Reporting Live from NYC:

Good Morning loyal readers!

I've been in New York for two days now, absolutely loving it, but still need to post a few things from the house. As it got close to moving time I finished a couple projects, but didn't have time to post about them. Lets try to catch up, shall we?

First of all, I thought the broken window in the living room might be cause for concern for potential home buyers. In took four hours to finish what I thought would be a one hour job. Typical.

First, wearing gloves, I started chipping away the old glazing compound and removing the broken pieces of glass. Once all of the glass had been removed I chiseled out any remaining glazing compound from the window sash. I did my best to brush off any dirt or dust from the wood as that would make it hard for the new glazing compound to stick to.
Next step: cut the glass to fit the window. First problem I encountered? I got the wrong size piece of glass. Trip to the 'Depot. While I was in the area I also grabbed dinner from a sub place I knew I was going to miss. You're starting to see why this took 4 hours, right? Once I had the correct piece of glass at home, I used some of the old broken pieces of glass to practice cutting on.

The makers of the glass cutting tool recommend scoring a dozen passes on a scrap piece of glass to make sure that it is in good working order before you screw up your new piece. I measured out how much of the glass needed to be cut off, then used a T-square to make sure the cut was perpendicular to the edge. One quick score line across the glass and we were ready to break it. I flipped the glass over and used the little ball-end of the cutter to tap the glass along the score line. The glass cracked along that line and the new glass was ready to install.

The little groove that holds the glass in the window needs a little glazing compound so the glass has a bed of it to sit in. Once I suffered through trying to do that on a vertical surface (I didn't take the sash out of the window frame) I put the glass in and secured it with the glazing points. If you don't know, those are little metal pieces that are pushed over the glass into the frame and hold the glass in place, much like the prongs on a diamond ring. Finally, I replaced the glazing compound around the edges of the glass and used a putty knife to shape it into a 45 degree angle.In future projects like this I'll be using the glazing compound that comes in a caulking tube. For this project I used the tub of glazing compound and it was a nightmare. You pull out this wad of hard compound and work it in your hands until it is soft enough to roll into a rope to put on the window. Wait, if you work with it too long it becomes like silly putty and stretches and falls down. Also, it will stick to your hands and your putty knife better than to wood or glass. Just a little fun fact.

While I was having all of this fun with glazing compound I finished the storm windows for the two little windows flanking the fireplace. They will need to be primed, painted, and rehung still, but the hard part was getting them fixed up in the first place. For some reason, even thought I had taken the glass out of the windows, it wouldn't fit back in. You'd think that if you could pull the glass out of the frame it would fit right back in, wouldn't you? Yeah, I thought that too. I had to scrape down the wood on all four sides to make the glass fit back in... where it was for the last 80 years. I don't get it.

I think the house was just mad that I was leaving it without finishing first.

One last thing: Spring Cleanup saved my behind. Fargo, as most towns do, has a spring cleanup when you can haul almost anything to the boulevard and they'll take it away for you. I already mentioned that I had a washer and dryer get taken from the boulevard with a refrigerator. By the time that the garbage people came to collect, the garbage pile had been pretty well picked through by people. They took those appliances as well as an old computer, an orange traffic cone, fireplace tools, a pair of shoes, clothes, magazines, a cowboy hat, a broken bicycle that came with the house, and some old wooden shelves. Amazing.
One Nate's trash is another random stranger's treasure. In all, I threw out seven jumbo trash bags and eight boxes of stuff. It came out to about half of my things, leaving only about ten boxes to be stored at my parents' place. It felt really good getting rid of everything I don't need. A good word to use would be cleansing. I just got rid of things that I didn't need that I was holding on to for no good reason. I'm a recovering pack-rat, but I'm getting over it fast. This is how much stuff I have in New York. I'd say that's about as far from pack-rat as you can get!

I'm missing the house already (living in a questionable old building in the Bronx) but I love being in New York. I'll miss blogging about the house too. I'll just get my kicks reading & commenting on the rest of you guys' blogs.

NYC in 4!!! Gettin' Close!

Guess what I did for my birthday yesterday? I repaired cracks in plaster.

No, it wasn't that bad. First I went to my friend from high school's wedding reception. It was nice to see a lot of my friends before the big move East. Got to say some goodbyes. When I got home I did stay up late to finish putting mud up so I could sand it today.

Dad and Mom came up today and helped with the work again. Dad cut & hung the trim in the North West bedroom, and Mom helped me sand down the walls so we can texture and paint. Here's the stairwell all sanded and textured. Just some primer and paint left! The wall above the fireplace and at the landing of the stairs are still drying, so I'll sand them in a little bit. There's a little sanding left in the hallway upstairs and on the living room ceiling. Then I'm done sanding walls. Hopefully for a very, very long time. Ugh. Hate it. Great tip though for you: If you are sanding joint compound from a textured surface, use one of those spongy sanding blocks. (see photo below) Just apply a little pressure and they sand over the texture. It worked so well that I was kicking myself for using a pole sander for so long in the dining room and bedroom.

This next week is Fargo's spring clean-up when you can dump your junk on the boulevard and the city picks it up. Convenient timing, no? You're allowed two appliances, so Dad and I brought up the disgusting washer and dryer. Not an hour later and some guys came up in a pick-up and asked if they could take them for scrap. Uh, YEAH! I mentioned that we had a working fridge they could have, so they took that too. That's not going to be the end of it; I'm going to give those poor sanitation workers a run for their money. Anything that doesn't fit into my suitcases and doesn't need to be saved & stored at the parents' house is going to find its way to the boulevard. I'm anticipating quite a heap. The city says that construction materials aren't allowed, but I'm going to put everything in black trash bags and hope for the best. Worst case scenario? I throw the stuff they won't pick up into the dumpster behind the apartment across the street! Is that illegal? ...probably. I'll just flee the state!

