Final pics

Finally got my hands on some final pics of the kitchen, courtesy of the renovation company's photographer.

Finished!

The long-awaited completion of the renovation happened today! It's official because I walked over and paid the last bill. For the last few weeks I've been waiting on the medicine cabinet to arrive and be installed - it has been a little weird not having a mirror in the bathroom. If you don't believe me try it sometime. Anyway, yesterday they installed it and it's great - tons of storage in there. It's a fully-functional bathroom now, much roomier and civilized than the old version.

Of course, now that the contractors are finished there's still more for me to do. I decided to change the color of the livingroom and bedroom, and to paint it myself. Not sure why exactly - I guess I wanted to contribute something to the effort. So in only three days of work I painted the living room Dusty Road. Here's one of the walls. The painting is my favorite, titled The Brooklyn Bridge and features my apartment building in the background.



The box at left is my new TV, which came today and will be mounted on the wall in the next week or so. Also on the way are a couch and chair to replace my old dusty ones. Funny story: the first couch I bought wouldn't fit through the door last week so I had to send it back. We're going to try again next week, with a slightly smaller couch. If that doesn't fit, I may settle for a beanbag.

Thanks for following along these past several months! I may update this blog as I make new improvements to the place. The bedroom is next ..

One More Week

Another week has passed since my last post. The whole apartment is still not finished, but there is some progress to show. It seems like it's always exactly a week from the finish line, doesn't it? Kitchen is technically done now that the chrome legs are supporting the bar.

Lots of new doors everywhere, heavier and with better handles than before. Here's the hallway facing the laundry room. The bed and bathroom doors still need paint.



The bathroom work is still lagging behind. The shower is pretty well finished and the sink and cabinet are magically hanging from the wall. But they still need to do the toilet, vanity, shower door, and towel rods. I figure they're waiting to install the toilet until the end, to prevent me from hanging out in the apartment.

My big vacation to Asia is only ten days away now. If I'm not living in my place before then I'll be disappointed.

Lights

Getting close now .. the ceilings in the livingroom & bedroom are finished and lights are installed.

Finally there will be plenty of light in every room. This should improve my odds of wearing matching socks.

Bathroom construction continues - floor and bath tiles are in place, just waiting for appliances.

Barring any delays I should be able to move back in (and start painting) next weekend.

Bathroom progress, cont'd

Sticking tiles to the wall must be tricky work because it's coming along very slowly. But it's all finished now besides the grouting and fixing the crooked ones. Hopefully nobody will turn on the water with that boombox sitting on the edge of the tub.

A few of the floor tiles are down too. The floor guy has great taste when it comes to levels!

Bathroom progress

The bathroom tiles are slowly creeping up the walls ..

.. and the new ceilings in the other rooms are looking good.



A little behind schedule now but hopefully we'll be 99% finished with the whole thing at the end of this week.

Tile and Ceilings

The bathroom wasn't finished today as scheduled but I'll assume that's because they're spending their time on the livingroom and bedroom. But the bathroom tile-work has started and I think it's going to be pretty cool.



The ceilings are coming along nicely. The lights that I ordered arrived for both rooms yesterday and I'm not sure I like them yet, but it sure will be nice to be able to see at night!

I'm pretty sure the piano will be ruined at the end of all this. It had dusty footprints on it today and although it's been covered I can't imagine it's going to be dust-free after 3 months of construction.

I'm going to need to paint the walls again after the contractors are out. It's probably time to change up the colors a little while I'm at it. Any suggestions for the living room/bedroom (besides green)?