649 6th

bitter sweet

I had been thinking about this day several months back; I wondered, "what would be the last thing we needed to demo to finish the renovation?" Tonight (unless we one day get crazy and redo the basement) I think  I shot the last man down.

There's an odd peninsula that sticks out between the kitchen and the hall by the bathroom.  It has structural support so we couldn't remove it. We needed to strip it back to the frame so we could  apply the same thickness of finish layer as the other side has to make the "door frame" even.

It was really great to be knocking out the final bit, taking the extra care to get all of the nails out so prep for installation would be minimal. When I came back upstairs to write this post I realized I had forgotten something, I had missed six calls and a text message.

Doh! Michael! He was driving around in a car service somewhere near Canarsie trying to find the UPS depot. He was going to pick up the package with the ingredients for the beer we're brewing Sunday. Sadly I had become so engrossed in the "last soldier" I completely forgot that I was the map / phone number lifeline.

Hmmmm....

I'm guessing guilt alone will keep me pretty busy this weekend.

day 27: preparing for the blitz

Today was a prep day. My niece Lily came to visit this afternoon. Unlike my sightseeing niece that was here last week, Lily has come to work. She'll mainly focus on the painting the second floor. That's right, this weekend we go color and are greatful for the additional set of hands.

I essentially have four days left in my month long vacation / reno jump start. I've been saying June all along, but I'm going to kick in Sunday July first as bonus to try and show a little more progress. Michael will continue to focus on the bathroom. We finished up the most complicated wall of tile last night. We're hoping to have all of the tile done and some (if not all) of the cedar installed by the end of the weekend.

The last major focus for the dwindling days is the entry way. I keep saying that we've finished demo-- a couple of times now in fact. Well, I found another place that needs a bit more peeling back. The entry way is a clogged artery of four or five layers of sheetrock. If I peel it back I should get up to an inch and a half of much needed breathing room on either side of the front door. Luckily I should be able to knock out the demo and debris removal in an hour or so in the morning. After that I'm all drywall finishing, all the time.

In preparation for this big push I spent the better part of the day assembling materials and getting the the task list ready. All I can say at this point is "Go team!"

day 12: two man gang

I've said it before I'll say it again, it's amazing how much work you can get done when you have more manpower. Today was Michael's first day of vacation, and we checked a bunch of stuff off the list. I really like the days when the white board get's full of detail. It's normally accompanied with a flurry of activity.

The white board has a colorful depiction of a possible garden lay-out. I was reading way back in the blog today and realized that sketches like these turn up from time to time. One day even the outdoor space (now workshop) will be finished.

Today went like this:

1) Ordered screens for all of the windows. We didn't have cats when we they were installed, now we do. Nuff said.

2) Cut the tile for the bathroom floor. This was the first time I used the "tile king" blade. Wow, what a difference, cuts like butter. I highly recommend spending the few extra dollars to step up from a composite stone blade.

3) Built the plywood box cubby at the base of the tub. It'll be lined in same cedar as the walls. Wondering how well this particular application will hold up in a dampish area.

4) Mixed up a batch of thinset, taped the Hardiebacker seams and installed the remaining floor tile. We ran just short on thinset and will have to finish last two pieces in the morning.

5) Demo'd the front entry. This is final vestige of the previous occupant's work. A victorious moment.

6) Installed an electrical outlet in the last wall to be finished in the kitchen area. Tomorrow we pop on a couple of pieces of drywall and checking things off the list continues.

After it was all said and done we cracked open a fine bottle of wine with a good stinky cheese. Not bad for a day's work.

what a dump

Good demo. No injuries, no unintended property damage, and didn't find much in the way of problems. Reframing tomorrow would be pretty simple, if we hadn't just agreed to pull about half the floor to sister the joists where our 68 gallon tub's about to go. And so the plumber has full access for all the new pipe we're gonna need (yeah, we're ditching the PVC). And while he's at: pull and rerun the steam line to 2nd floor.

