October 18, 2008

Summer Recap: Dust masks, Eye Goggles, Mojitos, and More....................

We haven't posted much these last months because there has been a whole lot of not that much going on. Lots of starts and stops. And lots of frustration. But now that the air is getting crisp and actual work is commencing in the duplex (more on that in my next entry), I thought I would catch you all up with the doings over in South Stuy.

Most of the summer was spent bringing contractors in to bid out the duplex reno--but even with the market slowdown, it was tough. That said, we embraced the frustration, and with architectural plans in hand, we prepared for progress by tearing down, pulling up, and ripping out any wall, floor, or fixture that we knew we weren't keeping.

But first we needed to save the trim:

To entice friends to help us with the demo, we decided to celebrate the destruction and hosted a couple of pretty fabulous bbq's complete with marinated grilled shrimp, veggies, grilled radiccio with an OJ and honey glaze, garden burgers and tofu dogs, chicken, sausage, hamburgers, grilled eggplant wth goat cheese and basil (superb), fresh fruit from the Puerto Rican van guys on the corner on Beford near Atlantic, mojitos with mint from our yard, microbrewed beer, freshly made cupcakes from Abu's on Fulton, freshly squeezed lemon ginger and watermelon juice (from the halal steam table restaurants also on Fulton). We figured a tantalizing, mouth-watering spread was the least we could do for our dust-covered-sledge-hammer-wielding-crazed-demolition-derby friends.

Some may say that we bribed our friends to do our dirty work and those folks would be right. And sure, some folks trekked out from Manhattan for some free dogs and ice cold beers, but a good number of them came donned in combat gear with DESTRUCTION on their minds and little else. We were surprised when our otherwise mild-mannered colleagues and friends showed up adorned in coveralls, dust masks, professional-grade eye protection, and their own sledgehammers and crow bars. One friend of T's donned military surplus tanker coveralls and proudly showed off a fat multi-tool that he was sure he wouldn't use that day but wanted to bring anyway. And we were awed by the gusto and might they used to bring down the walls. Special shout-outs go out to B-rad and Damon--the two mildest of mannered friends, who turned into virtual Hulks, grunting and swinging sledges, speaking sentences of no more than two or three syllables, most of which started with "me" and ended with "smash."

In Demo BBQ 1, or The Rumble in the Urban Jungle (as T titled it), we knocked down the wall separating the bathroom from what will be our bedroom so that the the new plumbing, electricity, and pocket door can be installed.

Please excuse the dust.

It's Miller time--or rather Negra Modelo time.

In Demo Party 2, or The Walls of Jericho Part 2, we knocked down an oddly shaped closet (it wasn't deep enough to accommodate a regular sized hanger but was at least seven wide) and the wall in the parlor separating the kitchen from the living room.

Finally, in a solo effort, I pulled up a the abused, glue- (from the linoleum tiles that had covered them, which we pulled up last year) and water-damaged parquet from the bathroom to reveal pretty nice pine sub flooring. I was hoping that we could do a sort of French-country look by restoring and finishing the pine subfloor, but the subfloor ended up being in too bad shape, so we're going to tile it instead.

I am proud to report that the house has never looked worse.

Posted by HomeSweetstuy at 8:47 PM | Comments (9)

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