2007 Wrap Up - Money Talk

There's one more day left in 2007 and I thought it would be a good time to give an update on the financial state since this renovation is about doing things on a tight budget (of course, tight budget doesn't mean you should sacrifice quality, and I'm definitely not going to).

So, the grand total spent on home renovation supplies, labor and services for 2007 is.....

$6,186.15

Ok, you're probably thinking that's a lot, considering I've only been at this really for 6 months. Factor this into consideration:

Electrical Labor - $5,016.67 (81% of total!!)
Removal of Kitchen Wall Debris & Moldings - $300 (4.8% of total)

This goes to show what happens when you hire a contractor to do the work in NYC. You get ripped off!!! To top it off, recall that I bought the recessed light fixtures myself and got the dimmers for free. Imagine the mark-up on those if I bought them from the contractor!

With 2007 almost behind me, I expect 2008 to be even more expensive. The earliest expenses will include architectural plans, building permits, trim replication and drywall. Yet, I still think it will be well worth it and money can be spent wisely.

Two Layer Tile Cake...Yum Yum!

It's Christmas Day and my Dad is visiting. I think he's the one person who's more enthused about this renovation then me and the likely reason for this is that he's not living in it. He shows up, tears apart stuff with me, and then leaves. Good plan. I look forward to the day my friends start doing this and I can show up with a crowbar, safety glasses, a six pack of beer and some Led Zeppelin to pump while we tear down a wall. Then I leave with a full belly of pizza. Good plan.

The itch got to me today, and I couldn't wait any longer to not do any work before I get these building permits. Since all my renovation work has been approved, re-tiling should be fine to start, especially since this doesn't require board approval. Remember, I've got a two layer tile cake.

We decided to quietly go-ahead and take an hour to rip up the old tile. Here's Dad hard at work on that checkerboard pattern.



The final result is the old tile is exposed. After a bit of Comet and elbow grease, it looks like...well, not new, but lts say "charming, 1923 style."

Busted - Part 5 - Details Complicate Things

Obstacles to overcome in obtaining building permits:
1) Workers Compensation Insurance
2) Contractor's License
3) Co-op insurance/owning shares in a corporation

These are the three things I need to figure out in order to get building permits. The Workers compensation is actually no big deal. I just need to get a form filled out and notarized and fax it into the Manhattan NY Workers' Compensation office. I should be getting that back in 5 days.

As for the contractor's license, I need to prove I'm doing the renovations to my own home to the Department of Buildings. This would be fine and dandy, except that technically I don't own a home. I own shares in a corporation, which are assigned to my apartment. Not one single expediter I've talked to so far knows how to deal with this either. I need to figure this out in order to get work permits.

The final piece of the puzzle is the insurance requirements my co-op has for contractors, which is a minimum of $2 million personal liability. This sounds like a lot, but it's easy for me to get $1 million with my home owners policy. Going to $2 million is a bit tricky, so I've requested that the Board of Directors accepts $1 million in this case as it seems fairly special. They approved all my renovations this week, given that I get the permits and have the proper insurance coverage.

All in all, I think I may be the first person in the building who has properly gone through this mess. It's clear that the Board and managing agent have little idea how to handle it. I hope we can all learn from this and make it easier for residents to do their own renovations in the future.

Busted - Part 4 - Expediters are robbers

Would you pay someone around $2000 to fill out some simple paperwork, stand in line, and get a few permits for you? If so, you believe in expediters. This concept/profession seems like a joke to me, similar to the state mandated law in NJ that you can't pump your own gas, only an attendant can.

Sure, I bet these guys know the building code in and out and have a good time bull crapping with their buddies they see everyday they go down to the Department of Buildings. I'm sure they do the job efficiently and timely. I'm sure they deserve $2000 for some work they do, but there's no way I'm going to pay that if I can avoid it.

I've started to gather the paperwork I need to fill out but it looks as if there may be a few complications. I will definitely need to hire an architect to stamp/draw the plans up. No biggie, as this shouldn't cost more then a couple hundred dollars.

I figure a day or two of my time off work will be well worth the $2000k I'll save as my piggy bank isn't endless.

Time to get back to the research.

Busted - Part 3

So it's been a few weeks and I've been travelling and too busy to actually do anything in the apartment....well, I couldn't if I wanted to, so no big deal.

