spring and our trash pile.

it's ugly, but i thought we should document the trash pile in all of its glory before we get rid of it. it's been growing for the better part of the past eight months or so.

lowell and floor

our good friend lowell popped in last weekend, and helped us do some painting.

putting on the first layer of polyurethane.

more floor work

refinishing the floor

the last floor to be done in the duplex apartment!

First signs of spring

Melissa planted some bulbs in some old plumbing fixtures (sink and tub) and installed them in our lumber yard / trash heap of a back yard. Now we're reaping the benefits. She and Daniel Talstra also pruned the peach tree last fall and I think the new shape gives a Japanese aesthetic to our garden.

Dan pretends we live a normal life

We're suddenly feeling ahead of (our revised and extended) schedule. Our upstairs tenants don't move out until May 1st so we can't move up until then, no matter how soon we finish the bottom two floors. So we are making a few tentative forays back into our social lives. Here Dan bakes a d-licious cake for our oktoberfest celebration. His drywall skills were applicable to the icing procedure.

the spiral stair dance...try it at home!

sylvia!

tonight, sylvia came over and brought us dinner and helped us work. thank you, sylvia! in the bottom picture, cindy is painting the new doorway into the 3rd bedroom. behind her is the new kitchen pantry we built this week (pantry door provided by our friends ryan and janell from philly).

new living room fan!

this really made the room look better. we also added the medallion above the fan. mood lighting galore!

cleaning the walls before painting...

drywall and jean!

thabo's mom came to visit us, and brought encouragement and helped us get a bunch of stuff done, including painting and pulling nails and old flooring off the last bedroom floor to be redone. it was really nice to have her visit.

our kitchen, so convenient to cook in...

where's cindy?

our relaxing, and feng-shuied living room.

more work.

cindy caulks...

dan insulates...

thabo hangs a door.

thabo cuts a new door hole in the wall with his teeth.

aarrghh!!!!

more work.

pic of the floor/stairhole. here i was working on building back a small corner of the stair opening, since every inch counts in a new york apartment. the part i was working on are the boards that aren't stained.

the half-wall that we built at the top of the spiral stairs, in the middle of drywall mudding.

melissa painting in the living room. this particular section of wall almost broke our spirits. the reason had to do with shades of white paint that didn't quite match, not remembering what we painted the room, many trips for paint and many shades of white, lots of head shaking, and finally, a close match. whew.

sunshine...

staining the floor, more staircase

first layer of poly put down on the living room floor (before we realized it went down just as well and about 5 times faster with a roller). and a pic of thabo and melissa installing the spindles and handrail to the staircase.