apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You are both amazing. All I can say is that I'm in awe of you. The apt. already looks great. Take care or each other but especially take care of SKGR.

Wow! I'm so glad I decided to check after getting home from work. You guys have had QUITE a day.

You've really moved mountains to meet an aggressive schedule -- and hey, it's mostly DONE. Truly amazing and impressive, and destined to seem more so when we get to see the good photos.

That does not look like a pregnant woman to me. Way to carry, SKGR!

That bathroom has got me foaming at the mouth for when I'm finally going to get to retile mine. "Just a few more months..." I keep trying to tell myself and then you go and make a post like this :)

Wow, Wende, this is the second day I've seen someone mention Keirsey personality sorting. Crazy! (High fives all around for the entp crowd).

Um, no red wine for the pregnant lady I hope!

Maxwell, you must be intentionally posting some of those incendiary words in the same breath with SKGR--"fine dust," "red wine,"--just to get the AT populace going!

Love the pix, love the drama!

Is the new closet for the baby, or for you two, or all three of you?

We need a special "Meet Tino and Peter" post... yes, yes we do.

She can have wine now. Some pediatricians tell women who experience early contractions to have two glasses of wine to slow them down. Alchohol won't really harm the baby at this point.

I knew you two would do it.

Maxwell has got to be the best project manager ever, huh Wende?

Offer still stands BTW.

Yes, nice to finally meet the elusive Tino after all this time.

Can I take a shower in your bathroom? I am completely jealous.

It is going to be wonderful. Congrats.

Is it rude to ask for a cost break-down? I really wanna know! I can't wait to see the kitchen come together.

I KNEW someone would say something about the wine! It's fine after the first trimester. Often an OB will recommend having a glass after the amnio (week 15-18ish) to relax muscles. And by the third trimester, my OB said up to a glass a night -- but I couldn't save my weekly allowance up and have a bottle on Saturday night. Doi!

will someone please explain to me how it is cost-effective or makes sense to put so much money into an apartment someone else owns - are you confident your landlord will not kick you out of increase the rent now that it is renovated, or did you have to get that in writing before you started?

is this a place you will live in forever, wouldnt you want to pass something down to your children or at least have a place you own when you retire?

I agree - skgr does not look like a pregnant lady.

oh and is the new baby going to have an acronym like __-skgr?

I have been laughing to myself about the SKGR and the "fine-dust" comments. C'MON!!! These guys live in NYC!!!

Having been a tourist in NYC many times, I was always completely disgusted at the end of the day when I blew my nose and saw what came out.

sassy - they've explained their choice to the AT audience in previous threads and they're happy with it, so all we can do is wait for better photos of the remodel!

I have the same exact bathroom tiles and mine are looking pretty lackluster. ive never heard of muriatic acid, is it safe for anyone - i.e., me - to use it to clean my tiles? where do you get it, hardware stores?

thanks!

p.s. - love your shower!

I also wonder about that muriatic acid. Will it help my 100 yr old and dull tiles?

Jamie Pup -- Maxwell is a superlative project manager in his own management style. I've often suspected from his writing style that he's over here on personality type:
http://keirsey.com/personality/sp.html
Probably one of the upper two types -- both are very sensory, very concrete, do best in crunches and crises, talented in the arts, have incredible taste, tend to come up with provocative insights that get a reaction (the caveman/success post).

That is a long way from my comfort zone ( http://keirsey.com/personality/ntip.html ) but it's way, way better to be great at living out your own personality type than to be mediocre at trying to be someone you're not.

That was more answer than anyone wanted, eh?

Sassy, here's the post explaining the logic of rehabbing a rental:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/9-month-cure/the-nine-month-cure-the-money-009701

Somewhere (but I can't find it), I did a long post on when putting one's own money into rehabbing a rental is a sound economic decision. Basically, if you have rent control and market rents are increasing fast, rehab can be superior to moving. There's also an intangible benefit with this particular project: proving it can all be done is just more fun than working with the properties they felt comfortable buying.

one hot mom-to-be and what an amazing job you have done! i cannot wait to see the kitchen! really inspiring, thanks for sharing all of these details with us.

Looking so good! Can't wait for good photos and details (like where the shower curtain rod is from).

Enjoy your nights of red wine and the easy life (ha) and ignore the baby police.

regards,
trillium

Beautiful! The bathroom wall tile is fab - is that light grey grout? Maybe down the road you can compile a list of all the painters, builders, etc. in one post. It looks like they did a wonderful job. SKGR looking even MORE fab! :)

I just read the June post Wende linked. I hadn't been following this from the get-go and Sassy's comments peaked my curiosity. I think the decision to stay put and re-do the space makes great sense - even if rent was increased, it couldn't be as high as a two bedroom.

I live in Westchester and its scary what they're charging even for a studio. I opted to take a smaller place (just moved) and will hunker down and re-do because it is impossible to buy here and rentals are ridiculous and I'll be relocating to California anyway. Meanwhile, I have friends in the area who can't afford their high, high rents. It's nearly the same as NYC on top of which we have a commute.

