Construction Progress- 2108 10th St NW

We settled last week on our next project at 2108 10th St NW, and today we started demo.  The house is tiny so the demo should be finished by the end of the week.  Unfortunately, we don't have a final building permit yet, so it will probably be a while before we actually get fully underway.  

This is a little premature because this rendering is only a rough draft, but here's a good idea of what the building will look like once complete.

As of today, however, it looks like this.

Inside, the steps are in the middle of the house.  Not sure why anyone ever thought that this was a good use of space.

Trevor has been with us for over 4 years.  He's a skilled painter but will help out wherever needed when there is no painting underway.  

Today Trevor was gutting out the rear bedroom.  It's strange because the rest of the house was new framing with sheetrock and insulation.  Only the rear room was plaster.

From the rear, you can see the Thompson Flats that we built last year right next door.  2108 10th St will soon look identical.

Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd

We've had some great weather and with a lot of manpower, this project is moving along rapidly.  The framing is mostly complete on the first two units, and we'll start framing the third unit tomorrow.  In the mean time, the masons have gone up another level and we're ready to put in the floor joists of unit 4.

Here you can see the three units that are pretty much up.

The basement unit is framed and ready for plumbing.

The front of the building looks untouched, but if you look closely you can see light through the top two windows.

That's because the roof is removed.  It was in a huge pile this morning until the dumpster came after lunch.

The framing on the first floor looks great.  Here louis frames a transom above the bedroom door.

Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd NW

With The Gracie around the corner 100% complete and two units already under contract, we have turned our full focus to finishing The Charles project on Ontario Rd.  The timing is great too because it's starting to warm up, which makes it much easier to work in a building with no heat or rear windows.

We have three floors of joists complete and we're starting to frame the interior walls tomorrow.

The big walls are done and now we are building the small retaining walls in the back for a terrace level below the parking.

Most of today was spent moving stuff out of the building to get ready to frame tomorrow.

Because we are unable to lay the block from the outside, the engineer designed a special angle iron to tie the block into the floor framing.

There's a pretty cool bridge in the back to get over the rear areaway.  This is temporary until we build the steps/decks.

The small court is finished and ready for windows.

Most of the interior brick is grinded out and ready to repoint.  We've learned to do this early in the project because the dust goes everywhere.

We donated the shrubs in the front to a neighbor to replant.  Eventually we'll dig out this  area to allow access to the basement unit.

Construction Progress- The Gracie at 1470 Chapin Rd

Done! Well, 99.9%. The stagers finished their design on monday and the photographer came through yesterday. Her pictures are incredible! She does a great job of capturing all of the natural light in these units. All that's left to do at the project is clean (again), finish the front railings and pour the concrete for the small walkway between the parking and the back of the building. Can't wait to get feedback from our first open house this Sunday from 1-4.

The front is pretty much all done.  The front handrail when in just after we took this picture.

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The bedrooms have so much light from the huge patio doors.

The penthouse kitchen looks like something straight out of a design magazine.

The steps worked out perfectly.

The stagers did a great job with the layout here.

This is the picture that we chose for the cover of all the marketing materials.

We staged the loft as a bedroom but it could also be used as an office or entertaining space.

The rooftop deck needs one more coat of stain.

Here is the dining area in unit 3.

The exposed brick looks great with the floor color.

More great entertaining space.

Here's the view over the island.

Construction Progress- The Gracie at 1470 Chapin Rd

We have all of the hard work done at The Gracie and now it's just a matter of getting all the small items completed.  The cleaning crew is working as we speak, and the stagers are coming tomorrow and Tuesday to stage units 3 and 4.  The floor crew worked late last night and finished the top three units.  All that's left is to sand and stain the floor in unit 1, which will be completed this afternoon.

We finally have a few days with no rain, so Trevor was able to finish painting the front steps.  The railing will be installed before Tuesday.

Here is unit 1.  It's 99% done, but the microwave needs to be hung on the right side wall.

The carpet guy came last night and installed the carpet after everyone else had gone home for the day.

The top unit is also pretty much done.  They were installing the hood fan this morning when I left.

The floor crew finished these steps last night.

The parking spots are finished, as well as the little nook on the right for the trash cans.  We need to install the sod in the back area before Tuesday.

Louis worked this morning to finish grouting the backsplash.

All of the bedrooms have Elfa storage systems from the Container Store.

The stain is almost finished on the rear deck.  It would have been finished earlier but the deck has been wet from all the rain.

Construction Progress- The Charles at 2431 Ontario Rd

We haven't posted many pictures of our condo project at 2431 Ontario Road because the work so far has mostly been digging and pouring concrete, which are not very exciting.  However, the foundation is complete and now the real construction can really begin.  This morning, the masons were completing the walls around the rear areaway, and our framers started framing the walls for the first floor.  It's really incredible how big these units will be- almost 1200 SF with 10 Ft ceilings.  Awesome.

Here the carpenters are tilting up the wall for the north side of the first floor.  In an ideal world, you would frame the inside first and then put up the brick or block on the outside.  However, when you build in the city, you can't do this without working from the neighbors' yard, which is often impossible.    In order to get around this, we build the brick or block first, and then come back and frame the inside walls.

It's been time consuming, but the rear patio for the ground level unit is nearly complete.

Construction Progress- The Gracie at 1470 Chapin Rd

We're into the final week of construction at The Gracie.  The cleaning crew is coming this weekend, so we're on the clock to finish in the next few days.  The marble countertops went in over the weekend, and now it's just a matter of finishing all the small details.

The concrete came early in the morning.

By mid-day it started to look like a parking pad.

In the front, the bricks are finished and the retaining walls are primed and ready for finish paint.

The penthouse looks awesome.  The rails are completed and the floor crew worked today to sand and stain the floors.

The first floor kitchen has all of the hardware already installed.  It looks great.