The Morris Place Project

October block party

Hilby — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:23:45 +0000

Here’s a shot of the neighborhood as we/they were setting up for the annual block party. Unfortunately I had to get on a plane soon after this picture was taken, but I heard the kids had a great time.

It really is a nice, friendly neighborhood. If we could just get rid of the half-dozen or so drunks who seem to hang around nearby, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, our street is between some really run down areas, and a store that sells fortified wine. So we get more than our fair share of alcoholics walking down the street.

But hey, that’s what keeps the neighborhood affordable. Our house in Hyde Park would’ve cost us 100 grand more.

The fence

Hilby — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:18:10 +0000

We had a decorative fence installed in the front of the house. I think it will look really nice when we landscape out there next Spring. We plan on some roses and lavender and other stuff that will grow well in the direct sun. Also it’s great if we want to sit on the front porch and keep various puppies and children under the age of 3 from running down the street.

Notice the front door is stained…but not polyurethane-d yet… Also, looking at these pictures makes me think we really need shutters on the second floor.

The neighborhood’s really coming together

Hilby — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:53:37 +0000

I know I promised some pictures, and I’ll have them as soon as a room in the house is clean enough to photograph.

But I did want to mention some news. The Columbia Journal is a monthly newsletter sent to everyone in the neighborhood. It used to be updated online here, but it hasn’t been this year. We just got the print version at our house yesterday and it had some really good news about the neighborhood:
First, crime is down in the area by about 25%. This is great news.

Second, the city approved $160,000 for street-scaping on Stanley Avenue between Columbia Parkway and Eastern avenue. For those of you not familiar with the street, that is the section you can see from our front porch. Looks like they’ll be putting in some bricks and trees hopefully in the next year.

…and finally, my favorite bit of news: The Journal said “rumors of a specialty grocery store are well founded”. A grocery store within walking distance would be incredible. I’ve heard rumors about which one as well. The Journal didn’t publish this, but I think it will be a small grocery store that only currently has one location in Cincinnati and its name rhymes with “Trader Schmoes”.

Pictures and stuff coming…I promise.

Hilby — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:50:45 +0000

I haven’t abandoned the blog, I just haven’t had much time to update it. Here’s what’s happening. We’ve finally moved and sold our house! That means only one mortgage payment! We are about 90% done, just some odds and ends. The last really big project for me this year is tiling the 3rd floor bathroom. I hope to get to it soon. Brian is finishing up the back deck, I just couldn’t find the time to do it. It looks great by the way. It will be nice to sit out there this fall.

Pictures are on the way, I’ll move the boxes and clutter and start posting interior shots. We’re hoping to do a Housewarming/Halloween party at the end of October.

Here’s where the money went

Hilby — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:57:04 +0000

The kitchen right after I insulated it:

The kitchen today…after the jump.

In case you’re wondering,the counters are soapstone and the peninsula is granite…and yes I know soapstone is soft.

The floor is teak

I did all the tile work. I have a few more tiles to set and then the grout, and it’s done. Lisa and I really liked the glass tiles, but to save money (hah), we just bought enough for the two back-splashes and the the accent stripe. The other tiles are plain old ceramic subway tiles. I had to cut apart mesh-mounted field tiles to make that thin glass stripe. I think it’ll look really cool when we install the under cabinet lighting.

Do we spoil the boys?

Hilby — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:42:38 +0000

Here’s the third floor front of the house in February. The framing on the right side of the picture is going to be a full bath

…And here it is today:

A big sunny playroom. I’m so jealous.

These are the people in the neighborhood…

Hilby — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:33:50 +0000

It’s been a solid month since I’ve updated. I’ll have some new pictures shortly.

But until then, let’s talk about some of the day laborers!

