Surprise Project

During construction, the stairwell going to the second floor got a bit trashed. Holes in the plaster walls mainly. We were planning to repair it ourselves, but then we decided to take that project off our plate and give it to our contractor.

The walls were in pretty bad shape to begin with. There was wallpaper with layer upon layer of paint on it. The plaster was dead in areas. Our contractor started to try and patch and it was not holding. He said either the walls would have to be stripped and then repair the plaster or we could cover it with 1/4" drywall. We opted for this because the plaster is pretty bad and this will be less expensive than demoing and reframing.


Originally there was a skylight there, which would be nice. But we are not doing that at this time. It's always on option in the future.

For now we will cover it up.

The stairwell has some wood trim that we will put back. We are not stripping it though.

Regarding everyone's comments on the 2nd floor. Yes it is very nice. Yes it would be nice to live up there.

I don't agree though that one can't find decent God-fearing tenants. We have had tenants that left the apartment virtually as they found it. We have had tenants that did not disturb the peace in the building. We know they exist! We will hold out for them.

Also, the first floor is no ghetto let me tell you. It also has all the original wood trim and coffered ceiling entirely restored. The bathroom is all new as is the kitchen. The 1st floor kitchen has custom wood shelving that Steve made. It's more cozy than the 2nd floor.

Living in the first floor, we have easy access to the yard, where we spend alot of time in warmer weather. And easy access to the basement, where we work on projects. And living in the first floor, we can easily work on cleaning up the basement some more. More projects- mwa-ha-ha-ha! (evil maniacal laughter)...

I didn't mean to get everyone up in arms about it. We deal with a bit of a different scenario than many housebloggers because we are also landlords. Sometimes it's rougher than others, but it pays the mortgage.

You could say living in a 2-flat runs in my family. I grew up in a 2-flat and we lived on the first floor. We never minded hearing our neighbors upstairs. We were quite friendly with them. We were a family and they were too. They had kids close in age to us. I think the key is finding people who have a similar lifestyle so that there is not so much conflict. Also it helps if you like the people a bit also.

Trust me- we are going to be picky. (And Steve polyurethaned the shelving upstairs so water won't hurt it.)