conran book. I drool over it.

Posted by at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I installed a new faucet on the kitchen sink. His name is Alsvik and he's from Sweden. Now there is one shiny thing in the middle of all this total crap. It's probably pretty premature to get excited about it because I'll have to disconnect everything again when I replace the counter top and remove the cabinets to put down the flooring, but still it's really cool looking. Next I have to replace all the galvanized steel pipe that leads up to the bathroom on the second floor with copper. Also, it's getting about time to do some framing. After I remove the rest of the linoleum I have to build the half wall that'll run next to the stairs and put back the wall the previous owners removed upstairs for the master bedroom.

I met my other neighbors yesterday. They're way cool. Already they're going to give me some blinds for my big living room window. Her daughter is the head of the Woodberry neighborhood association and is going to write a letter to whoever threw all the trash into my dumpster. And last night I heard the distinct sounds of someone playing electric guitar in the basement next door. Specifically, the distinct sounds of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman.' Woodberry rocks!

Posted by at 1:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)