's Profile
- Amy
- 2002
- Since it was a tiny little blog full of spam!
- Brooklyn
- Clinton Hill
- House
- Mother/Blogger
- Female
- Mid-thirties
Author's Posts
June 24, 2008
Our renovation is back from the dead!
Hi there, long time no see.
So our renovation was going over budget. Some of it was our fault, as we have the habit of deciding on one thing in the planning/pricing stage and then upgrading on the fly when the time comes. Some of it was unforeseen, like over $10K in surprise chimney work, $9k in repointing work on the back wall, a $4K leak, and many many other things like that (man, do they add up quick). With our kitchen floor 2/3 of the way done, we had to make the difficult decision to halt the reno. With dwindling resources, we were faced with either drastically downgrading our remaining choices for the kitchen (appliances, doors, windows, counter, cabinets, etc.) or finishing things in a way that would leave us pissed off about the kitchen we should have had.
We didn't want to go the small project route, preferring to wait until we could just start up again on everything. But not sure when we'll be able to start up again in earnest, we're going ahead today with some smaller projects. There are a few things that need to be done soon, some for our sanity and some for other reasons. With electrical and plumbing done and the walls up, we're in a good position to do a few small jobs on the garden floor. Even if we won't be putting the actual kitchen in yet, a more finished space could still come in useful for a party or guests or something like that.
First on the list is a back door, so that we can use our backyard this summer. Not long before we hit the pause button, the old back door had been removed so that some work could be done on the back of the house and a new frame could be built for the new door at the same time. Since then, going out to our backyard has involved unscrewing a dozen long screws and removing a giant, heavy piece of wood. Needless to say, we don't do that much. So we're going ahead and ordering the new door.
Second will be finishing the floors on the garden level. Omer decided after the wood floor was put in that he wanted the radiator to be moved to a different wall, so part of the floor has to be ripped up and the pipes moved (see what I'm talking about?), and then the wood floors can be sanded and finished. The tile floors need to be put in as well. We still haven't picked tile for the bathroom so we'd better get moving on that.
Third is finishing the bathroom on the garden level. The four of us have been sharing one bathroom for two years now, and it's getting old.
Fourth is finishing and painting the walls.
By the time all of that is done, hopefully we'll have won our appliances on a game show.
April 15, 2008
Are these estimates ridiculous?
I just received two estimates for small jobs from a contractor that I've been using for a while. One of them seems like it might be OK, the other seems very high to me. I was wondering what other people thought.
The first is to replace all of the wood on the outside of a dormer window. There is more than enough roof to stand on so this does not involve any scaffolding or big ladders. The estimate was almost $1800.
The second was to put in a new door to the backyard, including a screen door and an iron security door. This is only for labor, not the cost of the three doors. However, it also includes building a frame for the door - the old opening has been gutted to the brick. The estimate is $1400.
This is from a contractor whose work I know and trust.
Are these out of whack with reality?
February 12, 2008
need a structural engineer (I think)
We suspect that we may be having some structural problems and want to have someone come check things out (or more accurately, get a second opinion on what our contractor is telling us). I guess we need a structural engineer, although I'm not sure about that.
Anyone have anyone to personally recommend?
October 11, 2007
Tile
As we've gone through this process, we have not always been that far ahead of the work in terms of making decisions. This has caused a few problems, like light switches having to be moved because we ended up hanging doors a different way. But Omer and I take forever to get together on things, so often we don't make a decision until we are forced to. I think this works to our advantage a lot of the time though, since both of us (but mostly Omer) have a hard time visualizing what things will look like when finished. So, the further along things are, the less we have to imagine.
We decided a long time ago that the garden floor will have the same unstained Brazilian cherry as on the second and third floors, except in the kitchen and bathroom. The wood floor has been laid, so now we need to pick tile before anything else can happen.
You can see the space in the middle where the kitchen will be.
I went tile shopping with Ms. Architect. It was the first time in this whole process that I felt a little highfalutin, going to Nemo Tile with my architect. (But we finished it off with messy and cheap burritos for lunch, so that brought me back down to earth.) With the exception of a solo run to Drimmers to scout out appliances, this was my first non-Home-Depot related shopping trip for construction stuff. Everything else had been purchased by either looking at pictures online or by ordering samples. But even though that had worked out well in the past, Ms. Architect insisted that the only way to really get a feel for how something would look on the kitchen floor was to see it installed somewhere else, that looking at a four inch sample just wouldn't cut it. And she was so right.
Nemo Tile was fantastic. They had dozens of types of tile laid out on the floor in about three-by-three squares, so you can really get a sense of what they will look like.
