The Thompson Flats- So Close...

The condos at 2106 10th st are really moving along. We have most of the big stuff done, and we should be complete within three weeks. The plumbers are working in the house now to put in the toilets and faucets. Next week, the house will be basically empty as the floor crew comes in to stain the floors and apply the polyurethane.

In the pictures below, you can really see how much natural light there is in the building. None of the electric lights were turned on for the photos

The front windows are totally wrapped in the metal. The dark brown looks awesome with the white.

We poured the concrete for the front walkways earlier this week. Next week we need to get fill dirt to put in the two planters.


All of the master bedroom closets received Elfa storage systems from the Container Store.

The built-in shelves were completed last week around all of the gas fireplaces. We ordered glass tile to surround the fireplace and it should be in next week.

The master bathrooms all have wall-mounted floating vanities.

Here are the floors on the first floor. The cabinets are all wrapped in paper and plastic to protect them during construction.

The top loft area has a ton of light.



This is the color that we are staining the floors. It's a dark coffee/ebony mix.

The Thompson Flats- More progress

The days are hot and long, and the work is grueling, but this project is getting closer and closer to completion. Things still look pretty hectic, but if you look closely, most of the big things are done. We should be done by the second or third week of August, just in time for the fall market.

(I apologize for the poor image quality, it will be fixed in time for the next post)

The front metalwork is nearly complete. All that's left is the front right side and the trim piece beneath the front balcony.

The back patio is fully poured, and work is underway on the fence. They should be done by the end of this weekend.

The tiling is really moving along. Here is the marble basketweave in the stand-up showers.

The built in cabinets are installed on the top two floors. Red House Staging came by today and helped me choose a really cool-looking Porcelenosa tile for the fireplace surround.

In the basement, the cabinets went in and were finished today. The countertop company is coming Monday to measure for the Silestone Quartz tops.

The Thompson Flats- Into the Last Month

The sheetrock guys finished the entire building in less than 4 days, which was really impressive. The painters came and primed all of the walls over the weekend, so now we're really racing to finish. There were almost 20 guys working in the building together this week. By my count, we had 4 roofers, 3 carpenters, 3 floor installers, 3 concrete guys, 2 welders, 3 painters, 1 tile guy and 2 helpers in the house on Friday alone.

This is the current status of unit 2. They finished the hardwood floors yesterday in this unit and were working in the top unit today. The floors are unfinished white oak, which will be stained a dark coffee color and then finished.

All of the interior doors are installed and most of the trim. This is the penthouse unit. We have a big pile of floors sitting in the kitchen, just waiting to be installed.

This is the first floor. We have glass transoms above all of the bedrooms and most of the bathrooms. They really do a great job of making the space feel huge.

Outside, the roofers were wrapping the bayfront windows with metal flashing. The first floor is done- we went with a dark brown to match the windows.

The steps to the basement and the front patio were poured at the beginning of the week. Here Mateo is removing the wood frames used to form each step.

It was 103 degrees multiple days this week and the workers had to do everything possible to try to stay cool. Gomez brought this sombrero, which looked pretty funny but probably really helped to block the sun.

The Thompson Flats- Decks

At the 10th St project we have the building all ready to sheetrock and we're working to finish up several of the exterior projects. In the rear, we got most of the metal in place for the decks. Tomorrow, the carpenters will put in the handrails, and we should have the spiral done by the middle of next week. My welder is going to Africa for the entire month of July, so let's hope he finishes next week. All of my inspections are done and we have the go ahead to close-in the building. It took them almost 4 hours today with a crane to get the sheetrock on each floor, and the hanging crew claims they'll hang 500 sheets tomorrow and finish in one day. I'll believe it when I see it, but they do move fast. The taping and mudding takes about another week, so I hope to start trim and unfinished flooring at the beginning of the following week.

1470 Chapin St NW- New Project Coming Soon

We're excited to announce our next project, which will be a conversion of a three-unit Victorian rowhome into a four-unit condo building. The building still has a lot of the original details, and we hope to preserve several of them, including the exposed brick and the hardwood floors. We're working now on the plans and should start construction at the end of this summer. We plan on delivering in the beginning of 2011.

The Thompson Flats- It's all in the Details

The last two weeks have been very productive, although we're working on a lot of the small things that aren't so visible. Outside, we finished the majority of the brickwork and started framing up the rear decks. Inside, the fire sprinklers are complete, as well as all of the utilities. Now it's just a matter of finishing all of the insulating so we can start hanging sheetrock on Monday of next week.

The brick on the side and rear has all been laid. The only additional brickwork is around the large bayfront windows in the front of the building, which hopefully will be finished by the end of the week.

Today the masons were working to clean and then seal the new brick.

Inside, we finished waterproofing the tubs and showers. Here, Camillo installed felt paper and then cement board. After the boards were installed, he sealed all of the joints with thinset mortar.

About a quarter of the building has been fully insulated. We were slowed down a bit by the plumber, who was still installing the gas lines and asked for some time to finish. He'll be done tomorrow.

The Thompson Flats

We finally had a week of nice weather, so we're really working to get the exterior work done. The biggest exterior projects are finishing the brick, building the front and rear patios, and finishing the roof. One side of the brick is finished, and the masons are working hard on the alley side. We made a lot of progress on the roof, although it's still not done. Inside, the HVAC is finished, and the electric and plumbing are very close. The final task is the sprinkler system, which should go in this week.

On the alley side, we started cutting out the windows in the basement. This would have been a lot easier to do from the beginning, but we were still working out some details with the layout, so we decided to just wait and do it after the framing.

The brick guys made a lot of progress on the left side wall. The building is 50 feet long, and each brick is only 2 inches tall by 4 inches wide, so you can see why it takes so long to go up. They do each course one at a time to make sure that everything is level. Doing some quick math, that means it takes 900 bricks to go up just one foot.

This is the first floor unit. You can see the ductwork on the right hand wall and the all of the electric boxes. This week we'll start insulating.