The most interesting character is “shirtless Rick”. Shirtless Rick helps Mike the painter, and as far as I can tell owns neither a shirt nor a belt. This does not stop him from stooping low to paint baseboards, or from standing high up on a ladder and reaching over his head. (Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any evidence of underpants either)

Shirtless Rick’s other identifying feature is his severe alcoholism. Apparently he starts the day OK, but wanders off to his car once in a while to enjoy an adult beverage or two; so by the end of the day his productivity suffers.

Shirtless Rick showed up unannounced on Saturday looking for some work. Apparently he and a few women drank away his paycheck on Friday night. I had a bunch of shoveling and hauling of things to the dumpster for him to do, so I paid him 30 dollars for about 90 minutes work.

It turns out that over-paying shirtless alcoholics for odd jobs is alarmingly similar to feeding a stray cat. Shirtless Rick showed up again on Sunday. Unfortunately I didn’t have any jobs for him to do, but I did write down his number and promised to call him if I had any other work.

On the other end of the socio-economic tradesman spectrum is Brian our general contractor who showed up on Saturday driving his brand new Infinity with the vanity plate that says: CHNG ORDR

Almost there!

Hilby — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:33:56 +0000

This is what a 100 year old heart pine floor looks like after 2 days of sanding. They should be putting down polyurethane today. This is the second floor office. I finished painting the trim and window in the MB yesterday, all it needs now is a couple of tiles in the shower and some grout, and that room is finished.

This is the walkout from the Master Bedroom. We are deciding on final decking material. We’d like to use some synthetic like Timbertech, but it may be too expensive. If that’s the case, we’ll do hardwood. We won’t put down a pressure-treated floor. Brian used powder coated aluminum spindles for the railing. They can be removed easily to paint the rails, and I think they look great.

The other small project I was working on this weekend is restoring the door hardware. Most of the interior doors have old mortise locks on them. They are in great shape, and just need some cleaning. I also have to find keys to fit, but that shouldn’t be a big problem. Yesterday I removed all of the knobs and escutcheons and started cleaning and repainting them.

I’m also trying to get an estimate on painting the third floor, I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with all of the painting. I’d like to spend some weekends and evenings with the family this summer.

We have appliances!!

Hilby — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:52:39 +0000

OK, so just the refrigerator is in place (and it isn’t actually plugged in), but the rest are there. We are just waiting on the replacement cabinets so the dishwasher and oven can be put in place. It’s really starting to look like a home. Notice John’s lights. Very cool.

Orange? No. It’s some kind of clove-y color.

Hilby — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:29:52 +0000

I’m racing Brian to paint all of the rooms before he puts up the trim…and losing. I painted the living room last night. Lisa’s choice was a color called Clove Bud. It looks really cool.

Lisa and the boys came over at about 7 to bring me some dinner. It’s always fun to have the boys come and help. They saw the orange paint and were really excited. They don’t like to paint with white or primer apparently. I gave Max the roller after taking it off the pole, and let him help. Sammy demanded a paint brush. I gave him my really nice 10-dollar nearly new paint brush which he immediately dunked up to his knuckles in the paint bucket…(cringe). I gave him the job of painting the corners, and he did a really good job.

We bought one gallon of the paint since it is expensive and I hate having a bunch of 3/4 filled paint cans around. It covered the entire room, but eventually I’ll probably do a second coat to get a nicer color.

A note about Behr paints. This is Home Depot’s house brand, and it is crap. I’ve never had a good experience using the paint. Years ago we painted our front porch with Behr floor paint. It wore off and peeled up almost immediately. Home Depot was having a huge sale on 2-gallon buckets of Behr ceiling paint. They were about 21 dollars each, that’s about half price. Well either it was stored improperly, was too old, or was just crap because it all had little bits of drying paint in it which meant I had to continually stop to get the bits of the ceiling and wipe them on something to keep the finish smooth. I was using a new roller cover, new paint tray liner and a new freshly opened bucket of paint, properly stirred.

I’ve used Porter, Valspar, Sherwin Williams and Killz and haven’t had any problems with them. Don’t buy Behr paint, you’ll be sorry.