Now, Omer and I have not had the easiest time agreeing on choices for things like tile and fixtures. Often, Ms. Architect has had to be part designer, part marriage counselor. But when we saw the black slate used in a kitchen on one of Mr. B.'s fabulous "Parlour Floor Kitchen" installments (I think it was the infamous Aga kitchen), we both loved it. So, I was really just going to see it in person and confirm that I loved it. And I did. The one we chose is actually not slate, I think it's porcelain, but I don't really care what it is made out of as long as it looks like what I want it to look like.
We'll be getting it in big 1 ft by 2 ft rectangles.
We were also scouting tile for the garden floor bathroom. These both grabbed my attention. Now I just have to get Omer to agree to one of them. Not usually an easy task, but I gave in to him on a few garden floor decisions, so he owes me.
August 17, 2007
Garden Floor Demo
This is how our garden floor has looked for the past year. Some demo was done initially. There used to be three rooms down there and the contractor took out the dividing walls to make room for supplies and tools. This floor became the staging area for the work upstairs.
So when demo started for real on the garden floor, it exposed the really gross bathroom whose existence I had been trying to ignore for the past year. I was very happy to see it go, even if it only went as far as my backyard.
This is the only floor that really was gutted. While a lot of work was done on the upper floors, what was in good shape was left alone; rooms stayed where they were, with the exception of making one room smaller in order to make room in the master closet for the washer and dryer. On the garden floor, however, the architects and contractor all felt that the best way to proceed was to start fresh.
When the drop ceiling was removed, we found this:
Totally understandable. I can't tell you how often I've found myself needing to write down a phone number, and I can't find a pen or paper, but I can find a hot stick and a ceiling.
Once demo was complete, everything was framed out. While the living room-kitchen-dining room will all be one big space, the hallway next to the stairs was put back in to be used as a long coat closet, with a big mud room/storage area in the back.
All this crazy stuff you see on the kitchen ceiling will eventually be a very interesting series of columns (are they called columns when they're on the ceiling?), with lights nestled in the spaces.
July 21, 2007
A mantle, to start with
Hi there, long time no see. Sorry about that. There are several reasons why I was absent for so long:
1) For a while, there just wasn't any work going on (or nothing worth writing about anyway), and I got out of the habit of posting
2) When work started up again in full force, I was incredibly busy with other things
3) By the time I wasn't ridiculously busy anymore, there was an overwhelming amount of blogging to catch up on, and being an anal retentive perfectionist, I felt like if I couldn't recap everything, there was no point in starting
4) I was a bit burned out
Mostly, it was #4. Going through a renovation is difficult. Reliving every aspect of it for others can be draining.
So, I've decided to go against my nature and jump back in with something, one small thing, that was just completed. I'll back track and catch up when I can.
Out of the five fireplaces left in our house when we bought it (all identical), only one had been painted.
It was located in the front of the garden floor, and as luck would have it, our plans called for moving that fireplace to the back of the floor, in what would be the dining room. This would make it much easier to strip, since it had to be removed from the wall anyway. Its future location was in the old kitchen, where the old stove was.
It was stripped and cleaned beautifully. Our guys built out the wall so that it would look like an actual fireplace, rather than just being ornamental, and stuck it on the wall. The guy who installed it spent an entire day getting it just right.
I think it turned out great. Of course, it's now so clean that it makes the other four fireplaces look dingy and yellow!
April 9, 2007
Old Meets New
There were still enough of the old baseboards left to try to match what was there rather than start fresh, so Mr. Contractor had a knife cut to approximate the old moulding. It's not exactly the same (it's a more interesting design, we think), but we can get away with it because there's only one place in the whole upper two floors where the old and new meet up, near the staircase (pics above).
Unfortunately, the moulding that's in the same areas as the original moulding (in the hallways and stairwells) is shorter than what was originally there, because the original moulding lost a few inches when new plywood and floors were put down. But in the bedrooms, where there's no original moulding, they made it tall. Omer was rather surprised/dismayed at how tall it looked while sitting in a pile in the hallway, but admitted that it looked good once it was installed and painted.
The weird thing about the new moulding is that it looks, well, new. It doesn't have thirty layers of paint on it like the old moulding and the old window casings. The extra paint softens the edges and gives it character.
April 5, 2007
A good bathroom knows how to accessorize
So the kids' bathroom (well, everyone's bathroom for the foreseeable future, but the kids' bathroom long term) is finally finished.
The medicine cabinets are fabulous, despite the fact that they are from IKEA (I really hate that place) and cost half nothing. The shelves are not adjustable, but are set at good heights, and the best feature is the in-door storage - perfect for all those little things always rattling around a medicine cabinet. Seriously, the doors hold a lot. Much thanks to Ms. Architect for pointing these out to me. Omer didn't want them - he's convinced that they will rust. But for the price, we can replace them. Many times.
