Friday, April 20, 2007

Drywall, Demo and Injury

I demo'd most of the kitchen cabinets today. It's messy work, but it felt great to get the ugly lead paint covered boxes out.

Since I've been borrowing my buddy Jason's truck, I've been able to take large items to the dump. When I was loading the truck with some metal-wrapped counter tops today, I made a boo-boo and cut myself pretty bad. Basically, a piece of metal filleted my knuckle. I've got a massive bandage on my hand as a result. I knew I wouldn't escape this renovation without some sort of injury!

The crew has been doing a bang up job on the drywall and theater installation (albeit a bit slower than scheduled).

The foreman is from Mexico as well as one of his drywall guys. The electrician is from Venezuela. We've had some good conversations today in Spanish about world affairs, women and soccer.

Cristian (electrician dude) told me tons of stories about his life as a teenager living in Miami, Florida. He said he has lived in the U.S. for eight years, but didn't start learning English until about a year ago. We talked about how in different parts of the U.S. you really don't need to know how to speak English since there are large Spanish speaking populations.

OK, onto the actual project photos. You'll notice the room is really starting to take shape since the drywall is up.


Speaker terminals are all set up in the media closet.




In the kitchen, we had to build another column (much to my dismay), since there were some building-specific lines that couldn't be relocated. Luckily, the island/breakfast counter should still fit.



The kitchen cabinents will be delivered tomorrow. I'm so excited to begin this next part of the renovation! Look for more photos ...

Later.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Demo Party

There are a ton of projects to do in my new place. Since I don't really own any furniture, it is really easy to make alterations/upgrades to the space.

The biggest eye sore in the entire condo definitely has to be the 1960s time capsule that barely passes for a kitchen.

A close runner-up in the "has-to-go" department, is the built-in bookcase in the living room. I need to hang my TV there!

To alleviate the first problem, I hired a contractor to remove three of the kitchen walls. Once that is done, I'll break out the 'ol hammer to install an island along with new cabinets, counter tops and appliances. Here's the before:


Here's the after:

I removed the beautiful tile flooring in the kitchen that was horribly installed by the previous owner (it must have been his first time doing tile). It was a TON of fun banging the shit out of the floor with an 18-pound sledge hammer.



To nip the second problem in the butt, the contractor has ripped out the bookcase and is in the process of installing drywall in it's place.


I built a media rack in the living room closet to hide all of my audio video components. The electrician is running all of the necessary wires so that I can have fully integrated Dolby Digital surround sound (of course!)

Yesterday I special ordered some Brazilian Cherry Wood flooring so that I can install it throughout the floorplan. It will be a big project, but I think I can handle it.

Project: Create a Functional Master Bedroom Closet

Before the ink had even dried on the loan closing documents, I bought an Elfa closet organizing system from the Container Store.

The existing closets in my place were pathetic. They had nice mirror sliding doors, but that's about as far as the niceties go ... The clothing rods sagged horribly in the middle, and the shelves were placed too high up (hey, I'm only 5'-8", how am I supposed to reach everything?



With a little paint and some sweat time, I was able to make a dramatic improvement to the space.





There are supposed to be some slick-looking walnut trim in the above photos, but unfortunately, the Container Store was out of stock of the ultra-hip fixtures (I'm told they'll be back in stock at the end of April). I'll post some more photos of the space once it is 100% done.

A Tour of the Crib: Day One

Here's a quick tour of my new place. I took it during a much needed break on moving day.

Monday, April 16, 2007

What is Hammer & A Credit Card All About?

This blog is intended for family and friends to keep up on the latest renovations in my condominium. If you ended up here randomly, feel free to poke around and leave a comment or two.

So how did I come up with the name for this blog? Well, there was a long list, but I figured "Hammer & A Credit Card" best reflects the reality of my new homeowner status. I mean, those are pretty much the only two tools I have as I take on the renovation of my condo. It's a fierce combination actually.

Here are some other names that didn't make the cut:
  • spackleandpaint
  • paintandnails
  • allnaileddown
  • diycondo
  • extremecondo
  • condomakeover
  • hammerandpaint
  • retrovation
  • throwoutthelinoleum
  • throwoutthatshagcarpet
  • deathtodenpaneling
  • allutlitiesincluded
In future posts I will probably be abusing my Flickr account to upload photos of the transformation. Until next time ...