South Stuy Blog
November 30, 2009
Looking Up
Yeah, its been awhile but we are still alive and kickin over here at SouthStuy. We have had more trials, tribulations, and road blocks than we would like to recount but are thankful that we have made it through them (at least thus far) and we are thankful, not to mention considerably warmer, now that we finally have a ceiling on the parlor level.
When we bought the house, the parlor had a drop ceiling that was demo'd fairly early on.
Earlier this year, part of the tin ceiling was installed.
We also had insulation and soundproofing put in.
Unfortunately, the tin ceiling was neither properly installed (fish-mouthing throughout) nor even completely installed. In fact, that contractor measured the room incorrectly and did not order sufficient cornice panels. When we tried to order the missing panels several months later, we were disappointed to find that Abbington Tin had gone out of business (which is really too bad because the place was an old family-owned business). We searched the web and found Tin Smith in Bushwick and although they carried the same panel designs, they did not have them "pre-treated" as Abbington did. Another thing that made Abbington so great was that they built their own corner pieces on site, as well as providing a number of other basically custom treatments that they didn't really charge anything for. The problem now, though, is we don't know how Abbington treated them--we have tried a number of treatments to no avail.
As you can see, there is quite a difference in color between the treated panels and the non-treated panels (which are bare tin meant to be painted).
Any Brownstoners out there have any ideas how or with what the panels were treated or how we can get in touch with anyone who used to be at Abbington Tin?
April 8, 2009
Details Beneath The Surface
Who knew that if one were to glob on some Peel Away 7 and spend 7 or 8 hours picking and scraping THIS:
That you would find all of this detail:
This is probably the most gratifying and surprising discovery I have made in the house. I honestly had no idea that there was this sort of detail buried under all of the glop (I put the peel away on the plaster just to see if it would work).
March 29, 2009
SHUTTER TO THINK
Hey all. Its been a while but we have not forgotten about our reno blog. We have just been pretty beaten down by our recent experiences and haven't had the gumption to post. That said, I am so proud of Operation Pocket Shutters, that I am breaking the silence in order to do an expose on the project.
When we bought this house close to 2 years ago, we were pleased to observe that we had all the original pocket shutters ---albeit caked in 100 years of paint. We brought 2 floors worth of them to "Lou's in Hackensack" to have them dip n' stripped (via zipcar) and have been working on them on and off for about a year. When our contractor flew the coup and T and I were demoralized beyond measure-- we decided it would be a satisfying project to get started on and even more satisfying to complete (to quit would be letting the enemy win).
Here are the shutters pre-strip
Here they are once they were dipped
Dipping and stripping is a great short cut to beautiful wood but its still a lot of work to refinish them. First you need to pick out all that persistent lead paint crud that is wedged in the nook and cranies. We did this with a couple of dental picks and many hours. Then you need to sand sand sand sand sand sand sand with 3 grades of paper AND if your shutters are pine like ours (beautiful golden pine) -you need to treat the pine with a prestain which conditions the wood (we did 3 to 4 coats on each side).
Here are some pics before and after the pre stain treatment and sanding
After the pre-stain, you need to do one more light sand as the wood grain raises a bit during the prestain treatment and then finally you get to stain. Although the original plan was to stain the shutters, we thought the shutters looked so good after the conditioning treatment that we abstained from the stain and went straight to shellac.
We decided on shellac because its all natural (Its actually a resin secreted by the female lac bug) and because it sort of acts like a combo of stain and poly with a built in primer, sealer and odor and tannin blocker (the more I know about it the more i like it).
On the "basement floor" shutters, we used a clear shellac in aersol form. Had we to do it again, we would probably only use the aersol on the louvers (we went through an obscene number of aersol cans). All and all, we did 4 coats on each side nice and thick to protect the shutters from the elements.
Although we know its totally premature to put them up, we just could not help ourselves.
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Note: we had to also do some stripping around the window frames as the paint build up prevented the proper opening and closing of the shutters. We do plan to strip the whole window at some point soon.
For the gorgeous tall shutters on the parlor floor, we decided to use the amber shellac on all but the louvers. We probably will not put these up until both windows are fully stripped and this floor is close to complete but we are going to go ahead an hang the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner across the parlor floor anyway.
P.S.Unfortunately we do not have all the original knobs --anyone know of a good resource for copper ones like these?
October 18, 2008
Summer Recap: Dust masks, Eye Goggles, Mojitos, and More....................
