Huntington Reno: Posts by: twc

I will admit upfront that my wife did 90% of the work here. I certainly carried my fair share of heavy objects but in regards to packing, organizing and coordinating all credit goes to my better half, aka my best friend.
The move began almost immediately after getting off a 6 hour flight from visiting the in-laws and other fam in Oregon. We started bringing boxes over to Huntington from my parents basement in Westchester, where we had spent the past 18 months, at 7pm on that Sunday night. On Monday my wife met Dumbo Movers at our lovely storage facility on Gold Street to manage what was the lion’s share of the move. We continued to stay with my folks Monday thru Thursday then on Friday spent our first night in the house after burgers and fries at Dubuque and a Strokes show at MSG. It was a near perfect evening to be welcomed back to NYC.
Saturday morning we rented a U-Haul, drove back to Westchester and retrieved the remainder of our possessions and our four legged house-mates with help from my folks and a couple friends.
On Monday I was sick as a dog and had a feeling it was more than your average cold. Turned out to be bronchitis, strep and a sinus infection. Lovely. On top of that the countertops were being installed that week which took what was a super clean house post-move and put a layer of dust on absolutely everything. On top of that our animal friends were super uncomfortable in the new space, if I was not right by their side they were wandering the garden floor whining and squealing. On top of that the backyard was still a mess so anytime we let them out back they came in a dirty/muddy mess.
I’d love to say that week one in the house was amazing but it was a bit of a disaster. That being said at the time of this missive we are in much better shape all around. Our outstanding GC felt bad about the dust and paid for a cleaning crew to take care of everything top to bottom, our pets are settled and more comfortable now and I am well on the mends. I am sure I was supposed to stay home that week to help our girls adjust and make plans for the backyard, had I not been that sick I would have surely been in the office. Everything happens for a reason.

Gold Street, the home of our stuff for almost two years

Goodbye storage unit, you were good to us

Hello Huntington!

Tops of our counters on their way in, they are made locally and known as IceStone

It’s the final walk thru if you will, the meeting where all the details are scrutinized and needed alterations are noted. It is also when the house fully reveals itself. All floors are exposed, most of the house is super clean and just about move-in ready. It was almost hard to believe that the house once looked like this and now is the home you see below.

Brendan, the brains behind the design, sitting on the ledge above the kitchen

As seen from Brendan’s perspective above; Charlie the Foreman and Eran the GC

Janelle, project manager who does her best to keep Brendan in line

The kitchen from the parlor floor mezzanine, countertops still to be installed

Front parlor as seen from the office across the bridge

Office as seen from the front parlor across the bridge

We went back to the house after dinner, we had not seen the inside of the house at night since the lights had been installed

Also known as blinds, shades, curtains or simply stuff you put in your windows so others can’t see your junk. Old fashioned television commercials sucked me in so the Mrs and I headed eastbound on the LIE to the mecca of window treatments, Blinds To Go. The choices were plentiful, the help was helpful and the price was right. Not every window in the house got treated but those that did received Synergy energy efficient white shades. We were thinking of going with a more bold color but then our architect laughed so we went with white.

A major upgrade from the pictures of me holding the fixtures up so my wife could get a sense of the finished product.

office

dining

2nd bedroom

front parlor

hallway sconces

front enterance

kitchen

master closet

master bedroom

The kitchen is the last major piece of the house to take shape. Once the millwork arrived the gang was pretty quick to get the appliances in. Still a decent amount of work to be done but so far so delicious.

While the storage side, broom closet and all, is in fine order there was some work to be done on the washer/dryer side. The soffit ended up being bigger than originally anticipated so some last minute creativity was needed. After an attempt at simply creating one big shelf up top a slight revision has made all the difference in the world. I never thought I would put so much thought into, let alone write a missive about millwork around an washer and dryer.

Only details that remain on the rear facade’s to-do list is the installation of two simple outdoor lights. Otherwise, she is looking pretty sharp.

So many details end up changing along the fun and bumpy road to renovation completion. Our front stoop and fence metal work is one of them. Our initial preference was to go with some salvaged pieces and do our best to replicate the original look of the house. Then we realized that our stoop gets quite steep at the bottom as though whomever built it started to run out of room and jammed the last five steps in. This minor detail made salvage yard shopping quite difficult and since we don’t have the extra 20k to re-build the entire stoop we went with some pieces that match the rest of the interior and back-porch metal work. Some effort is still needed to get the height and details just right but its damn close.

I’m not sure how else to put it, they are big, really big. At first we picked walnut, then switched to paint-grade to match the rest of the millwork and save some cash. They showed up walnut. Super.