May 1, 2008

What's black and white with nickel finishes?

The last rental's bathroom!

As noted in my last post, we brought in a hired hand to help us out with the 3rd floor rear bathroom and......drumroll please...... he actually showed up, did the work and did it well.

Here are some pics to show the progression.

We decided to keep as much of the original subway tile as we could. We added the black border in order to blend the old subway tile with the new subway tile--which gave us the color scheme and design theme for the room.

We spent more on this bathroom than the others, and not just because me and T are going to be the first tenants. (We are movin' on up into it to live like human people while work is being done on the duplex.) The main reason we spent more on this bathroom than on the two other rentals is because even though it's the smallest of all the rentals and though its 1930s subway tile walls were in better shape than the others, the rest of the space was in the worst shape of all three. So money had to be spent since it was a complete overhaul. However, since we're living there for the next 6-9 months, we did spend a bit more on materials and fixtures than we might otherwise have. That said--we did save some money by buying some of the white subway tile (200+ tiles for $45) and the sink ($10) at BuildItGreen in Queens. We also saved money on the light fixture (about $20, I think), the faucet (about $20), and the shower doors (a Kohler "brand," $300) by hunting for bargains at Lowes and Home Depot--and using those coupons they keep sending us in the mail since we began dumping piles of money into their registers last year. However, we did splurge on the shower fixture.

After spending a day in a zipcar going all over Brooklyn to tile stores and being told that black subway tile is "rare" at the few places that even carried it--meaning it's both expensive and has to be special ordered--"it's just black subway tile, like the white stuff, but black," T kept saying in growing disbelief and frustration--we found the black subway tile at our very own Home Depot a few blocks away in Bed Stuy (at which you cannot find, strangely, plain white and black 12 x 12-inch tile).

The black and white hex tile was found at Bella on the LES--a great no-attitude spot--much unlike the spots we went to in Bkln. The medicine cabinet and the wall-mounted cabinet are from Ikea. Actually the "wall-mounted" cabinet,is a vanity for the sink that was supposed to go there, which was measured and picked out by our first contractor (who we parted company with many moons ago now--a lifetime, it seems). It turned out to be way too large for the space (thanks for the great measuring work and advice, guys), so we re-purposed it to make up for the storage space lost by having a wall-mounted sink (although I still have the Ikea sink and faucet and am dreading the fight when I try to return them a year after purchasing).

The medicine cabinet and storage cabinet are not just hung on the wall, but are sunk into the wall. We built a new wall using 2 x 3s to frame it in order to hide the previously exposed pipes ( we did not want to go through all the trouble of tearing out the old tile and plaster). We simply cleaned up the piping, threw up new wall over it all, mounted the cabinets within the frame, then drywalled.

I say "we" but it was almost entirely our guy Henry. Aside from picking all the materials out and T assisting where needed and doing the clean-up so the expensive contractor wasn't wasting time and money sweeping and picking up trash, our only other physical contributions to this little room entailed stripping the window frame and repainting it, which of course also meant pulling out all the crappy old caulk that was smeared on, globbed over, oozed in, and hardened all over the place, as well as doing some minor wood repairs on the frame itself.

T also had to rehang the door so that it opens out rather than in, so you can actually get into the bathroom AND also close the door. He was pretty hesitant to do it after the fiasco of rehanging his first door in one of the other rentals, which involved mounting it and taking it down at least 5 times. I participated by ...well..nagging T to hang the door, helping with repairs of the frame and by boiling and stripping the door hardware.

Once everything was installed, we were both pretty struck by the differences in craftmanship and material quality between the old subway tile and the new. The old tiles were a full half-inch thick and were mudded into the wall with big dollops of cement. They barely showed a grout line and the wall itself was a perfectly flat plane. While our guy did a great job at a really faircprice, and though he himself is conscientious and cares about the quality of the materials and his own work, it just wasn't the same. The difference is in the quality and price of materials these days and in the old-school know-how of the contractors who do the work nowadays. Of course, if you have the time and money, you can get anything and have the work look like a Renaissance cathedral, but for those of us at this price point, it's always interesting seeing the differences between then and now.

