Remodeling

Penthouse Plunge: Sudden Stone Sale Brings Countertops Into Focus

By Jon Anderson / January 7, 2020 /

The framing is almost complete in the A-unit of this Penthouse Plunge renovation project. For the newbies, this is the latest installment of a series chronicling the absurdity of my purchasing a double penthouse at The Claridge on Turtle Creek. I’m separating it back into two units and gutting and renovating the corner A-unit and…

Got Wood? How Saw Patterns Effect Flooring Look And Cost

By Jon Anderson / December 18, 2019 /

For the longest time, I noticed that some wood floors looked considerably different from others. At first, I chalked it up to perhaps being different species or different trees or luck. I will confess that until my Penthouse Plunge, I’d never installed hardwood floors in any home. My first house had Douglas Fir from the…

Penthouse Plunge: Demolition Begins With Few Surprises

By Jon Anderson / November 20, 2019 /

Building permit (finally) in hand, demolition of the A-unit began on overdrive to make up for lost time. The main concentration was to gut the kitchen and bathrooms on the A-side.  Unless this is your first time reading about the Penthouse Plunge, you know that I purchased a 5,311-square-foot double penthouse at the Claridge on…

Habitat For Humanity Takes Penthouse Plunge To Help Needy

By Jon Anderson / November 18, 2019 /

Habitat for Humanity took my kitchen. There, I said it. And I couldn’t be happier. Hopefully, the pristine, heavily lacquered maple cabinets manufactured by Germany’s Siematic fetch a good price at one of the organizations’ ReStore shops. In turn, those monies will be used for Habitat’s main job – giving former president Jimmy Carter something…

Penthouse Plunge: Two Months is Too Long to Get a Building Permit

By Jon Anderson / November 8, 2019 /

In 2013, when I secured the building permits required to renovate my Athena condo, I was on the permitting office’s doorstep New Year’s morning and within a couple of hours, I left, permits in hand. When I returned a year later to get new permits to renovate the master bathroom, a similar timeline played out.…