The End is in Sight

For the past year, Joe and I have been actively involved in renovating commercial properties. We are nearly finished with this apartment, which was essentially gutted and redone. We've pulled up carpet and had the old maple floors repaired and refinished. There was no heating or cooling in the place since the old steam boiler in the building was dismantled many years ago. (so the previous owners lived here without heat or air conditioning!) We had a super efficient gas furnace and forced air installed. We enlarged the entry into the kitchen and removed all the old suspended ceilings.

Many of the walls had to be redone (due to crumbling plaster - and electrical rewiring), and everything has been painted (I thought the painting would never end!). A completely new kitchen and bath, both with custom built shelving. New light fixtures. We reworked the old wood doors and cleaned up the original brass hardware, which was covered in many layers of paint.

This apartment is very spacious - about 1600 square feet. It has three bedrooms and a laundry room. The living room (below) is really large, with four oversized windows. The formal dining room (above) has two oversized windows. With the high ceilings and big windows, the place has a very light, airy feel to it. We built a little deck out on the roof for the tenant, too - there is room for a table and chairs.

I've devoted nearly every day for the past 5 months to this project. There have been a number of aches and pains associated with it, but no significant injuries and we've stayed pretty well within our final budget.

I am thrilled to be done with it. Now to find a good tenant!