Crown Heights Reno

« wrapped and ready from the ground up »

May 22, 2007

a little place i like to call...

demo hell

a dozen things i've learned about demolition

#1
be very clear and consistent when marking what is to stay and what is to be removed
confusion resulted when the following 3 designations were used:
save
do not touch
remove and save
do
save & do not touch
mean the same thing?
or does
save & remove and save
mean the same?

so in addition to restoring missing molding, some molding will need to be reinstalled

which brings us to #1a:
label the pieces carefully so that they can be put back

#2
if you intend to keep it, protect it

#3
destruction

destruction

in a word it's awful,
and while some might relish the fact that progress is being made,
i found it terribly disturbing.
even though i love the plans we have for the house,
i hated watching parts of it be destroyed

#4
dirt, dirt, dirt

and more dirt

don't fool yourself,
no amount of tape
and no numbers of layers of plastic sheeting
is going to keep any part of a house under demolition even a tiny bit dust free.
the stuff is incredibly fine and i don't believe it ever stops settling

#5
don't let moments of relative calm fool you

the mess will be back

#6
pipes will get hit

you will have leaks

#7
your garbage cans are no longer yours
they are theirs

your house is no longer yours
it is theirs

#8
some things,
no matter how many times you move them to the top of the heap
so that they will end up in the dumpster,
get rescued and carefully set aside

other things,
that have been deliberately set aside,
keep making a beeline for the trash

#9
it's true
there are plumbers who think nothing of removing a huge section of a supporting beam or joist

it's so obviously wrong when you see it

#10
water rots wood

there are gaping holes where leaky bathtubs once were

#11
some things keep getting moved from place to place
as if they have deep personal significance

this is a crap medicine chest
whose journey i have actually found quite amusing

#12
and there will be endless questions;
like,
what part of the house did this come from?

or
who would have guessed that the weird tin tile on the downstairs kitchen wall could be so interesting

and
the biggest question of all

will this ever end?

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Comments

Hard to believe, it will end. It is quite the process and you are doing a great job documenting it. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Anon on Greene at May 25, 2007 10:35 AM

Wow!!! Yes, it will end and you will have an amazing home. Keep inspiring the rest of us out here in the dusty land called home renovations.
Thanks!!

Posted by: Adante at May 25, 2007 10:52 AM

Holy crap! I love the photo essay! Most of it was exactly what I went through when I did my reno...Ah, good times... There is a light at the end of the tunnel - not always so bright if you run out of money, so I hope you're budgeting well, and my last piece of advice - burn whatever shop-vac you're using for the project at the end and get a top-of-the-line vaccuum cleaner for the relentless dust that never seems to go away....

Posted by: Anonymous at May 25, 2007 11:13 AM

I love your photos and writing...it is so poetic and warm and wonderful. I was thinking about one of your other posts just the other day, when I saw a wall in DUMBO...You are doing a fantastic job!

Posted by: aunt helen at May 25, 2007 5:53 PM

Wowzie, a trip down memory sewer! LOL to your astute observations about plumbers who perform beam surgery and water rotting wood. It's especially fun when those 2 rules occur together! Every single rule is so true, and so many I'd forgotten!
I remember during demo I just "davened"--rocked back and forth at whatever wall was left to wail to--as the ghastly noise and vibrations rocked the house. But no shattering or banging or ripping sound was worse than a silent pause, some muttering, and those dreaded words: "Ah...missus? You wanna come over here? We gotta show you somethin'..." ARRRGGGHH!!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at May 25, 2007 10:33 PM

Why is such destruction necessary? Is it to install new electric and plumbing? Not meaning to be critical, just curious, thanks.

Posted by: anonymous at May 27, 2007 12:30 AM

Why is such destruction necessary? Is it to install new electric and plumbing? Not meaning to be critical, just curious, thanks.

Any old house has a lot of other people's decisions (like the pipe-in-the-joist) that are bad. Bad for the structure of the house, bad for the future, bad for your plans for the present.

I don't know what's going on in CH, but in my house we found walls nested inside walls, multiple dropped ceilings (yes, for a total room height of 7 whopping feet), copious termite damage, lots of weight (multiple floors) on top of rotting joists...

It's impossible to build upon this. It's important to scrape back to what is right and move from there, or you will be *screwing* yourself down the road.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 27, 2007 7:23 PM

@ anonymous 12:30 AM
anonymous 7:23 has it right.
in addition we are using the house differently from how we found it, this was originally a one family that had been converted to a 2 family, there were awful kitchens on the ground & top floors, the bathrooms were all leaking; when we took out the tubs we found that the floors had rotted away underneath, there was a total of 60 amps of electric coming into the entire building, the furnace was over 50 years old, etc., etc.
a lot of what we ripped out was really shoddy construction covering up structural issues that needed to be addressed.
ultimately, with the excepttion of two rooms, i think we will be bringing the house closer to its roots than it was when we got it.

Posted by: ms. crown heights reno at May 28, 2007 8:44 PM

Great post!

My empathies(soon to be sympathetic) go out to you.

Did you do all the covering before the demo crew started? Or did your contractors do it?

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at May 29, 2007 8:34 AM

When you opened this blog last year you said

"(and we aren't facing any of the really yucky demolition stuff that some of our fellow reno bloggers encountered)"

do you take that back now?
Does the house still have great bones or was that optimistic?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 29, 2007 5:00 PM

@anonymous 5:00 PM

"take it back" ???
it's not like that was an accusation
but
"was i mistaken and/or completely naive?"
clearly yes
live and learn definitely applies here.

however, the house does have great bones,
the reinforcing was necessary because of some faulty renovation practices and some leaks
not because it wasn't built in a structurally sound manner.

but you do get an A+ for reading so carefully
:D

Posted by: ms crown heights reno at May 29, 2007 11:26 PM

@ mrs. limestone:
the contractor did it at our (persistent) insistence

Posted by: ms. crown heights reno at May 29, 2007 11:35 PM

Great essay, and a lot of it hit home for us.
It will end, and it looks like you're getting it all done right in the beginning. We did alot of work ourselves room by room, and it took a couple of years AND we were living in the house AND there are still a lot of loose ends and unfinished projects. Still we're happy. I was on Ambien for a month after we moved in because I was overwhelmed by our commitment.

P.S. When in doubt, go out back and work on the garden. It worked for us. Look for our pictures in 'My Brownstone'?

Posted by: Hal at June 2, 2007 2:25 PM

I have to say that seeing your home has brought a back a wonderful feeling inside of me. For 16 years I lived in Crown Hieghts (near eastern parkway) and decided to make a transition in my life and moved to the Midwest.
Just seeing the beauty of your yet to be finished home makes me want to return NYC. I hope that in a couple years that I will be able to do so.

Last comments your backyard is huge. The home i lived in had one not even half the size.
And I was also wondering what area of Crown Hieghts is your renovation being done.

Posted by: Jesse at June 5, 2007 5:00 PM