We put in top down / bottom up Smith & Noble in our entire house, some 15 windows. SN was by no means cheap, but they are always running sales or special offers which can save you a bit. Plus they do seem to be not as expensive as some others, such as Hunter. The shades were good quality, fairly easy to install. We had one huge solar shade that was damaged, and SN replaced the whole thing without any hassle. i would use them again.

good luck

Posted by: beatlife at July 21, 2009 10:39 PM in response to Top Down/Bottom Up Shades

We have them also. I'm assuming you have double hung windows. The window guards fit in the track of the top (or outside) window. This means that you can open and close the bottom window without any problem, but you can't lower the top window past the top of the guard.

Posted by: beatlife at June 9, 2009 9:19 PM in response to Guardian Angel Window Guards

We are thinking of using this whey based varnish by Vermont Natural Coatings:

http://www.vermontnaturalcoatings.com/

I don't have any first hand experience with it yet.

Posted by: beatlife at June 2, 2009 10:00 PM in response to Organic water- based

Denton is right, 55 deg is optimal. However, even more important is avoiding extreme fluctuations. So, if your cellar can maintain 65 deg more or less, that should be fine. I found that my old cellar, even below grade and insulated to the outside, could fluctuate almost 10 deg a day, definitely "not cool."
Again, as Denton says, if you're just gonna drink it within a few months time, no bother to get all technical. But if you want to cellar your wine seriously, better off getting a cooling unit or building a dedicated climate controlled space in your basement.

Posted by: beatlife at June 1, 2009 7:40 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

Your welcome, Just Wondering. Glad they found a good home. I admit they were a bit beat up after a winter of being tossed around in a construction site.

Posted by: beatlife at May 18, 2009 9:47 PM in response to Wood shutters free for the takin

Curious to know if you benefitted from any incentives from National Grid. They keep advertising that they offer financial incentives to switch from oil to gas, which I am doing. Whenever I try to get some info from National Grid about incentives, all I get is references and calls for plumbers to do the work. My contractor is handling the job since I am doing a gut reno, so I don't need any freakin references, I need to know how to initiate process to take advantage of the incentives. thanks

Posted by: beatlife at April 3, 2009 3:26 PM in response to Finally tackling the basement

since people are asking about school zones....

this house is zoned for PS 32, which is an OK school on Hoyt St. Most of Carroll Gardens is zoned for PS 58, which has a great reputation. PS 29 is very far away from this house and is in Cobble Hill.

Posted by: beatlife at March 31, 2009 7:50 PM in response to House of the Day: 93 2nd Street

I'm in the same boat. I've stuck with Chubb, but it's insanely expensive, over $8000 per annum. And now they are making me install central fire and burglar alarm during the gut renovation. They are driving me crazy. Did you find any alternatives?

Kurt

Posted by: beatlife at January 5, 2009 10:50 AM in response to insurance while doing renovation

I have some in a bathroom I am about demolish, don't know if the pink will match but you are welcome to try. email me at kurtdwill@yahoo.com

Posted by: beatlife at August 11, 2008 11:26 AM in response to old pink shower tiles

Steve,

I looked on the Mannington website. Is your flooring the "Hardwood" product, or the "Laminate?" It sounds like you are describing the laminate, which has an ultrathin top layer and I don't think is technically the same as the engineered woods I am describing. If you do have the Hardwood, then I am as puzzled as you are as to why it is so prone to denting and divets, unless you choose a particularly soft wood.

My negative experience with engineered floor has to do with a bamboo top layer. Hopefully, by going with a harder wood as the wear layer we can avoid the issues we had with the 100% bamboo.

Posted by: beatlife at July 8, 2008 9:53 AM in response to Radiant heat under Bamboo floor

We are putting in radiant floor heating in a whole brownstone renovation - so 4 entire floors. One floor will be poured concrete, two floors will be engineered wood, and the last floor will be Medex, which I think is some cheap wood composite.

Engineered wood was recommended to us over solid wood because solid wood has a greater tendency to warp or cup over radiant floors. Engineered woods are more durable than has been suggested in some of the posts here. There are engineered woods that use a solid bamboo backing. We are using a product called Exobam by ASI that has a 3.5 mm hardwood wear layer. It's not massive, but it does allow the floor to be refinished 2 or 3 times. Ecotimber also makes a great product. HOWEVER, if you use these engineered woods over radiant floor, you often void the manufacturers warranty. We are aware of this and decided to take the risk anyway. As for installation, I believe that depends on the floor you choose. Our new floor will be nailed, as was our old bamboo floor (by the way, all bamboo flooring is "engineered").

Yes, we used bamboo flooring in our last renovation (I am a glutton for punishment) and we were very dissatisfied. Quality of bamboo varies dramatically, and our floor was easily dented and marred.

Good luck and may your home be toasty warm.

Posted by: beatlife at July 7, 2008 10:34 PM in response to Radiant heat under Bamboo floor

We are installing a whole house fan in our brownstone. It's tricky because we can't use a traditional attic fan, which vents through the gables, because, well, we don't have an attic. You can call me at 917-886-9323 if you want to know more about our house fan experience.

Basically, if you can do it, you should go for it. It's not a total AC solution, but it will go a long way towards keeping you cool 90% of the summer.

Posted by: beatlife at May 21, 2008 3:46 PM in response to Whether to install a Whole House Fan?

OP here. I need to make some clarifications to my original post. But first, to those of you who asked: uh yes, I did vet the engineering group. They are LEED certified and have done many solar installations, both thermal and PV, around the world. Although, most if not all of their projects are large-scale museum type deals, not single-family brownstones - so maybe that is an issue.

