Sexy Grunt Work
Ahhh yeah! Now we have reached the exciting, stressful, and dare I say sexy grunt work of the project. What do I mean? I mean, all the foundation work has been done behind the walls and under the foundation. Now, the work done directly impacts the project’s appearance. This is the time when the tile is laid. Painting is done. Trim is reapplied. Floors are refinished, and counters and fixtures are installed. The space starts to look and resemble its final form. Sexy! But hard grunt work.
My partner and I elected to do all the interior painting on this project. While painting can be fun, there was a reason. Painting interior walls can save tons of money for a conservative budget because it is work that can be done by an amateur (taking their time, of course). But painting is hard work beyond the one weekend warrior room project. For our project, we had to paint all of the newly drywalled ceilings and all the old plaster and new walls. That is a lot of painting, even though we are a little law firm project. While I dig into work like this, I can tell you that I do not enjoy painting the ceilings of a project. I always view it as a necessary but very unappealing chore. Most of the time, you are painting your ceiling white, and the results are not necessarily exciting like when you put color on a wall. But it has to be done, and we did it (with the help of some very awesome men!). Grunt work, but not so sexy in my humble opinion. Putting color on the walls is a lot more sexy, but still grunt work.
I went back to my old roots of home improvement and tiled the new bathroom floor. And a quick caveat, years later, my knees were not what they used to be. But I did it! Classic hexagonal porcelain floor tile. Ahhhh….takes me back to old New York City coop walk-up style. Old porcelain hexagonal tile on the floor of a New York walk-up pre-war rent-controlled apartment, where the original radiators, in the winter, give off the best heat despite the cold porcelain tile after a hot shower.
We had the good fortune of having great hardwood floors throughout most of the space. So, our hardworking refinishers got to work and made our hardwoods shine while patching those holes made by our rearranging of walls. Sorry, I can’t show you more…the floor is still wet!
The kitchenette is coming along with the countertops installed, the cabinets ready to be painted, and the sink with the faucet installed.
A portion of the floors didn’t have the old hardwood, so we went with durable (and cost-effective) laminate plank flooring. I know, I know! LAMINATE! But today’s laminate is not like yesterday’s. Used wisely and strategically in a space, it can be a great cost-effective alternative to expensive hardwood flooring. Now, choosing a style and color for a situation like this can be tough. You will rarely get a new flooring choice to match perfectly with the old, beautiful hardwood throughout the rest of the project. So, I figure, why even bother trying? My advice is to get flooring that is similar, not the same, and not necessarily the same color either. If the space is clearly separated, like here in our project, the new flooring is relegated to one “wing” of the project, then it looks intentional and deliberate. These looked absolutely great! But they got dusty.
The picture of the little law firm is starting to come together. We are almost through with the sexy grunt work. Before you know it, the work will just be plain….well…sexy! Till next time!