!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bertine]

Holy fuck!!!

I wrote this today: http://bertine.org/bertine/index.php?entry=177

I had a condo meeting tonight where I learned that the people in the condo next to me is selling.

this is my dream. I already have sketched out my plans for what i will do (i did this long ago).

i willhave TWO bedrooms and TWO bathrooms and 1000 square feet of space.

now i must call a loan officer.

Also, i expect every one of you to help me move. :P

Comments

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

I don't own it. I bought it as a gift for my ex-father-in-law one year for his birthday, with the understanding that I still get the occasional visitation with it when I need to take down a wall or remove the roof from a junker car.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

hmm...

i like you being on my friends list...

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

I think you should post a picture of the wall, so we know what we're dealing with.

Is it drywall or plaster? Do you think there's any electrical or plumbing running through it that we need to worry about? How do you intend to finish the rough opening?

I guess you should probably meet with the loan officer before I ask you 50 more questions. :)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

plaster, to start with i think i am going to just go through the "door" that is already there next to the closet door: http://bertine.org/p/bertine%20condo/Image17.jpg (these are old pictures), i don't mind living with a rough opening for awhile.

the big amount of work will be in what is the living room/kitchen where i want to tear down the half wall between the two and convert that space into a bedroom. I am thinking that i should be able to make that mostly flush and if i am lucky the floor will be wood in the kitchen. (i don't remember). there is no plumbing or electric in the wall, i am on the top floor. there is an outlet for the raditors next to the wall but that isn't a problem since it is a good place for a radiator once i knock out that complete wall.

i would keep the little closet and the closets next to it in the new unit.

i have floor to ceiling bookshelves on the wall now, i would just move them back giving myself more room. the flooring would just be a quick fixed for now which i would cover up with a rug and i would expand out my kitchen to be much more open in to the living room. i would look at the new bathroom and possibly tear out some stuff in there so i could put a washer and dryer in it (it is much bigger than my current bathroom).

have i mentioned i have been thinking about this for 3 or 4 year?

i am not worried about the mortgage either.

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

Say, how old is this building, anyway? Circa 1920?

You're going to want to make sure everyone has proper respiraion gear for lead based paint, asbestos and plaster dust.

So you want to expand the opening around that door? That looks good. Plaster is much harder to do this with, you know. With drywall, it's easy. You would just score it with a utility knife, knock down the inside drywall layer with a hammer, remove/cap any utilities in the wall, score the other side, knock that out, then cut out the studs with a sawz-all. Plaster is another ballgame entirely. You could end up damaging that entire wall and re-plastering it, or removing all the plaster and sheetrocking it. Could be a huge mess.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

1910.

the building is mostly lead paint free, no asbestos and i know about the plaster dust
(pictures from vairous other remodelings i have done at this place: http://www.bertine.org/bertine/photos/20040924a.jpg and http://www.bertine.org/bertine/photos/20040629.jpg)

i sort of have a remodling bug.


and trust me, i know all about plaster. i know how those walls are built too. one of the things i had to do was remove all the plaster in my bathroom and sheetrock cause it was moldy. the real plan is to remove that whole wall and open it up into what is the bedroom in the place next door and have a decent sized living room. then the living room in the next place along with the kitchen would become a bedroom.

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

Say, I do believe that you have been thinking about this for the last five years. :)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

sorry, i realized i was a little pissy in that one.

i sometimes get upset when people tell me how to remodel. LOL.

i have been thinking about this alot. i am so giddy because i want this SO VERY MUCH.

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

No, it's cool. I didn't think it was pissy. I didn't know you had thought it through that far, and you've had experience doing it already. :)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

ok, cool, sometimes i realize that i am just reacting weird because i think people are treating me different cause i am a girl. sigh.

anyways, i want to be forgiving cause i want use of that sawz-all. though maybe my dad will get me one? hmm...

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

They're really not that expensive. Certainly, it's a worthwhile investment. It's handy for so many things besides your remodel project - where it would pay for itself. I found it particularly useful one year at Thanksgiving, when my ex-Mother-in-law would make the DRYEST turkey on the planet. We used to cut off strips and stir it in our water glass to re-hydrate it. We threatened to carve it with the sawz-all. Lucky thing she had an electric knife, which is really just the same thing in a slightly smaller format.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

i wonder if my electric knife would work instead?

i just set up the appointment to sign the purcahse agreement.

OMG!

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

Not really. Get a Sawzall. :)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

i think i will. i bet my dad would buy me one because it sucked the last 5 or 6 times we knocked things down.

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

They're so much fun to use, I can't believe you didn't have one already! It's so raw and powerful it's almost sexual. It's just this huge, quivering, vibrating thing that can rip apart your home and destroy your car and send debris flying through the air at warp speed... Actually, I knew someone kinda like that once. Except at the end of the day, you can stuff the Sawzall into a box and put it back on a shelf.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

so, i was talking to my dad and mentioned somethign about buying a sawzall and he was "what, do you think i don't already have one?".

so i guess he already has one. LOL

[phoenixredux.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

Now, just promise me that you will wear safety glasses. It'll be so much harder for you to participate in friday_foto if you're blinded by flying chunks of debris.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

LOL, i will. those things scare me.

2 months and a week and i'll be owning it!!! wooooO!!!