Lothrop House: Renovation Log
February 7, 2018: Closing
Today was the day the big snowstorm of 2018 began.
The closing went off without a hitch. We went for a final walk-through to make sure the seller was in compliance with the addendums and agreements, and he was. We met at the title company office on Second in New Center on a slushy and snowy day, spent a few minutes signing papers, and that was that. The seller was handed a check, and we were handed keys. Our wonderful real estate agent Nika Jusufi had a bottle of bubbly and a houseplant (which Nicole promptly named "Fred") as a closing gift for us.
The title agent was very, very insistent that we file the property transfer affidavit with the city within 45 days. She mentioned it multiple times.
We went immediately to the Secretary of State with the deed, and got our legal address changed and registered to vote in our new city district (now District 4). On a side note: I'm going to miss having Raquel Casteñeda-Lopez as our district city council rep!
From there, we went to the post office to get mail forwarding done, and then to Brooks Lumber to buy smoke detectors since the house didn't have any. Nicole went, for the first time, to her new house, while I stayed back at the Sullivan house to do business stuff... namely get the utilities scheduled for turn-on and switch-over. Scheduled DTE for gas and electric and Comcast for internet (to our great chagrin, RocketFiber is not available in LaSalle Gardens)
February 8, 2018
Snowstorm started kicking for real. Cars stuck on streets. Nicole went to the city and filed the property transfer affidavit.
February 9, 2018
The first part of the major snowstorm was finished after dumping about 10 inches on Detroit. We went to shovel for the first time because DTE said they'd be there. They never showed. Yay us!
We waited for a couple of house in the cold and eventually just bailed. It took us 20 minutes to get our car out of the snow. However, during that time, we got to meet two of our new neighbors who were out shoveling snow, and they warmly welcomed us to the neighborhood, so it was all worth it.
February 10, 2018
Didn't do much. Drove by, got the mail, shoveled. Kyle, my son, started moving his stuff in.
February 11, 2018
Reschedule of DTE and gas turn-on was a success. Heat was acquired!
February 12,2018
Our first contractor meeting: Randy Penhorwood from Penhorwood Floors came out, admired the hardwood floors, and took measurements for his quote.
The quote came in lower than we had hoped, and we're going full steam ahead with the floor renovations.
We decided to do the top floor first, since there will be nothing up there for a while. That gives us time to work on some of the bigger projects downstairs without worrying about the preciousness of the floors. In the meantime, upstairs is mostly cosmetic renovations, so it won't be nearly as disruptive.
February 13, 2018
Still snowed in, but we stopped by to meet with Comcast for internet installation. It's janky for now, but it does work. 
We also had our first meal in our new house! Chinese take-out eaten on the counter.
Comments
February 17, 2018
February 27, 2018
February 28, 2018
There's just something about February and March that make home renovation progress really slow.
Haven't done much other than have a couple of contractors in for initial measurements and quotes.
FINALLY! PROGRESS
Broken old water tank removed, tankless system partially installed:
Electrical work begun:
Master bedroom drop ceiling demolished, new drywall ceiling in progress:
Have you an update for your eager audience?
yeah... what's up
Really sorry for the year-and-a-half delay in progress updates, but if I'm being honest, it feels like there hasn't really been much progress, despite the fact that there has.
In January of 2019 I was laid off from my job and then in February my freelance contract was cancelled and I have been out of work since.
The layoff was unexpected, and it came literally days after we signed a $25k+ renovation contract. As you can imagine, this put a major damper on our ability to get this project done in a timely fashion.
Our contractor has been extraordinarily understanding and has allowed us to trickle money to him when we can. With no income from me and sporadic income from Nicole, it's been a very slow slog to get anything done.
The big news is that major kitchen renovations are in progress and mostly complete. We gutted the kitchen and removed the first-floor bathroom entirely.
Things we HAVE gotten done:
So, while it may seem like nothing is happening because we've still not moved in, despite purchasing the house in February of 2018... We are making progress.
Thanks for the update.