Anyway, here's the deal: if I install sufficient panels to provide my domestic hot water needs - which are fairly constant through summer and winter, then any additional panels that I install in order to produce hot water for the radiant floor system will be superfluous for roughly 7 months of the year. Originally, I said that this would produce large amounts of excess heat - oh, and by the way, the system is vulnerable to overheating and can be damaged if excess heat is not flushed. This statement seemed to cause a lot of disbelief in follow-up posts. However, even Chester, who also protested my point, then went on to say that the hot water could be used in a pool or spa, or somehow dissipated by the wind or redirected to a "drying room." So I guess there is excess heat after all.... I think the problem was that I said that hot water would need to be flushed - this is of course a worse case scenario. Apparently, my engineering group has been involved in projects where they store the excess heat in summer in huge concrete fields.

Then there is the option of taking the additional solar panels off-line in summer, or covering them, etc. I guess this is possible, but I was advised against this whole scenario because it would not make sense financially. Basically, I would have to install a very expensive system, around 50K worth, in order to provide enough hot water for my whole house heating requirements. This system would then be totally under-used for roughly half the year.

So I apologize for getting everybody riled up about the "flushing the water" comment. My main point, and I think it still stands, is that using solar thermal for radiant floor systems has serious issues - unless the installation can take advantage of large amounts of hot water production in summer - so I guess the answer is I need pool in my backyard. Anyone want to help me shovel?

Posted by: beatlife at May 15, 2008 10:23 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

I'm doing similar installation on my gut reno in Carroll Gardens, except we are probably not doing the PV at this point and only solar thermal for hot water - which I thought we would also use for radiant floor heating. Our engineer is throwing up roadblocks on that last front. We are getting ready to go to bid shortly. Call me at 917-886-9323 or kurtdwill@yahoo.com if you want to compare notes - would be helpful for me as well.

Posted by: beatlife at May 13, 2008 8:49 AM in response to Solar Water and Electric

Running a fan at night consumes a hell of a lot less electricity than running AC, be it CAC or a window unit. Besides the potential cost savings, environmental benefit, etc etc, I just don't like AC air. Anyway, we are also installing a solar thermal system coupled with radiant floor heating and may or may not add PV panels if we have ANY money left.

From what I've read, whole house fans are a fantastic way of cooling down your house naturally, it's not gonna help much when it's 105 outside, but let's say 90% of time in summer it will be sufficient.

Posted by: beatlife at April 8, 2008 3:33 PM in response to Need advice on whole house fan

Thanks to all for the feedback.

It"s just the paperwork, I have an architect for the drawings. I did the filing for the work permit last time myself, so I know the drill. basically, it's a lot of waiting in line (outsourced to some industrious kids) and having the inside relationships to move the paper along.

It's a real pain, which is why I'm glad to hire someone this time. Still, $10k is $10k ....

Posted by: beatlife at March 5, 2008 12:24 PM in response to Fees for expediting

Steve,

I am beginning a demolition on my house and am getting rid of the awning over the front door. It's brown painted metal I think, looks in good shape, let me know if you are interested.

kurt - 917-886-9323

Posted by: beatlife at March 1, 2008 5:29 PM in response to Where to get Awnings ??

I wished I faced this dilemma.

Posted by: Fjorder at June 2, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

Bobjohn, my tenants left a brand new, barely-been-used Magic Chef 30 bottle wine cooler. It is in my garage and sells for between $220-$300. I would like to sell it for $100 or another suggested price. If you would like to take it please email me at : salross@verizon.net

Posted by: sally at June 2, 2009 10:32 AM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

thanks for the suggestions. BTW, do I need to worry about humidity sipping though the cork in basement?

Posted by: bobjohn at June 2, 2009 10:33 AM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

Yes, if you don't want to use a fridge, you should use a humidity gauge as well. Corks can mold, rot and mildew.

Posted by: Misty B at June 2, 2009 12:04 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

Robert Parker suggests that 70 degrees and below (without fluctuations as previously mentioned - intra day and seasonal) should be fine for several years. Avoid light, movement and also vibrations. Should be fine for 0-2 years, likely more. Several articles on the web for natural cellars.

Humidity is generally an issue for the corks - remedy is to lay bottles on the side to keep the corks moist.

Rule of thumb on temp controlled storage is $2 per bottle, but some retailers (Sherry Lehmann) will store up to 1 year. Best to buy a wine unit in my view.

Posted by: boerumite at June 2, 2009 12:05 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

I have a wine fridge but I must admit that I have always wanted to turn a portion of the cellar into a "Cave de vin"
I aleady have the cobwebs.

Posted by: sam at June 2, 2009 12:13 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

Love this thread. What do you think is the average temperature in a below-grade cellar with dirt floors in the summertime in New York City?

Posted by: mopar at June 2, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

If you're really cellaring wine, you really need more capacity than the small fridges offer. If you plan on drinking 4 cases a year (pretty low), and want to cellar for 5 years (pretty minimal also), you need space for 20 cases. Potentially much more. 30 bottles doesn't cut it. (Having made the mistake myself). Sadly, the cheapest units are pretty tall, and I don't think would fit in the typical brownstone basement. My plan is to build an insulated room in the basement and install one of the fairly inexpensive cooling units to stabilize the temperature in it. My current boiler (near end of life, very inefficient), does a great job heating the whole basement in the wintertime, which is another hurdle to cope with.

Posted by: jb312 at June 2, 2009 5:48 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

I remember quite nostalgically the basement of a liquor store in California that was cool and dry and had thousands of bottles on shelves. It smelled deliciously of wine and cork.

Posted by: mopar at June 2, 2009 6:19 PM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

The green depot does not have white water based.

Posted by: benoit at June 3, 2009 8:57 PM in response to Organic water- based