No show

There haven't been many disappointments in this project so far and the ones that have jumped up have been very minor.

This past week/weekend I had my first major disappointment - the floor contractor no showed and didn't return my messages.

Now many of you might be saying "typical contractor" right about now, and I agree to an extent. It just seems super odd that someone with great references, who called me back promptly and gave a decent estimate would do such a thing. I can only believe that something catastrophic happened since his wife runs the business with him and she didn't call back either.

After 5 days of phone calls and waiting I've given up. It was somewhat of a toss up to do the floors now anyhow, the real advantage being that I would get the closets back. Yet, I would be stretching money a bit right now and I'm still moving stuff back and forth between rooms. Maybe it was for the best.

To keep things moving forward I began the task of clearing out the living room and moving everything back into the bedroom last night. I hope to start demolition this weekend and get the walls and some of the kitchen cabinets done, leaving the ceiling and the rest of the kitchen for next weekend.

Why worry about wood?

I never really lived anywhere with hardwood floors until I moved to NYC. At first it seemed like a luxury since each apartment ad would point out "HARDWOOD FLOORS!"

I quickly learned that almost every apartment has them, varying greatly in their quality.

I wouldn't say my floors are anything to oooooh and ahhhhh about, but they have the potential to be nice with a bit of care, which I haven't been giving to them by knocking down plaster and dragging tools across them. The closet floors were painted over at one point and then had linoleum laid on top. Although they all are a bit wavy, it will be nice to restore what I belive is likely some of the original character to the apartment.

After a bit of thought, I've determined it is not worth my time to learn how to sand, repair and refinish these floors. This is common work in NYC and it doesn't take much time or money.

So after 3 estimates I've picked Brian Huch of Groundforce Restoration to re-finish the floors. I know a good contractor when I see one and Brian met all of my criteria. He showed up on time, was well dressed, had formal proposal sheets, wanted 10% down and offered references and his insurance for the co-op managing agent in our first meeting. Best part was that his price was competitive against the other two bids.

To my surprise, the floors are a red oak (who would have thought?). They should lighten up a bit when they have been sanded, which I think will be great.

The door thresholds won't be replaced. I'm trying to go for a continuous look to the floor. If I don't like it, I can always buy new thresholds.

While I'm out of town on Thursday thru Sunday he'll begin repairing the thresholds, various spots where the trim was cut into the flooring and the water damage from the radiator in the bedroom, front closet, bedroom closet and foyer.



With the room cleared, my living quarters are stuffed.


Careful in the bathroom as we don't want anyone to get a sliver when you use the toilet.

Primed in 26 hours

It's been an extremely tough week at work. I've been getting home after 8 PM typically and jumped right into mudding so that all would be ready to go for the weekend.

Luckily Friday was a easy day. I woke early and rushed down to Sherwin Williams on 46th St to get supplies. Somehow I managed to connect with a friend who we hunt with to set me up with a contractor discount there although it still bit $79 out of my wallet!

Dad flew in early to tackle sanding when we could be legit about making noise. Unfortunately a dual failure of the alternators on the plane kept him in NJ much longer then expected so I started in without him around 5:15 PM.

After he arrived with Kathryn at 6 PM and I spent 35 minutes to find a parking spot we dove into the sanding. I set 10 PM as the cut off time for using power tools and shop vacs, completely ignoring co-op rules but with the knowledge from my neighbor Brian that it only sounded like I was vacuuming.

You may recall my description of mudding and how much "fun" it is. The fun of mud has now been surpassed by sanding seams. I literally thought I was on a TV set where it was warm but snowing. Our eyes burned multiple times from dust flying into them and choking/sneezing seemed like a normal epidemic. I thought about taking a picture of this, but feared I would damage the camera with all the dust.

By 11 PM, we had finished 90% of the bedroom and bedroom closet seams. Dad and Kathryn went to bed while I touched up some spots with mud and finished seams I hadn't gotten to in the closets til 1 AM.

Saturday morning's 8 AM trip to home depot sucked my wallet dry a bit more, but we also discovered Stew Leonards which was a grocery shopping experience similar to the Disney World ride It's A Small World.

With a ladder and food stuffed in the trunk we unloaded and finished up sanding by 1 PM. Jen joined us for some painting and by 3 PM the first coat of primer had been applied. With a quick hour topcoat time, another coat was applied within 40 minutes. This work goes real fast when you have 4 able hands to help.














Jen split at 5 and Dad started prepping dinner while Kathryn and I finished sanding the front closet, cleaning, etc.

By 8 PM, everything was done and we were all proud of what we had accomplished in just 26 hours and I went out to wash down the dust with a few beers.

It was nice to make progress again this weekend and its funny how paint on the walls makes all the difference, even if it is just primer.

I have to admit that I was getting discouraged this week, questioning why I was even doing this. I thought about the support from my close friends who have also spent many hours here with me as well as my crazy family who brings me tools and labor all the way from Michigan.

