649 6th

not much of one thing

Big weekend of lots of miscellany. We cleaned out the boiler and got some heat up in here. I fixed the refrigerator, and am enjoying a cold beer for the first time in months. But most important, we just about finished(!) the second floor (including the picture lights; more on that later).

The piece of eye candy below is (as you've probably noticed) the new way of keeping myself glued to the finish jobs. Let us know if we've played them out.

drywall taping

Tuesday night means two things; garbage and recycling, and updating the fall project plan. As I had predicted last night, by finishing the silicone caulk in the bathroom and priming and painting the stairs we got a few more task in the blue realm (blue means done in the excel sheet; yellow in progress, purple on deck).

I did the wet sand of the drywall in the entryway and attempted to roll on to priming, but was stop by quality assurance. A couple of the mud seams just weren't ready. They need at least one more layer and another round of sanding. On the plus side, the stairway to the second floor is ready for its finish coat. Meaning we were three for two on the evening for things that could have possibly gone blue.

When I updated the plan I was beginning to feel like our December 1 deadline was rapidly approaching and we were hardly making a dent. Then (and this is where the true geek nature comes out) I sorted by priority and realized that we had knocked all of the high priority items off of the list or they were at least in progress.

That made it a bit more palatable. If nothing else, at least the important things are getting done first.

sponge sanding drywall

It's Monday night and the plan had been to come home to sand and prime the stair ceiling so that we could finish installing the cedar Tuesday. The bonus kicker was it represented a whole and complete task I could check off the project plan, as not that many have been checked as complete in a couple of days-- it was a worthy motivator.

I've discovered using a sanding sponge for small drywall projects is the way to go. It takes a bit more concentration than using sand paper or a sanding screen, but let me tell you; the limited dust production is worth is weight in gold. Especially if your project has both "done" and "almost done" sitting next to each other.

The down side is I didn't get the bonus biscuit of the check mark.I didn't do the priming. I needed a roller and a tray liner and I just didn't have it in me to trottle down and get one. Tomorrow it is. Perhaps tomorrow evening we can knock that and the last bit of bathroom caulking off the list in one shot...perhaps.

hung drywall

Ladies and gentlemen the final piece of m*%#@ f%#$% C%$@##!*" drywall has been hung. You saw the pixilated vision that was the ENTIRE weekend.

The electrical, the doorbell, the over head light, matching the soffit framing, installing the new door frame; again, futzing, futzing, futzing... hour after hour.

But at last! it is ALL behind us. Michael, being forced to take some banked-up days before they expire at the end of the year, fit the final pieces today.

Ring out a cheer: the most odious task has left the building!

the end of the beginning

stairway to heaven

Did I mention we were going to put in a moon roof? Really? Oh...

Well, how about this? Did I ever mention we were going to have one these?

admission 2

excellent point about the unseen cost of cheap labor, ms. peasy. everything has a price, even the things we don't pay for. no idea why our sheetrock guy came so cheap, and other than quality, don't know else wasn't getting paid for. can't remember if we mentioned that he called us once to thank us for the referrals and good references (we took calls from at least two people asking our opinion of him -- had all good things to say about him, and don't be afraid to tell him the jobs not yet done), then offered us a job for free. what? we didn't have any work for him at the time, but it still makes me wonder if we didn't dodge a bullet.

there's another anything you pay for: a sense of well-being as you let uncounted strangers in and out of your home for unsupervised hours. how much does trust cost? can it be bought? is it like paying for quality? we assume the more expensive product, whether person, place or thing, is better. this guy costs so little there must be something wrong. somehow damaged. perhaps he's desperate. reformed ex-con? recovered addict?   bad businessman?

what are we charging ourselves by not investing in each other?

admission

of guilt, not entry: we skimped on the walls. out of sight, out of mind, i suppose. so focused on the future appearance that we didn't really consider what we weren't paying for. attention to detail for one thing, the labor that goes into crafting a smooth finish.

or the personal investment in a job well-done? how much longer would we have taken doing it ourselves? how much more willing would i have been to smooth all those walls myself? was ready never to work joint compound again before i was done with third coat in kitchen.

almost makes me yearn for days of primer white. lighter colors seem to hide many of the imperfections. i think that's why we're now so struck by the rough finish wherever we painted richer colors. places on 2nd floor almost look unsanded, whereas few spots catch my eye on 3rd floor. could be the eggshell finish too. i've heard flat paint is much more forgiving in that respect, though no mercy at all when touched.

but if it weren't for the blips i'd probably be harping on the humps and bumps wherever old meets new. or the challenging, irregular angles. if not this, that. pick your layer. soon enough the paint will be a little scuffed, a little scraped, and i'll be dissappointed in that too. or am i standing on my head? in a year or so when the fresh paint's faded how much more mellowed and integrated will i see these walls? how much will be walls and how much me?

in search of the sweet spot where job's done right, neither obsessive nor ignored. ticket, please.

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 20: being a good host

My teenage niece Sophie came to visit today with one of her friends from Florida. They will be here until Sunday. I don't expect to make a lot of progress on the house while they're here. Trying to be the good host and show them around NYC a bit. Saturday is the mermaid parade at Coney Island and that has them pretty excited.

Today while they were napping I cut and installed a few pieces of corner bead. It's about that time again-- drywall compound is not that many days away. I have most all of the paint for the house ready to go. It will be probably next Wednesday before I'll be ready to roll (literally), but I can't wait to spread around a little color. I've got so used to primer white it's hard to imagine it any other way.

The other thing I did was spray a bit more of the canned foam about. I've really tried to stay away from finding out whatever reason it is that I shouldn't be using the stuff. I works wonders. You can cut and shape it with an exacto knife and finish over it. I know it's a cheat, but when making the "modern" lines come together it can work wonders. Shhhhhhhhhhh....

The only other thing going on right now is, now that we have the dryer fixed, the washer is on the blink.The water pump that empties appears to be busted. It never empties before the spin cycle, truly annoying. As usual I did my best blink evaluation of local appliance repair vendors. I got " a guy" coming tomorrow. Let's hope that the washer fares a bit better than the former dryer.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year. For me, of course, that means a haircut-- for you, get outside, get a little pagan and enjoy the late evening light.