Inspection time!

As the project manager Urho has been not allowed on site for a day, it was time for him to return to do a proper check up on how things are moving forward. As you can see from the photo below, he likes to stick his nose very close to anything interesting, so often times he ends up being covered either with paint, dust or dirt.

A dog with a dusty nose

Project "Closets" is still ongoing. Today we continued with painting and sanding the doors. Fortunately, unlike the closets, the doors can be sanded outside to minimize the amount of dust inside. At the moment it looks like we will be able to use the old doors, but getting them ready is a long road. Hopefully during the weekend we will finish with most of them. 

Sanding the doors

Doors ready to be painted

Urho really took his managing duties seriously. Below he is observing painting the coat rack. So far the rack has been painted once, and will need at least two more layers to cover the green paint. However, one can already see the difference, the area will be so much lighter white than it was in green.  

Dachshund perspective

Urho also considers himself a trusted watch dog. However, we think it is not so much he would be guarding the entrance, but rather trying to suppress his desire to go and explore the surroundings of the apartment - without a permission, of course!

Olive green entrance view

A day in a closet

Like some of you might know, being in a closet can be quite uncomfortable at times. Today, basically the whole day was spent in a box. Our extremely efficient and hard working team did a fantastic job. Sanding of all closets was finalized. Subsequently, they were all vacuumed, washed and rinsed. Finally, they are now ready to be painted.

Starting point

Paneling removed

Glue being removed with paint removal

Some fresh air, please! 

Sand(ing) man in the closet

Sand(ing) woman in the closet 

Freshly sanded entrance hall coat rack 

Due to the dusty nature of the project, today Urho stayed at home. Fortunately, the dedicated project manager will be back on site tomorrow to check the quality of the job done.

In to the closets

Today it was time to start working with the closets. The plan is to sand, wash and paint them. Sounds easy, but it is rather noisy, dusty and slow - once again. Thankfully, we got help - the absolutely cheapest way to do it - relatives. And not only relatives, but retired relatives.

Master bedroom closets

So far, about third of the closets have been sanded. To maintain the ability of our helpful relatives to breath and work, some hard core protective gear had to be obtained. Tomorrow babies and dachshunds are not allowed on site either, way too dusty.

Sand(ing) man at work

The kitchen explosion

While the original kitchen had its own style and appeal, we preferred something different. The old kitchen was recycled, and ended up relocating to someone's summer house.

The original kitchen

After the cabinets and household appliances were disassembled and transferred away by the new owners of the old kitchen, all what was left was an empty wall with some tiles on it. Lots of tiles. Lots of tiles waiting to be removed. By whom?

Wall of tiles

Fortunately, on the eight day, God created DeWalt. This little "extension of every renovating average Joe's masculinity" comes rather handy in projects such as this particular one. Oh and by the way, at this point both the baby and Urho were transferred to a safer and more environmentally safe place. 

After three hours of continuous swearing, sweating and loud neighbor distracting noise, the tiles were gone, and all what was left was an empty wall, with some rough interesting details. 

No more tiles

Electricity outlets 

Copper tubes

Some unidentified red items - anyone?

Few more hinges to go

Today we did some prep work for the coming week. The doors are going to go out for professional sanding and painting tomorrow, and for Minna's absolute joy we realized there were few more hinges which needed to be removed. Since this "hinge removal" is such a dear subject, we decided to include a progression of photos of this small but very important project. Thankfully, they are now all off!

Very ill-smelling and poisonous paint removal gel applied

Two layers of paint scratched off and screws removed

Finally, hinges removed

Pekka cleaned and organized the downstairs for the bathroom team to start working tomorrow. Also, he added an additional layer of protection on the kitchen floor. The day also included some further planning - of course the plans keep changing a bit as we go along with the project! And last but not least, Pekka did a fair amount of painting, of course. Just for the record, so far we have used up 4 x 10 liters of white paint. The master bedroom is starting to look pretty nice, as all walls have at least two layers of paint now.

Pekka painting the master bedroom

So what did Urho do? In addition to finding the sunny spots to relax and oversee the project, he at some point had a pretty close encounter with a paint brush. But what the heck, who cares, the two white spots in his neck only add to the little sausage's street cred!!

Urho's renovation look

The last red brick

Someone already asked - "so where is the olive green window"? If you look closely, you can find it in some of the photos posted earlier, but here is a close up. This amazing glass window is located right above and on the left side of the main entrance. In some of the other apartments in the same complex, this beautiful glass has been removed or changed, but we think it is unique and a definite keeper!

The Olive Green Window

Not surprisingly, today we did a lot of painting - again. The last part of the brick wall in the master bedroom, which had not yet been painted, finally got the first layer of white. To gain a finished look, the brick requires at least three layers, so even there is no more visible red left, there is still much painting to be done.

The end of the brick wall

The very last red brick

For lunch, we ordered some pizza. Urho, the little sneaky sausage saw his opportunity when we were working in another room, and couldn't resist temptation. Caught in action, he still managed to steal a big piece of pizza and as a result, received a lot of "constructive feedback". Lesson learned?

Friday night paint

After a few days of not being able to work on site, we were eager to get back in action. What could be a better way to spend one's Friday evenings than to do some painting?

One of the ongoing projects has been the non-brick wall in the living room. After pealing of the wallpaper, there was quite a bit of the original glue still stuck on the wall. We had to spray the wall with a lot of glue removal and scrape the softened glue off with a piece of metal. Finally tonight, we were able to sand the wall and apply the first layer of white paint.

Old wallpaper

Wallpaper removed

First layer of paint

Both the outside as well as the inside doors of the apartment have a window on top of them. Therefore, a similar type of glass window will be built on top of the living room wall as it now only has an opening for it.

Another painting project, which we were able to finalize tonight was the baby's room. The ugly yellow walls are now white, and the room is almost ready - only the baseboard is missing.

The streamlined and highly aerodynamic Urho always manages to find a sunny spot. This time he joined the painters and the evening sun in the baby's room, and did what he does best - observes and relaxes.

One loooong dachshund