Just when you think you're past it..

..you get to rip out more plaster.

When my (original) drywall contractor came to give an estimate, he recommended tearing out some of the plaster around the window in the living room. As I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t wild about tearing anything out there because I didn’t want it to mess with the window or the trim work around it.

He explained that he can patch the plaster that’s there…but it was essentially rotten and would flake off in a short time anyway. The best thing for me to do would be to determine what plaster was loose (tap the wall…does it wiggle? Yes. Grab a hammer.) and remove it. Dad/roommate and I tried to be selective at first, but it became pretty apparent that once we started, it was really better to keep going. Hopefully now I won’t have *major* issues with cracking or chipping now.

Ugh..dust. We actually ended up ripping out more than this...just for kicks.

When I say “original” drywall contractor, that’s a little misleading. My original bid was a local guy, has a great reputation for doing great work..$2,700..little expensive. Enter: guy from Des Moines. “Oh, yeah, sure..I can do it for $2,000..and start Friday!” Long story short: too good to be true. He inexplicably called my mom the Monday after he should have been there and indicated that he was “just swamped, and wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Mom’s stock rose in my book that day: she hung up on him.

So, in addition to prepping for finished drywall, we’ve been prepping for finished hardwood! I went to a local home store and rented a walk-behind floor sander. I had heard horror stories about the old belt sander models that you had to run behind to keep from gauging the floor, and even then you’ll probably start a fire. The model I got has three sandpaper discs stuck to the underside of – what looks like – something you might use to buff a gym floor with. And it has a nice little vacuum attached so there isn’t dust billowing out like the old models.

So I rented my machine, bought some sandpaper, put on my glasses and mask and got to work. I found out really quickly that I didn’t need the glasses or mask – there was virtually no dust. I also found out really quickly that I was done sanding. Not in the “I-finished-sanding” way, but in the “this-sandpaper-is-so-full-of-crap-it-can’t-function-anymore” sort of way. So, I peeled the pads off and stuck new ones on. Same story. I’d sand for about two feet with no problem – down to the bare wood! And then, kabluey..no sand for you. We tried a couple different techniques before deciding that, at $3 per disc x 3 discs per 2 square feet of floor, this was going to be the most expensive project ever undertaken by man.

Entry floor in various stages of stainlessness.

We asked my neighbors who had, incidentally, just recently redone their floors. It turns out they ran into the same problem. They suggested cleaning the floors thoroughly with Mineral Spirits before we went any further. And that’s as far as we’ve gotten..Drywall guy – the saint that he is for coming back after I snubbed him for the jack wagon from Des Moines – has first dibs on the space.

In other progress news: the siding is done!*

*for the year.

We actually ran out of siding for the very top part of the back of the garage. Our logic is: it’s covered in Tyvek, it’s not living space, and it will be fine. I don’t consider running 20 pieces short of siding to be such a bad guess. After all, I did the math on a scrap of paper using measurements I was only half sure about (if not making up entirely).

The house itself is completely wrapped in siding, though. Some new, some old, but the rest will come – along with new windows – next year.

Pro.Duc.Tivity.

This weekend was amazing! Not only had Wednesday’s wet snow melted off, but the sun was shining and the temperatures were unseasonably warm…well, at least warm enough to power through some siding, anyway.

We started last weekend and had hung several rows on the back of the garage – a good, straight run to get accustomed to working with the siding. For a couple of amateurs, we didn’t do so bad! As long as you maintain a level line and – in our case – a four inch reveal on each piece of siding, you’re in good shape. A good crisp chalk line comes in really handy on this project.

This was a really exciting corner. Seeing this little bit of siding go up somehow meant the entire house was finished and I could move in immediately. 

A good days progress for three people who have never hung this type of siding before!

Anyway, that was Friday. Saturday was also pretty productive: we laid a lot of groundwork for bigger things to come.

Then came Sunday.

Sunday was the siding day to end all siding days. We kept our collective nose to the grindstone and finished the east side of the house!

Remember, this is how it looked before...

...and AFTER!

Voila!

And dad/roommate and I fixed the booger-y spot in the dining room floor.

Before..

I pried out the worst of the wood floor..

..and replaced it with some of the flooring from a closet. We ended up ripping the "tongue" out of the tongue and groove and just face-nailing the new pieces into place. This isn't how a professional refinisher would do it...but I ain't a professional!

All done! Once the sander has a go at this area, it will take off the random bits of paint and even out the high spots. I honestly don't think you'll be able to tell it's been patched!

And my sister slaved away on the floor pulling up tack strips and staples from the carpet and pad. Hopefully, with that (tedious) job out of the way, we will be in relatively good shape to sand the floors down and get them ready for refinishing!