I know some will say that we should have just torn all the walls out and retiled with new half-inch tile and new plaster walls (as did 3 of the 4 contractors who gave us estimates), but we aren't restoring, we're renovating, and while we're very mindful of the original work and details, we aren't out to replicate everything to bring back the original beauty of the house. (And besides, this work isn't "original" anyway, it's from the first major renovation of the house, done about 40 yrs after it was built.) We're keeping what we can, and doing what we have to with the rest. I know it would look sleeker with conforming subway tiles but I like the idea of two eras coming together in this little bathroom and even like the aesthetic. So I'm glad we did it our way--because that approach is more in line not with just our wallets, but with who we are.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 12:11 PM | Comments (19)

February 27, 2008

Small Space, Big Work

So while T and I are renovating the small kitchen in the 3rd rental ourselves, we had to hire some professional help for the bathroom. The job was just too big for us, involving plumbing, electrical, carpentry, tiling, the whole nine. Early on in the reno, we discovered a wicked leak where the bathtub connected to the drain and once we pulled out the tub, sink, and toilet, and scraped off most of the linoleum tiles we discovered that it had been a problem for a while. YIKES.

They ripped through the floor in a couple of places to get at the plumbing for the toilet and to move the tub drain in order to build an entirely new shower. The new wall is framed with 2x3 studs; it will hide the plumbing and make up the few inches we need for the 48" shower base to fit correctly. The vanity we bought months ago at Ikea on the advice of our first contractor won't actually fit into this bathroom, so T built a top for it (where the sink would've gone) and we're mounting it into the new wall above the toilet as a storage cabinet. The floor is getting retiled, as are the walls in the shower area, though we will be keeping some of the 1930s subway tile from when the building was converted into a five-family. Some electrical wiring is getting moved so everything is up to code. And we're changing the door so that it swings out, since you won't actually be able to step in and close the door if it swings into the bathroom. New York, baby.

Basically there is very little that isn't being done in this little room.

Because we know enough to know what we're not ready to do ourselves, and we don't have the time to spend the next several weeks or couple months learning how to do most of it ourselves (all but the plumbing and electrical, that is), and mostly because we simply didn't want to screw it up, we brought in a number of contractors over the last couple weeks to get estimates. And of course, they were all over the map in price and plan. But we settled on one and he started yesterday and even showed up again today (I'm right now listening to the sweet sounds of him and his guy drilling the hell out of something upstairs), so here's hoping for the best.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 10:37 AM | Comments (5)

February 26, 2008

Laying...in wait

With the groundwork all but done in the kitchen--it is only a matter of days before the tiles

and cabinets

take their places.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 10:15 AM | Comments (4)

February 23, 2008

The Sky is Falling

Just kidding -but the ceiling in the third floor rear apartment had to come down. It was saggy and uneven in places so I took a crow bar and a hammer and got set to bring that baby down. Having never done this before -I was amazed that such a small space could have so much debris. I must admit I was feeling sort of badass with my respirator, googles and crow bar and got about half of the ceiling down until T came up and started pointing out the various dead bugs and other nastiness that had come down with the plaster and were now covering my head shoulders and floor. I didn't get much done after that--I am not the biggest fan of dead bugs raining down on my head so I passed the crow bar to T while admitting my wussiness (is that a word?).

stripped to the lathe

Anyway, last weekend we put up the dry wall. Again, we had never done this before so it took us a couple of tries to get the board cut correctly for the space and to fit over the light fixtures.

Yep believe it--we re-purposed the clawfoot into a work bench.

We eventually succeeded and I have never thought a piece of dry wall could look so pretty.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 4:46 PM | Comments (9)
Categories: house

February 14, 2008

Barbed Wire

Our property neighbors 2 parking lots and at one time there was a nice strand of barbed wire that bordered our fence. At some unknown point, one of the supports rusted away and now its curled up in one corner of the fence blowing in the wind and catching every plastic bag that floats by. As much as we joke about the urban abstract art in our backyard, its not entirely safe just hanging on one rusted support like that, it certainly is not a deterrant and jokes aside-it doesn't look good. Who can i call to cut this curliecue away and rehang some barbed wire?

Posted in Forum by HomeSweetstuy at 9:22 AM | Comments (10)
Categories: Garden

February 12, 2008

Strip Happy

We can't do very much else until we get the first round of drawings from our newly hired architect, so we are tackling the ornate wooden columns in what will one day be our guestroom/office.

An ambitious project indeed, but weghaddado wha weghaddado.

