Albemarle Reno

Thank You HBO!

albemarle — 2010-03-02T10:42:00-05:00

The neighborhoods of the Ditmas Park area have long wooed location scouts for film and tv projects with their Siren songs of spacious layouts and varied architectural details. Audiences 'round the world have had a voyeurs-eye view into Victorian Flatbush homes countless times as they provided a dash of authenticity to period films, or served as a neat double for far-flung locales. Sophie's Choice is a memorable early example of filming in Prospect Park South. A Rugby Road home is essentially type-cast, born to play the eccentric, mysterious rooming house and keeper of its boarders' secrets.

Interior Demo Part 2: Kitchen Hearth Uncovered

albemarle — 2010-02-09T15:18:29-05:00

The interior demolition reveal I was most into seeing lived on the other side of this chimney.

Here We Go A-Salvaging...

albemarle — 2010-01-27T10:42:35-05:00

Given the current state of our house, it's hard to imagine a day when sinks will be installed and light fixtures will be hanging from a freshly painted ceiling. We've been encouraged to start shopping and I've been noodling around on various architectural salvage websites to see if we can get some old stuff to put in our old house.

Interior Demo Part 1: Bye-Bye Kitchen

albemarle — 2010-01-22T15:01:24-05:00

Sometimes it feels like this house is swallowing me whole -- and not always in a bad way. There's been so much going on in and around the joint that there's been little time to blog it.

Much to roll out in the coming weeks so I'll get right to it.

Tapestries Revisited

albemarle — 2010-01-06T13:40:42-05:00

You may remember these tapestries

in our dining room

from an earlier post. The opinions from the Brownstoner community about what to do with them were, as always, plentiful, varied, and informative. Architerrorist mentioned a carpet and textile specialist living in Ditmas Park. That very specialist's husband commented that his wife would be willing to lay her discerning eyeballs on our tapestries and tell us what's what.

Elizabeth Parker is Department Head of Rugs and Tapestries at Christie's and PBS tapped her expertise and telegenic visage for several seasons of their popular The Antiques Roadshow. See her impressive resume by scrolling down to the bottom of this page and passing the mouse over her name. She trudged over in the aftermath of the season's first snowstorm and enlightened us about the age, condition and value of our wall-coverings.

They are early 20th century machine-made tapestries woven on a Jacquard loom that uses a punch card for the design and requires some human oversight to produce. They are likely based on 16th or 17th century Flemish or French tapestries. and were very common wall-coverings in turn of the century houses. Ours are too faded and damaged to bring back to anything resembling their original condition. We told her commenter Brenda From Flatbush's idea about preserving some pieces in frames and she agreed that that would be a nice way to save some of the less damaged parts. Some possibilities:

Elizabeth saw a lot of our type of tapestry on the Roadshow and when it came time for the iconic treasure chest to slide across the tv screen, sparkly bells of valuation a-ringin', Elizabeth would have to break the news that the worth of the tapestries were "less than $100." She told us this is the show's lowest price category and basically a nice way of saying they're worth about $10.

Fantasies of funding the renovation from record-breaking auction spoils aside, this is great information to have. It gives us permission to not be precious about the tapestries and to do whatever we decide best suits the look and feel of the room as it starts to come together. We'll protect them from the dust for now and entertain all options as the reno moves forward. Many thanks Elizabeth!

Bids Are In!

albemarle — 2009-12-14T10:16:49-05:00

Reading the first reno bid felt like being plunged, naked, into an iced-water bath. The enormity of it, both in the scope of work, the time it will take and the cost left me in a cold stupor that gave way to a hot prickling anxiety from my shoulders to the top of my skull.

Why were we so shocked? We're naive first-time home-buyers for one -- but also the scope of work has grown since we first put a number to what we thought the cost of the reno would be. Updating the systems of the house became a top priority when we realized that replacing them over time would be more costly in the long run and more disruptive -- walls would have to be opened up, closed and repaired each time. Taking care of electric, plumbing and a/c now really bumps up the numbers, but will save us money and time down the road.

Probe Holes

albemarle — 2009-12-02T10:46:42-05:00

I had to wipe the smirk off my face when a GC first suggested making "probe holes" in some of our walls, ceilings and floors -- yes, I have the sense of humor of a 14 year-old boy. Turns out, probe holes are useful investigative tools when planning a renovation.

The ceiling of Mr. Albe's office, in the 3rd floor turret, is the site of an active leak.

Dining Room Dilemma

albemarle — 2009-11-23T10:46:46-05:00

Here's our dining room (not our furniture)...Lots more photos, and a question about the tapestries, below.

Beneath the Surface

albemarle — 2009-11-18T10:42:19-05:00

Picking flaky skin off day-old sunburns is irresistible to me. Peeling off the damaged dermal layers brings an odd satisfaction. As the contractor walk-throughs continue and bids are calculated there is some excavating we can't help but do on our own.
Above is our vestibule floor. Could I have lived with this for awhile? Probably, but I couldn't help wondering if the linoleum masked something more interesting. . .

All Systems, Go — Away?

albemarle — 2009-11-10T13:50:52-05:00

A photographer once shared this with me: "You know you're one of those people who photograph better than they look in person."

Ummmm. . .thanks?!

But this is a bit how I feel about our Albemarle house. The high ceilings, woodwork, copious natural light and expansive rooms tease the eye away from what's roiling below the surface -- outdated (and dangerous) electrics, lead and brass plumbing, walls with little to no insulation, and a terribly inefficient heating system groaning in the basement. Here's a taste of what we have now:

Electric fuse boxes courtesy of Federal Pacific:

One contractor walking through remarked, "Oh yes, the old Federal Pacific firestarters." -- and that was before he saw this:

concealed behind this...

Welcome to The Albemarle Reno Blog

albemarle — 2009-11-06T10:45:47-05:00

My husband and I, together with our intrepid architect, have been plotting and planning since we closed on this house on Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South about three weeks ago. We are first-time home-buyers who have rented brownstone apartments in Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill since 1992. The renovation we have in mind is extensive. It includes restoring the kitchen to its rightful place (it was shunned to a back hallway in 1959 to make room for the owner-dermatologist's suite of exam rooms). Also in that era, the ornate, oval dining room slummed as a waiting room, while the walls, baseboards and molding throughout the house served as track for stapling miles of alarm system, intercom, phone and, yes, electrical wires. If you click through below, you can get a good sense of the beautiful house we are getting--but also the range of work that lies ahead. We're looking forward to documenting the project as well as benefiting from the input of the Brownstoner community as we go along.