Reno Blogs
July 24, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Top Floor Apartment: Sanding the Floor
After we had finished painting, the apartment was looking good and was nearly ready to welcome G' mom. She would be staying in the back room of the top floor, where previously there had been a nasty green carpet covering the floor. We removed this and found two layers of linoleum. This wasn't really nice or welcoming for G's mom, so we decided to take up the linoleum and at least get a first pass done at sanding the old subfloor boards underneath before her arrival.
The linoleum was easy enough to take up, but the remaining mastic coating the floor proved persistent. It took several passes with the ridiculously tough sandpaper on the sander to get the boards looking good. We left the boards raw since any sealer we put down would not have time to dry before G's mom showed up. Instead, we left the final passes with the superfine paper for after her visit.
July 23, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Top Floor Apartment: Painting in the Hallway
The hallway at the top of the stairs is hard to photograph because the space is tight. It's hard to tell the complete story. On the wall on the outside of the bathroom, we took down the cracked bulging plaster, left up the lathe, and resurfaced with new sheetrock. This had to be primed, along with some other cracks and holes I had patched. Then all surfaces in the hallway - except for the stairs and railings - were given two coats of white. Out here we also painted the baseboards white.
As I mentioned in the previous post, there are 5 doors in this hallway (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, second bedroom, and closet with ladder to roof), and G selected 5 different colors, one for each door. The door in the last picture shown is to the bathroom, which we painted with a semi-gloss black (I think called blackberry?), which we had also used for the baseboards and mouldings in the bathroom downstairs.
July 22, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Top Floor Apartment: Painting Jam, encore
More pics from our second weekend of intense round-the-clock painting in the top floor apartment. After we had primed where necessary, and applied two coats of white everywhere, the apartment looked mostly like the first picture above. Then we began hitting the mouldings and baseboards with the khaki-ish color G selected. For the 5 doors in the top floor hallway, G selected 5 bright colors to add some fun and energy. My favorite: the orange door.
July 20, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Top Floor Apartment: Painting Jam, con't.
A before pic from the back room on the top floor, and a progress pic from the front room. When we began, we needed to prime the ceilings which had been laminated with the new sheetrock, and also prime the various holes all around the apartment that we had patched after the electricians finished their work up there.
BedStuy Reno: Top Floor Apartment: Painting Jam
. . . and we're back. Though it may seem like we've taken a break, the opposite is actually true. We have been hard at work on the house, and as such, the reno blog has suffered. We had a serious push on the top floor, what will be the apartment, when G's mom came for a visit from Brussels. Since she would be staying with us, we needed to make a nice and homey space for her. It gave us a good reason to really crank on the top floor.
We emailed everyone we could think of and arranged for two back-to-back painting party weekends. The turnout was solid. We got a lot done, painting the hallway leading up the stairs to the apartment, the hallway at the top of the stairs, the two large front and back rooms, and all their respective mouldings and base boards. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we had had our ceilings cleaned up by having them laminated with thin sheetrock, thus saving what plaster details remained, and covering up a lot of cracks, holes and imperfections. On the top floor, the ceilings had been "stuccoed," and it was nice to see that go.
For our choice of paint, we went with a simple satin white - the most basic 5-gallon jug you can find at Home Depot from Behr. For the mouldings and baseboards inside the rooms, G selected a light khaki-ish tone from Benjamin Moore, AC-1.
June 24, 2008
Gates Reno: 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.
June 5, 2008
Green Roof Reno: Yes We Can
Alright . . . I feel inspired by yesterday’s historic day. I would like to talk Green Roof Policy in NY. A good friend of mine in the policy world has been doing me a favor and following the progress of green roof bills in Albany. It’s really amazing how no one seems to have access to this information. There is such an amazing lack of transparency into our government – especially Albany. Case in point, the closed door vote made by our representatives on the congestion pricing bill - this is a maneuver enacted by our politicians to ensure that no one knows how their representative voted on the bill. There is no record or accountability. One unfortunate aspect of that bill being rejected was that a green roof initiative was pork-barreled onto it. The initiative was from Bloomberg’s PlanNYC and sought to provide a 35% tax abatement on small-scale green roof projects. My green roof policy expert reports below:
On March 31st, the NYC City Council approved the congestion pricing plan by a 30 to 20 vote, sending the bill to the state legislature for approval. On April 7th, the deadline when NYC would lose out on $354 million of federal money for mass transit improvements, the state Assembly, led by Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64th AD, Lower East Side), killed the bill by deciding behind closed doors not to bring congestion pricing to the floor for a public vote.
