Our Middle Class Victorian

In July 2019 we bought a Middle Class Victorian Townhouse in Chicago. It is near some amazing grand Victorian homes in Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods but is much more modest with 4 small bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. When we bought the house the market was tight and flooded with recently remodeled and gut rehabbed houses that were all at the highest values their neighborhoods had ever seen. I was willing to consider a fixer-upper but there was very little available in our price range between the levels of "Severe water damage, gutted home" and "Just remodeled."  When I first saw this home I was in love with all the built ins and original (unpainted!) woodworking. The stairs alone were enough to make me drool. But along with that was 30 year old carpet, paint, fixtures, and a lot of deferred maintenance. We also knew the home had poor water pressure and likely had mineral build up and lead in the water lines. There was no central A/C but there was central forced air for heating. It also lacked dedicated parking or an option for a garage. We were told the floors under all the carpeting were hardwood. (EVERYTHING but the bathrooms and kitchen were carpeted) So it checked some of our boxes but not all of them. It was being sold "as is" so we knew all of the repairs would be on us, but it appeared that after a few large outlays of money for new water pipes and floor refinishing most of the rest of the upgrades needed would either be a DIY we could handle or would be something that is part of normal maintenance and upgrades (everyone has to upgrade their kitchens and bathrooms from time to time, this just may be on the shorter end of time.) So once I dragged my then "partner" now "spouse" to the next open house and got him agree to making an offer that same day, we were on our way to home ownership.  

I have been told by many people that I should consider blogging or vlogging my home improvements as a way to "monetize" my work. I have an icky feeling in my gut about that for multiple reasons. For one, I am pretty influenced by an ugly mix of perfectionism and ADHD in my home improvement work. This results in a few things: 

1.  I always have at least 5 projects going on at once (not all of them with the house, sometimes I also decide to practice Spanish, or learn ukulele), 
2. I don't finish projects on any sort of timely schedule, 
3. I never feel like a project is truly "done."  

Add to this buying a house that not only had at least 10 years of deferred maintenance, but prior to that had about 20 years of really poorly done "kludged" maintenance and each project we take on inevitably uncovers 4 or 5 more projects that need completing. 

My other "icky feeling" has to do with monetizing what is and can, in my mind, only be a labor of love. I'm not planning on "flipping" my home. It is my home and I am putting in hours upon hours of work that will not necessarily increase my home value or match current market trends. I am doing it because I believe that this house, and the beautiful workmanship of the original craftsman is worth the time and effort to glorify it's beauty and honor the materials, time and quality of the artisans who built it and I because I believe in making it into the house I want to live in. Also I have a degree in art, had a father and a grandfather who were contractors, and took the Girl Scout pledge to "leave each place better than you found it" pretty seriously. 

So why then are you reading my blog? 

Well, I have been posting pictures and descriptions of my work on Facebook for the last year or so and have so many people telling me they love my posts and my descriptions. I have tried to be thorough in my explanations even though readers are not likely to ever have to do the same tasks I am doing. As a teacher and an artist I believe in sharing my experiences and thoughts and want to make the work easier for others if I can, and share the knowledge that I have gained. 

I also have been looking for Victorian home renovations and DIY work and have seen that the majority of all the blogs and youtube channels and photos out there seem to be images of giant homes with giant rooms and lots of white painted trim. Our home is smaller, but still with a lot of the craftsmanship and features you would expect in a Victorian, and with very little painted wood. I am a fan of the beautiful quarter-sawn red oak , the Brazillian  Cherry, the raised panel wainscotting, the 12 inch baseboards and beautiful window trims all in shellacked, varnished, or stained shades of golden yellows and browns. No one seems to be celebrating these homes and their craftsmanship and I want to showcase and explore design and color and how home upgrades can work with all of this orginal woodwork in a beautiful and modern way (and without painting all the woodworking white). 

Beyond that I would like a place where I can reference what I have done and see the transformation of this house. As such I will be starting with some of our first projects (which seem like decades ago even though we bought the house just a year and 4 months ago!) and then moving on towards current projects. They won't necessarily all be posted in order and the very nature of all of our overlapping/never fully finished projects don't lend themselves to a pretty timeline. Don't expect the perfectly staged, magazine-ready images of finished rooms you may find on other blogs to occur very soon or ever. This is a real house and we are real people with jobs that are not even remotely contracting adjacent. We will make the walls pretty and ignore the floor, we will paint trim knowing we still need to resurface the adjoining walls. We are making it all up as we go along, often based on what is annoying me most or what CAN be done first of a million integrated projects . 

 "Move in Day

Covid Spirit Week "Fancy" Day

 Sign the papers, get the keys!