Crown Heights Reno: about

all the perishable detail in the house has been wrapped and demo is underway
(documentation coming soon)

but first
a little plug:

this blog was contacted by Debra Salomon, the force behind the Anatomy of a Brownstone series.
as a result, Erin Vali of Ulterior Mode LLC (our architect) and i will be giving a presentation as part of
“Anatomy of a Brownstone V: Brownstioner’s Marketplace”
this saturday, may 12th, 1-5 pm
at the Atrium Ampitheater, 300 Jay Street.

more info on the ny citytech website

the house
my husband (g/) and i purchased a house in crown heights last july.
it has great “bones” and is (finger’s crossed) in surprisingly good shape
(especially since we bought it from owners for whom it was an investment property and it had been used basically as a dorm for the past few years).
we have some lovely wood detail, original fixtures on doors, intact plaster work, pocket shutters and 5 fireplaces
(and we aren’t facing any of the really yucky demolition stuff that some of our fellow reno bloggers encountered)
but the house hasn’t been upgraded in years: the boiler is over 50, there are 60 amps of electric total and easily 50% of the fixtures are leaking.
oh,
and the first thing anyone who is following the bed stuy blog might notice is that our house could be the sister to theirs
(and i am so jealous that they found their pocket doors intact when they opened up the doorways, ours were gone).

us
we are coming from 20+ years of loft living so a big challenge will be the concept of “rooms” (to say nothing of “floors”)
one of the main things that attracted us to this house was its detail and while we are not attempting anything resembling an historic restoration, we want to keep its inherent grace and beauty intact.
be forewarned, we are both fairly eclectic when it comes to design and we don’t always make obvious decisions.
i am a painter and g/ is a producer/mixer.
we don’t have kids… but, in a way, i guess we do now…

the project
we will be using the house for both living and working.
the top floor will be our bedroom and a guest room
the living room, dining room and kitchen will be on the parlor floor.
we will split the ground floor and the (very usable basement) between us for work; g/ will have an office and edit room in the front, my studio will be in the back.
the scope of the work that we are planning entails upgrading all the mechanicals, building a painting studio extension, creating a master bedroom suite, putting in a new kitchen and a guest bathroom/laundry room.
we are hiring an architect,
however when we realized how much work needed to be done (and that the architects fee would be a % of the overall cost based on the plans drawn up) we decided to take certain things out of the loop and subcontract them ourselves.
this list includes the facade work, the roof (if we find it needs to be replaced) and the interior finishing (paint, floors, etc)
we are both fairly hands on and intend to be fully involved on a day to day basis but we don’t feel we have the expertise to be our own gc.

timing
initially we had planned to be well along by now, but sh*t happens
while this has put stress on us in some ways it has also allowed us time to be in the house before having to make some very critical decisions.
two of the most important things impacted by this scheduling change are the location of my studio (resolved) and the whole HVAC solution (still being debated).
we are about to sign on with “the architect” but don’t expect actual building to take place before february
(pray we have a mild winter so the digging can commence)
in the meantime we will be doing demolition and figuring out the design issues
i will post plans as soon as we have them

i love the exchange that happens on these blogs
and i am hoping to learn a lot from it,
however, there are certain questions that might be best answered in a more general way.

#1 – why don’t you capitalize, i find your posts difficult to read?
sorry, i have been blogging for some time and have developed (an admittedly) idiosyncratic way of writing on the web,
at this point it would be too schizophrenic for me to try to adjust that for this blog

#2 – gender
unless otherwise noted “i” is a female, my husband doesn’t blog

#3 – up close & personal
while i can be very open and am willing to share a lot here, there are some things that i find either too personal to answer or i feel are simply not relevant to this blog

#4 – the nitty gritty
we have an architect
we will be using both a mechanical & a structural engineer
we are keeping the current 2 family designation (the house has no C of O)

#5 – if you have don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all
while i have no control over the caliber of your upbringing, and this is a “free” country, i do have the luxury of having the last word, so let’s try to keep the critique constructive.

#6 – calling all trolls
congratulations, your kind words have gotten you to here:
i don’t swim in your toilet, please don’t pee in my pool
arrivederci

#7 – naming names
i am very happy to pass along names of any of the people we used provided that the job they were contracted to do has been completed.
until that point i wouldn’t be able to truly recommend them
AND
(selfishly, i admit)
i don’t want anyone who is trying to complete a job for me, taking on another project

#8 – money talks (or doesn’t)
along the same lines as #3, i am not comfortable discussing financial matters on a public blog ESPECIALLY when the question is posed anonymously. if your query is more than idle curiosity, identify yourself, give me a way to get in touch with you and i’ll respond in kind.