The glass shelves below the mirror are a little fussy for a kids' bathroom. They stay clean for about five seconds at a time. Oh well. I enjoy them for five seconds and then move on.
The only accessory I'm pretty disappointed with is the toilet paper holder.
I'll never understand the move towards holders that don't hold the roll very well. What happened to the old fashioned kind with the big spring inside? But we wanted something that matched the rest of the Kohler accessories, and this was it. Doesn't bother me enough to replace it, just enough to bitch about it.
We still haven't found a shower curtain that we both like. Perhaps I'm just subconsciously stalling after what happened to Mrs. B. But honestly, the tile color is very bold and I think the perfect shower curtain would be clear with a textured pattern, while Omer is holding out for some color.
February 6, 2007
Radiator Sickness
I love our steam radiators. When they don't sound like a basement gnome is attacking them with a sledgehammer.
I asked Mr. Contractor if his guys could come take a look at the system. Luckily we hadn't needed to turn the heat on much before Christmas, but when we did, the noise was deafening. We would heat the place up five or six degrees hotter than necessary in the evening so that we could turn the heat off altogether for the night. Otherwise, we would get woken up every time the heat cycled on. And, some of the radiators were spewing water out of the little valves that are supposed to release air. Let me tell you, one thing you don't want happening around small children is for your heating system to turn into a boiling geyser at random times.
The plumbers said that the gauge that regulates the amount of steam in the system was busted, and that there were several leaks in the system. They fixed these problems, and then went around to check on each radiator. This is when the fun really started.
First, they discovered a leak in the parlor floor entranceway radiator. They thought that perhaps it wasn't tilted correctly and water was condensing and running back out onto the floor (hence the level), but that wasn't it. The problem was that the place where the pipe screws in to the radiator was completely stripped, and whatever they did they couldn't get it to stop leaking.
They said that the radiators are about 100 years old, so I guess things like this are bound to happen. I'm in awe that they work at all.
Luckily, we had removed a radiator from the office/guest room, which for some strange reason had two. So we had an extra one that they could replace the broken one with. It worked out great.
Then, when they went to check on the radiator in the back parlor room behind the stairs, they found that not only was it leaking, but it had been leaking for so long that it was in danger of falling right through the now-rotten floor. So they unhooked it. We don't need to heat that room right now, so we'll worry about it later. The two back parlor rooms are being combined into one anyway, so maybe one radiator will suffice.
This is where the radiator used to be. Good thing nobody uses the disgusting bathroom below this room. The radiator could have landed on someone's head.
The plumbers stayed long enough that we were all satisfied the banging had stopped. But at about two in the morning, it started again. Not quite as loud as before, but still too loud to sleep through. So, they checked the system again and ran some kind of cleaner through it. So far so good, noise-wise. But now there's this weird smell on the top floor that smells a bit like cat-pee. I'm guessing it's from the cleaner and hopefully it will fade.
No matter what, this is the best part of having radiators:
You can all stop holding your breath now
Well, I certainly didn't mean to stop posting for almost two months. First came the holidays, and travel, and then the recovery from the holidays and travel. Then, three separate illnesses went through our household; just when we were getting over one virus, we'd get hit with another. Then, just as the people got healthy, the computers got sick. If any of you have ever said to yourself "There's no way both computers would ever get fried at the same time!" well, I'm here to tell you that it does happen. And it sucks big time.
But as Omer so eloquently put it the other night, "The other reno blogs are kicking our ass!" I'm not sure why he's referring to "our ass" since he hasn't made a single contribution to the blog since the very first entry (Very First Entry [Gates Reno]), but point taken. I'm back.
Luckily (for the blog, not for us) not much work has been done in the past two months. So there isn't a whole lot to catch up on.
Hope you all had a great break!
Author's Comments
I guess my support of registration would mean more if I could get the site to display my name as "Amy" instead of "Anonymous" :-)
Posted by: Amy at July 10, 2008 2:01 PM in response to Moving Forward
Onward and upward, brownstoner. Most sites that I go to regularly require registration to comment. In fact, some of them require a 24-hour waiting period after registration before you can make your first comment. And these are all wildly successful sites with thriving comment sections.
Posted by: Amy at July 10, 2008 1:52 PM in response to Moving Forward
Just to continue beating up on the first poster a bit, there's a school in my neighborhood that attracted a lot of my friends and their kids, from all income levels. These were families with a track record of working hard and giving their all to the schools that their kids attended. None of them are there any more. They were alienated by a defensive and underachieving principal. Some went to private schools, some went to schools in neighboring zones, some even went to schools in Manhattan. And this school, which had the potential to be a great school, is under-enrolled.