We are currently using Citrus Strip on the column. We have found that the trick is to paint on the thickest coating of the stuff as possible, wrap the thing with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out, and let it do its work over a 24- to 36-hour period. We then get to scraping using sharp pull scrapers (we bought them through the Silent Paint Stripper site). If the paint doesn't come off, we no longer fight it or curse at it like we did when we first began learning how to strip--we just throw on another coat.

Look at all these lovely colors--sort of psychedelic, man

We needed to repeat the process 3 times for this result.

We have no idea what kind of wood this is or why some of it is light and some dark--if anyone has some insight, let us know. We plan on staining this woodwork at some point in the future so if anyone would like to post some pointers, we would appreciate it.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 8:43 PM | Comments (15)

February 7, 2008

Stripping......the door

A century plus of use and abuse have taken there toll on a number of our grand ole doors--there have been locks and door handles and hinges and bars and hooks and tacts (T's favorite) that have been put on and taken off that a couple of the doors look like some monster alien termites have had their way with them (we don't have termites--I am just trying to give you an image here). Anyway, the point being that some of these doors will not be savage-able--at least not by us (don't worry-we aren't going to throw them away--we will either keep them in the basement or drop them at Eddie's).

One of the quirky things about this house is that no single door in the entire house is exactly the same in any dimension so even though we plan on closing up some doorways we can't necessary re-purpose those doors to another portal. Which brought us to Eddie's Salvage--where we have spent hours on end measuring every door in the place (and if you have been to Eddie's you know there are a helluva lot of doors). We did find one door at Eddie's that was pretty close to the dimensions we needed for the garden floor entrance and now fits perfectly thanks to T's handy new electric planer.

We have been stripping this ole door on and off since December-outside when weather permits (yes it has been cold but with the chimnea going, winter gear on, resperators, goggles and 2 heat guns going--we have managed not to freeze to death) and more recently inside with chemicals--(the details work lends itself better to the chemical method)

Outside with the heat gun

The good news is we have discovered a use for our overpriced silent paint remover--it takes off a couple of layers of paint on the flat large surfaces and makes it faster to use the more traditional heat gun to take off the rest.

Inside with chemicals

Detail

Unfortunately-I do not have any before pics of this door but it was the typical, coated with more than enough paint to obliterate any detail.

We plan on painting it the same color as the Parlor entry doors--a deep dark red.

Hope to have more pics soon.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 9:03 AM | Comments (15)

February 5, 2008

Recs for a handy helping hand?

Hey Brownstoners, We are looking for a handyman to help us with a bunch of misc. stuff--we need to replace the marble threshold for the main entrance, put up some dry wall, and misc. light electrical, plumbing and carpentry. Ideally this person could start this weekend.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Posted in Forum by HomeSweetstuy at 9:21 AM | Comments (3)
Categories: Handyman

January 6, 2008

My Favorite Things

With 2007 now over, 2008 just begun and in celebration of David Letterman being back on the air, I thought I would channel the late night talk show and write up our own Top-10 list of favorite things that we've accomplished in the reno thus far (be forewarned that this list will not be as funny as any delivered by Letterman).

10. The front double doors. When we bought the place, the locks and hardware much to be desired in terms of security and looks. We replaced them:

I love the bronze hardware and I think it will age beautifully as years go by.

We also had iron scrollwork installed over the glass, on the inside of the doors. I LOVE the way they look. It works with all the other ironwork (on the windows, the original stair rails, and the fence) and makes the doors look more substantial, without creating a jailhouse door aesthetic. Added bonus is that I can hang holiday cheer on them.

9. Our new mailboxes. I special ordered them to match the front door hardware. Silly I know--but it's the little things that make me happy. Of course, we couldn't find a new set that fit the already-exisiting hole for the old ones, so T spent a few hours building out a new mount and securing them in place.

8. Hot water heaters. There is nothing like a hot shower and I am so happy we installed two 50-gallon tanks (over the advice of our plumber, but following that of fellow brownstoners) because there is nothing like KNOWING you can take a LONG hot shower at the end of a long hard day--even when you have tenants showering at the same time. And it has made our old oil-burning furnace much more efficient; controlled by a new-ish thermostat and burner, it no longer fires constantly in order to keep water heated, but is now used only to heat the home.

7. Our home security and fire alert system. It really allows me not to fret that the building is going to burn down when we go away for the weekend. And since our 4th-floor tenants already burned a dinner that set off the system and brought out NY's Bravest in no time flat, we know both that the system works and that the FD actually responds to calls in our 'hood. Priceless.(It all happened while we were out on a Sat night, so by the time we found out about it, the whole thing was just a funny story.)

