this and that

Brad cutting tile for the bathroom

Row#1 is down and ready for cabinet installation

Laying the slate

Creative ways to contain bisbehaving wildlife, number 738

Grilling

Just before the rest of the cabinets went up

Disasters and discoveries

I had to check the date of my last entry twice. I feel like I just wrote yesterday but I guess it's been a week already. I don't even know where to begin with the updates. I guess I'll start with the bathroom.

We're all geeked on Hardibacker. Have you seen this stuff? We heard about it when we were just about tapped for ideas on the floor which is, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, a patchwork of cracked cement, linoleum, cracked tile with more tile showing underneath, paint-stained and rotting wood, duct-taped planks (?!) and holes that lead straight through to the basement. At first we thought plywood would do the trick, but research led us to more questions and frustration. Plywood apparently does nothing for unlevel surfaces and is not guaranteed to settle evenly. Hardibacker is risky, tough to cut (heavy) and a bit expensive, but we've heard from multiple sources that it's going to save our necks. 
http://www.onlinetips.org/hardibacker-tile-installation

Installation went pretty well.

We had to take out the toilet to cut the last piece. Tossed the old wax ring once it was determined to be older than all of us combined - gross. After the toilet was taken out and parked in the hallway, we tore out some of the rotting nastiness of the back wall. We found old wood slats for plaster and a ton of mold. It was a disheartening find to say the least. Every day we demo, we find even more unpleasant surprises. We've decided to put up drywall in place of the old wall. We wanted to put up some more Hardibacker and just tile the whole bathroom for the purposes of easy cleaning, except hardibacker isn't really a weight-bearing material. So the idea was scrapped. 

We let the hardibacker set overnight. The next day, Sunday, was all about tiling.

We had a couple minor incidents of tile slippage, but not much else to speak of. And many of the final tiles were put down in the dark. We shut off a circuit due to some shady wiring we keep finding more of. We wanted to grout today, but couldn't because it rained. This may seem like a funny statement, but if you write it with heavy heart over the fact that the search for aforementioned shady wiring left a slight open strip in the ceiling that made way for a roof leak to spill freely onto your new tiling job, it's not quite so amusing.  

Supposedly, the back roof was replaced a few years ago for an astronomical amount of money. So we shouldn't have rain pooling and leaking into the house, but we do. And to top it all off, our search for the source of the leak was hampered slightly by a metric ton of proof that the upstairs resident has decided to let her dogs use the roof as a bathroom... again. Even after promising to stop. We need to work on the gutters and hopefully get a downspout aimed at an open field next to the building. And we need a five-inch cap to cover an old heating vent. That should take care of it... we hope.

Monday was spent waiting for the gas man to come check our meter and do a little inspection. He informed us that our water heater is spewing water everywhere and is costing us money. We were aware of this and just sort of blinked in response. The phrase "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" comes to mind. Water heater on the fritz? Cool. Maybe we'll get to it after we know the bathroom ceiling won't collapse and Jeremiah's done pulling out all the 60-year-old wiring that threatens to, y'know, burn us all to death in our sleep. 

The internet guy came on Monday afternoon too. Not to borrow from "Money Pit" again, but the look on the poor installation guy's face was priceless when he walked into Renard. There was a sink and toilet in the hallway, tools and hardware scattered through the work area, tile debris and dust on every square inch of the living room, a crazed chihuahua running laps around the kitchen, and junk everywhere. I was barefoot, drinking coffee and watching "Maury," now mostly oblivious to our quaint little disaster area. I half expected him to make a crack about bomb testing. But he quietly went about his work and left. The internet still doesn't work. Our account has been open for two weeks and we've had nothing resembling a connection. AT&T has bungled this operation from day one. They've fought us on every step of the way, be it through delays, outright lies, lack of communication, general ineptitude, you name it. We've spent many hours on the phone with AT&T and only tonight discovered that (surprise) it's a wiring problem on our end.

Brad has finally been able to start work on his room. This is going to be the bachelor pad to end all bachelor pads, people. He moved a drafting table and a swanky-looking fish tank setup down there before anything else and has said he's going with plexiglass walls, so I'm pretty excited to see how it'll turn out. With few space constraints, he's breaking ground on a big expanse of the basement. They started building today. But first they had to power wash everything and start painting over years of bad graffiti. 

 

The studio saga is ongoing. Jeremiah has determined that the studio floor is just shy of a two-inch thick slab of cement, and then dirt. This explains the mold and perpectual wetness. We aim to lay cement this week. 1200 pounds of it. The landlord is going to brick up some of the walls and then we can get cracking. But first, he'll have to pull out all the dirt someone cleverly used as insulation. This move was almost as creative as the cardboard crammed in the ceiling that Brad found when he was priming the basement walls.

Jeremiah found a bag of rat poison in the basement. It was unopened and the receipt placed the purchase to way back in 2000, but at least we know there is some here. We'll have to figure out a way to clean up any more that's probably in the house.

And it would seem that the one problem that's been plaguing us since the day we found the space has finally been solved - the arrangement of the kitchen. The major appliances are in place and three of our four cabinets were bought today and over the weekend. We found an arrangement that fits. We're drawing up plans for an island (that Brad's kickass dad is going to help us with). By the end of this week we aim to stain the cabinets, find a sink, lay down hardibacker and tile, hook up wiring and outlets to the appliances, and maybe even build a wall between the kitchen and living room. 

