Woodwork

We reversed the swing of 2 doors. We now have the bathroom door open out since the room is very small, it will make the room less awkward and we can put in extra storage. We also reversed the pantry door so that we could bring the counter tops out further.

Drywall Finished

The drywall is complete. Here are a few pictures that really emphasize some of the drywall work that was done. They took time to bring out the "cove" detail in the rooms that really give the apartment the victorian feel. With that sharp detail, it really brings out the best of the rooms.

Supplies Arrive

No pictures, but an update for arrivals. We have ordered the flooring, kitchen cabinets, bathroom tile and blinds. We received the blinds and cabinets today. We will pick up the tile tomorrow. Drywall should be complete on Wednesday (no visual changes to the apartment), woodworking to be complete on Thursday and Painting to start the following Monday.

Drywall Mud 2

Drywall Mud

Now that the drywall has been nailed and taped, the mud starts. The mud has been applied over the walls to give it a smooth finish. The mud will dry for the next 3 days. On walls with multiple layers of wallpaper, there is a hot mud. It will dry through the weekend and then will be sanded on Monday.

Another dump run

Another full truck of debris

Drywall 2

Drywall

The drywall is finally going up today. We had to have all of the walls insulated. We just passed the inspection and can finally start finishing the entire apartment off. It got a little stressful because there was some timing conflict with us and the drywaller, but it still passed the inspection. They have now moved onto taping and mudding the walls. It should be a full week until this is done and then we can start the paint.

Selling Appliances

No pictures for this one, but I sold the old oven/stove on craigslist and the guy that bought it decided to spill paint all over the floor. It made a huge mess, but once again confirms my thought about it being difficult to deal with normal people on craigslist.

Plumbing 2

Plumbing

We just finished with a large plumbing upgrade. It took about a full week of plumbers working full time to get everything finished. You can see in the pictures that we ran entirely new gas lines to everything (didn't want to take any risks with the 100 year old gas pipes in the ceiling), relocated the sink drain to make room for the garbage disposal, rerouted some water lines, and replaced the old tub drain. The plumbing passed inspection and now we can finally start closing up the walls.

Debris

620 pounds of debris from electrical work.

Wall Paper Image 3

Wall Paper Image 2

Wall Paper Image 1

Wall Paper Prep

We started taking off part of the wall paper to get it ready to be patched with new drywall. They plan to float it out and wanted to get the loose wall paper off so that it doesn't bubble when they mud over it. This is very old wall paper and we originally wanted to save it, but with all the patches from the electrical work, we decided it was impossible and not worth it.

Drywall Bids

This is more of a story that I thought was interesting. I had 2 guys come out to bid the drywall job for the apartment. One was supposed to come at 9:00 and one at 9:30, but of course they both came at 9:15. I thought it was going to be super awkward, which it was... but for just for me and not for them. They both knew each other and used to work together and hadn't seen each other for about 10 years. I was inside waiting and could hear them talking and they sat outside for 45 minutes talking to each other.

Their topics ranged from memories from back in the day and then led to them talking about the times they did shrooms together, to how the doctor told them to stop taking advil and switch to medical marijuana. They later talked about how both of their companies were just barely making it. I thought I could have stepped in with an answer, but I didn't. Needless to say, neither of these guys will be getting the work.

Structure Inspection

No new pictures for today, but the apartment passed the rough building inspection without any issues. Just some minor woodworking needs to be done in the kitchen.

Electrical Debris Clean Up

The electricians took out many pieces of the wall, so we had to clean it all up. The plaster is very dusty stuff. They swept everything into the bathroom, as seen in the picture. The pictures of my shoes is just to show how dusty it is. My shoes are normally dark brown.

May 1, 2011 Part 4

May 1, 2011 Part 3

May 1, 2011 Part 2

We also discovered that we had live gas lines that run throughout the ceiling of the apartment. They were originally used for "gas lights" that were used in all of the rooms. This was common back in the day and later they decided to run electrical wires around the pipes. That gives you fuel and an ignition source. Not the safest overall. We originally capped the gas lines and had them pressure tested. We considered leaving it as is, but then decided that if there was ever a leak, it would be pretty terrible so we are running all new gas lines to the apartment. That starts next week.