Plus we took down the privacy palisade in the back yard. Yep, we're double-timing the job site. Tomorrow while we're decommissioning the toilet, we've arranged to have chain link installed. Everyone's very excited about extended sight lines, collateral gardening, and increased sunlight. Like the man said: good fences make good neighbors.

Shout out to Charles and Douglas for their awesome help today, and to Conor and Nina for the drop in. House feels more like a home every time we get to share it with friends.

deliverance

10 cubic yard card container: check.
White Kohler fixtures: check.
Rough valves for lavatory and tub: check.

I even scheduled an electrician to come next Monday and wire a dedicated circuit for the radiant heat mat we're going to lay under tile floor.

Estimated delivery on the custom finish faucets and trim: July 17. What could have been a disaster for our schedule has been down-graded to a mere inconvenience. Stay tuned for news on how well we manage to rig an outdoor shower.

back to the back

pealing back a kitchen

on thursday we had 15 cubic yard rubbish container delivered. today it is full. the roofing from last week and pealing back both the exterior and interior of the kitchen this weekend we filled it to the rim. it was so great to take a such a leap forward. more details soon but here's a strip depicting the events.

dust shield

On Monday night I built a dust barrier to FINALLY finish taking the remaining plaster off of the brick walls on either side of the fire place. I covered the floor with construction paper over cheap compressed board (the stuff that peg board is made out of without the holes). Next I hung 1mm plastic and taped it all around. I loaded in the tools and had Michael seal me in like the bubble boy.

About and hour later I emerged and removed the dust barrier. it was like I was never there. Not exactly sure why but for some reason I really get a kick out of controlled demo. The wall looks great. I'm still sitting on the fence about trying to seal the brick and mortar. I've never seen that work and look good at the same time.

Speaking of demo. We have a debris container that will be delivered on Thursday night. The old roof off the kitchen, the back off of the first floor rear (looks to be an easy 4 or 5 layers), the rear awing, the interior walls of  the kitchen (ceiling already gone), will all be demoed, carted and hauled away by Monday. It's a pretty tall order. Any loyal readers wanting to stop by and work through their aggressions on Saturday are more than encouraged.

over built-up roof

hit the ceiling

Was really only a matter of time. Despite post-holiday intentions to limit ourselves to simply wrapping up loose threads through the end of June before digging into the next meaty project, the roof had other plans, ie, creeping from a single known leak to 5 new ones during the last big round of rain we've had. We've known the roof needs to attention ever since we took possession. I'm just glad it waited until we had the space to deal with it reasonably rather than in panic. First step was remove the wet ceiling so we could see the roof from its underside first. Disconnected the ceiling fan and high-hats, then pulled off the sheetrock and aluminum framing that was part of the same renovation we'd just torn out of the front half of the house. Above that was more of the tin ceiling we'd salvaged, but in this case so corroded it came down like tissue in places. Good news is the framing appears to be totally dry -- and bonus: incredibly overbuilt! Though you can see from the picture that the underlayment has a few problems, which conspicuously match up with the leaks. We're taking our time setting up the next step. Need to have a new roof at the ready before peeling back the old. Plan is install a green roof. We've got a couple people in the neighborhood to talk to about it, and we just found a company that supplies installation packages. No idea how long it takes to deliver or for that matter how much it costs. Already beginning to wonder how much less money but more time it would cost us to assemble from parts. Meanwhile, in an conscious effort to manifest the future, designs for the finished space are in abundence. Here's a condenced drawing board of ideas we've been knocking around for the past few days. Appear to be heading toward a very modular design, aka more plywood boxes, that emphasizes functional zones of activity. So happy to have found an arrangment that eliminates the corner cabinet. Not to mention the countertop that oftentimes serves as a seamless runway of dirty dishes edging into a corner already loaded with jars of dry goods. Must give credit where due: check out Blum's DesignSpace for a great lesson in functional kitchen design and a spin through their Zone Planner. So for anyone who's made it this far:
Kitchen Evolution