http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/ Join n/ & g/ while they take on a gut reno, build an extension, create two separate work spaces, become urban gardeners and embrace life on 3 floors with rooms after 25 years in an open loft. en Copyright 2009 Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:49:15 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss these walls come fully loaded for the past couple of months we have been focusing on finishing up all the systems so that we can (finally) close the walls. basically that work is now finished though finding the right person to do the heating took a while: we are not only replacing the 50 year old boiler, we are changing from a forced air system to hot water heat, this work is about to start so i'll leave that discussion to a later post. A/C we did take advantage of the walls being opened to install central a/c. the units for the top 2 floors sit on the roof (back & low) the maze of ducts: amazingly, not visible through the top floor skylights our a/c contractor has done an incredible job of hiding the duct work. left: the vent cut into the parlor ceiling (which is in the process of being restored) (also visible are low voltage cans that we added at the 11th hour feeling that they were necessary to light the walls properly for paintings). right: the duct that feeds that vent set into the closet floor; there are only two places (here in the closet and at the top of the 3rd floor stairs) where we have to build something to hide the trunks; we were able to do the whole house without dropping any ceilings. some flexible duct work on the top floor and the unit in the basement for my studio which will have one long round exposed duct down the middle. ELECTRIC the electric was a huge job; with only 60 amps coming into the house we definitely need to bring in new service this requires digging up a portion of the new cement since it is necessary to replace the wooden trough that the electric currently sits in with a metal pipe (seems reasonable). the silver lining here is that we can rethink putting some plantings along the edge of the yard where the cement has been removed. (left: new meters, right: old) con ed also wanted to install our new meters on the outside of the building which did not seem reasonable. i would much prefer to let them in to do readings once a month (until the digital read outs become available) than to have 2 meters hanging out in the front. the electric in the extension wall: my studio will have a combination of lights; florescent fixtures for day to day activity and incandescent fixtures for showing work. the jury is still out on whether or not to go low voltage here. some of the massive mess of conduit running through the house but what a joy to be able to flick a switch and have lights come on!!! we went with low voltage 3" cans throughout much of the house and find the light to be very pretty. & a big shout out to joe at lendy electric (137 bowery) for all his help and patience; great service, great prices. some of the wiring on the parlor floor; left: new panel right: preparing for the wall o' appliances in the kitchen SIDEBAR in the snap above is a picture hanging on the (soon to be) wall, it is a rendering of the kitchen; a little reminder that things won't always be this way briefly all our appliances will sit on that west wall with the exception of the oven which will be under the island. on that same wall will be a combination of wood cabinets with horizontal hoppers in glass & metal. we are foregoing a dining room table and building a large concrete ovoid counter to serve for both prep and dining. (we are really excited about this so play nice, remember you don't have to live here) LOW VOLTAGE or "the information highway starts here" you might ask, why all this cat 6 in the age of wireless??? i promise you, for some of the work that i do, wireless just doesn't cut it and again; the walls are open we still haven't finalized the headache of alarms, intercoms, etc. though i must admit, the prospect of keypads, thermostatic controls, detectors of all sorts, etc. distributed liberally throughout the house in their lovely shades of decorator plastic is beginning to wear rather thin. ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/11/whats_inside.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/11/whats_inside.html Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:49:15 -0500 march 9th entry) unfortunately by not doing it immediately, a bit more of the ceiling started to pull away, but not enough so that we considered give up on it. and even though it is costing a bit more to do the extra work, the fact that the majority of the ceiling held up to all the demolition above it, gave us the confidence to proceed. this project is in a holding pattern right now, as we are going to wait for the floor above to be laid so as not to risk damage to any completed work during that installation we are thrilled with the results so far the first step was to remove any loose plaster and secure what was there: next, all small cracks were patched and the surfaces that were down to the lath were covered with structolite over wire where needed, then the brown coat was applied some details of the original plaster work and the repair around it the medallion in this room (left image below) is relatively small and barely salvageable, i am not sure we are going to try to reproduce it given that there is so much going on with the border in the center of the room. the image on the right shows part of a floral border that has pulled away from the surface i find all of this incredibly beautiful these images show the two ways that the new decorative work is achieved the left column shows how the crown molding is reproduced and the right column shows how the floral patterns are recreated left column: crown molding template the device in the upper left image is a metal template created from the profile of the existing molding it is just dragged across the wet plaster at the top to achieve a perfect match the bottom image on the left shows the old and the new about to meet right column: rubber mold for the detailed floral designs, a rubber mold is made from an existing pattern it is then pressed into place to create the rest of a design i can't wait to see this finished it looks like a fairy tale to me]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/11/beauty_break.