The trident in the road

Quite a bit of progress has been made. For the most part the rooms are done, but empty and lifeless. They are just waiting to be cozied up. It's also time for me to make a crucial decision as to what room I want to spend the next year of my life in. If you got the hint, there are 3 choices, all with pros and cons.

2nd floor -
Pro -Medium size, tall ceilings, original woodwork, turqoise blue, original dark wood floor, soon to be working fireplace, grand pocket door, my own bathroom.
Cons - Bathroom is on 1st floor, down a few steps, next to living room, which I'll probably stake as my own territory, because I can.

3rd back - Biggest room by a few extra cf, semi walk in closet, fauxerplace, shared bathroom next door.

3rd front - Smallest room, semi NYC view, street view with street lights and nice urban feel. 4 windows, shared bathroom next door.

Pictures to be posted tonight. Oh this is tough.

Lesson learned

Always pack extra nails, and I'd assume screws too.

I feel foolish thinking how many times I ran downstairs to get a few more finishing nails. Not entirely my fault, I had no idea how hard the surface of brick paneling is, and that it could repeatedly bend fine finishing nails. I also didn't want to load up my tool belt with these little nails I assumed I would only need a few of.

Cliffs - There are no shortcuts, always stock your toolbelt correctly, brick paneling is pretty tough.

As usual, no pictures of the new "brick" chase. Also, please don't give me crap about the brick paneling. And I'll make it look natural, I promise.

What have I done?

Yes or no? From far I like it, but when its in my face and I'm on my knees with the poly I'm not much of a fan, then again I have a hard time with decisions. Please leave your opinions.





Things to keep in mind: This is the smallest room of the house (at least right now). The floor has settled and the area by the doorway has sagged, the whitewash helps to hide this. Also the white floor molding isn't up but seems to help.







PS - left side of picture poly is wet, middle isn't "poly'ed" sp? and right is dry poly

Surprise!!!! Lets throw some more shit on your plate

I've been waiting for a surprise for a long time, except not this one. I knew I had plumbing issues, but I was hoping it was just a clog and a new wax ring and its a sealed deal. Never the case at the cooplex.

The toilet had to come off regardless, so we decided to do so since we were having trouble getting the snake through. That's when I discovered what lies beneath. There are holes in the drain under the toilet. Hopefully its just these 2 that we can see, but basically the concrete floor is going to most likely have to come up.

In terms of the fix, maybe we can fill them with lead (was someones recomendation) or we'll get the sawzall in there for a clean cut and put either PVC or cast iron/steel pipe on top. I don't even understand what these holes are from. Frozen water would be a good guess, except that would push outward, not inward.

Without further ado, here you go.

water heaters

Ah another dilema along the way. Conventional water heater, high efficiency water heater, or a tankless one. Cheapest, mid range, most expensive.

We are converting from oil to gas, so since the gas line needs to be brought it, hopefully the extra BTUs the tankless uses isn't an issue. Another thing to consider is we don't want to have to run an vent for the exhaust all the way to the roof. Even re-using the old chimeny as a chase, it would need a new flue, which would right away make kill any savings the cheap model may yield. Plus, we'll try to be a bit green with this one.

High efficiency tank units seem to go for around $800, and that we can vent directly outside the wall, but the tradeoff is a loss of even more space in my tiny utility room. I'm hoping to opt for a tankless unit for no more than $1200 that I can vent directly outside, and then have a decent size laundry/utility room.

PLUS, going high efficiency you get a 30% tax credit, and there are other incentives floating around out there.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index

Oh and these look a lot better too.

a blast from the past AND a poll!!

I had to do this, partially for self gratification, since it feels I have really gotten no where, and I need to lift my spirits.  I also thought it might be interesting for any viewers to see where we were and where we are.  I attached some pictures, and I'd say we are maybe halfway through many of these rooms.  The flooring is not done yet, and no trim is up, but we've advanced a bit, and we are right before the fun, design oriented stage.  I hope you go into a bit of shock with the first few pictures, I sort of did.  I forgot how bad it was for a while. 

This is what we started with, not too bad right?  Shortcuts is not my middle name, and neither is dusty, so out with the old.

This was a bit hectic.  Right after some demo and the old panels ripped off.  The house looks a lot worse here than it did when we purchased it.  It took a while to throw the debri out, and it also took a while to warm up in there with that tiny dish heater and faux fireplace.

This is where we are now.  Primed walls, waiting for laminate and tile flooring and some finishing touches.  Steps will also be refinished.  I wish I could have left more exposed brick, but you heard EVERYTHING from my neighbors, and I wanted every bit of insulation I could get.

Not too much has been done with the bathroom, just cleaned up a bit.  I like the black and white tiles and will be keeping them.

After.

Here is the second floor bedroom with the fireplace to the right of the picture.  This room wasn't even that bad.  We already ripped up the carpeting, took the molding off, and then drywalled the room.

Here is is with my prince couch I got from work.  Still have to put some legs on it, but its good enough for when I need a nap.

As you may have noted, I wanted to retain my brick wall but it wasn't feasible. SO I was contemplating those fake brick wall panels. The color they come in looks very fake so without a doubt, I would paint them white (which I like since it reminds me of the place I lived in Brooklyn). I'm concerned it may look very fake, which I'm not a fan of. Help me decide.

Are faux brick walls OK
	yes
	no
View Results

Free poll from Free Web Polls

If you know what you're talking about, make a suggestion

I never found money stashed behind any walls, but I did find a awesome pocket door stashed away, and we began to re-finish it.  The door is stripped and still awaiting glass, since we accidentally put a hammer through it while it was hidden behind a wall  =x

This is an old picture, so the walls are newly drywalled, trim is still white, and I'm looking for a color to stain the door, AND the floor which is also terribly photoshopped and pictured below.  Its a pretty old, lofty type of floor, and I think a darker color is necessary to hide the gaps and imperfections.

So if you'd like to take a stab and show your interior design capabilities, please make a suggestion on the door color/stain, glass style, floor color/stain, and even wall color if you'd like.