Teeny Tiny Tiles

The week and weekend has flown by and a lot has been accomplished. The bad news is that the bedroom didn't get painted as fast as I had hoped. There were a lot of areas to patch up and cracks along one of the upper corner seams. EZ Patch saved the day and it all look really good.

My gamble with the red accent wall was well worth it too...although it took a worrisome 4 coats and an additional trip to Sherwin Williams. So, everyone ended up crashing at Jens. Here's a few pics of the 'blood' being applied.



Teeny tiny tiles were the good news theme this weekend...and it's great they come on 1 ft x 2 ft sheets. Dad and I learned a few things about tiling from Uncle Steve and the bathroom made a lot of progress. It's exactly what I thought it would turn out to be...awesome! Here's a shot of Dad in action.


One of the humorous moments of the project this weekend was Dad hauling out a toilet for me from Michigan until I decide what I want to get. Just imagine the look on people walking by when we hauled a toilet out of the car and Uncle Steve was sitting on the throne, guarding all our stuff as the rest of us hauled it up to the apartment.

Humor aside, it was good that he brought it out as I found out it just fits with the tank touching the wall.

It's nice to have a toilet again though instead of running to the neighbors, down the street to Jen's or...well, you know...

*ZAP!*

After the dumpster day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to electrical work. Dad flew in with Uncle Steve and a with a surprise guest, Dr. Bob Armstrong who also had electrical knowledge. I attempted to clean what I hadn't the night before and get things ready to go. I jetted out in a Zip Car at 11:30 to pick up the gang...and yes, the dumpster was already gone.

After doing some damage @ Home Depot we grabbed some food and dug in. We re-wired a lot of old stuff and decided to make another Home Depot trip to get lumber, a new fuse box and other small supplies. The night dragged on and before long it was 12:30 AM and we were in bed.

Sunday we tackled more of the same. I got Zapped by the new fuse box and hit my lip with the leatherman that flew out of my hand. Luckily that was the only stupid move of the weekend. The best part is that the doorbell works for the first time ever!

Dad and I felt a bit lost with all the electrical, but we got some other things accomplished, particularly framing for the kitchen wall cut to size and the old sink back up and connected.


I'm off to Miami on Wednesday but should be able to get the cable TV and loudspeaker wire run this week so I can think about insulation and drywall the week after.

Finishing the Drywall

With a lot of progress made last weekend, my Dad got the itch and headed out from Michigan again to finish up the drywalling process and hopefully to begin putting mud on the walls. Somehow, he not only convinced my Uncle to come again but also my aunt. Turns out she's never flown before and never been to NYC as well, but she's braving it out to help my get this apartment done.

I grabbed the ZipCar Friday night and headed out to Caldwell County Airport (in NJ). I've got the pickup down to a science in a one hour time frame. We dug into the drywall Friday night and put up a fair amount that was remaining in the bedroom.

Saturday morning was more of the same, but I had to zip off to Brooklyn for a softball game, which I felt fairly guilty about. In the meantime, the rest of the gang made a trip to Home Depot on 23rd St. I can only imagine the look on my Uncle's and Aunt's face when they were walking into a Home Depot in the middle of NYC. After my 5 hours of absence, I returned to find most of the drywalling done and a fairly tired crew. I re-energized spirits a bit and then we went to grab dinner.

Sunday morning we focused on finishing the foyer ceiling which was more difficult then we all expected, but furring strips came to the rescue. I got a quick mudding and taping lesson from Uncle Steve and Aunt Sandy and will be doing the rest on my own (yikes!).

After dropping them back at the airport, I finished up drywalling the front closet.

So, a fairly productive weekend and a room and closets with walls again. Yeah!

ZipCar to the Rescue!

Last night I realized, yet again, that I wasn't going to have enough supplies and that I'm not ready for my Dad's arrival tomorrow evening. I ran out of furring strips the night before and not all of the insulation is in the walls.

ZipCar to the rescue! I hopped into a Tacoma pickup truck and made my way to Yonkers. After buying 4 bundles of furring strips, a bag of durabond, 5 boxes of 32 gallon contractor bags (you have no idea how hard these are to find) and one 12 pack of Coke (yeah, fuel for the weekend) I made my way back to Manhattan.

By 10 PM I was unloaded and had brought everything up to the apartment. I started into putting the furring strips up by 10:30 PM and had to saw a bit. Given the crap I've gone through with the co-op and the storage installation lately, a bit of noise at this hour should be tolerated by my neighbors.

By 1 AM, I was done. All the insulation is out of the bags and I have room to work again. Yeah!

2 Milestones in 2 Days

With such a big project on my hands, it's hard to see the little changes and bits of work completed as progress. There have been many of those throughout the project thus far, but as of today there are two big milestones that are complete.

1) The bedroom and closet ceilings are drywalled!
2) I've taken all the plaster out to the curb! Complete in just over 2 months! Remember?

Can you believe it? I barely can! We worked hard this weekend to get it done though. I was up til 2:30 AM on Friday night getting things ready to go and ensuring that the AC units were in the windows since the weather report called for a hot 95 degree weekend.

At 2 AM I realized that I didn't have enough insulation to get the job done. After 3.5 hours of sleep, I hopped in a Zipcar over to Brooklyn to get more of the recycled denim insulation. It's 3 times the price of regular insulation, but to me it's worth the extra costs since it's a green product and there is no dealing with fibers all over your skin or worry about breathing them. After unloading, returning the car and bringing it up to the apartment, it was time to get my Dad, Kathryn (his lady) and my Uncle Steve from the airport in NJ. They got in just after 9 and we made a 30 minute Home Depot stop for supplies. $147 later and a 30 minute car ride and we were ready to rock.

After assessing the situation and a sandwich, we started in. Kathryn and I busted out the insulation while my Dad and Uncle started hanging drywall. We had too many people as it was, but it was nice to have a bit of a utility role to hand up tools, etc.

I was a bit intimidated by the drywall hanging, but not anymore. With the drywall jack, things were fairly simple. I'm confident I can probably even finish up the foyer on my own (although I won't...but I could if I needed to). First you level/shim, measure and cut the drywall, put it on the jack and test fit, glue, raise and screw. Easy, right? Here's a sequence of a sheet going up.

We worked through til 10:30 PM, finishing the bedroom, insulating everything and wired and partially pulled the remainder of the cable. We called it a night and sat on the roof with a few cold drinks, gazing at the moon and bridge. For the first time in months, there was an actual bed in the bedroom.

Sunday was a bit more of the same, but we were all moving a bit slower and it was harder to work in the tighter spaces of the closet. There was a bit of reinforcing of the framing too as well as some electrical wiring for the j-box in the foyer.

I can't thank my Uncle enough for braving the trip out to NYC. He's not a big city person and I know he stepped outside his comfort zone a bit. I hope it wasn't too bad for him and that maybe next time I can show him a few of the sights of the city.