Forest for the Trees

Here are pictures of the floor, at long last. We still have a lot of detail work to do, but it’s reeeally nice to have the place back to a livable condition (that I actually am not compelled to run from all the time). I refrained from detailed bedroom shots because I still have to replace all the closet doors, and it looks rather unattractive as-is. Those are coming later.

It's interesting...because I was so intent on just getting this done, I wasn't able to appreciate the incredible metamorphosis that transpired. I had to get away from it for a day and come back with fresh eyes to really take it in. I love it.

Click to enlarge.

Been There.

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While loading up a borrowed truck to haul away yet more unwanted stuff this weekend, I kept getting hit by the all-too-distinct scent of barbeque. Now that it's above thirty degrees out, people are burning off last year's grease form their grills and getting down to, well, grilling. As a vegetarian, one would think that I would be put off by such a smell.

Nope.

Just as I'm a former smoker who still has cravings several times a day, I remember all to well the allure of meat. Most of all, I miss pork and prosciutto. The flavor of steak, not even a little. But man, the aroma of a grilling steak is almost too much too bear. Instant salivation. That smell is second only to the bouquet of KFC. Even when I was still eating meat, there was no way in hell I'd eat at a KFC. I had too many bad experiences with just feeling ashen and gross afterwards. But the smell of that place is practically irresistible. It's just spices, flour, and grease I'm smelling…but what a heavenly perfume it is.

Getting There

Just a quick update on the renovation. The wood floor is down, closets and trim are painted, and the trim is back up. The floor installation started on Sunday and finished exactly a week later, working about eight hours per day. Judging by how many nails I had left over (there were 1,000 per box), it took 2900 swings of the hammer to get the job done. I'll be taking some pictures this weekend once we get the place in a better state (read: organized) and will post them next week.

The kitchen originally had some super-cheap, bottom shelf vinyl, and we were going to replace it with a nicer-colored, thicker vinyl. At the last minute, we decided to skip the vinyl and go with wood. Because there was carpet originally, there was 1/4" underlayment to match the height of the carpet. So, in order for the wood pattern to remain consistent and not have some awkward-looking transition, I had to remove the underlayment and lay down a 3/4" section of plywood under the stove. These pictures are of me ripping up the underlayment and vinyl. That was a job-and-a-half. Click to enlarge.

More pictures are coming up next week. They'll be in focus, too. This particular digital camera can't seem to handle anything other than sunlight, so the shutter speed is too slow. Tripod time.

Gilding the Lily.

I rented The Exorcist the other night. I had only seen the movie on network TV, and it was of course edited to the point of…disappointing. I had never seen it in its entirety until I moved out on my own, and some channel was running it at midnight on Halloween. I had the bright idea of watching it with headphones on. I slept like a baby after that, of course. When it was over and I turned the lights on so nothing could suddenly possess me, I wondered what the unedited version was like. Mostly I was just interested in watching it without commercial interruptions. Well, that was about 15 years ago, so I figured it was time to finally rent it.

Even edited and with commercials, it was a scary movie. I had built it up in my mind over the years and was pretty sure that the unedited version was going to freak me out for a good couple days. I needn’t have worried. It came out in 1973, and there was some special edition version that I rented with the hopes of maybe getting to see some behind-the-scenes stuff. What I didn’t realize was that this special edition had been, well, queered up.

Now stay with me here as I veer off course a bit. I saw Star Wars in the theater when it first came out. Even though I was six, I could see that the special effects were done by animation and puppetry. That was okay for me then, and it’s okay for me now. A couple years ago I saw the (once again) “special edition” version, and I was appalled. George Lucas thought he could improve it with gratuitious CGI throughout the movie that just flat-out didn’t belong. As a matter of fact, it became so distracting, I just shut it off. What was wrong with the original version? What was it lacking that it required even more stuff thrown in? The answer? Nothing. I’m not a superfan of Star Wars and all its prequels and sequels. I don’t go to the extent of lamenting the fact that caliber of Greedo’s gun wasn’t consistent with what criminals of the era would really use (isn’t it obvious?). Nope, I enjoyed the movie for what it was: a fun action flick with fight sequences. But as a casual observer, I noticed the egregious CGI additions and balked. I can only imagine what the purists thought. I have visions of slackened jaws, fumbled Magic cards and near-asphyxiation from aspirated Coke and Doritos.

