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.

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!

Softball or Drywall? Pick your evil

With the cancellation of Saturday's softball game, I took advantage of getting a few friends together to start drywalling the bedroom. With the sheets hauled up and the insulation in most of the walls, we started in.

Of the four of us, only 2 had real construction experience, but helpful hands are always willing to learn.After a delayed start we tackled those evil 24 sheets that made us sweat. Since our experience was different, it took some time for everyone to figure out who has what skills, we got things underway.

As well, I didn't have all the furring strips put on the studs which slowed things down a bit. We soon got in to the groove and Anu and I formed team A while Jen and Brian formed team B. Here's team A hard at work.

After about 5 hours of hard work, we called it a day and had a few beers. Anu is now a drywall measuring/cutting expert, Jen can handle a screw gun without breaking a nail, Brian likes drywall glue and I have a bedroom with walls...well, 2-2/3 out of 4 at least.

Up the stairs....

I'm not sure what happened when I moved to New York City, but somehow I've found an amazing and crazy group of friends who have agreed to help me in just about any situation.

Tonight I was able to band together 7 able volunteers to help me haul up 24 sheets of 1/2" drywall 5 flights of stairs to my apartment. Can you believe it?! All I had to get them was beer and pizza. Wow!

There's not much else to say except thanks for sacrificing a good chunk of your night and sweating your butts off in the humid summer heat. Roy, Maite, Rachel, Rich, Dave, Anu, Brian and the trusty driver Jim are great.

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.

4 is the Magic Number...sorry 3

Tonight I went and picked up the ceiling drywall I'll need for this weekend's activities. Rachel and Jim were able to sacrifice some of their evening and Jim's truck was invaluable as we easily laid in 10 sheets of 5/8" fire rated drywall. I had heard rumors that this stuff was heavy and the rumors quickly became the truth.

Getting up to Home Depot in Yonkers and back was no big deal. It soon became apparent that unloading this stuff was not going to be easy. While Jim watched the truck, we attempted to put a piece in the elevator. No luck. We backed out and went to plan B - through the courtyard and up the stairs. To let Jim go, we unloaded the 10 sheets and set them down in the courtyard. My neighbors, Maite and Brian, we're kind enough to agree to help me unload. Poor suckers.

The first sheet was a bit difficult. We could easily take it up the stairs and partially into the hallway, but then getting it around the next corner/over the railing was a bit difficult. By the third sheet, we had a system down. One person on the door, 3 people on the sheet going up the first set of stairs. The middle man scurried ahead and became the receiver as we flipped it over the railing. The then empty handed opened the door and became the new center person.

By the time we had this figured out, it was about 6 minutes per sheet. 4 was the magic number for the job. It took us a while to get it going smoothly though and we all needed a few drink breaks. In about an hour and 10 minutes, it was all done.

I can't thank my friends enough for all their help. This really saved me an invaluable amount of time this weekend when the labor and expertise will be here.

Sorry, on picks for this one...maybe next time as I'll have to do it again soon.