My apartment is being annihilated

[WilliamPitt]

The management company that owns my apartment building told me last week they were going to send a work crew to repair my kitchen and bathroom floors; the building is 250 years old, and the floors look like George Washington marched his armies across them on the way to Yorktown. I was also slated to get a new stove; the one I have now is ancient and shuts off if you turn it up above 300 degrees. Needless to say, I was pleased at the news.

They get in this morning, and by 11am the prognosis had changed. Now, on top of the floors and the stove being gone, they are tearing out the countertops and the cabinets. Essentially, my entire kitchen is being renovated from soup to nuts.

I'll be psyched next week, but this week I have to deal with dust and screaming drills and garbage everywhere and a totally unusable kitchen and three guys named Juan wandering around in the apartment where I am expected to work for truthout that now looks as thought it was bombed by vengeful carpenters.

I'll be psyched next week.

[tk2kewl]

1. I hear a big rent increase coming

[WilliamPitt]

13. No, it needed to happen

The flooring support had begun to collapse in places; if you step in the wrong spot, you could feel it giving badly. The stove was almost completely dysfunctional. I'm not getting some kind of glorious makeover; I'm getting what a standard apartment should have - a stable floor and a functional stove. The counters and cabinets are casualties of the degree of destruction required to repair the floor; they are six inches deep in the floor now, and still digging out the rotten struts.

[htuttle]

2. Sounds like they had to destroy your kitchen in order to save it

[da_chimperor]

16. A home improvement catch 22 n/t

[LisaLynne]

3. Hang in there!

Just eat out a lot in the meantime. :)

[GOPisEvil]

4. Can you send them to my house when they're done?

I'd like some new cabinets and countertops in my kitchen, too.

Appliances are brand new though, so your management company shouldn't mind too much.

[skygazer]

5. Look to the future

What an improvement it will be! My hubby remodels kitchens and baths - if these guys are any good, they won't make too horrible a mess and it will be wonderful when it's done.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. where do you live?

Seriously. When (if) I get ready to do mine, I will need advice at least!

But it is so cool that this guy's landlord is doing this!!


HOORAY FOR THE NEW KITCHEN

[skygazer]

23. Bay Area California

My hubby did our bathroom over last year and I just love it. It's so pretty now! He would be happy to offer advice! :hi:

[yellowdogintexas]

27. Thank you, I may need it once I start getting estimates

My main objective is to rearrange the kitchen to be more efficient, and use as many of my existing (painted) cabinets as possible. No walls moving, etc. Just update appliances, new countertops and fill in the holes that my rearrangement of appliances will create with cabinet that can be painted to coordinate w/ the existing ones.

I can't see buying new cabinets unless I win the lottery or something.

[Minimus]

6. Well just keep thinking how great it will be when they are done

that is the only way to get through renovations.

Take some before and after pics too!

[gollygee]

7. I think that's exciting!

Congrats on the new kitchen! WOOHOO!

[Occulus]

8. It's the spaghetti can gods smiling upon you. n/t

[WI_DEM]

9. I hope the rent was pretty reasonable

but it much be interesting to live in a historical building. 250 years old, that is a lot of history. Did you ever do any research on how the building was utilized in the past?

[VelmaD]

10. Just plug the toaster in in the bedroom...

and live on Pop Tarts. :)

Seriously, hope the renovations go quickly and you aren't living like that for long.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

11. Pix

I wanna see before, during, and after pix, if at all possible.

This sounds really cool. You're already psyched, believe me. It's cool.

[hippiechick]

12. Be sure to check for bugging devices when they leave ...

:shrug:


:hippie:

[MikeG]

14. Order pizza a lot or wings...yeah wings.

[Worst Username Ever]

15. They should install automatic soup can launchers.

That way you won't ever throw out your arm.

[babylonsister]

17. Any libraries near by

for some peace and quiet and to get some work done?

Three guys named Juan? !:evilgrin:

I'm sure the improvements will be worth the wait!

[rbnyc]

18. Similar thing happened to us last year.

It was valentine's day and we had both scrambled to get the day off work. All we wanted to do was spend the day together at home. At 9 am, the landlord came upstairs to fix one light fixture that he'd said he would fix last week. We went out for breakfast and came back and he'd torn up the whole floor and all the fixtures in the kitchen. He worked all day and night replacing everything. We ended up spending Valentine's Day at the movies.

[underpants]

19. Well IF you can still use your microwave and IF...

you have any Chef Boyardee left.......

:bounce:

[CornField]

20. Having been there, I would recommend

If there is anyway you can afford it... rent another place for a couple of weeks. Remodeling could drive people to kill each other.

[WilliamPitt]

22. I live alone

so no problems there. Just me and the cat...who is cowering in fear under the covers of my bed at this moment.

[jmm]

24. At least you're getting something out of it.

I could live with some chipped paint on my building but a couple of months ago my building was repainted. I had to call the management company to complain about the extra thorough job they did around my windows.

[hunter]

25. Hey, I used to be a guy named Juan!

And I wasn't even Mexican then.

Fixing up apartments is an awful job. I used to do that and some of the tenants were MONSTERS. I used to wish I didn't speak English. I used to be secretly happy whenever they suffered.

I remember I was so mad at one tenant that I purposely didn't reconnect the water to his toilet, even though it would have taken me about two minutes. Instead I showed him how he could "flush" the toilet with a bucket of water from the bath tap. I left him two days like that.

Some landlords are monsters too, penny pinching rat bastards...

Be very nice to your three guys named Juan. It's a tough job.

[WilliamPitt]

26. They're nice

Working hard, trying not to be a nuisance. I, for my part, am staying in my ofice and out of the way.