027 Viking Cooktop


Another Craigslist find - a Viking cooktop with four burners and a griddle, you know, for grilled cheese and such. The family we bought it from were really sweet, they helped carry it to the car and even offered cleaning suggestions. They have five children and needed a larger unit, one with six burners. It's cleaner than it looks in the picture. Heavier too. Next up - we need a refrigerator...

026 He Fell Through That Hole

That is Taylor. I hired him to help with all the paint scraping. He's doing a great job. And today, he fell through that hole in the floor (look at entry #22). Yup, he just fell right through, from the second floor to the first. He landed on his ass and muttered under his breath, "I can't believe I just did that..." we all ran over to see if he was OK, the staff was in shock, a little, after all he just FELL THROUGH THE HOLE. But he got up, apologized for the mess that fell down with him and offered to sweep it up. We said, no no, go take a break and make sure you're OK. And that was that. A few minutes later, after a glass of water, he was back to work. Did I mention that he FELL THROUGH THE HOLE?

I think he's a superhero...

025 The Loft Critic?

I was pretty excited to come across a site called "The Loft Critic" until I poked around a bit. Is this site for real? Not sure. The site seems to want to push readers towards their advertisers. There's not much in the way of content. Though the definitions for "Hard Loft" and "Soft Loft" were interesting - did you know a soft loft may have carpet? No way? Way!

024 Scraping Is Not Fun

This has to be the least enjoyable job so far: scraping the ceiling. Paint chips and sore arms. No fun. I'd rather rip down moldy drywall than bend over backwards on the scaffolding with a paint scraper. But I can't afford to pay someone to do it.

023 Tub Foot


We love Craigslist. This was a free find. A nice gentleman in Pawtuxet Village was moving and listed the tub as "free, but located on the second floor". When we showed up we were all ready to muscle it down a flight of stairs, but found it sitting in the driveway. Nice! It doesn't look like much, but the inside is refinished, though a little dirty. Not sure how to finish the outside after cleaning it up - but maybe Mr. Google can help.

022 The Big Hole


Yes, there is a hole in the floor, a big one at that. This image is looking up from the first floor into the second. The opening is approximately 4' x 8' and once made room for a conveyor belt which ran from the first floor to the second. On the first floor a square was removed then replaced out of the hard wood floors, which we were told by the previous owners was cut to make room for the conveyor belt motor. The hole is beautiful from downstairs as it lets in natural light in the morning. Everyone has an idea for the hole: fireman's pole, swing, elevator, spiral staircase. The fire safety guys (fire marshalls) aren't having it though. So we're going to plug it up. But it was fun to reveal the opening - and the most amount of work yet, besides tearing down walls.