A comment on the small Summit fridge I see in the photos: My new place has one. I didn't think I could live with a small fridge. Well, I love it. I'm wasting less food, buying fresher more frequently, and enjoying my meals more. What I've received in quality of life in making the decision to consider location instead of sq. footage is amazing. (I have the most incredible view of the Hudson River) So, basically, big isn't always better.

I can't wait to see the final photos of Maxwell and SKGR's place. And the baby - I wish you both the very best.

Hey, nobody's mentioned the cute pooch yet, so I will!

Physicians who recommend alcohol of any kind to pregnant women are committing malpractice, in my professional opinion. At this point, we don't know what the cutoff is as far as how much alcohol it takes to harm the fetus. We do know that the fetus is exposed to alcohol twice - by sharing the mom's blood and through the placenta. And every woman is different. Some women drink heavily and deliver perfectly healthy infants, while others have an occasional glass of wine and deliver an infant with fetal alcohol effects. (The more severe fetal alcohol syndrome tends to occur in babies of women who drank heavily during pregnancy.)Many doctors are jumping on the "red wine is healthy" bandwagon thinking that if it's good for Mom, it must be good for baby. However, Mom has a fully formed brain and baby is going through it's most critical period of brain development, the time in which alcohol is probably most harmful. So pregnant moms, make sure your doctor reads the literature instead of handing down dated information.

I hate this kind of thing

Dear Oh Please: DITTO

And things were going along nicely about the apartment weren't they......

um, getting back to apartment-related topics...

again, anyone know anything about that muriatic acid? im desperate to clean my tiles.

I know this: Muriatic Acid is seriously caustic. It cleans the crap off cement. while I haven't used it myself, friends have. They used respirators. Maybe you only need to do that when you are in a poorly ventilated space. I would suggest you google it and then probably check in a hardware store for info - the smaller stores where people actually know their products.

Post info if you can.

bravo! that's awesome all that work got done before the baby! i like how you arranged the 4 photos at top of post.

http://mcmua.com/HazardousWaste/FAQ_Muriatic_Acid.htm

this might help....

The only I thing I know about muriatic acid is that pregant and nursing mothers should avoid drinking it.

thanks, Jackie!!

My pleasure. But I'd still check with a small hardware store. They usually have had "practical" experience. Good luck and share the results.

Just popping out of the woodwork to say good luck finishing everything up before the arrival of the little one - almost there and it looks amazing! I love that shower. All the best, Angela

Please do a feature on this muriatic acid... I'm curious to see if I can use this on my kitchen counter tiles that are ages old and grimy...
Place seems to be coming together great and I LOVE the showerhead.

Good luck and all the best

This is exciting Maxwell and SKGR, thanks for sharing with all of us!

Holly

I have nothing to do. So here goes:

Muriatic Acid - various info:

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infmur.shtm

http://prosoco.com/QandA2.asp?id=17

http://www.aldonchem.com/popup-ab-clean-rust.htm

http://www.dubricon.com/Quarry_Tiles/Tile_Installation/tile_installation.html

http://www.thproperties.com/customer_service/maintenance/ceramic_tile.html

http://www.lawnsite.com/archive/index.php/t-80131.html

I thought looking this up was better than eating more cake, which is what I'd be doing about now on a day this dull at work.

jackie, i am having an incredibly dull day as well so i'm looking forward to checking out these links.

i just spoke to a friend who recently bought a place and is having some minor things done - one of them being her bathroom tiles (walls and floor) acid-washed and grouted. she said its costing her about $1200 for 2 bathrooms. she also thinks i will destroy whatever brain cells i have left if i try this myself. we shall see. if i do attempt this i will keep you posted. if i can still spell and have my motor skills in tact, that is.

thanks again

My favorite photo of my Mom shows her at a party; she is

3 months pregnant with me.
holding a glass of scotch in one hand while
in the other hand she has a cigarette.
she is laughing her head off.

I always tell her this explains a lot about me!

Try Aqua Mix Heavy-Duty Acid Cleaner. It's marketed as a "safe alternative to muratic acid." We sell tons of it, and contractors seem to love it. Depending on what you're trying to get rid of, you might try the same company's Phosphoric Acid Cleaner first. The company's web site it www.aquamix.com.

Muriatic acid is used as a pretty heavy-duty grout/masonry cleaner and it is added to swimming pools to lower the pH level. It can be very caustic. But it can also be safely used when diluted properly and neutralized properly.

Wendy makes a great point about trying safer alternatives first.

Being a doctor I could not resist:

the mother's blood is NEVER shared with the baby - only in a severe accident do a few FEW cells of blood cross the placenta.

That being said - alcohol does cross the placenta AND is found in breast milk one hour after it is taken by the mother.

So, drink on, esp in the third trimester and if you are breastfeeding, drink more than an hour before you plan to nurse (ie late at night is fine if the babe is not going to feed for a while...

Good luck to all!