6. The nickel-finish shower we installed in what is presently our main bathroom. From Signature Hardware, this shower is a joy each and every day. I love the way it looks and I love the feeling of bathing in a warm waterfall.

5. Our new common area hall lights.

4. The completed rental apartments. The two apartments came out great and our tenants are really cool. I love the 4th-floor kitchen with the granite counter top and the breakfast bar and the way the apartment flows.

I am also really happy about the way our redesigned kitchen area came out in Apt 3.

Having tenants you like and can trust in the house makes it feel more like a home (although this may be post co-op trauma)--especially when they understand how hard you're working on the house and are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt when you tell them "uh, you won't be able to use your kitchen sink for a few days until we can get that drainpipe replaced" or "I hope to get your bedroom door mounted next week--as soon as I can find a replacement at a restoration and salvage shop." Now that the sweat equity and sweet greenbacks have been invested, we are starting to get a little something back every month--and it feels great.

3. The floors. Yay!

2. The bannister and garden-level newel post. We're still intimidated by the main-stair newel post, so it remains the last bastion of purple from the previous owners.

But we're SOOOOOO happy with the bannisters and smaller newel post, that it doesn't even matter for now. We just finished the post.

It was a project that burned each of us out on more than one occasion so it was truly a tag-team effort. We used just about every product out there--Peel Away, Citrus-Strip, Rock Miracle, Zip n Strip; with every combination of tools: pull scrapers, push scrapers, sand paper of every grade, metal brushes, fine steel wool, course steel wool, dental tools, orbital sander; and cleaned it up with after wash, denatured alcohol, and mineral spirits before sanding it and cleaning it all over again. We topped it all off with teak oil--which was downright fun to put on. The post transformed before our eyes as the wood happily drank the oil in.

A note about the teak oil, when we first began stripping the bannister for the main stairway, T was set on applying a good thick coating of poly, since those stairs are in the public hall and would potentially receive the most abuse. But after a good deal of online research and talking to a couple handymen, I convinced him that teak oil was the better way to go, since it would mean not having to strip the poly every now and again to redo the bannister, nor of having the chance of non-matching touch-ups to fix small dings and other minor infractions. With the teak oil, you need only sand the section that needs fixing and then reapply. It needs a couple coatings per year, but doing so is both quick and easy, and the wood looks amazing afterwards.

And the number one best thing we have done with the house so far is................................

1. The Banishment of the Purple Hallway (from the main hall): This is a monumental event. I think it looks just grand.

(Well, the near banishment, since the aforementioned main newel post continues to display the royal color. Ah, but his days as king of the castle are numbered...so stay tuned.)

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 8:00 PM | Comments (10)
Categories: house

December 15, 2007

Reality Check

We all know there are a number of "fucktards" who frequent the Brownstoner--who are more likely than not logged in anonymously as "guest" and who take advantage of their anonymity to be generally obnoxious. I, along with my fellow bloggers and forum posters, generally ignore them but every once in a while they bring something up that merits a response or perhaps some clarification. In this case, the recent flurry of responses to a long posting laying out the current state of the duplex in which T and I are living in our brownstone has made me realize that very few of our readers know who the hell we are, and that I need to re-evaluate why I even write this blog.

I was first inspired to write after months of reading all the other blogs and realizing that our particular situation was not represented. We are regular people, who prior to this undertaking did not have any experience or expertise in renovating or restoring brownstones. But we loved them and spent many a day walking the streets of Brownstone Brooklyn dreaming of having one of our own. Like many many many other brownstone lovers these days, we were priced out of Park Slope and Fort Greene, so our searching led us to the streets of Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, and Crown Heights until we found the place you have been reading about.

