"You look like a chimney sweep."

(At least he didn't laugh.)

After spending an afternoon cleaning the sooty apartment-to-be floor, with occcasional breaks to scoop up loose plaster, I was greeted with this observation. He was probably quite right. To imagine the amount of soot I was wearing, you have to see the floor.



This photo shows the difference between the clean(er) floor and the truly sooty floor.

Changing it from 'before' to 'after' is a four step process. First, we used a mechanical buffer to loosen the top layers of soot. Then we vaccuumed (yes, Mom, I wore a mask.) The third step was to buff again with a little non-flammable cleaning fluid. Fourth, we wiped up the wet soot with rags. Each rag lasts about 2 minutes - then it's full of black slime and has to be retired. At the end of the day, the rags and my clothing go through the washing machine - twice! and the floor buffer pad and I go into the shower.

I wouldn't say that the floor is ready for finishing after all this, but it's certainly close!

Christmas Window

For those who are not right here in Washington, here's another view of our north display window. (see Dec. 2 for an evening view)

Before ~



After you-know-what ~





Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Going Up - Second Floor - Soot, Plaster, Lath, and "Great Potential"

Yes, we know that when a visitor says, "Wow, this place has great potential," what they really mean is something like, "What were you thinking? This is unbelieveably awful!"

Yup. We know. Check it out.



This view is from the rear apartment area, looking toward the front of the building and into the front apartment. If you think it looks dark now, you should have seen it before the plywood came off the front windows and we knocked holes in the wall.

This weekend we have been salvaging doors and trim pieces (more about that later), trying to remove the soot from the maple floor, and hauling boxes of plaster down to the dumpster.

Washington residents will probably remember that the building next door burned in about 1990 or so. Soot from that fire covers the floor in most of the upstairs. We're attacking it with face masks, a floor buffer, and a shop vac. Progress is slow but encouraging. See?

Before ~


After one round of buffing and vacuuming ~

OK - I've Changed My Mind

Time has been well spent!



Yesterday we uncovered the last bit of maple floor - wheew! This shot, taken from the mezzanine, doesn't show all of it, but you can see that we made it to the front doors. I'd need one of those panoramic cameras to show the whole 40 acres, and I'd probably have to hang upside down from the heating ductwork to get the photo. We all know THAT isn't going to happen, so if you want to see it in person, you're welcome to stop by.

~ Other Good News ~

We have received the structural engineer's initial report, and nearly everything looks fine. Some of the 'Mr. Fix-It' type repairs in the basement storage areas need to be upgraded, but we expected that. There is still some research* needed to verify a couple of things, but overall, we're feeling pretty good about the report.

*research - the act of crawling into dirty little spaces with a camera and snapping pictures into dark crevices to find out what holds things up in certain areas. Evidently the answer is 'steel I-beams'. Thank you JC Penney Company!

Does Time Seem To Be Standing Still?

Or is it just me?

For the longest time, it seemed like there was too much to do, and there were too many decisions to be made, and the phone call list just got longer and longer. In between the planning and the measuring and the meetings, we did what we could to remove the tile flooring, sand the display window floors, and remove aluminum paint from the copper.

Eventually, we succeeding in contacting the structural engineer, and the capenters, and the building inspector, and the architect, and the plumbing inspector, and the HVAC guys, and the paint removal guy, and the tuck pointing guy, and the electrician, and called to get the dumpster emptied (again!).

Then we met with each and every one of them, sometimes more than once. Then we waited for each person to do their special thing and get back to us.

While we waited to hear from the pros, we kept ripping up that old flooring and pulling the nails, refilling the dumpster several times.



This closeup of a small section of the floor will give you an idea of how many nails I've pulled. There are ten nails in four linear feet. I know - I counted them. One hundred nails every forty feet (the width of the room). And the next row of nails is only about 4" or 5" away. Each time we removed one 4 x 8 sheet of plywood underlayment, I pulled over 200 nails. I KNOW it was over 200 because each time the installer guy bent or broke a nail, he smacked it flat and put another one right next to it.
[I've never understood the theory behind nailing underlayment so thoroughly. Gravity is usually fairly reliable for holding things down, and the walls on each side of the room ought to be able to control any slipping. I'm sure there's a reason.]

Things are about to change! Today we reached the front door, but only on half of the room. The other half is still a couple of days away from finished, but we're expecting to finish this week. It's worth a visit, folks!

Looking Back

View of the north end of our block.

This view was scanned from an undated postcard. Using clues in the photograph, we know that the original photo used to make the postcard was taken before Stewart Pharmacy remodeled the buildings that today house Simply Spa, Advance Employment, and Washington Realty (1908).

Iron balconies, older style awnings (retracted), and original store fronts can be seen in this photo, as well as a few folks who were going about their business when the photographer captured this scene.

Looking Out

View inside the north display window at night, as seen by Craig Swift's camera.