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.