203#1 got demolished

After seeing the work needed in 203#1 after my caretaker left, it really started the wheels turning that more major renovations were needed to the overall building than just the band-aid renovations that I had been doing. It became evident that the staircase was in need of a major overhaul in the long-run and it was hard for me to justify renovating another apartment without a long term plan of where the building was headed. Now that the building was cash-flow positive, I had the luxury of time to save and come up with one.

So 203#1 got demoed anyways (because demo is fun, duh) and there were major problems. That leak in the kitchen sink meant the whole kitchen subfloor was rotten. As I peeled back layers, I almost fell through the floor into the basement. Still today there is just an old door covering the hole. I gutted the kitchen and bathroom to studs and found mold and other fun things. Right now it's still just open studs and cleaned out. I moved the extra appliances to the back bedroom for storage. The front living room became a storage closet for all of my tools and extra materials. I even took the plaster off the kitchen chimney to expose the brick and determine that's how I want to redo the rest of the apartments.

Ultimately this was the apartment that turned the tide from short-term band-aid renovations to a more long-term vision for the building. I was then determined to bite the bullet, develop a plan with an architect, take out a big loan, and knock out this beast with a legit general contractor doing the work. Spoiler alert this isn't done today as I type, but it was an important step in my learning curve.