The good news is that a couple of other bills have been sponsored in Albany – one of which looks particularly promising. Bill number A5449 is the one to watch. Write an email to the committee chairs to keep this moving forward.
Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, Jr, Chair, Ways and Means Committee
See link: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=071&sh=con
Or email: farrelh@ assembly.state.ny.us
State Senator Carl L. Marcellino, Chair, Environmental Conservation Committee
See email: marcelli@senate.state.ny.us
Below is a description of the three bills currently sponsored.
1. Bill Number: A5449, introduced by Assembly Member Dinowitz of the West Bronx (the companion bill in the senate is S4362, sponsored by Sen. Marcellino of NW Long Island).
General Description: (1) Requires the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation to develop a program to evaluate and set standards for green roof construction and certification. (2) The bill amends the tax law by providing a tax credit for the installation of roof garden of 55% of the installation cost that shall not exceed $5,000.
Current Status: On January 9, 2008 the bill was referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee. On April 15th, it was amended to its current form and recommitted to the same committee. On May 13, 2008 the bill was reported out of Environmental Conservation and referred to the Ways and Means committee. The progress and movement of the bill is promising.
This bill has a companion bill in the Senate (and I’m told you need both houses to pass bills successfully before they can go to the governor for his approval), so . . . this bill currently has the best chances of being passed into law. We are definitely exited about this although, I can’t help but wondering if $5,000 is enough? First of all, in order to get a credit, you‘ll have to enter into the permit process at the DOB which should cost x amount of dollars and cause x amount of headaches. The bill is definitely intended only for the residential green roof owner - no commercial developer is going to give a hoot about a 5K tax abatement. But, hey . . we’ll take it. It’s a step in the right direction. Another incentive that seems to have been effective elsewhere is a fast-track DOB permitting process for green roof projects (see Portland, Oregon’s Office of Sustainable Development).
2. Bill Number: S6390, introduced by State Senator Serrano who represents N. Bronx, E. Harlem and Roosevelt Island. This has no companion bill in the assembly.
General Description: Any taxpayer shall be allowed a credit for the installation of a green roof. The amount of the credit shall be 55% of qualified green roof installation expenditures, but shall not exceed the maximum credit of $10,000.
Current Status: On January 9, 2008 the bill was referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee, where it still sits. The lack of progress of the bill likely means it will not move forward, possibly because of the larger maximum credit. It also currently has no companion bill in the assembly, which is necessary to be passed into law.
3. Bill Number: A10234, introduced by Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr, who represents the 85th AD in the Southeast Bronx. This has no companion bill in the senate.
General Description: Amends property tax law to : (1) Provide a tax abatement for $6.75 per square foot of installation of a green roof or maintenance of a green roof, not to exceed $100,000 or the tax liability of the eligible building, whichever is less. (2) Provide requirements for maintaining a green roof as a condition of receiving the tax abatement for three years, which can be revoked if proper maintenance isn't followed.
Current Status: On March 11, 2008 the bill was referred to the Real Property Taxation Committee, where it still sits. It also currently has no companion bill in the senate, which is necessary to be passed into law.
May 14, 2008
Green Roof Reno: Green-Brownstones
We thought this seminar on Greening your Brownstone might be of interest to a lot of you. . . .Check it out this Saturday, May 17 from 1 to 5 pm!
New York City College of Technology
Division of Continuing Education presents:
Anatomy of a Brownstone: Green Roofs, Green Homes
A seminar devoted to the art and science of sustainable homes, NYC style
Saturday, May 17 1 to 5 pm
HHT 074 $40
25 Chapel Street (at Tillary) Howard Building Room 108
To Register:
Phone: 718 552 1170 Fax 718 552 1194 email:
kramlal@citytech.cuny.edu
Information: dsalomon@citytech.cuny.edu
Learn about green roofs, energy audits, whole house design, and
sustainable building products from experts and professionals in the
green design and build community. Discover how to save energy, reduce
waste, and increase the overall comfort of your home.