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/11/beauty_break.html Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:33:06 -0500 preparing furring strips for the new installation of the siding we feel extremely fortunate that the person under whose umbrella said "contractor" was working has stepped up to the plate to remedy the problems that we are facing. we feel extremely fortunate that this person is organized, skilled and genuinely trying to help. we have lost time and money, he is losing money, said "contractor" has put a sum of money in his pocket, (or at least into his own house) but hopefully without a company behind him, he will not be working again anytime soon. obviously there is more to this than can be disclosed here, yes we had heard all the horror stories, yes we (mistakenly) believed we were "on top" of things, yes we were dealing with someone who has the gift of gab, yes we had both personal (from someone in real estate) and professional recommendations and yes, being on the receiving end of the peter principle we got kicked in the proverbial ass. it's true sometimes when you are in the middle of something, you can't see the forest for the trees in hindsight, i believe we cut our losses just in time. moving forward, it is clear that when someone who is skilled takes on a job, even one with which they had not originally signed up for even one with which they have had no prior experience the results can be excellent: NB: this blog has had a policy against "naming names" (see faq #7) before a job is completed. Given the sensitive nature of the situation and that we are not fully out of the water, i am going to uphold that. but i would like to mention that the company that supplied the cement board: CBF really worked with us on replacing the boards that had been damaged by the previous installation we have decided to treat this project in two sections: rough work | finished work once the heating system is in and we have had our rough plumbing inspection, phase I will be complete we are still deciding how we will procede with phase II.]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/10/saving_grace.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/10/saving_grace.html house Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:12:11 -0500 the bad: part one the extension has a flat roof with the slope coming from rigid insulation which was engineered by firestone to give us drainage. and it does drain, some what, but not completely and since it will be covered by a deck (which will greatly slow down the evaporation process) and since we have MAJOR mosquito issues, any ponding is an issue the main problem here is that the grade is only 1/8" per foot and the overlap of the roofing material running horizontally is also about 1/8", so the water gets trapped also there is a low area of the roof nearest the house. in other words, you will step straight out from the kitchen and then go up 2 steps to the main deck this transition is because the ceiling height of the studio creates a level that is above the floor height of the parlor floor, this isn't draining very well either the bad: part two how many things can go wrong with one set of doors that were custom made and took 1.5 days to hang? let's see: 1. the active and the passive doors are reversed 2. the door knobs were not securely fastened and it seems as if the screws used didn't come with them 3. the knobs are brushed the hinges are not 4. there is supposed to be a 9" panel of wood at the bottom, it's 6" 5. there is a 1/4" gap at the top so the doors don't even connect to the gasket 6. THERE IS NO ROOM TO PUT A SILL!!! and the ugly this siding is a cement board that is impregnated with pigment so it does not have to be painted. it is designed to act as a rain screen, the boards are not fixed directly to the exterior wall nor do they touch each other basically the exterior waterproof sheet rock is covered with plastic sheeting, then furring strips are mounted to which the board is afixed. this allows any moisture that does penetrate to be shed off the waterproofing material and run into the ground, allowing the building to breath and avoiding the problems that can happen when water does penetrate and cause either cracking or mold problems. but since this IS the exterior cladding, it needs to be installed cleanly, percisely and with care. screws need to line up, edges need to be clean, the spacing between the boards needs to be even. the boards cannot be over tightened or the facade will be uneven and it needs to be predilled but our contractor treated it like sheet rock, force drilled the screws which resulted in breaking bits, screws driven in at an angle and an uneven surface. it was so bad that the neighbors thought we were going to be putting something over it it was at this point, that it became painfully clear that this contractor did not have the same concept of "finished product" that we did and that from here on in it would be a constant battle suffice to say there were other areas of the job not being done correctly and with the exception of the doors we were expected to assume all financial responsibility for correcting them. this coupled with the proverbial "why isn't there a full crew working on my house" which turned into to the oft heard "my contractor has up and split for 2 weeks" led us to the unavoidable conclusion that we were going to have to part ways. nb this all came to a head mid september but since the messiness has taken some time to resolve, it's taken me this long to confront everything head on and post. the good news is that work has started again and we have a short term (if not final) solution. ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/10/post_1.