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...