Speakers
How your home uses and loses energy 1:00 to 2:00pm
Larry Ubell, WNYC’s “Guru of How To” will show the important steps to
minimizing energy waste in your home.
Raising the Green Roof 2:00 to 3:00 Tony Caggiano is the owner of plant
connections and the NYC green roof installer for Green Living
Technologies. He’ll explain how green roofs are grown, installed and
maintained and how they can help your budget and the environment.
Landscape Architect David Seiter, will show examples of urban, public
projects and high-end residential green roof projects, from Brooklyn to
Singapore.
Panel Discussion: Small and large ways to green your home 3:00 to 4:00
pm
Gita Nandan, GreenHome NYC http://www.greenhomenyc.org
Rolf Grimstead Developer, 93 Nevins “Health House” http://93nevins.com/
Jeff Honerkamp, CEO Honerkamp Lumber, LEED supplier
James Garrison, Principal, James Garrison Architects
Kris Reed, Brooklyn Center for Economic Development
Green House Tours: 4:00 to 5:00pm
Greg Todd, developer and James Garrison, an Architect who has been
building green for several years, will show examples from completed and
in progress projects and explains that building sustainably does not
mean losing style. They’ll focus on the wide array of fixtures and
materials that can create a handsome, healthy interior.
Meet and Greet: Representatives from the NYSERDA Energy Smart Program
will be on hand to distribute flyers and share energy saving tips.
May 8, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Lower Level Half Bath - Tile Wall
G's own inspiration, from sketch to realization. If you look at her sketch, you will see that she actually counted the exact number of tiles we needed - bright yellow turns out to be a pricey color. Basically, any tile that is a bright color is expensive. The half bath is unfiltered. It's just this tiny little room, that will have a lot, really a lot, of color. The sink will be mounted in the corner where this crazy yellow tile wall you see will frame two mirror panels. The color palette is as bold as the tile, I'll post pics as soon as we get the paint up.
May 1, 2008
South Stuy Blog: 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.
BedStuy Reno: Washer and Dryer: Building a Pan on the Floor
Since we didn't plan all that well ahead, G and I had a washer and dryer hookup plumbed on the Parlor Floor pass-thru closet we created, but we didn't put a drain in the floor for under the washer in case it ever leaks. Since the machine would be sitting right on the wood floor, we decided to build a pan and tile it - in case the washer leaks, which can happen, at least the water will be held in one spot until we can figure out what to do with it.
I installed cement backer board on top of a layer of plywood and then tiled on top of that. We had really limited time before we needed to get the machines in, (we were having some help with the lamination of the ceilings, and the same guys would be connecting the machines in this spot) so it was really 1-2-3, get it done. We had leftover white hex tiles and subway tiles for the curb and walls, which we got on really quickly. After I grouted, we let it dry overnight, then protected the floor and G came in and primed the new drywall in this closet nook with white primer, before the area behind the machines would be too hard to access.
BedStuy Reno: Washer and Dryer: The Holy Grail
The other week we had our appliances delivered. Fridge, dishwasher, and . . . washer and dryer. I can't really express how happy G and I are to see these beautiful, incredible, life changing machines, inside the house, so let's just take a moment to look at these pictures.
BedStuy Reno: Front Parlor Ceiling
Earlier I had posted the beginning of the lamination process to deal with the ceiling in the front parlor.
http://www.brownstoner.com/bedstuy_reno/archives/2008/04/catchup_work.html
We had wanted to save the remaining detail there, and clean up the field as best we could without a major replastering project being on our hands. We did that by "laminating" thin sheetrock to the existing cracked and hole-filled ceiling, covering up the problem areas, and then taping and spackling the sheetrock. The thinness of the sheetrock still allows the remaining detail to have depth.
April 26, 2008
Green Roof Reno: Go Green Expo
Just a quick note to say that if you are interested, you should check out the Go Green Expo this weekend. . . .
There will be some green roof and green wall suppliers on hand with their products.
