Keep on Working: NYC=11 Days.

Today is all about plaster repair so I can paint. My heart's just not in this anymore. Remember back when I was fixing the walls in the dining room? Yeah, those turned out beautifully, but I think that's where the precision is ending. I've essentially conceded to the fact that the person who is going to buy this house is just going to be an investor who is going to rent it out to crack-heads who don't care a thing about it. Basically, I'm slapping the walls together so I can get paint up. I'm still going to be sanding and texturing, but if things end up a little lumpy who cares. At this price point in the market, new paint will be good enough for the house to stand out.

Here's part of what I did today. I patched up the holes in the ceiling of the hallway upstairs and taped along the edges. (sanding, second coat, sanding, texture, paint needed still)

And I'm in the process of patching up those holes on the stairwell wall. I know it looks terrible but I'm essentially skim coating over it. (more mud, sanding, second coat, sanding, texture, paint needed here)
I put the second coat of mud on the cracks in the stairwell, just need to sand, texture, paint those. There is a large crack up too high for me to reach though... we'll see what kind of scaffolding I can create with various pieces of furniture and scrap boards. I might write my next post from the hospital. We'll see.
So, yeah. I'm thinking pretty realistically now. I have a small handful of days left and years worth of projects, so I'm basically slapping a coat of paint over everything so it will look good for the next 6 months or so. I wouldn't be surprised if the house spends the next 15 years as a rental property that falls into greater disrepair, and eventually becomes a parking lot for the hospital around the corner. Can you tell I'm in a bit of a stressed out mood? The optimism is overflowing.

This doesn't help: May is next week, ladies and gentlemen. What's up?
Funny story though; I locked myself out of the house yesterday. I was stranded out on the porch until I had a great idea. That broken window that I haven't gotten around to replacing could be a good access point. The window was locked, but I slit a hole in the tape where there is a hole in the glass big enough for my hand to fit through. I took an old piece of weatherstripping and made it into a loop so I could catch it on the sash lock and open the window. I pulled the lock open, then up went the sash and in I fell onto the couch. I thought it was very 'McGuiver' so I felt pretty smart. At least until I remembered that my absent mindedness got me in that position in the first place!
That would be me re-enacting my break-in job. Smooth, huh?

Merry Mud-Mess!

After a great Christmas with my family, I returned to the house of dust this evening and got back to work on the dining room. More mud was the call of the day. I re-mudded the patches on the ceilings and walls to prepare them for their second sanding tomorrow.

Ceiling:Walls:

I'm going to cry tears of joy when I get to priming. Paint? I'll just pee with excitement. I just want to get this room done.

I know the living room will be much easier than the dining room. The stairwell? The tears there will NOT be ones of joy, but I'll be so happy when that's done. It's really the ugliest part of the first floor right now. Like a giant zit on your senior picture!

Just Call Me Dusty

After work today I decided to sand down the dining room ceiling and walls.

As it turns out, the only thing more miserable than sanding walls is sanding ceilings. Yuck.

I need to go back and hit a couple areas again with mud, then do a second sanding. Texture, primer, paint, then done. I say done in very relative terms.

I need to go buy some tape ASAP because it seems there is none to be found in the whole house. I have tarps I wanted to tape over the openings to the room, but I couldn't find any tape. As a consequence there is dust all over the kitchen and living room now. Not nearly as much as the dining room though. Please see photo below (note the dust in the air floating through the house):I made the mistake of sitting down and leaning back on the couch without changing clothes first. Nice huh?
Tomorrow will be entertaining a trip to 'the Depot' as well as some Christmas shopping.

Say No to Crack(s)!

It's about time that I post some pictures of progress in the living room. My plan is to repair all of the walls and ceilings in the living room, dining room, and upstairs hallway during winter break.

Problem #1: Living room duplex removal aftermath: walls and ceiling

During the de-duplexing process I removed a couple extra walls from the living room. The walls still show extra joint compound from the transition from original walls/ceiling to the walls I removed. I've been working on scraping off the extra clumps of joint compound and then using some new stuff to level out the surfaces that were marred by the duplex walls.

If you need a refresher, here's where the walls were:

This is about where the ceiling is at right now. It still needs to have some scraping on the far left part there, then a good smooth coat of joint compound, then some horrible overhead sanding that will undoubtedly leave me with a mouth full of dust. Lookin' forward to this one.

Then come the walls. I finished scraping off any excess joint compound from the walls, then I've laid on a new smooth coat to level off the walls. Just sanding needed here. My favorite.
Problem #2: Stairwell walls

When I removed the paneling on the staircase I was left with lotsa lotsa cracks and nail holes. I've started patching up the cracks already, but haven't gotten too far. Here's some of the work. Please notice the smiley face stick figure I painted for the roomies. I thought it was classy. It might need to be repainted onto the finished stairwell. Or not.

First thing I had to do was gauge out the cracks so they were wide enough for the joint compound to get into. Upon my Aunt Bec's suggestion I used a wood chisel and hammer to widen out the cracks. Here's a shot of some of the widened cracks.
Then she suggested that I use the mesh tape to cover the cracks. I haven't gotten a chance to apply a second coat of mud yet, but after that's done I should be able to sand it down to a smooth appearance. Then I'll just have to texture, prime, and paint.
Problem #3: Living room walls.

I also started repairing the fireplace wall. I'm going to cut a strip of drywall to fill that place where the plaster's missing, then I'll be ready to sand, texture, prime, paint, hang some art!

Since I was already messing with the tape and joint compound I decided to rip out the horrible PO tape job over some of the cracks in the other walls. When the cracks turned, this guy just turned the tape over the crack and didn't care about the kinks that were left in the tape. He also didn't mud under the tape so it was peeling up too. It was bothering me quite a bit so I figured I might as well repair them before I start painting. So that's where I am right now. I won't be doing ANYTHING on the house until after I'm done with finals, so don't plan to be seeing anything amazing for a while. But, when those tests are behind me, look out!