The building's engineer has come to inspect the wall. The most annoying part was that it took him 10 seconds to say it wasn't a load bearing wall. Thanks for the known info.

To top it off though, he decided to also put in his report that my electrical work needed to be filed for as well. Isn't my managing agent supposed to be dotting the i's and crossing the t's on this? Especially after all the paperwork I had to give him for the electrical work. Grrrrrrr...

Now I need to get building permits for the wall, which I can feel in my bones that it's going to be nothing but a big pain in the butt and cost me more money. As well, I need to get board approval for all the other work I want to do, which is extensive and I hope that they don't freak out.

More in the near future.

Busted - Part 2

So the managing agent has finally contacted me as a result of the wall and ordered me to stop all work. This has me 1) freaked out a bit, as the co-op could kick me out if they wanted to, 2) ticked me off as all work I was planning to do with my Dad cannot be done and 3) delayed the whole project!

They have decided to send out an engineer to look at the wall, mainly to verify it's not a load bearing partition. A load of bah humbug really since I feel they don't trust my engineer and they are just looking to make money off of me.

In the meantime, I'm going to head off to Green Depot in Brooklyn to buy some denim insulation. It's a pretty cool product because it's natural, eco-friendly and is easy to handle. No glass fibers or masks need to be worn, so it's worth the little premium compared to fiberglass insulation to me. Plus I'm sure it will add value to the home and help keep my apartment cool in the summer and more moderate in the winter. I hope I can fit a few packs in the back of a Subaru!

The great shuffle

After a weekend of shuffling all of my belongings from one room to another (with the help of the lovely Rachel of course), the electrical work has commenced again. The bedroom and bedroom closet now has recessed lighting. All the dimmer switches have been installed too, making mood lighting much easier then I ever imagined :) I've held off on buying the reflectors for the recessed lights as I want to wait until all the plaster removal is done. So, I'm ready to tear through some walls in the foyer and closets when my Dad comes out for Thanksgiving.

Light in a dark place

The electrical work has commenced and it's look fabulous. The main feature being added in is recessed lighting and the elusive outlet in the bathroom. Here's a few pictures of this week's progress in the Kitchen & Living Room.




In my usual fashion, I waited until the last minute to put the lighting design down on paper. I mis-measured my living room and the advice I received from Chris Rush, a lighting designer at Arup, didn't exactly fall into place with the incorrect dimensions. Yet, it all worked out when I realized my mistake.

From what I've learned in the past, you always need to leave clear concise directions, measurements, and drawings when you're doing construction. I'm glad the drawings worked out after having finished them at 2 AM.

Busted

Today I was busted by the super of my building. I had this one coming to me, but thought I could defy the laws of grumpy/overprotective new yorkers. Wrong!

I knew I wasn't supposed to knock down the wall without board permission. I also knew I wasn't supposed to do construction on the weekends. It turns out that a lot of dust fell into the steam pipe collar in my kitchen. When the heat kicked on recently, the expansion and contraction of the pipe resulted in dust falling into my neighbor's kitchen. I politely dealt with him about this and offered to seal it for him. I thought this was a normal occurrence in every NYC apartment, so I didn't think much of it.

Apparently, it kept falling for 1 week while I was gone at Greenbuild (kind of ironic how I'm at a conference about building for the future as my old building is falling apart in a sense). My neighbor continuously phoned the managing agent who then told the super to check out my apartment today, the day the electrical work started.

I assured the super that it was fine and that my structural engineer had looked at it, assuring me it wasn't a load bearing wall. He freaked out, telling me the ceiling would fall down on me. It's funny how much these guys don't know and they take care of your building!

Anyways, no consequences yet, but I plan on hearing soon about it.

Debris Removal Hurts...My Wallet!

I had to get rid of all the wall debris today in order for the electrician to have the proper room to work in. The city has been letting me down with the pickup and resulting in nothing but angry phone calls from my super. I decided to pursue removal by paying someone to get it done.

One company came in this morning and wanted $475 to take away all the plaster and wood. I told them to take a hike. After a few searches on Craigslist and phone calls, I found a guy who would take a cargo van full of debris for $300 if I brought it to the curb. I instantly jumped at this option as there was no cheaper way (van rental + gas + finding the dump + paying the dump + my time > $300). This also gave me the opportunity to get rid of all the trim that's been lying around forever.