The Hilton New York
Saturday 10am-6pm • Sunday 10am-3pm
See the project below from Seoul, Korea by Mass Studies Architects using G-Sky Living Wall Panels . . . A similar product by Green Living Technologies will be on hand at the expo . . .
April 22, 2008
Green Roof Reno: Into the Ceiling
So even though Spring is here . . . We're still inside trying to figure things out. Our next step was to determine the structural load capability of the roof in order to determine how to proceed with getting the deck and green roof built. So we had to go into the ceiling and look at the beams.
I was excited to inspect the roof from below – to see the size and condition of the beams holding up our roof and measure their spacing. I choose the side of the skylight to cut into the drywall so that it would be least intrusive. It would also allow us to look above the ceiling without actually cutting into it. After removing a 10” x 18” drywall piece in the side of the skylight niche, I caught a faceful of some really old air. I mean who knows when this space was last open?
What we found was true 3” x 7” beams that are spaced 24” apart on center. From what I understand this is not great news . . . the depth of the beam is the key number here and seven is just not that impressive. New wood decks are often framed off of 2x12s spaced 18” to 24” on center . . . in other words with a lot more load capability.
On the positive side, the quality and integrity of the beams seemed intact; with no dampness etc., though one of the beams looks like it had some water staining at some point. Everything up there now seems dry as a bone. We actually have about 12 inches of space between the ceiling and the roof, which means we could raise our ceilings if we wanted to. Right now, it’s not even a consideration, with all our money and resources devoted to the green roof project.
One key thing to note, the load-bearing walls do not extend to the ceiling (12 feet) but stop at the fourth floor ceiling (11 feet). In this case, the load-bearing walls are the interior walls that run down the center of the building separating our apartment from our 4th floor neighbor. So what that means is that we will consider cutting into the roof and building up that load bearing wall to form a 2’ high parapet in middle of the roof. We would then frame the deck, and if need be, the green roof off this parapet and the side parapet.
But, we still have a lot of questions - What can we expect to pay for building up a 2’ parapet from the load bearing wall? How does this differ price-wise from using steel? We would like to still consider using steel, but want to know the price differential between these options. Is steel two times more expensive or ten times more expensive? Will the 3x7s at 24 inches on center be enough to support the 17 lbs/sq ft of the green roof modules?
April 14, 2008
BedStuy Reno: 200th Posting Spectacular: Lower Level Half Bath!
Unbelievably, this is the 200th (!) posting of the Bed Stuy Reno. I feel like attaching a cheesy 1995-era animated gif of balloons and streamers. But I wouldn't know where to find one, and I'm not sure it's a gif I'm even talking about.
Appropriately, this posting is about tiling. Above is an image set from the Lower Level half bath - you can see the floor prepped and ready for tile, G (on the phone even) preparing the tile and pattern, and then me installing it.
We had fun with this one. G decided to invert our typical field of white hex with black hex making the pattern. Where the star shape is corresponds to the future placement of the little wall-mount corner sink above. And near the toilet, G added a randomly placed Spirit Flower, inspired by one reader's comments in regards to the top floor bathroom tilework. So web 2.0.
April 11, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Kitchen Chronicles, Part 3
People have asked for complete pics of the island, and I promise I will get to that. But first I want to document the progress. Here you can see shots with the complete wall cabinets in place - including the missing cabinet, picked up by P's brother R in Boston. After the countertop installation on the island, G set out to tile the the backsplash with leftover subway tiles. Her efficiency is crazy at this point. But we ran out of tiles. This is as far as we got before a trip to Nemo to get more. After we used up what we had, we cut and installed the wood countertop on the back counter - the cutout you see is where the gas cooktop will sit.
April 9, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Kitchen Chronicles, Part 2
On continue!
The first round of installations took care of the wall, minus one wall cabinet that was mysteriously missing from our order . . . we were able to fill in that blank thanks to P's brother, R, who went to the Stoughton, MA Ikea before coming for a visit to Brooklyn one weekend. He bought and brought us the missing wall cab, doors for said cabinet, and some Behandla, Ikea's proprietary oil for their wooden countertops (which we bought, incidentally). "Behandla" was said about a thousand times that weekend. It's a funny word.
