Sunday, February 24, 2008

chowtime



i took some pics of us eating lunch on saturday, in a room filled with dust and construction tools. it struck me that this was something that would be important to remember; these makeshift and tasty meals that one of us throws together quickly so the rest of us can keep working. we eat together often, and i think we all enjoy it quite a bit. sometimes, we light a candle so we feel fancy.

but, point a camera at these people and this is the kind of picture that comes out. once we're done with this house, i think we should post at least one picture in which we're wearing clean clothes, and not looking tired and half-crazed. to balance out the perception that we're creating here, that we're, you know, unclean, tired, and half-crazed.
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there's gold in them there walls! gold, i say!

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painting pocket doors.


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Friday, February 22, 2008

dreaming of a tree.


yesterday we put a call in to the city of new york, and requested that a tree be planted in front of our house. it looks like there used to be one there, and the houses on each side of us have trees in front, but ours does not. so we called 311, and requested one through this program. hopefully, sometime this year, a tree will magically appear, courtesy of new york and mayor bloomberg.

Monday, February 11, 2008

late entry: working on bathroom/hall joists


here's thabo, making sure our house doesn't fall down. so far, so good.
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staining more doors



lots of staining happened this weekend. four wood doors, both sides, two coats each.
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cutting linoleum the easy way.

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linoleum floor




after we took up the tile we patched a bad joist, put down a subfloor, and then some linoleum. this part of the hallway will be a laundry room/work sink, so we decided it didn't need to be too fancy. linoleum for now. we had to roll the glue out from under it. unfotunately, it didn't work to well because we hadn't screwed a layer of the floor down well enough, and thabo and melissa had to peel this up and do it again tonight. always use a lot of screws.
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more weekend work. the top pic is the ceremonial handshake that thabo and melissa performed after re-opening the door that had been part of the bathtub/shower wall. now it's a door again! second pic is busting up the old tile from the bathroom/hall (there was a layer of little pink tile under the big white ones). third one is melissa rolling a layer of paint on the tin ceiling. we put the crown molding up around the tin ceiling this weekend, too. that was a challenge.
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sailing...takes me away..to where i always dreamed...

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tearing out the old bathroom



we dubbed this bathroom 'dusty rose' for its color scheme. it's been our main bathroom for the past four months or so, and it's really gross. a lot of you have seen it, so judge for yourself whether that's an exageration. anyway, saturday we tore it out to return it to its original glory as a HALLWAY TO THE BACK YARD. the good news is that the new bathroom is up and running and finished. everyone rejoiced!
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

almost done with the warsh room.



check out the grout in the first pic; cindy did that last monday while the rest of us were at work. tonight we caulked, towel rods and the vanity, installed the toilet for the final time (after an extended saga involving dan buying the same toilet twice, moving the plumbing two inches, arguing with the lowes plumbing staff, sponging toilet water out of a used toilet, trolling the internet for info about why the heck our toilet doesn't rest against the wall, and finally just putting the original toilet back in). we've got to paint some trim, clean up some caulk, do a little bit of grouting, patch a tile that is loose, and it's basically done. at which point we will all rejoice because we will not have to use the crappy bathroom that some of you have seen. we get to demolish it.
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thabo on a hot tin roof...



or ceiling. thabo on a hot tin ceiling. here he is patching a spot that was left open when we extended the room and turned it into a bedroom. not bad for a first year MBA student who just landed a killer internship. not bad at all.
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dan paints piece, entitled "door."


staining the door. something about staining wood is very pleasing; the way it brings out the quality of the grain.
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tiling the tub.




after the bathroom floor, we tackled tiling the tub. thabo and melissa got most of it done in one day, and i finished up a bit of it the day after. the tile saw is awesome!
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pocket door





one of the things we decided to do to help save space, was to install a pocket door in the bathroom. here's some pics of it partially completed. turned out to have some serious issues because our house sagged a bit in the last hundred years, and the walls/floors/ceilings aren't plumb. in some places they REALLY aren't plumb. which made for some creative construction techniques. in the end, it looks like it's going to work out great. we stained the door too; i'll post some pictures of the finished product eventually.
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