UpState Update: Two Floors Nearly Finished!!

We went up to the house yesterday and LO AND BEHOLD! it is a dwelling!!  We might be closer to turning some income out of this monster than I'd been thinking.  (there's been a lot of depressed thinking and check-writing lately.)
Just look at these pix:

 This is the Great Room (that is what we have decided to call the main floor which houses the kitchen, living room, dining room and staircase up to the Master Suite).  The plywood floor is down, the kitchen floor is tiled and all the windows and doors have been trimmed out.  

Take note of that last item: doors.  That door over there on the right is new!  It is the entrance from the entry structure into the upper two floors of the house.  My idea!!  This has the added benefit of trapping heat in the great room and upper floors so that winterizing is cheaper and/or winter renters can just dwell in those upper spaces and skip the chilly bottom.

This is the view from the upper landing in the entry structure (door slides into the wall at left):

And this is the view from inside the Great Room looking toward the landing (door slides into the wall at right):

And here is the view of the inside of the entry structure seen from the upper landing outside the Great Room.  The new thing here is the three big beams you see which intersect just above center (not the ugly 2"x8"s in the foreground in the lower center - those are just safety rails until we get a real railing installed).  These beams replace a bunch of ugly framing elements that would have required sheetrocking over them.  We used 4"x11" rough cut maple beams so, in addition to being big and cool looking, they are a lovely wood.  This is one choice I think definitely improves resale value - good use of local lumber.  We can market that the way folks do: Features Locally grown sustainable hardwoods! YEAH!!

And looky looky!!! Big update in the Master Bath.  The shower glass is installed!!  We finally have a complete shower enclosure!  It is pretty exciting.  We still need the fixtures to be installed, but the glass looks amazing.  The shower is the nicest (and most expensive) room in the house -- way nicer than any bathroom in our place and nicer than any bathroom we expect to have in a house we live in anytime soon (maybe once we rent/sell this place we will be able to afford a nice bathroom of our own).  Note also that the bathroom door has also been installed.

Here is the view of the bathroom door from the Master Bedroom side:

Oh, and finally, the steps have been installed on the back deck.  We are hoping that the inspector does not require us to install railings since it is such a short staircase.

Please don't ask what is left to do.  There is a lot.  Off the top of my head, we still have to do the following: The main staircase from the Great Room to the Master Suite needs to be completely re-built.  The staircases in the entry structure need to be built since the ones we have in there now are just utility staircases for the construction period.  We need all surfaces finished (painted or varnished).  Plumbing fixtures need to be installed.  A lot of electric boxes need to be finished so that fixtures can be hung.  The floors need to be sanded and sealed.  Closet doors are needed in the bedroom.  We need a new hearthstone and we need to tile, stone or otherwise finish the fireplace surround and chimney.  Oh, and did you notice that there is no kitchen in the kitchen (maybe we'll leave this for a buyer? but if we rent it first, we'll have to put in some basic kitchen stuff)? And that is just the stuff I can think of.  So, there is a lot to do.  

Oh, and there is also the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom which has not been touched for over a year and which we are just going to board up and leave for later.  If we're selling, that's less important than if we're renting.  Extra bedrooms is extra rentful magic.

CL acquisition - Glass Shower Door Hinges

Big morning.  
At 10am I picked up the toilet from the design-build firm uptown.  
Maybe I didn't mention, when I went up to see the toilet (still in boxes, new seat and all), the seller showed me a stack of boxes of Lightolier recessed light fixtures with trim pieces.  They were all brand new and sealed and he was pricing them to give them away.  Since V and I decided a couple weeks ago when we met with the electrician that we will go ahead and install some recessed lighting over the kitchen counter, I bought five of these light fixtures with trim for less than the price of one would cost new.  So I picked those up along with the toilet.  Hooray again for cheap materials on CL.  
Then, I drove out to Westchester to the home of the seller of that shower enclosure from a post or two ago.  It was a fancy home on a mcmansion strewn cul de sac.  Kind of an awful oversized spec-house area.  Just awful.
Turns out the seller had measured wrong and the glass is 3/8", not 1/2".  But that is fine since 3/8" is the standard.  Still, I had decided that the price was too high since all I wanted was the door and not the rest of the enclosure.  After walking through the house and looking at all the awful furniture that she wanted to sell me ("Everything red goes! We're changing the color scheme."), I finally convinced her that I only wanted the shower door and I offered a third of what she had originally asked since it isn't 1/2" and I didn't want the other pieces -- I wasn't just playing her.  I wouldn't have bought it at all if she hadn't come down to my price.  
I spent an hour in her driveway building a wooden frame and support structure to carry it standing on one edge in the back of my car.  
So, now here is the question: the door is set up to be hinged with pivoting hinges on the top and bottom, not a swinging hinge on the back edge.  The bottom hinge is still attached to the door (luckily since it is over $150 new to replace), but sadly the top hinge is missing.  Here's some pix.  Now I have to find the exact right hinge to fit into the space on the door already cut out for that express purpose.


This is the bottom edge of the bottom hinge.

This is the notch/cutout in the top corner of the door where the top hinge clamps on.  Hopefully the replacement hinge won't be too expensive.

design idea: Glass Shower Enclosure and Chickens!!

I followed up with a CL seller today about a glass shower enclosure she listed on CL cheap - it appears to be 1/2" thick frameless glass door and walls with hinges and hardware CHEAP!  Assuming it is what she says it is, even if we only use the door, it is an incredible deal (basically, it seems like she needs someone to take it away).  

It appears to be four good pieces of half inch tempered glass.  And I don't even think we would need to replace any of the four pieces of glass to increase the shower size since we could just build out a little wall on either side - plus, the short side which, in this photo, sits on the tub edge, would just sit on a little wall at the end of the vanity/sink counter.  so this probably works pretty well.  But again, even if we use nothing but the door and just install it into a framed and tiled shower, it is a giveaway.

So, anyway, I spoke to the seller by phone and asked her to send me a few clearer pix of the shower enclosure and hardware, but somehow she got it in her head that I want to see pictures of everything else she is selling (which seems to be everything in her house).  Which brings me to the following...

What does it say about me that my first thought upon seeing these chickens was AWESOME!!! I didn't even hesitate to wonder why? or What would it be like to live with taxidermied poultry? or any of the other perfectly reasonable things that might go through a person's mind seeing four stuffed roosters.  Not me.  I just went from zero to AWESOME!!!

Maybe a little more reasonably, I like this chair she is getting rid of.  I always wanted a leather club with an ottoman.  Nowhere to store it though so I'm not going to dally with it.