After an hour of hauling bags down in laundry carts (shhhh!!! don't tell my neighbors!!) with the help of Rachel and Chris, we got everything to the curb. The money exchanged hands and all was done. The best part was that the contractor offered to bring a garbage truck next time if I had more debris! Cool! He can only bring the truck at night though....sound illegal???

Can you taste it?

Dust, dust and more dust. This is what you get for knocking down an old dry plaster wall. Blah!

My floors have a nice coating on them, no matter how much I mop. It's getting better though as I keep cleaning. I think I just need to buy a new mop!

The electrical starts next week and I went to buy supplies the other night. 18 recessed cans at home depot worked out to $275. Not too bad. I got free dimmers from Matt Franks at work, 6 of them which retail @ $50 a piece. Again, connections are great!

I'm looking forward to the lighting being installed, although it will be a bit of musical chairs as I have to clear out the kitchen and living room, and then flip it over the weekend so that the bedroom is clear. I think it will work out in the end.

The Berlin Wall

Today Brian and I took down the wall. Two other friends crapped out on me, but I was asking a lot for people to come over on a Sunday afternoon after all the Halloween parties that were happening on Sunday night.

We had fun knocking it down and it only took us 4.5 hours, start to finish with some relief help from Rachel. The amount of material used in plaster/lath construction is amazing! To top it off, it's really freaking heavy! I hope I can slowly dispose of this using city garbage services, but I already had a problem with the paint peeling process in this area and that was about 1/20th of the amount of waste.

Like the pizza and beer, Brian was fully paid with a diner meal and chocolate milkshake. Savings = $2500 by my best guess. I have a feeling this is going to come back to haunt me someday....

All it takes is Pizza & Beer

My colleague/friend Brian Markham, a structural engineer, came over this evening to assess the feasibility of removing the wall between my kitchen and living room. We had a look at a hole a I poked in the ceiling of the foyer to assess the beam spacing. Looks like it is not a load bearing partition, so I should be able to knock it down without a problem.

It's good to have contacts that know something about structures. I fed Brian pizza and beer, which probably saved me $475 or so to have an engineer come out to look at the wall. Thanks Brian!

The goal is to knock out the wall before the electrical work gets done so that the switches and outlets can easily be re-routed to the adjacent walls. I'm aiming to take the wall out and have the electrical work done before Thanksgiving so that my Dad and I can start removing the plaster and lath in the foyer and closets with all the electrical work done.

Order of Operations

So I've had an order of operations for the project in my head for a while, but I'm fairly confident that I've firmed it up now and wanted to share it with you.

1. Strip doors and door frames - Done!
2. Start to get moldings replicated - In progress
3. Remove wall between living room and kitchen - by Nov. 2007
4. Install new outlets in bathroom & kitchen and add recessed lighting to most rooms - Nov. 2007
5. Remove plaster in lath in closets and foyer, replace with drywall - Dec. 2007
6. Refinish closet floors and add custom closets - Jan 2008
7. Remove all bedroom plaster and lath, replace with drywall - March 2008
8. Sand doors and repaint - March 2008
9. Remove all plaster and lath in living room and kitchen, replace with drywall - August 2008
10. Redo Kitchen - Start August 2008, complete Feb. 2009
11. Redo Bathroom - April 2009.

Now that I've looked at the list, it's a big project, but it should be well worth it. Thoughts? Send them my way.

Doors are done, door frames are almost there

Finally, after months, I've finished the doors (yes, two times to strip on each door face!) and a majority of the door frames are finished. Some more work needs to be done on the transom window and front closet, but I think I need a break from that.

My Dad came a few months back and took away the cold storage and dumbwaiter doors with him. He finished up the fine stripping and brought them back primed. They look great and I look forward to getting to that area of the project, although it's probably 2nd to last on the list.

Now, I need to strip the hardware...

Moldings 101

The moldings have soooooo much paint on them, it's not even funny as I previously mentioned. Take a look at the picture and I think you'll get the idea.

And this one isn't even the worst of the bunch.

So, I've ripped out a lot of the molding in my phase 1 area - the foyer, front closet, and bedroom closet. I've also attacked the door casings so I can effectively strip the door frames.

I'd like to keep the charm and the grand scale of the moldings, so having them replicated is important to me. Yet, this is proving to be more of a task then I thought. I took a train ride out to Queens the other morning to a lumber place that does custom moldings, only to have them tell me my order was too small. So much for an hour each way on the 7 train!