Back to The Exorcist. Because it’s a special edition, naturally someone thought they too could improve it with CGI. It had been Lucas’d, therefore it had been ruined. One of the more ridiculous additions was a devil face that was suddenly flashed on the screen, a little more than subliminally. The beauty of the movie is that other than the obvious elements meant to startle the viewer, there was still a lot left to the imagination; whether in the form of absolute silence for dramatic effect, eerie lighting, or backwards voices. Now, everybody knows that it’s just human voice lowered in pitch and played backwards. It’s still creepy as all get-out, though. But giving the devil an actual face, as LF pointed out, totally cheapened the movie. It’s like JAWS; one of the best things about the movie is you don’t even see the shark until a third of the way into it. But, such is The Society of Too Much Too Soon.

Renovation Invigoration

I've been getting a lot of "how's the condo renovation coming?" questions lately, so I'll post an update.

We have finished painting the walls, and man, what a difference. Whereas virtually every wall was a different shade of green (aside from the one copper wall), everything is now either white or antique white. The bathroom is completely done, save for caulking and maybe floor replacement. I still don't know what I'm going to do about the floor. It's your typical off-the-shelf, contractor grade vinyl flooring. It looks okay, but...just okay. The vanity is passable.

During this week, I'm going to level the floor, meaning that I have to take down whatever high spots exist before I can even think of putting the wood flooring down. The high spots are either in the form of patches and shims that have somehow risen over time, ridges from a sloppily poured foundation (cleverly disguised under the carpet), or any one of the million carpet padding staples I keep stumbling upon. I started out Saturday morning with the intention of getting the floor leveled by using leveling compound and a belt sander, but I just couldn’t get my mind around how I was going to be able to lay the first couple rows down, because the starting point was on that plaster moat I mentioned in an earlier post. Long story short, I consulted The Great Oracle, my father, and he made suggestions that were much easier to live with. We measured this, chalk-lined that, and began to marvel at what a geometric nightmare my condo is. You’d be hard-pressed to find a square in the entire joint. It’s seemingly all 45-degree angles. We are going to have to make a ridiculous amount of complicated cuts with the chop saw. And that’s even before the closet floors get done. Regardless, I’m newly recharged and can’t wait to get going for three reasons:

1. Walking on bare, dirty, splintery, paint-splashed plywood for five months has grown tiresome
2. I get to reclaim floor space from the 700 square feet of wood stacked in my dining room
3. See #1

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, my father, Terzo, and I are going to start laying down the floor starting Sunday. I’m taking the week off so I can finish it, and also because I’m hoping no one will be home in the surrounding condos during the day. I don’t imagine anyone would be especially delighted to hear the droning of my air compressor, nail guns, shop vac, and chop and table saws. I know I wouldn't be.

A couple weeks ago, LF and I went down to see Jefe and Lau to check out the house they bought on the Cape. They went through hell and back to get it, and they’ve found themselves a little gem. Once I got a look at the basement in which one could practically land a plane, the flame was reignited under my butt to get the condo finished. All that beautiful…beautiful…beautiful ROOM! To be able to work on something automotive/electronic/instrumental/bicyclical in an actual workshop instead my kitchen table or standing at my dresser is the stuff of dreams.

Though tremendous strides have been made (albeit in fits and starts), there's still a lot to do.

Paint the two bedroom closets
Replace closet doors (the current ones are only a ¼ step above cardboard)
Replace busted-up trim
Paint the miles of existing trim
Replace the kitchen floor (material yet to be determined)
Replace the heat pump
New draperies/curtains that LF (aka Coolest Ever) will make (sweet, sweet privacy at last).
Caulking
Overall touch-up

Stay tuned. Here's some before and after shots. Click to enlarge.