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/10/post_1.html Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:00:16 -0500 and a newspaper, used for insulation in the walls of the shed: 1897!!! the property shark date on the house was 1901, but i had always thought it was older all the dirt from the back had to be removed through the house, so we took out the front window & bars and set up a ramp i found the form that was built to hold the cement pour fascinating it had a sculptural quality and a certain elegance before we could open up the back, a supporting steel beam had to be put in place to hold up the rear of the building, even though the opening is not that much bigger than the windows that were there before cutting the studs building the structure clearly, i am not going to be the first person to draw in the studio this felt-like material with a plastic webbing is designed to help water flow away from the building, it encircles the foundation torching the roof i don't have a good shot of it right now, but the back wall is primarily glass: a large sliding door and a fixed window that is creating the reflection here. you can tell how much the work has slowed by the fact that vines have had time to start invading through the open skylight holes ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/the_good_part_two.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/the_good_part_two.html house Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:42:49 -0500 the good: part one building the studio: a flip book view in one of my first posts (mary, mary, quite contrary) i talked about where the studio was going and why. the pictures in that post will give you a sense of what the back of the house was like when we bought it. the back of the house 2 months ago, just before we started building: the grape arbor and the shack are gone. while "garden" is extremely important to me, so is my work thankfully our house is on a 131' lot which allowed for the option of housing the studio in an extension and still have substantial space left over for planting (and i will garden as well on the deck that will go on top of the studio) the view from above, 14 months ago: the digging has started and so has the rain: the foundation is dug: guide lines are put in place, marking the actual boundaries of the building the form is built to hold the cement a layer of gravel is put down and the cement is poured: cinder blocks are laid: and are filled with rocks and cement for better insulation and to create more of a water barrier in the end we add another row to what was originally called for the inside of the wall is painted with a waterproofing material the structure starts to take shape and continues to grow: and grow the beginnings of a roof: it's covered with tar paper, those holes will be skylights and the tapered, rigid insulation is laid: and then even though the roof was left exposed to a deluge of 3" of rain the roof is tarped in case it rains again because it needs to be dry to put down the rubber honestly, at this point, i would untarp it... the rubber gets laid: now, it was my intention to continue this series until the skylights were in (and maybe even the deck was on, ) but things don't always work out as planned, stay tuned... ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly.html house Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:06:07 -0500 props and a big congrats to the folks at windsor terrace :D and so this seems to be part of it, it can take many forms, but all of a sudden things are not full speed ahead they are slower than slow work gets done, it needs to get redone, no one wants to accept responsibility for doing it... more work gets done, it needs to get redone, no one wants... you get the picture and it's terribly frustrating and not terribly conducive to posting so... i haven't but there have been some significent changes (though nothing completed) and so i am going to attempt to bite the bullet of my dispair and continue blogging this beast i suppose it was a bit unrealistic to expect that i could in every post, present a completed project, all tied up with a little bow... unrealistic and naive! it's time to take off the kid gloves, welcome to the real world of reno hell... ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/pause.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/09/pause.html about Sat, 08 Sep 2007 07:38:14 -0500 how could i forget rule #5 and yes it was an extreme shock to see all the old roofing material in the house demolition is bad roof demolition is worse it's dark and angry and sticky and dirty and tar is very unforgiving warning sign: arriving the first night after they had started it was clear that this was not going to be pretty but things were still relatively under control then all hell broke loose the master bedroom & closet truth be told, i did not venture up to the roof during this time period the stairs to the hatch were covered with tar and i just couldn't face it when i finally did go up and looked back this was what it lay below the 4th day of roofing the thunderstorms forecast for every day this week have held off it's 7:30 at night and we know we can't count on this good luck for much longer the heat, even at this hour was stifling these guys did an amazing job and the next morning it poured and the roof is perfect and we are very relieved the roof wasn't in the original bid; we only had some leaky skylights which we were planning on replacing but the contractor insisted and in hindsight it is so obvious that it was the right thing to do it's a rubber roof btw ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/08/hot_fun_in_the_summer_time.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/08/hot_fun_in_the_summer_time.html house Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:47:30 -0500 the top of the stairs, that gap gives you a good idea of how much they had to be shifted basically the process is:

• first the panel covering the underside of the steps was removed exposing the the steps from underneath
• next the connection between the top and bottom posts was cut
• and then the connection between the top and bottom of the stairs to the floor was cut
• this left the whole stair virtually hanging off the wall
• two jacks were used, one at the top and one at the bottom, to maneuver the stairs until they were level