We do not have a ton of money but we have good white-collar jobs and manage to earn, eat, pay the mortgage, and even save a little. That said, we aren't able to hire an army of contractors and get all the work done all at once while living at the Four Seasons during renovations. And here is the reality check for all the naysayers claiming we bitch too much, know too little, should've known about or expected everything we've encountered, and otherwise speak from a height of knowledge and wisdom that they apparently have occupied since birth, when they strode through the waves like Venus from the shell, armed with hammer and T-square, architectural renderings, and a rolodex full of excellent and honest contractors. The reality is that though we came into this with no background in building or renovating and while we've struggled and haven't always known the best practice or next step of each moment of our renovation, and while it would've been easier and more comfortable to try and get others to do everything and to live elsewhere while the work was being done, that's not why we bought the house and not what we were ever interested in doing in the first place. I wouldn't say we like living in these conditions but we wouldn't live anywhere else during this undertaking--even if we could afford it. When we go away for a weekend, we are always desperate to get back at the end of it. It's a sickness to be sure--but one I'd assume that most of you are afflicted with too. Owning and renovating an old house is by definition a love-hate relationship. If you live on-site and are doing as much of the work yourself as possible and love every moment of it, you either enjoy a good bondage and spanking session every now and again or know just the person to supply you with some very nice drugs--or both.

This blog was supposed to be a venue for me to VENT and to be part of a COMMUNITY. I thought perhaps the blog would get other people in like situations to post not only about their brilliant strategies and success stories, but also about planning that wasn't so successful and difficulties that arose and how they overcame problems--expected or not. And in turn, I thought our stories would be encouraging to others, since in spite of our own difficulties, unpleasant surprises, and just-plain-hardship, we continue to make what we feel are ultimately good decisions that have led to real progress and which have sustained our love for this house and our desire to continue with it until done. I thought that the community would share their knowledge and resources with us. I didn't think the hardships and frustrations that I share here would be interpreted as negative--they are all stories of powering on and through. We did not go into this renovation thinking we would do most of the work ourselves but those are the cards we have been dealt and we are playing them. I'm reminded of a something T says about his trouble-making teenage years: "I almost never set a 'good example' for my brother and sister growing up, but I sure as hell showed them what NOT to do."

Real renovation is not "Flip That House" or "Trading Spaces" or whatever personality shows are on HGTV. Real renovation is about spending 30 hours every weekend stripping wood until your hands are so raw, red, and swollen that you can barely move them--only to discover that the beautiful wood you're trying to uncover and restore is still not visible.

Real renovation is about installing a vanity and sink and the floor beneath it falling through to the room below. A renovation of this size means there are times when you're not sure what to do first or next, where to spend your resources, how best to utilize limited time.

I never expected it would be easy but I also didn't expect it to be this hard. Sharing this with others is not whining and it doesn't make me a wimp. It makes me honest. Everyone who has ever done any renovating knows that there are days when the end seems very far away and the gameplan seems insufficient.

I have a smart-ass, cynical, and sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor. It's clear that many readers don't get that. When I say I am "chipping paint off the door like chocolate" or that our renovation pillow has had all the feathers beat out of it, I do not mean those things literally. I AM BEING FUNNY--maybe not ha-ha funny or even belly-chuckle funny, but hopefully "heh, goddamn" funny. Laugh (it relieves stress); be nice; OR

I'll have to sick my cat on ya....................

And finally, I know I talk about a taboo subject in my blog, and evidently it scares folks and makes them uncomfortable. I think some of you need to get over it because it's an everyday reality. Renovation involves money. You need to buy materials. You need to pay for labor and expertise. You need to pay for hospital bills and the shrink (this is meant to be funny: laugh). You need to forecast and re-forecast. I talk about money because someone needs to. I am the money manager on the project and I count the money--over and over and over. The more I have the more I can do. Sometimes I want to do more with less. Often, I spend more than I want to. It seems sometimes you can spend a lot and get less than you expected in return. And unfortunately, sometimes you spend and get nothing. Those are not good days. I am sure I am not the only one who uses money (but for those of you who don't use or need it, money is a medium of exchange; US currency is green and rectangular; it has pictures of dead presidents on it (well, except for the Benjamins, and everybody knows it's all about the Benjamins). I am sure I am not the only one who has used currency in the renovation of a house. And if I am and the rest of you are out there bartering in a tax-free world, PLEASE let me join your club (though I'd rather not join one called "The Fucktards"), I'll pay you (again, this...is meant...to be...funny).

Ultimately, if you don't like my posts, don't read them. No one is forcing anyone here. And don't waste my time, your time, and everyone else's time whining about me when I could be wasting my own time working on my house or reading the advice of the otherwise helpful and friendly members of the Brownstoner community instead of responding to jerks.

Posted in South Stuy Blog by HomeSweetstuy at 12:10 PM | Comments (22)