I’ve also had a nice surprise on the drywall front. My initial contractor had come back at $2,700 to mud, tape, and texture the entire house. Pricey, but not horrible considering the angles, corners, height of the ceilings…and that bit where I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with mud and/or tape. I was set to go when my dad/roommate insisted that I get another bid from a drywall contractor he knows that is supposed to work wonders with sheetrock. He came back with a $2,000 bid and can start Friday! Which is exciting…and sets another new deadline for us: move everything out of the house, and finish tying up the loose ends before drywall man comes to make this shell look like a house again.

Big days like these call for big celebrations! Unfortunately, I was too asleep to celebrate much. Although, margaritas are tentatively on the books for...someday. Feliz Lunes!

Picture Update :)

Dining room, without carpet..but, oddly including a kitchen countertop?

The only bad spot I've found so far. Dining room, right in front of the basement door.

Entry without carpet. The floors were in really great shape here!



Office without carpet.

This is the PVC trim I picked for the exterior of the house. With this and the cement board siding, it should be relatively low maintenance!

Kitchen window and a snazzy new door!

New furnace and electric water heater..

..and air conditioner..

Means no need for a vent pipe! No vent pipe means no chimney!

As you can see, the chimney had issues anyway. I thought about re-pointing it, but it would have been more work, more time, more money..without much benefit. The new HVAC system operates without the need for the vertical ventilation: win-win!

Keep checking back for more – we’re making huge, noticeable progress every day!

Fast times..

What a weekend!

Not only do we have power restored to the house (LIGHTS!!), but we have more or less finished hanging sheetrock throughout the house, have trimmed out the exterior of the new windows, removed the remainder of the west chimney, had a new furnace/AC/water heater installed, restarted soffit work, and laid the groundwork for hanging siding. Oh! I also bought more cement board for the kitchen and laundry areas as well as decided on exterior lights and a bathroom sink and faucet.

As I said, the drywall is hung (with the exception of the living room ceiling), but we’re waiting on the contractor to come mud, tape, and texture. Timeline on that is another 2 - 2.5 weeks, so, in the meantime, we’re working on the outside before the weather turns nasty. On rainy days, we’ll rip up the carpet, sand the hardwood floors, and plop the carpet back down again to protect the floor from drywall splatters and stilts. I can refinish those later..I'm just hoping to get the dusty projects out of the way all once!

Also in the meantime, we can lay the cement board in the kitchen and laundry room – this acts as a sturdy base for the tile. We’ve already done this in the bathroom, but hadn’t done the rest because we weren’t totally sure what the footprint of the rooms would be. Now that the major demolition is done and we’re putting things back together, we can feel confident knowing where this stuff will go!

The exterior trim was pretty exciting for me.. it’s another reminder that I might actually get to live here one day! That, and the fact that I’m excited about the product itself: the trim around the windows and doors is a PVC product just like the pipes you might use when plumbing your house. This stuff comes in a variety of profiles and designs, and the real beauty of it is that there should be minimal maintenance going forward. Because it’s plastic, it can’t rot and it looks like the old trim might have – double win!

The west chimney has been coming down for the last two weeks or so. As we find the motivation, we go around back and smack at the bricks for a while. Well, over the weekend, dad and I took the sledge and a wheel barrow and finished her off J I have saved the old bricks because there is repair work to be done on the front steps, but I’d also like to use them in something else. Maybe next year..

I was able to pull the chimney down instead of tuck pointing it because the insulated pipe inside was no longer needed. My 1980’s furnace has been replaced with a new, high efficiency model and I’ve installed an electric water heater so there’s no need for a vent. Not to mention, I get more rebates now J

A side project I’ve been working on is the interior doors. When I bought the house, none of the doors matched each other. I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m just obsessive-compulsive enough that this would bother me. Well, I was lucky enough to be able to sweet talk the neighbors into letting us salvage the old doors from their house before it gets demolished. Now every interior door in the house is the same..and my OCD remains fully intact.

After taking measurements and deciding which doors we could use, I set about sanding, priming, and painting them. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen lots of magazines and blogs lately featuring people with these glossy black doors. I don’t know what it is about them, but I just think they look kind of…sexy? So, I thought I’d give it a try. If it works, I’ll have the sexiest doors in town..if it doesn’t, I’ll repaint them another color and life will go on. The only issue I anticipate would be the bathroom: it’s a smaller space without windows, and the dark doors might overwhelm it. Otherwise, everything else should be bright enough that they work just fine. Stay tuned!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/inspiration-black-doors--089693?image_id=211671

I’ll post pictures of all of this very soon. At this point in time, I don’t even have any – pretty lame, right?

Happy Tuesday!