When a school in a gentrifying neighborhood is under-enrolled, the DOE should take a long, hard look at the principal. Schools should reflect their communities, and when parents who can send their children elsewhere do, the school and neighborhood suffers.
Posted by: Amy at June 18, 2008 1:15 PM in response to Chancellor Joel Klein Discusses Brooklyn Schools
Thanks 10:22, that's just what I'm going to do! Let's see, I don't work, so three workers times three days...carry the nine...wait, let me get my calculator...zero! I'll counter his estimate with zero dollars!
God, you people crack me up. Thanks for all of the good advice.
Posted by: Amy at April 16, 2008 11:48 PM in response to Are these estimates ridiculous?
Hi there guest, not sure what you're reading, but I never mentioned a handyman or a friend, just a contractor. Just asking about the prices. If I confused you with the crackhead banter, well, not much I can do to help you there, except maybe send you here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpan
Posted by: Amy at April 15, 2008 10:01 PM in response to Are these estimates ridiculous?
I've had some crackheads do work for me in the past, and the work has been OK, but the butane torches tend to leave burn marks everywhere, so I'm probably going to stick with my contractor for now (at least until I need another fix).
The door one sounded right to me too, maybe even a tad low. It was the window one that sounded high, but never having had one done I had nothing to compare it to.
Posted by: Amy at April 15, 2008 9:45 PM in response to Are these estimates ridiculous?
Hi Mrs. Limestone, I'm guessing you've installed screws and got it all under control by now, but I got my Elfa system in - including many drawers - so if you would like me to talk you through anything, please don't hesitate to ask. We've been using - and abusing - our Elfa closet for about a year and still love it.
Posted by: Amy at February 12, 2008 8:51 PM in response to Unfinished projects whine
We're having what we think are an unusual amount of cracks, and it's nearly impossible to close our rear windows far enough to lock them. We feel like the back of the house is sinking a bit. Our outside back wall and roof are in bad shape and we're planning on taking care of both in the spring. Our contractor is telling us that the cracks are completely normal (he may be right, we've never lived in a house this old), and that the back of the house is absorbing a lot of water. We want to find out from an engineer 1)if the cracks are indeed normal to this extent, and 2)if anything else is contributing to the back of the house sinking and if there's anything we can do before the outside work is done in the spring.
Posted by: Amy at February 12, 2008 1:29 PM in response to need a structural engineer (I think)
I looove these features. I love to see inside people's houses, how they've decorated, what appliances they've chosen. I just hope other people aren't scared away by the mean-spiritedness of some of the posts. And I'm absolutely not talking about the posts saying what they like or don't like, or what they would have done different - those are great discussions.
No, I'm talking about the low-self-esteem losers who build themselves up by being anonymous assholes.
I'd love to see a series on appliances - there are so many appliance questions on the forum that it would be great to feature some on the front page: refrigerators one week, washers the next, etc. People could post how they look in an actual home instead of a store, what they love or hate about theirs, and whether or not they would buy them again.
Posted by: Amy at November 20, 2007 5:38 PM in response to Bathroom Reno #4: Glass Tile Time
Run away. Fast. Seriously. I know what it is like to have your heart set on a place and to want to just get it done, but you'll regret it. As someone else said, if they are going so blatantly off the plan with stuff that's easy to see, what did they do where nobody can see?
Amy
Posted by: Amy at November 20, 2007 5:24 PM in response to Items missing from condo that are in the offering plan?
I love this bathroom! I especially like that you put a robe hook right next to the shower. I'm always reaching too far for my robe. It's little touches like that that are so often overlooked. Great job, but sorry you had to go through all that to get there!
Amy
Posted by: Amy at November 16, 2007 1:00 PM in response to Bathroom Reno #2: After The Fire
Sorry iluvclintonhill, but I couldn't disagree with you more. Anything approaching the kind of crap sold in the Fulton Mall and most of the street fairs would be a blight on the neighborhood. But luckily, with Mr. B. in charge, we won't have anything to worry about.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at November 5, 2007 1:19 PM in response to Brownstoner to Launch Weekly Flea Market Next Spring
No funnel cakes? Wait a minute, what's wrong with funnel cakes????
BTW Brenda, would the Chinese guy be wearing the tube socks and eating the funnel cake, or would you be? Either way, I'm sure there's already a website for that particular fetish.