Maybe one of the best parts about the weekend was when David Cunningham stopped by. He's the architect who I paid to make my DOB drawings and stamp them. It was great how excited he was to see the progress and seemed happy at the attention I'm giving to the details such as the trim.

David also asked me if I had any regrets of doing it on my own. I paused for a second and then told him no. I've learned so much about construction as well as how much related services and materials cost. He made a good point saying that it makes you think a lot about when you design something and how sensitive a client may be to the cost associated with it.

But enough of the deep thoughts. It's been a few long and laborious weeks and weekends so I'm off to bed. Floor sanding takes place this week, but more on that later. Here's a parting shot of the near finished product.

Transporting Mud

Making the big push this week before this weekend's priming, I ran out of mud last night. Last time I carried it from Home Depot on 23rd street in plastic bags. Carrying a floppy 25 lbs bag of mud mix that far is never fun.

This time I was prepared and brought my hiking backpack to stick it all into. Although 50 lbs of mud on your back plus the pack weight isn't easy, it was certainly a lot better to transport this time.

I've got less then 24 hours so on with the work.

Mud mud mud mud mud....

Progress is slow and the mud keeps flowing. Yet, this week is the final push before the "big sand" on Friday and the "posh paint" on Saturday and Sunday.

That's right, Dad is coming into town again and he's bringing the drywall primer. Yet, I still have a bit of work to do. I made a good push this week and weekend again, getting mud on almost every last bit, minus a few closet corners. All the closet drywall is glued up, after a tight ride in the Honda Element from Home Depot to get some more drywall. The Peel Away was brought back from the dead to finish off the front closet door frame. Exciting!

Unfortunately, my absent mind won again and I forgot to buy more mud so now it will be a chore to carry it from Home Depot on 23rd St. which is never fun. Luckily, I'll only need to get 2 more bags to finish the job.

Look for a big progress post after next weekend...

Mudding Still....

It's been a while since I've posted a proper blog entry, but unfortunately there isn't too much to write about. I made a push a few weekends ago to get this mudding done and was quite successful at getting the two base coats on almost everything. Yet, summer has been calling still and my August and early September have been filled with long weekends away sailing, the New Jersey shore and Michigan. Top that off with a large explosion of business at the office and I've been screwed out of doing much work at home rolling in around 9 PM. Remember, each batch of this mud takes 1 hour or apply!

Yet, there have been many accomplishments. All the plaster is off of the brick around the door and has been scrubbed free of dusty plaster. The drywall in the foyer in the few spots it was missing is up. Lots of documentation, such as stud locations, has occured as well as a rigorous pricing exercise for the kitchen (still going though). Again, thanks to the friends who helped with these little tasks. You know who you are.

With that said, I made another small push again this weekend and will do so again in 2 weekends to finish up mudding. Switching over to the lightweight mud wich is meant for sanding, I had to slightly re-learn my technique. The goal with this coat is to feather out the edge so it appears smooth and there aren't any mud 'bumps' visible on the walls. I think I'm doing OK, but the true test will be when the paint goes on.

The adventure of the weekend was putting the drywall onto the plaster in the closets. Rather then chip all of this off the brick wall (adjoining with the hallway) or skim coat over it, the executive decision was made to mount the drywall on top of the plaster on brick. Although I lose 1/2" by doing this it will make the wall texture consistent...and it saves me the time of learning how to skim coat, etc. Using trusty PL200 construction glue and a makeshift mounting system the drywall went up and is staying in place and should be stuck there tomorrow.

Mudding

With all of the drywall up on the wooden framing and the ceiling in place, it's been a big focus on the little things and mudding.

Now I know what you're thinking, mud sounds like a lot of fun. Somewhat wet, somewhat dense, cold and mushy. It even is great for the skin (facials anyone?).

Unfortunately, drywall mud is just about the exact opposite. The good stuff, known as "hot mud", requires mixing instead of just scooping it out of a bucket and slapping it on the wall. In addition to that, it has a setting time which exponentially decreases with each degree of temperature increase. Last but not least, there's a technique to all of this (especially the corners) which I'm trying to learn fast. All in all, this part is a bit more difficult and much more time consuming then I thought originally. The mud sets quicker due to the summer heat, the corners are difficult (I don't want to even talk about the first one), each batch of mud takes me an hour to apply and it's really a one man job since I only have one set of tools and space to work, mixing mud, etc. is so time consuming.

But there is a point to the mud - it hides the screws and seams making a smooth surface. There's an art to it though as you need to build up the layers so that the eye is deceived when everything is painted.

So far, I've spent a lot of solo hours moving forward with the mud and assigning little tasks to people who want to help. Each seam requires 2 coats of a denser mud then 1 coat of a lightweight mud. When that's done, everything needs to be sanded and then primed with paint.

Although the progress pics aren't anything to write home about, here's one of the bedroom. Note, the floors are clean and clear...but that's just a temporary point of beauty so enjoy it.