• The steps were reattached to the posts and floor
• and shimmed where they had pulled away from the support underneath

another image showing how big an adjustment was made once the steps were straightened, the banister was bowing so they had to cut it and reattach it at a higher point the finished product in a very unfinished state ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/08/stairway_to_heaven.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/08/stairway_to_heaven.html house house Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:24:21 -0500 the rough plumbing is in A the old sewer line was in bad repair; sagging and quite decrepit. originally the contractor was going to use pvc for running the drain lines but (thankfully) we ended up with cast iron. there is a line running out the back, under the extension, to a drain there as well B the front plumbing stack originating in the basement C and continuing up through the first floor, this will be concealed in a coat closet D running through the parlor floor, they will end up almost completely hidden in the entry way wall E & F detail of the pipes going through to the third floor, this is where we had to head off and sister to avoid having to build a soffit in the front hallway G terminating in the third floor guest bathroom H the back plumbing stack on the ground floor: this connects to the studio bathroom and the little kitchen I the lines for the kitchen on the parlor floor J detail between the parlor and third floors K terminating in the third floor master bath ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/let_it_flow.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/let_it_flow.html house Fri, 20 Jul 2007 20:21:36 -0500 we actually don't have too much new framing that has to be done to the original house, except for the top floor while we are keeping the same basic configuration of rooms walls needed to come down to proportion them better. framing out the ceiling for the master bath framing the master bath framing the master bedroom & dressing room we did end up taking out {gasp} the fireplace in the master bedroom it was the only way to have enough room to orient the bed to face the garden and have end tables ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/stepping_up_the_pace.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/stepping_up_the_pace.html house Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:29:24 -0500 OK I am severely behind with blogging but june was devoted to planning a couple of community events and i stopped drinking coffee (read: i need more sleep) so i got a bit bogged down thankfully, renovation is going full steam ahead (well sometimes not exactly full steam, but that's another story) so i have a bit of catch up to do since we did remove walls and since we wanted to stick as much new plumbing into existing ceilings we needed some structural reinforcement that's where these guys came in handy: LVL for supporting beams & heavy duty hangers to support the new joists below are two views of the ceiling for what will be the kitchen/dining area. the LVL was used to create support where a wall was taken out the ceiling to the left (over the kitchen area) will be dropped to conceal the beam, accommodate venting, a/c etc. the ceiling in the dining area will be go back up to original height (that plaster work was too far gone to repair) exploratory work was done in the ceiling of the parlor floor to see if we could run the plumbing lines from the top floor without creating a soffit in the front hall we can: views of the sistering and pocketing of the joists from the top and the bottom next up: framing ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/new_support_for_new_constructi.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/07/new_support_for_new_constructi.html house Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:46:26 -0500 structural work started in the basement where we shored up the columns of the house by building cement piers at their base after the digout. this was done first, to ensure that the pounding of the demolition wouldn't cause any damage. the majority of work to be done was on the 2nd & 3rd floors. the damage to be repaired was due to 3 things:

leaking tubs

rain coming through loose mortar

plumbers cutting huge sections of the joists to run pipe

this required augmenting and/or replacing the existing support structure which is where these guys came in handy: heavy duty hangers to support the new headers the left wall in the back: details of the construction when i saw this work being done, it really gave me the confidence that were on the right track and that exposing so much of the structure (or tearing out the walls depending on how you want to phrase that) was a good decision. even though i know nothing about this kind of work, when i saw it done i had a very visceral reaction to it; it just felt so "solid" in my body the problem/the solution the headers above the top floor windows and the joists on the edges of one of the skylights were completed rotted from leaks an iron bar replaced the window header and the area was rebricked the joists on either side of the skylight were completely reinforced from end to end: the new beams were pocketed and sistered to the existing ones that were crumbling, this helped with the sag of the roof as well ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/06/from_the_ground_up.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/06/from_the_ground_up.html house Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:22:13 -0500 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 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? ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/05/a_little_place_i_like_to_call.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/05/a_little_place_i_like_to_call.html house Tue, 22 May 2007 00:30:44 -0500 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 ]]> http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/05/wrapped_and_ready.html http://www.brownstoner.com/crownheights_reno/2007/05/wrapped_and_ready.html about Thu, 10 May 2007 00:14:20 -0500