:-)
Amy
Posted by: Amy at November 5, 2007 1:08 PM in response to Brownstoner to Launch Weekly Flea Market Next Spring
This is a fantastic idea! I would especially like to see some sort of Farmers' Market. This will be great for the neighborhood.
As far as selection goes, here's a good rule of thumb: if you can buy it at Fulton Mall, then it probably has no place at your flea market.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at November 5, 2007 11:40 AM in response to Brownstoner to Launch Weekly Flea Market Next Spring
When he's not there, I watch his house. I watch it when he's there too. Waiting to catch another glimpse of those dreamy eyes...What can I say, I dig hairy, swarthy men.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 31, 2007 10:07 PM in response to Good Fences Make Good Celebrity Neighbors
Awww! I don't know which sister that was, so if they're smart they'll both take the credit. Thanks!
To answer some questions, if anyone's still reading this:
The idea for the ceiling in the kitchen was totally Ms. Architect's. We wanted the garden floor to be one big room with no dividing walls, so she came up with a couple of ways to define the kitchen space: the lower, extremely cool ceiling, and four sheetrock "pillars" that kind of frame the space on the four corners.
Way back in the beginning, before we even bought the house, our contractor estimated that the garden floor itself would take about six months, so we figured a year for everything. But between his guys getting backed up last fall with other jobs, us taking forever to make decisions, and things being on hold right now for various reasons, we're hoping to have the garden floor done by spring and move into the whole house. I think if work had been done straight through a year for those three floors would have been about right. But I have no idea when the parlour floor is going to happen. I'm buying lottery tickets in an effort to speed it up.
Budget twice what your contractor thinks it will cost. And that's not a dig at the contractor (at least not ours). In the beginning we said things like "Oh, we don't care so much about that bathroom, we can do it cheap." That turned into "Well, we don't want to have problems, it just makes sense to pay for the good fixtures." And then you have "Well, we bought the good fixtures, now we have to buy the matching accessories - it just won't look good otherwise." (The fact those "good" accessories are largely unusable at this point deserves its own post.)
So, a bathroom that should have cost x costs 2x. Unless you're really disciplined, costs balloon in a hurry. And then there are the ceilings that fall down as they're being prepped for painting, 160-year-old pipes that disintegrate during a heavy rain, chimneys that need to be rebuilt...it's all worth it, in my opinion, to live in a brownstone. But just know what you're getting into and understand that a lot of the costs aren't controllable, no matter how disciplined you are.
Posted by: Amy at October 30, 2007 12:01 PM in response to Video: Inside the Gates Renovation Blog
I can see why celebrities dig Brooklyn. We're all too cool to stop you on the street and bother you, we just blog it out of our systems instead. And I'm not being facetious, I count myself in that statement. Whenever I see anyone famous I act like it didn't happen, until I get home and talk about it ad nauseum.
I guess as a famous person, that's the most you can hope for: people pretending to ignore you, so you can lead a somewhat normal day-to-day life without throngs of people following you around like Britney, but still enough interest in you to get written and talked about.
Except for the truly talented with great pr people, who somehow manage to work and keep their private lives totally quiet.
I like having famous people in Brooklyn. I think it's cool. When people who have all the money and flexibility to live anywhere choose your nabe, how can it not be good for your real estate?
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 29, 2007 1:03 PM in response to Michelle Williams Wants Out of Brooklyn
My husband just read my long-winded response about why we want a home theater, and he says it's bs. He says the real reason is that he wants his porn to be bigger.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 28, 2007 2:18 PM in response to Video: Inside the Gates Renovation Blog
Wow Greenpointer, that's a GREAT way of getting more reno bloggers to open up their homes on camera: criticize my "performance"! Well done. Thanks for sharing.
Anyone who knows me knows that's how I talk, (not so) funny asides and all. Like it or don't like it, I don't know you so I don't care much. But it's me. It was an extra-nervous me, but me. And for the record, many people who know me have told me that I write the blog just like I talk too. I think it was a compliment.
As for your other oh-so-clever insult, that's something I can change, but you'll always be a jerk.
My husband was the first one to bring up the idea of a home theater, but he didn't have to convince me. I took an unfair jab at him over the garden floor's future big TV. I had always wanted a big TV down there too. But I did not want a big TV in the guest room, and after months of arguing with him about it (and losing) I let my sarcasm get the best of me. I'm usually the one in the house pushing for more electronic toys.
I never used to see the desirability of a home theater, until we had kids. Before that, we saw lots of movies, on a whim, whenever, wherever. Good ones, bad ones, it was all fun. People talking in theaters has always bothered me, though. It's just rude.
