Tomorrow's D-day!

Months and months ago, this was our fortune cookie prediction. We thought it was absolutely appropriate for our renovation dreams. We magnetized it to our door as a reminder that if we don't do anything, our renovation dream will remain just a dream.

Tomorrow - we start renovation! First thing, demolition! Our contractor said that it'll take about a week, so by this time next week, we won't be living at home. Just not quite sure where we'll be living. But fear not, we have our 2 pieces of luggage, so we're mobile and ready to couch hop!

Let's Get It Started, in here...

Let's Get It Started, in here...

And the tape keep runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and...


18 rolls of packing tape, 2 rolls of bubble wrap, 30 boxes, 2 bags full of *ahem* bags, and iTunes blasting... we kicked it off with a little dance to "Let's Get It Started" by the Black-Eyed Peas and then off we go...



Most people celebrate Memorial Day weekend with going to the beach, BBQing, strolling through the park...

... Sean and I celebrated it by packing, packing, packing and with occasional trips to Home Depot in searching of tubs, doors, and faucets... West Elm in this effortless search of shelves for our bathroom... and PC Richards in search for a good, but cost-conscious dishwasher and microwave.


Two days later - we're basically done. Just need to move our bed and tarp up the living room tomorrow and voila, we're ready for demolition.

Everything is shoved into one corner of our living room. You know, now that it's done. It feels really good. This is our pile o' stuff now. This is what it looked like when we moved in. Go us for down-sizing!

Our tiles arrived!

Our tiles arrived Friday! As they queued up in a pile on the street (50% shown here) a passerby stopped, bent her nose down to one of the tiles, then simply continued walking. We're not sure if she grossly disapproved, or was simply there for quality checks.

Unfortunately the tile company's delivery policy is "to the curb only". And our buildings' policy is "deliveries go through the basement." So Lily and I lugged all 1,000 pounds of stone down the steps from the street and then handtrucked them through our basement and up to our apartment, where they now sit in our dining area in a cute pile shaped like a dining table.

Our super Super saved the day by loaning us his handcart, because I was too numbskullery to think ahead and bring mine home from work. Even still it took about 2 hours.

This was much better than our original plan, which was to take it home on the subway.

T-minus 13 days to demolition

We haven't been updating the ol' blog here in a while because we were delayed by our building's wonderful management company for 6 months, while some structural engineer, who refused to visit us, deliberated slowly from a trailer-based office in Queens about whether our closet door was scary, illegal, or a skyscraper. I won't torture you with the saga, but that statement is actually true. :(

So as a result we've had our IKEA kitchen sitting in our living room since November and the tile people couldn't even find our order when we went back to schedule a delivery. ("Hm, maybe we filed it away with the 2008 taxes?")



BUT NOW! We finally have approval, and we have an actual start date from our contractor! Demolition begins... (drum roll) ... Tuesday 26-May! So we've been packing up everything in the rooms that will be smashed, taking down paintings and fragile things, and basically getting everything ready.

Soon! So soon! They'll be making all kinds of a ruckus and who knows where we'll sleep when we don't have a shower or toilet, but hey, that's what makes life interesting.