It never ends. But at least now it's happening quickly.

The good, the bad, and the... vermin.

To say we've been busy would be putting it mildly. It's been one of the busiest weeks to date and we've had more than one snag, but we're working through it.  Just to give an idea of how things have been going:

Good: We found three essential kitchen appliances for cheap on Craigslist. They're relatively new and in fantastic shape.

Bad: As soon as they were in the space, we realized for the first time that they're cream-colored and will not match anything we own.

Good: Appliance paint is always an option.

Bad: We can't fully agree on colors yet. And even if we could, the large expanse of exposed brick in the kitchen has severely limited our color options.

Good: We worked out some ways to run power trials to figure out where our leaks are, what uses the most energy and if anyone else is using our grid without paying. (The first floor was abandoned for a number of months and while we do trust our neighbors, we can't rule out the possibility that this has happened.)

Bad: As soon as we patted ourselves on the back for coming up with solutions, we called the electric company and were informed that based on past bills for the space, a $1100 security deposit will be required. This estimate is incorrect for multiple reasons - the space used to be twice as big, was zoned commercially at the time, and was a late-night gym that sucked up tons of power. We asked to be transferred to another operator. After 25 minutes of pacing,  foot-stomping, hand-wringing and more than a few swear words, we have bypassed this requirement.

Good: Bedroom #1 is painted and the ambitious lofted bed/closet was built over the weekend. It's a sight to behold - it's going to be the kind of bedroom worthy of being splashed across Apartment Therapy and design magazines. Well done, roomies!

Bad: We've been told we're crazy if we consider laying down Bedroom #1's cement floor before summer, and we really need it done now. It doesn't help that it's been 40 degrees for something like thirteen consecutive days.

Good: After finally coming up with a kitchen layout that works, moving all work-related things to the gallery, and honing in on a final date for a completed bathroom, Renard is finally starting to resemble a home instead of the cold and dirty semi-abandoned space it once was.

Bad: While we were all out for Easter, a little mouse wandered into the workspace in the furnace room and quietly gave up the ghost. Not only do we not want vermin (obviously), the point was raised that mice don't typically come right out into the open to croak. It makes me believe he ate something that didn't agree with him. I'm hoping it was sweeping compound or something. If we have rat poison anywhere on the premises, we're in trouble. We have three cats and a dog moving in and once rat poison has been put out even in one location, the little buggers disperse it everywhere and you'll never find it all. We'll keep our eyes open for more bitty corpses.

Good: The print work is taking off, our independent art endeavors are paying well, and most of us are due some pretty good tax returns.

Bad: Nothing. Ba-ZING!

progress of the bedrooms

Bedroom #1: first coat of paint is on. We're still trying to figure out what to do with the flooring. If bedroom #2 was any indication, unlevel floors are not to be taken lightly:

Bedroom two: victory! We're keeping our fingers crossed that the laminate settles the way it's supposed to.  There's a quarter-inch height difference between the two halves of the floor, mostly because the original floor throughout the entire space is a patchwork of different building materials, all in different stages of decay. There's one spot in bedroom two that balloons oddly and walking over it creates an Alice in Wonderland/funhouse mirror sort of effect of feeling like the ground is hurtling toward you. Unpleasant for now, but it looks like the flooring we put in a few days earlier has settled nicely.

Progress, regress, progress: 3 steps forward, 1 step back

We first looked at the space around Valentine's Day.  Less than a month and a half later, progress is finally starting to show (pics to come).

Both bedrooms were primed fully, one bedroom has been painted with bedroom #1 getting its first coat of paint last night.  Bedroom #2 has had some IKEA TUNDRA laminate flooring installed (about 90% complete).  With paint and a floor, it actually looks liveable and serene.

The bathroom plumbers brought a shower pan in (48" unit), and started to move the pedestal sink over.  We're hoping for a working sink and shower by week's end, which leaves us the gritty work of laying down tile to complete it.  We were hoping for a slightly larger shower unit, but every plumber we talked to said avoid the 60" models for fear of cracking them.  Weird how decent plumbers will actually say no to more money if they know things won't work well.

The basement looks great -- all the walls and studs were removed, most of the sewage concerns have been handled by the same plumbers, and powerwashing of the walls continues slowly to remove decades of grime, mold, mildew, and who knows what else.  We found a few minor basement floor water spots where water is coming up from underground.  We're planning on patches these moisture areas ASAP so we can start working out of the space come May 1st.

The plumbers have run the kitchen faucet lines awaiting my purchase of a sink and faucet.  That'll be the last "first step" stage completion for a almost-liveable work-live space: bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen.  We're still unsure what we're doing with the kitchen space (cabinets and appliances aren't cheap), but once we have the bedrooms and bathrooms done, we'll knock the kitchen out in a matter of a week or so.

Now that we're working during the day, the south-facing bedroom sunlight is amazing.  With bedrooms big enough to handle a bed, a couch and work desks for all, we're excited to utilize the space for all our needs: business, lounging and entertainment.  Our hope is to have a grand opening party for friends and family around the second week of June.

Today I'm battling with Comcast to get Internet service installed, but we keep running into problems.  They're saying it's a commercial space (about 3 times as expensive to run Internet to), we're saying it's a live space.  More details to come in a week after their business department reliquishes the space to their residential department.

The printshop business acquired its first two customers last week, and we're hoping to get our first orders this week.  Much excitement there.