After we had kids, going to the movies became a much bigger deal, and every time our experience was ruined - by someone talking on a cell phone, a crying baby, a couple who just had to discuss every plot point right there in the moment, or the idiot who had to constantly ask the woman he was with what had just happened - it pushed me closer to wanting to rent movies at home instead of seeing them in a theater, where we have no control over the experience.
Renting movies at home loses something, though. The sound isn't as good. The picture is small. The experience isn't all-encompassing - there are too many things to focus on other than the movie, and it's hard to get swept up in a story.
Besides, going to the movies has gotten to be very expensive. The babysitter (whom we have to book at least a week before, taking any kind of spontaneity out of the picture) charges $15/hr plus car fare home. Dinner and a movie will run $85-$100 just for the babysitter. I'm a non-drinking vegetarian, so I'm a pretty cheap date, meaning dinner at a moderate place will "only" be about $30-$50. We have to book the movie tickets online ahead of time - there's no way we're going to hire a sitter and then risk not getting tickets. So that's $26. Let's say for the sake of argument that we just had dinner and don't buy any refreshments at the theater (although you can see from the video that that isn't always the case :-). So now, we've spent $141-$176. If we've taken a cab to the theater or bought popcorn and drinks, you can see very easily how a casual night out costs over $200.
So now, here we are, in the theater, for the first time in six months. We've chosen our movie carefully, knowing that we won't be seeing another one for quite a while, and we don't want to waste the evening on a dud. Just as we're getting into the story, the couple next to us gets into a fight. Or starts simulating sex. A hair gets on the projector's lens and dances around for ten minutes. Somebody comes in late and walks up and down the aisle for 20 minutes trying to find his friends. And of course, someone who didn't want to pay $100 for a babysitter brought the baby, who starts crying every time someone onscreen gets shot.
That's why I want a home theater. So that I can put the kids to bed, invite over a few friends who are well mannered enough to know how to watch a movie with other people, microwave some popcorn, and relax.
I'm not sure what the suburbs have to do with it. I've been to movie theaters in the suburbs, and people are just as rude. If you're saying that we're not entitled to use our home in a way you don't think is appropriate for Brooklyn, do what you want with your own house. We're doing what we want with ours.
Our brownstone is 20' wide. The home theater would be in the back parlour, which stretches the entire width of the house. Plenty of room. Seats on one side, a projector overhead, and a screen that comes down from the ceiling. Add some speakers and blackout curtains and we're in business. But that's a long way off. The parlour floor will most likely be done last, after the other three floors, the backyard, the facade, the roof, all of the windows, and whatever else breaks between now and then.
As I've stated in the blog, we're not going to discuss the specifics of how much the house and the reno are costing us. Suffice it to say that the reno is costing about double what we had originally budgeted/naively hoped for. Our contractor is more expensive than what we wanted to pay, and we ended up doing more extensive work in some areas than we had wanted to. But after hearing all of the horror stories about what others have gone through with their deadbeat, no-show, incompetent contractors, I know we made the right choice. Not only is he a good contractor, but he's a good guy. You can't put a price on that.
Posted by: Amy at October 27, 2007 9:16 AM in response to Video: Inside the Gates Renovation Blog
I would caution you about going a cheap route with this. Do you really want to have your TV crash to the ground?
You could look into mounting stands. They're heavy and have shelves on the bottom for cable box, etc. and then a place to mount the TV on top that's higher than a typical TV stand.
Posted by: Amy at October 24, 2007 3:26 PM in response to HELP MOUNTING A FLAT SCREEN TV
Finally, an entire floor for my foosball tables!
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 24, 2007 2:33 PM in response to House of the Day: $8.75 Million in Cobble Hill?
How about "Clinton Hill: The Rich Man's Poor Man's Brooklyn."
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 23, 2007 10:48 AM in response to Kensington: The T-Shirt
You're supposed to pay PMI until you have 20% equity in your house. It doesn't matter how you get to the 20%: because your property goes up in value and the bank appraises it higher than when you bought it, because you've paid down a chunk of the principal, or because you get a piggyback loan, mentioned above (80/10/10, 80/5/15, 80/15/5, etc.). The hitch is, often the bank won't tell you that you no longer owe PMI. You have to keep track and let them know.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 18, 2007 11:55 AM in response to Threshold for Mortgage Insurance?
Try the RatZapper Ultra (the silver one). I got two on Amazon. They were about $45 each and run on D batteries.
Posted by: Amy at October 13, 2007 9:38 AM in response to Time for the Mice to Move Back Indoors
There are many more reasons than hairballs not to get a cat. Speaking as someone who had two cats for ten years, I'd rather deal with the mice.
