Pittsburgh Roundup

So while I'm not going to go into daily detail of what (or wasn't done) I'll at least put forth some random tidbits from the week in Pittsburgh renovating the condo for the next tenants.

The drive to Pittsburgh from Indy is like, six hours. And until you get past Columbus, it's boring and flat. After that the hills and greenyness return, so it makes me happy.

Anyway, I borrowed the following tools from my boss who has every tool known to man:

Chop saw, nail gun, stapler, air compressor, reciprocating saw, drill, coping saw, face shield, clamps and other small things. I have a jigsaw, drill and toolbox with hammer, screw drivers etc.,

I got to Pittsburgh and found out that I didn't have the keys to my own place. I considered trying to break a window to get in (this becomes humorous later) but instead waiting a few minutes while the president of the condo association got home from work. She's got all the keys to all the units, and my former tenants left the keys in my unit, so once I was in, all was good.

The majority of the work was to be done downstairs. New floors, new paint in the two rooms. As soon as I went downstairs, I was like, "I don't want to do any of this." Not a good way to start.

Well, whatever. Time to get to it. Ripped out all the carpet in the one room (amazingly easy) and then the tiles in the other room. By this time I was quite tired. I met Turner and Melissa at the condo and we headed off for dinner. Regret No. 1. Should have finished removing the carpet underlayment and moulding.

Next morning after sleeping over at Turner's new house, I broke a window trying to open it downstairs. The fan and AC weren't working. As I hit the window (you know, cause that's how you open a jammed window.) with a workgloved hand (and safety glasses on, to boot) I busted it. Right through. Cheap two-pane job. Dammit. So then I had to take a while to remove every bit of glass. At least the air was coming through! More cleaning up, more tile removal. Then the dishwasher guys came to put in the new dishwasher.

So the old dishwasher was sort of "tiled in." That is, the ceramic tile was put right up to it, and last year the Sears plumber said that either the tile needed to be broken or the counter needed to be removed. (No and no.)

This year I decided, well, the tile needs to be busted. So I went to the Depot (trip 1 of like, 34) and bought a mortar chisel. Whack, whack, thunk, smack, nothing.

Dammit.

So I tried option no. 2. Lift counter. Pull hard (oh, no need). It came right up, about 6 inches. Sweet. Plumber came. I told him about the tile and the counter. "No problem. I do this all the time." Um, okay. Back to cleaning up downstairs.

Around 2, it was time to get cleaned up and head out to the airport to pick up Adam. Yay! No more work for the rest of the evening.

After picking up Adam, we met up with Pat who was in town taking the Bar Exam. We dinnered at Mad Mex and then putzed around Oakland. Later we met up with Turner and hung out in Shadyside.

Thursday (only 3.5 days left and no work done!) we decided to address the broken window.

More later ...