Speaking of fitting things into luggage, look at what I got myself for my birthday! I'm pretty excited because it's about twice as big as my old suitcase. This, of course, means I can bring twice as much stuff to New York! I'm also bringing this huge duffel bag I have and my computer bag (carry on).

My amazing parents got me the BEST birthday gift: a new digital camera! I borrowed Mom's back when I started this blog oh-so-many months ago and she just got it back today. She borrowed my brother's this whole time, so he gets his back now. The camera is a Nikon Coolpix with 10.0 megapixels, 5X zoom, and a whole list of other stuff that I'm to lazy to list. It's exactly what I need to have to take some great shapshots in New York. Maybe Europe too? Lets hope so.

Lastly, my hair stylist is buying my piano from me and she said she'll be picking it up tomorrow sometime. I'm going to be gone for part of the day for my cousin's confirmation, so Dad and I hauled it out onto the porch so she can pick it up. You really don't see a lot of pianos on porches, but it's kind of fun out there. I serenaded the neighborhood (to the best of my abilities) just because I think it's so ridiculous to see a piano on a porch.

NYC in 10: Trim, Trim, Trim.

First, before the trim talk, last night I started working on the kitchen tile. Ugh.

It was a pretty straightforward job: peel off old tiles, lay down new tiles. Not too hard, right? No, not utill Nate decides to start doing things the right way. I already had a good part of the kitchen re-tiled but then, behind the fridge, I realized that the sheet vinyl underneath was coming up from the floor. "I should really peel that up first" I thought. Big mistake. I spent the next two hours redoing the work I had already done. Peel off the new tile, chip away at old sheet vinyl, replace tile. After about a third of the kitchen the sheet vinyl stopped coming off, so I had to use my scraper to kind of taper the edge off to the wood floor. Then I could transition from vinyl tile over wood to vinyl tile over sheet vinyl. Here's a photo of that transition.

By the way, check out how amazing that sheet vinyl was. I want to meet the person who decided that was the best option for their kitchen. Seriously.
Here's a photo of the part of the floor that is done. The rest has to wait until the subfloor dries out from the leaky shower. Yeah, that's on my to-do list too. Just imagine white cabinets and window trim. The hardware we picked up today was the wrong size, so we'll have to exchange that. Yeah, I forgot to measure it and just took a guess. Of course I was wrong.But, back to the main topic of the post: TRIM!!!

Yesterday Mom and Dad came up and helped me get started with the trim replacement. After a trip to the Depot to get lumber, Dad and I started cutting trim while Mom primed the boards. We replaced all of the missing baseboards and quarter-round trim on the first floor. Photos:

Today they came up again with my brother and sisters. After another trip to the Depot, we started with the crown moulding. After about a hundred bad cuts, we finally got it up. We've got some filling to do at the corners and seams, but it's good enough. Yeah, I don't think we have a future as a father & son crown moulding company. Next came the cap moulding over the window and door trim. Check it out!

After we finished, we moved upstairs and Mom primed all of the wood. We need a little paint yet, but we're on the home stretch.

Upstairs, Dad and I hung the trim around the North West bedroom door (inside and outside trim) Next we hung up the door to the linen closet. It went up really easily, much to our surprise. It only took, like, 20 minuets to hang an 80 year old door in a new frame in an 80 year old house. Everything just lined up level on the first try. After we put the trim up around that door, the family took off for home. It feels so good to have this much progress happen in two days. I'm feeling a little less stressed out. Next step? Finishing the baseboards and quarter round trim on the second floor, priming, then a couple coats of paint. Then big old before and after pictures. I love nothing more than some good before and afters!

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?

I Hate Fargo. Can I Move Yet?!?

It's April 25th. It's 31 degrees and snowing. SNOWING.

12 days.

Photos of the Exterior Paint

Well, the windows upstairs need another coat of paint, and you'll notice the mismatched shutters. Give me just a little bit of time and that'll get fixed. It just adds to the crack-house charm right now. I have yet to scrape the excess paint off of the window panes on the doors, so pretend that I've already taken care of that. At any rate, here are the photos:

The house as I found it:
...and with a little green. Still in the works...

The front door before:The front door after. The trim was screaming at me that it didn't want to be treated like siding. 'I don't want to be white anymore!' Green it is.


The screen door was burgundy and white and ugly. I just slapped the green on it too and I think it looks better. I still need to clean up that glass.I hope that looks like a 1920's Arts and Crafts green, not baby poop green. At least it's clean and better than before!

NYC in 20: Today's Theme is Curb Appeal

In probably every real estate book I've read, they all say that you should change up something on the exterior right before you sell your house. That way people who pass the house on a daily basis notice that there are changes taking place.

Well, I did that today. At least started that. I painted the porch door & door trim, front door & trim, screen door, upstairs front windows, and shutters. The upstairs windows and shutters need another coat, but I can square that away tomorrow.

The color I used was kind of an earthy green that I thought would compliment the white well. Hmm... it's growing on me, but I'm still not sure. I wanted something that was reminiscent of 1920's arts and crafts design, so I thought the green would work well. People will either think of arts and crafts when they see it or of a baby's dirty diaper. I'm hoping people will think of the first reference, not 'lets not buy the house with the diarrhea trim'. It was dark out by the time I finished, so I haven't had an opportunity to get a good look at the place. It was also too dark for pictures. Sorry, I'll get 'em tomorrow.

Tomorrow will mark my last day at the Hotel Donaldson, leaving me unemployed and ready to kick the house repairs into overdrive. With each little thing that gets done I can take a little bit of a deeper breath and my shoulders relax slightly further from my earlobes. I'm just kicking myself for being such a lazy putz this winter. I could have had so much more of this done!