And to do that, nothing beats the RatZapper.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at October 12, 2007 12:41 PM in response to Time for the Mice to Move Back Indoors
test
Posted by: Amy at October 10, 2007 3:41 PM in response to Today on the Forum
131' lot? So that's where the rest of my 80' lot went!
:-)
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 14, 2007 10:55 PM in response to the good, the bad and the ugly
Thanks Bob, I've tried it on different computers, and tried all the other "tricks" like deleting my cookies and passwords, but not different browsers - only IE. I'll look for you next time. Tell me what shirt you'll be wearing. :-)
I also heard a few comments (people talking amongst themselves in front of the bake sale) that they wish there had been more furniture. Other than that though the comments sounded good. I also heard people talking who wanted to sell their own stuff. Not sure if that's feasible, but there was definitely interest. I guess it would be hard to keep it to architecture-related stuff though, and it would just end up being more of a normal flea market.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 11:48 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
Well now I'm so annoyed that I've rushed these posts off without signing my name. 10:52 was mine, as was 10:59. I don't know what the problem is with my registration but it's certainly not my fault and I'm not trying to hide. And while I'm flattered to be equated with Bob Marvin, I can assure you we are two different people who live in two different neighborhoods who have never met. And he writes more eloquently than I do, so hopefully he's not insulted!
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 11:04 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
There's a very easy explanation: from day one of registering there has been a problem with my registration. I never, ever hide my identity. I sign in as Amy and it shows up as Anonymous, so I always make sure to sign Amy in the body of my post. I am Amy Oztan, neighborhood resident since 2002, blogger of the Gates Reno on this site, head of fundraising at PS11, mother of two, and I spent all day Saturday behind the popcorn machine at the SalvageFest bake sale. Nothing suspicious about it, and as soon as the web designers figure out what the problem is, my posts will show up with the correct signature. But you'll notice it's not "guest" and the info on the profile page is mine. Sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere for some kind of conspiracy.
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 10:59 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
Sorry 10:37, that's not what's going on. Every time there is an event, someone gets on here and makes a broad comment about race, not a nuanced argument and not a question as to the broader sociologic causes. It's the race version of "When AY gets built all of this will be worthless." Probably the same person every time, trying to start an argument.
If someone were to comment on race and then make some of the arguments I was listing, or other coherent arguments, then I don't think that they would be attacked (at least I wouldn't be attacking). But to simply say "there weren't enough black people" or "black people weren't welcome" (as someone did in the comments on Friday's SalvegeFest post) is tantamount to racebaiting.
Normally I stay silent when this happens, but since I was involved in this event, I'm very annoyed by these comments that the event was too white. If people are interested, they will come. If people aren't interested, then ask why. But to lay it all at brownstoner's feet it just silly.
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 10:52 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
And the point is?!? What? Did brownstoner only advertise to whites? Was there a sign at the gate that said "no blacks allowed"? Was there someone stationed on the corner directing blacks away from the event so that they couldn't see what was going on?
If you're trying to make the point that whites, on average, had more of an interest in coming to an architectural flea market due to property ownership rates, economic status, or exposure to websites and groups where the event was advertised, then that's an interesting discussion. But to simply comment that there were more whites than blacks at the event is pointless and silly.
SalvageFest was advertised on this site, on the FGKids listerv (serving a very diverse group), through the Society for Clinton Hill, and probably many other places I'm not aware of. If your point is that blacks don't have enough exposure to the websites and groups through which the event was promoted, then make that argument. But that's hardly brownstoner's fault, and to label an event as too white as if it were designed that way is irresponsible and stupid.
I was positioned in view of the gate all day, and met many of the people who were there. The group was diverse, friendly, and enthusiastic.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 10:32 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
Well if you mean that the most common race to be found at SalvageFest was white, then yes, you are correct. I have my own pictures, and more than half of the people in them are white. And? Your point is? Or are you just trying to start a meaningless argument for your own amusement?
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 10:17 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
And I'd like to give a huge thanks to Jon, for bringing this great event to PS11, and to all of you who showed up and helped raise $1000 for the PS11 PTA!
I hope there are many more SalvageFests to come.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 9:35 AM in response to Soaking Up Some Salvage at the Fest
Hi. I had a great time on Saturday and would like very much to see this done more often. Of course, I have a vested interest, because all of you who came helped raise $1000 for the PS11 PTA (I'm head of fundraising, and was the sun-burnt woman with brown hair who was behind the popcorn machine most of the time).
I've been dealing with some pretty sensitive race issues in Clinton Hill and at PS11 for a while now, and I firmly believe that the best way to go forward is to do just that, go forward. If you look for racism everywhere, you will see it everywhere.
