hollander's Profile
Author's Posts
April 13, 2008
Garden Advice
We need quite a bit of help with our garden and are clueless as to where to start. The garden needs to be regraded, a wooden fence needs to be installed, a tree pruned and we would like to put some grass and some stones. Can one company do all of this? Can anyone give me a recommendation?
Thank you for your help!
March 6, 2008
The plumbing edition
Hi everyone,
I have some catch up to do. Renovations were moving swiftly until the first snag... the plumbing sign off. After some confusion as to what we need, we should be filing next week and sign off (fingers crossed) should happen the week after. As a first time renovator one of the most frustrating things is that you don't know what you need and the fees are piling up...
Anyway, I attached some pictures of our new plumbing. Question for you, the plumbing of our new bathroom is right above the dining room. Should we be concerned about noise (toilet flush etc..). Does insulation help against noise?
February 18, 2008
Cool and Not So Cool "Finds"
Before I move on to some of the construction that has been happening, I want to share with you some of the cool and not so cool "finds" we had in the demo process. Under the "not so cool" category are, pounds and pounds of pigeon poop (see picture), a leaky roof (amazing what tin ceilings can hide) and some sagging and rotten beems. Under the "very cool" category, two items of which I posted pictures below. Enjoy the guess work!
February 10, 2008
Holland House Intro
Hi everyone,
This is our first post, so a little intro is needed. We purchased a house in the North Slope about a year ago. We knew nothing about renovations and being a landlord but quickly convinced ourselves that a) really only the kitchen needed to be upgraded and b) we could live through a renovation so we could keep the rental income. After 6 months of complete denial the reality set in: a) we really are looking at a gut renovation and b) there is no way we could live in the space while the renovations were happening. So here is the project....
We are combining the top two floors of a three floor building to be an owner's duplex. The lower floor will remain a renter's apartment. The project involves.. all new EVERYTHING.... plumbing, electrical, kitchen, two bathrooms and a complete new configuration of space. The second floor will be all about livingroom and kitchen, the third floor will be all the bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
Why Holland House? Well, one of us is from the lower lands and we do live now in "Breukelen" and the house eerily looks similary configured to dutch houses. (A little patriotic feeling of my other ("he claims better") half did not hurt either). We will fill you in later of the details we are looking to work in, needless to say we are very excited.
We look forward to your comments and suggestions...but be gentle...!
While we now are 4 weeks into the renovation. Let me start with the beginning and catch up. So, I included some pictures from the first day of demolition. More to come ... Enjoy!
January 4, 2008
Steam boiler
It looks like my steam boiler (Burnham) is leaking steam. In case I need to replace it, does anyone have recommendations and insights into costs for a new boiler and good installer? Thx
November 4, 2007
Stripping Door Hardware
We are having our doors stripped and removed the door hardware in the process. What is the best way to strip door hardware? Any advice appreciated!
Author's Comments
I don't think so (we purchased the property early last year and it looked approx 5 years old). Anyway, I had someone look at it, and it may be the case that it was only the pressure relief valve (after seeing you point it out in the video...) that didn't close properly. That sounds a lot less expensive than a new heating element or boiler...Thanks!
Posted by: hollander at January 4, 2008 2:56 PM in response to Steam boiler
Master Plumber.
We have steam heating and we are not sure whether we should call a plumber. The problem is that the tank refills automatically very frequently (sometimes every hour). We looked around the house for a place where steam could be leaking but could not find one. Do you think the fact that the tank needs a refill so often is a problem? Do you think this is costing us a lot of money? (heating bill wise)
Thank you so much for your insight!
Posted by: hollander at January 21, 2008 5:39 PM in response to Reposting boiler and heating information
Thank you for your quick response. I think we need to take some action here. In your view how much does a "diagnostic" aprx cost? Is this something we contact you with?
Thank you again!
Posted by: hollander at January 21, 2008 7:19 PM in response to Reposting boiler and heating information
Mrs Limestone,
I am very much enjoying your renovation. We are going through something similar and it is good to see what a place can look like!
Where did you get your countertop? I don't know where to start.
One more question: We are looking to have built in ceiling lights like you have. Do you think we could build them into tin ceiling, or would that look funny?
I appreciate your thoughts!
Posted by: hollander at January 23, 2008 10:50 AM in response to Kitchen Progress Heats Up
Thank you Mrs Limestone, that helps.
Unfortunately restoring the tin ceiling was not an option as we changed the dimensions of the space, so we are re-installing new ones. We are a little disappointed with how difficult it is in the end to keep original detail... plaster molding etc..
Thank you again!
Posted by: hollander at January 23, 2008 1:06 PM in response to Kitchen Progress Heats Up
Mrs Limestone
Thank you again for sharing your house with us! You have great taste!
Question, would you mind telling me what faucet this is (in the pictures). I was looking for something like that to put on a Kohler Memoir sink.
Thank you!!
Posted by: hollander at January 26, 2008 10:20 AM in response to Little things
South Stuy Blog
I have a technical question for you. I want to start out writing on the renoblogs and have a blog set up (Holland House Reno) but for the life of me can't figure out how to upload text and pictures and get started. Any tips for me??
Thank you!
Posted by: hollander at February 8, 2008 10:18 AM in response to Stripping......the door
HomeSweetstuy, we definitely needed both a contractor and architect.
akryeguy Thanks for your wishes. We really wanted to keep more of the original details, but it turns out that is easier said than done!
Posted by: hollander at February 11, 2008 12:49 PM in response to Holland House Intro
Rehab. The tenant living through this is myself. So thank you for your concern :-)
Guest 5:12. There was no way to keep many of the materials, if you can afford to replaster all the walls, good for you, I am not that rich. Also, before throwing stones on being "green" I hope you a)have just installed all green insulation and b)you never do takeout or use plastic bags because otherwise you should really keep your comments to yourself.
I really wanted this to be a "happy blog" as the reno is stressful enough. So please lay off.
Posted by: hollander at February 12, 2008 8:14 PM in response to Holland House Intro
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
my husband contracted the reno of our house and one of our favorite people to work with was rodney taitt. he refinished/stripped our banister, spindles, pocket doors, window mouldings, etc and we couldn't be happier. he is a very reasonably priced, meticulous, reliable and all around lovely person to have around.
feel free to contact me at 646-641-8438 if you need any more details or contact him directly:
rodney taitt
347-707-9455 cel
718-462-7241 home
Posted by: guest at April 2, 2008 8:45 PM in response to 4 story limestone restoration
I used Michele Bruni (not Bruno!) too a couple of years ago, and it was not a good experience. Partially our fault since we did not check thouroughly the selective references he gave us, nor we nailed him down sufficiently on the pricing. Anyway , what's done is done but a good suggestion for brownstoner for a truly useful service: couldn't you keep a database of people who have used a number of contractors, and furnish e-mails/telephone numbers of them to people who are considering usign the same contractors, for maybe a small fee? Not sure how this could be done protecting the privacy of everybody but I am sure it would be an immensely useful service!
Posted by: guest at May 8, 2008 3:04 PM in response to Bad Brooklyn Contractors
I have also had a bad experience with Michele Bruni. It was very disapppointing considering that he lives in the neighborhood.
Posted by: guest at May 10, 2008 9:10 PM in response to Bad Brooklyn Contractors
Thank you for the advice! I will try both methods!
Posted by: hollander at November 4, 2007 10:27 PM in response to Stripping Door Hardware