Here are a few before and during shots:

ugh - paint was peeling off the medicine cabinet

A couple of guys from the union inspecting the work after stripping:

Union Inspectors Not Overjoyed

Here we see Kara closing in on the door frame:

Happy Painter!

Looking Good!

And some finished product: (I could not get too close cuz someone was painting in the doorway.) edit: It turns out that we need to put on another coat. We sanded the crap out of it and it felt nice and smooth but the surface imperfections are still showing up, and given that the paint is a semi-gloss, those imperfections really jump out. Who knows how many coats of paint were on there before we stripped them off – each one filling in and flattening out a bit.

So, for a long time we just swapped the positions of the upper and lower sashes so we’d have some privacy in the privy. But of course, they won’t seal out the cold that way, so the plan was to swap the panes before it got cold. Which didn’t really happen until yesterday, so miraculously we were ok.

Of course, I should know by now, but still am somehow surprised to remember that embarking on a project in a building of this age inevitably waves the magic can opener at the nearest can of worms. Those worms want out! Swapping two panes of glass is pretty straightforward – but… once you start painting the glaze everything else looks worse in comparison. So the hardware comes off, I install new cord for the counterweights and pump in numerous beads of caulk.

These were covered with five layers of paint.

The previous mentioned Soak in Warm Soapy Water trick did not work as well for this batch of hardware. It helped for sure, but this time I had to resort to more vigorous mechanical methods: a knife, the wire wheel side of the bench grinder, and the trusty dremmel, the wire wheel brush of which is now worn just about down to the nubs.

The handles were much easier – I suppose because they don’t have any concave recesses.

I also realized after soaking the old fasteners in oil and gouging out their slots with a razor blade, that the latch sits so high that pretty much no-one will ever see that there is no paint in the screwheads! Wasted time!

But overall I’m quite happy with the outcome. The bathroom is much better insulated and it looks a lot less “skeehaw” as they say in Montana.

The finished product

Something about painted hardware really bugs me. I realize that it is probably just a personal preference, and this may out me as an elitist snob (and a redundant one at that) but to me, nothing says Crappy Rental Apartment like painted hardware.

The last of the common areas to get finished are now more or less done. We’ll be tweaking them as we go along of course as nothing demonstrates what needs to get done in a work room like actually working in it.

Here we see Garrett, a three year old mechanic securing a rear wheel to a really nice bike.

And of course, a person should have a bike that fits her or him, so the big Bianchi will have to wait a few years. In the mean time, Garrett has a new red bike that fits him just fine. The red bike will definitely do more than just a lap around the Christmas tree!

All Shiny and New

Doing our part to reduce the urban heat island effect.

We polished off a (5 gallon) keg of Joel’s super delicious Civil Twilight IPA and put a good dent in a keg of Mother Stout. Lots of great food showed up and we ended the night gathered around a fire in the back-yard. Yay (non-toxic) construction debris!

The annual costume contest resulted in a two way tie for first place and two way tie for second place. I forget who won exactly… but there were so many great costumes that really pretty much everyone was a winner as far as I’m concerned.

I continue to be dismayed with my inability to find a decent wordpress photo-gallery, so once again here is a link to a Picassa gallery:

Habloween 2011

Some people asked about the “Baba Garden” dip so here is something like a recipe. The whole idea was to use up as much stuff from the garden as possible, so if you make your own, I recommend using what you have rather than trying to replicate this exactly.

3 medium eggplants
3 medium cloves of garlic
1 bunch of mustard greens
1 bunch of kale
1 bunch of chard, including stems
several small green peppers
2 or 3 tomatoes
1/4 cup of tahini
juice of two lemons

Sorry those are so vague, but the idea is to use things up!

Pierce the eggplants several times with a fork, then char them over an open flame if possible. Then roast them at 425F until very soft. When the eggplants are getting pretty close add the kale to the roasting pan. When done, the chared eggplant skins should come off pretty easily at this. Some burnt bits of skin may end up in the food processor and that is ok. If some of the kale gets crispy set that aside and eat it separately. Bonus Kale chips!

Peel and smash the garlic and toss it into a food processor along with everything else. Chopping up the chard stems will make the processing a bit easier, but if you prefer the entertainment value of watching it all happen in the machine, go for it. It may take quite a bit of processing depending on what your particular ingredients happen to be. Add salt and pepper to taste. A bit of your favorite spicy heat can’t hurt, but go easy on it if you plan to serve this to normal people.

It can served on pretty much anything that will hold it: bread, crackers, toasted pita, veggie slices, whatever. I also used some it as a pasta sauce for a light lunch and will be trying some of it as a pizza sauce later this week.

Process

You still need to scrape and wire brush* to get the paint off, but compared to doing it to an un-soaked piece it was tremendously easier. The paint nearly fell off with just a few stubborn places requiring a bit of the wire brush. The old hardware still has a really nice patina to it and we saved a small bundle by being able to re-use the old stuff.

*Not the big stiff wire brush, but a little toothbrush sized brush with softer steel bristles. The big stiff brush would probably scratch the hardware.

It will take decades to get the park as green as it was eight days ago. Last night we did our first walk around the whole park. We confirmed that the section just west of our house got it the worst, but lots of big old trees when down on the east end of the park as well. So sad.

Here is a link to some photos on Picassa.

Winkler Tree Service, one of the arborists who came in to help with the aftermath was kind enough to share some mulch with us, so we have a memorial layer of park trees spread out on our flower beds in front and back.