SalvageFest was advertised on this site, on the FGKids list (very diverse population on that list), through the Society for Clinton Hill, and probably many more places that I'm not aware of. I was positioned within view of the gate all day, and I was really happy to see the people coming in, who were of many races and many of whom were discovering Clinton Hill for the first time.
This was a huge boost for PS11, so I'd like to give a huge shout of thanks to Jon and to everyone who came to the event. It was a great day, and just one example of why I love living in Clinton Hill.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 10, 2007 9:31 AM in response to Salvage Fest 2007: 20 Hours and Counting
I'm sure it sucks if your neighbor is attracting mice somehow, but it's your responsibility to patch up the holes between the houses so that the mice can't get in to yours. Just comes with the territory, both living in NYC and living in homes that are attached to each other.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 5, 2007 11:43 AM in response to Mice Mice Mice!
Wow. I'm glad I have good relationships with my neighbors. If I didn't, and one of them came to me and told me not to do something, anything, for an hour in the afternoon, in my own house, that wasn't illegal, I think I'd tell them to f- off.
I've lived under nightmare neighbors, guys who would throw a tennis ball around their apartment at two in the morning for their big dog to chase. I've lived over people who blasted the "Rent" soundtrack every Saturday morning, for several hours, so loud that our walls vibrated and the pictures shook. And I've lived over a guy who complained constantly because I exercised every day for 30 minutes in the middle of the freakin' day.
You're overreacting and trying to get control of something that you have no right to control. Get over it. Buy the kid some manuscript paper as a peace offering and leave it at that. Or, make your life miserable over something petty. Your choice.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at September 2, 2007 1:52 AM in response to Piano Playing Noise Daily from Neighbors
I can't recommend a specific system, because we needed something much simpler, but I really liked what I ordered from smarthome.com. They'll most likely have whatever you're looking for, and when I called with a bunch of questions before I placed my order they were very helpful.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at August 31, 2007 11:52 AM in response to Buzzzzzz
Love this feature. Keep it coming please!
Amy
Posted by: Amy at August 20, 2007 11:46 AM in response to The Lockwood Files: Not New York’s First Housing Bubble
That was me above, Amy.
Posted by: Amy at August 20, 2007 11:44 AM in response to Battle of the Bowls
We've gotten two Toto G Force Max toilets so far. One round, because the bathroom didn't have room for elongated, and one elongated. I love them both. They're low enough for me and my husband (we're both short), and my 3 year old can even get up there without a step stool. They're one piece, which I consider essential with a small boy in the house.
Posted by: Amy at August 20, 2007 11:43 AM in response to Battle of the Bowls
Hmmm. Screen shows me commenting as "Amy" but it was posted as "Anonymous." Weird. But it's me.
Amy
Posted by: Amy at August 20, 2007 11:21 AM in response to Clinton Hill condo?
Tough questions. On the one hand, Clinton Hill is full of families squeezed into one bedrooms having their first or second kid and looking for a two bedroom. So in terms of resale my gut tells me that the two bedroom with better light would have the better resale value.
However, I don't think you should make the decision based on resale value. You just don't know what's going to happen to the neighborhood or the economy between now and then.
If you like having a roommate, go for the 2 br. Personally, I would rather live alone than have a roommate, and I would take the money I saved by buying the 1 br and spend it on lots of lighting for the apartment.
I'm not sure if the first poster was saying that fringe areas in Clinton Hill are due for lower prices, or that Clinton Hill itself is considered fringe. But I don't really agree with either one. We've lived in Clinton Hill for five years now, four on what would be considered by many to be the best block, and one year a few blocks from Bed-Stuy in what would be considered a fringe area. We've loved them both. And the value of both properties has continued to rise.
Posted by: Amy at August 20, 2007 11:17 AM in response to Clinton Hill condo?
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
where can i read some reviews on structural engineers? i usually google the firm and click on google maps and read the reviews. however, there are little if any reviews on google.
Posted by: dshaw5 at July 30, 2009 10:46 AM in response to need a structural engineer (I think)
Hi davinbedstuy, that was the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.
And Biff, New York State recently increased (by a huge margin) the tax rebate given to productions that film in NYS. Coupled with the smaller rebate given by NYC, New York just got a lot cheaper for productions.
Movies and TV shows are flocking here like never before. Ugly Betty just moved their entire production here from L.A., a huge coup for NY. One of the producers of the Ethan Hawke movie Brooklyn's Finest said that without that new rebate, they simply couldn't have made the movie, since director Antoine Fuqua refused to film anywhere else.
Amy
FilmingInBrooklyn.com
Posted by: Amy at July 18, 2008 12:12 PM in response to I Hate Valentine's Day Shoots Seemingly Everywhere