Then, a contractor put me in touch with Dyke's lumber, who has a massive catalog of stock moldings...but none of them matched mine. I dropped off my measurements and samples for a custom order quote. If I won the lotto, I'd consider paying them $6,057 for 800' of molding, but that's just way out of my budget.

I've shipped some samples off to my Dad in Michigan to get a few quotes there. I don't need all the molding at once, so if can get it for $2-3k less and then just bring out a few pieces each time he comes, that would be great. As well, I could resell the blades to another owner in the building and make some of the money back....which will just go toward the renovation, but it makes me feel better.

We'll see what the Wolverines say....

Archaeological Digs....in my apartment

So after a long evening of stripper application, I began peeling late this afternoon to find a surprise. There's a transom window above my bedroom door!

Before peeling:


After peeling:


Yup, didn't have a clue it was painted over! So, then I got a bit curious and decided to figure out why my bathroom tiles were slightly raised over the threshold. Sure enough, they tiled over the old original floor tiles.


Then I ripped out the bathroom door casings to find more old tiles behind the wall tiles.


I doubt that I'll save the bathroom tiles, but the transom window will be a cool original feature to keep around.

Too much surface area!

So these doors are really taking a while! One for the front closet, bedroom closet, bedroom and bathroom! It wouldn't be so bad if each door wasn't over 8' tall. I haven't even thought about the door frames yet!

Breaking on Through To The Other Side

Paint stripping of "The Doors" has commenced. My bathroom is now a work site with remnants of dried Peel Away and paint.

The stripping is literally breaking through layers of paint and revealing detail on the doors that I never thought was there. It's cool to see almost instant gratification when the paint comes off.

Taking the paint off is probably the best part of the whole process. You really don't have to work too hard at it, it just peels away (hmmm...sounds like they thought about the product name). What I didn't expect is the amount of water clean up that is needed. I think I have a bit of a special case with various types of paints all mixed together and a thick layer I'm trying to remove all at once. In any case, the tub is working out well for this process and I'm learning how to apply the paste in a more effective manner that removes more paint the first time...yes, I said first time. It looks like I'll need to do a few areas twice to get all the paint off!

So, this is going to take a bit longer then expected. Hopefully I can live with a dirty bathroom for a while.

Have you ever had too much paint?

Not long before I bought this apartment, the unit was a rental unit controlled by the sponsor. As you can imagine, people painted it to their liking again, and again, and again.... The previous owner even spruced it up herself.

When I decided to crack open the old cold storage box and the dumbwaiter, I quickly realized how much paint there really was in this place. I probably chipped off about 1/8" of paint on some surfaces. The moldings were just as bad and really don't have any chance of being rescued.

So, I began to think about how I'm going to get rid of all this paint, especially off the doors and door frames. The walls have no easy solution. The plaster is old, dry and cracking and really should just be taken out since there's no insulation. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Yet, the doors and door frames have character. I want to keep these details.


After some searching, I found the perfect product for the job. It's called Peel Away 1. Think of it as cake frosting with some kick ass chemicals (wear gloves, long sleeve clothing, and eye protection!). As an added bonus, it encapsulates lead so you can dispose of the waste as you would standard waste.
After lugging home a 5 gallon bucket on the subway (this stuff is heavy!), I started my way into the mix with a test patch in the bathroom. You put on the paste, put some paper over it that comes with the product, wait 24 hours, and like magic the paint comes off!


Now, it's time for the doors...

Adventures in Renovation

New York City is one of those cities where construction is always happening. Being one of the financial capitals of the world, you can't even imagine how much money is changing hands and being pumped into the construction industry.

As an everyday consulting engineer, I'm not that guy in finance who got a $300,000 bonus last year. Mine wasn't even 1/100th of that. I was able to scrape together enough money to buy an apartment with the help of my father in Northern Manhattan.

Being somewhat of a perfectionist and always having a vision, I've decided to set out to renovate the apartment on my own, with some assistance of course from close friends and family. I moved into this place February, 2007 and sat idle for a few months, but couldn't take it anymore. It's finally my own home and I can do what I want.....well, as long as I don't break any co-operative rules....to an extent.

So this is the story of my renovation and how I can achieve a vision of a luxury apartment on the budget of an engineer. There's no definite timeline for the project and no plans are set in stone, so it should be quite the ride. I hope you enjoy following my adventure.