So, the second round, or weekend, basically, of installations netted us our island. This was a little more complicated since the cabinets wouldn't be attached to the wall. We had to locate and mark carefully the island boundaries on the floor and then arrange the cabinets accordingly. Each cabinet did connect to its neighbor, so that gave the whole assembly some strength and rigidity as an object. We also had bought what are basically finishing panels to cover the exposed sides of cabinets, which we cut to size and then attached by screwing through the cabinet walls into the finish panel. At the island, where we have back-to-back cabs, this is especially important for hiding seams. In the pictures, the finish panels are the ones with blue tape around the edges. We put that on to protect the edges while cutting the pieces.
The island came together quickly, so we kept going, following up with . . . the countertop! Unbelievable, to get to this moment. These things were just giant boxes for so long, it was crazy to open them up. The wood countertops are really nice, they are solid strips of wood laminated together in a butcher-block style. Super solid, and super heavy, by the way. Cutting these to size was nerve wracking, since we didn't want to screw up. We didn't have a lot of room for error. Cuts involved cutting two giant boards to size to cover the countertop, and creating the cutout for the sink. (The sink is Ikea's version of what people call a "farmhouse" sink. It's large. It looks cool, but what's strange is for its size, the basins are kind of shallow. Oh well.)
Cutting the countertops was hard, we used a circular saw, when clearly a table saw would have been ideal. But we don't have one, so, circular saw it was. We did ok. Seams are not perfect where the two pieces butt together. Decent, but not perfect. G told me not to stress it, so I didn't, and I don't. We screwed the countertop pieces into place and then lifted the heavy ass sink into place, and caulked like crazy around the edges where it meets the countertop cutout. Not bad for a weekend's work.
April 8, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Here Comes the Kitchen!
With the floors finished and the walls primed on the Lower Level, G and I finally got down to the moment we'd been waiting for: installing our kitchen. Now, whenever I say this to people, they are shocked - how have you lived without a kitchen for all this time? Well, we haven't. We have been using the small kitchen on the top floor in the future apartment, where G and are living while we do all this work. In the meantime, our future kitchen has been sitting in boxes on the Lower Level for about a year and a half.
The boxes had been stacked inside the future little half bath on the Lower Level, so getting set up to install the kitchen involved first moving all the boxes into position, sorting out cabinets from doors, and setting up a staging area for cabinet assembly. As I've mentioned, we got our kitchen from Ikea, and the running joke is that by the time we're done, we'll be able to grab any missing parts from the new Ikea in Red Hook, which at this rate, will certainly be open before we are done with our place!
The first order of business was to install this track on the wall where the wall cabinets were to hang. The Ikea system is pretty brilliant. Hang the track, tying back to the studs in the wall, and the cabinets can slide into place anywhere along this track. Once the wall cabinets are up, you are supposed to follow up with the base cabinets, where, along the wall, you install a strap which the back of the cabinets rest on, so they are all in line, and the front of the cabs rest on individual legs. The whole thing works nicely.
The first wall cabinet we had to cut to allow the vent for the microwave/exhaust to pass through. Same for the second wall cabinet, which we also had to cut at the base where the microwave vent would pass through it. The microwave took a couple of tries to align with the holes in the cabinet above, but once we got it, everything else moved along pretty smoothly. We felt pretty damn cool after getting the microwave up - our first appliance! We hung it ourselves! Let's hope it doesn't fall down!
As the kitchen started to take shape, it was super encouraging. These are pics from the beginning of that process, basically taking you through the first wall of wall cabs and base cabs, before we started to install the center island. Stay tuned for another kitchen installment (pun intended).
April 4, 2008
BedStuy Reno: Lower Level - Finish Floor
Here's a look at the finished salvage pine floor before G and I began the installation of the kitchen. As our readers will know, we sanded and then finished the boards with Waterlox. The first coat went down really orange, and a lot of people were very supportive about, telling us not to stress too much. With each successive coat of Waterlox, the orange became slightly more intense, until finally, we finished it up with a coat of satin finish, which really mellowed the whole thing out, and gave the boards a much more finished and subdued look. Success! In the end, it was four coats of Waterlox - three Original, and one Satin.