[red-beard]

Since the ladder was darn near straight up and down, I put a rope through an open window upstairs and tied the ladder. The ladder had to be fiberglass since I was so close to the electric lines. I did use a safety belt from an old job and hooked onto the ladder rungs while working.

For painting, I used a power roller. It was battery powered and held 1/2 gallon of paint. The roller was the thickest mat I could find, since the brick is fairly rough.

It really wasn't that bad, except I think it was pretty darn hot for Upstate NY. I'm pretty sure it was over 90 both days.

On a rough guess, I expect that the paint job added $10-15K to the selling price. I bought the place in 1999 for $85K and sold it 2 years later for $149K. I did put $20K into my kitchen (upper 2 floors) and I also put about $5K of materials into fixing up the inside of all three units. Rent from the two apartments were about $950/mth. Mortgage, taxes, ins were less than that!

I only wish I had waited to 2004-2005 to sell! I believe it would have gone for $250K!