We haven't posted much these last months because there has been a whole lot of not that much going on. Lots of starts and stops. And lots of frustration. But now that the air is getting crisp and actual work is commencing in the duplex (more on that in my next entry), I thought I would catch you all up with the doings over in South Stuy.
Most of the summer was spent bringing contractors in to bid out the duplex reno--but even with the market slowdown, it was tough. That said, we embraced the frustration, and with architectural plans in hand, we prepared for progress by tearing down, pulling up, and ripping out any wall, floor, or fixture that we knew we weren't keeping.
But first we needed to save the trim:
To entice friends to help us with the demo, we decided to celebrate the destruction and hosted a couple of pretty fabulous bbq's complete with marinated grilled shrimp, veggies, grilled radiccio with an OJ and honey glaze, garden burgers and tofu dogs, chicken, sausage, hamburgers, grilled eggplant wth goat cheese and basil (superb), fresh fruit from the Puerto Rican van guys on the corner on Beford near Atlantic, mojitos with mint from our yard, microbrewed beer, freshly made cupcakes from Abu's on Fulton, freshly squeezed lemon ginger and watermelon juice (from the halal steam table restaurants also on Fulton). We figured a tantalizing, mouth-watering spread was the least we could do for our dust-covered-sledge-hammer-wielding-crazed-demolition-derby friends.
Some may say that we bribed our friends to do our dirty work and those folks would be right. And sure, some folks trekked out from Manhattan for some free dogs and ice cold beers, but a good number of them came donned in combat gear with DESTRUCTION on their minds and little else. We were surprised when our otherwise mild-mannered colleagues and friends showed up adorned in coveralls, dust masks, professional-grade eye protection, and their own sledgehammers and crow bars. One friend of T's donned military surplus tanker coveralls and proudly showed off a fat multi-tool that he was sure he wouldn't use that day but wanted to bring anyway. And we were awed by the gusto and might they used to bring down the walls. Special shout-outs go out to B-rad and Damon--the two mildest of mannered friends, who turned into virtual Hulks, grunting and swinging sledges, speaking sentences of no more than two or three syllables, most of which started with "me" and ended with "smash."
In Demo BBQ 1, or The Rumble in the Urban Jungle (as T titled it), we knocked down the wall separating the bathroom from what will be our bedroom so that the the new plumbing, electricity, and pocket door can be installed.
Please excuse the dust.
It's Miller time--or rather Negra Modelo time.
In Demo Party 2, or The Walls of Jericho Part 2, we knocked down an oddly shaped closet (it wasn't deep enough to accommodate a regular sized hanger but was at least seven wide) and the wall in the parlor separating the kitchen from the living room.
Finally, in a solo effort, I pulled up a the abused, glue- (from the linoleum tiles that had covered them, which we pulled up last year) and water-damaged parquet from the bathroom to reveal pretty nice pine sub flooring. I was hoping that we could do a sort of French-country look by restoring and finishing the pine subfloor, but the subfloor ended up being in too bad shape, so we're going to tile it instead.
I am proud to report that the house has never looked worse.
September 20, 2008
From Start to Finish
Yeah, this kitchen looks a whole lot like the other two tenant kitchens, but the big difference is that this is the first one we did ourselves top to bottom. Although I assisted by building the cabinets, sanding and painting, this was T's baby--and he did most of the work himself.
Because the space was originally a closet, we had to blow out the walls to create an alcove. I started off tearing down the falling plaster ceiling, but the 100+ years of dust and various dead, dried-out bugs and bug shells got the best of me, so T finished. We put up sheetrock and fashioned a basic square medallion from plywood for the lighting fixture. T then demo'd the floor down to the subfloor and put down concrete board for tile. He laid the tile, built the island for the stove from scratch, installed the sink and stove, connected the plumbing and gas, cut and installed the counter tops, hung the cabinets, etc.
Laying and grouting the tile
We ran out of black tile so had to improvise with a row of white--which is hidden from the world now that the cabinets are in.
We built out a partition to house the small stove and to provide a bit more counter space.
Hey--it's thirsty work.
Yes, it's small but highly functional. We have been living in this apartment for the last 6 months and have added all kinds of handy Ikea organizers. We also fashioned some left-over butcherblock countertop into a cutting board that fits neatly over the stove to provide even more surface for food prep, necessity being the mother of invention.
August 5, 2008
Last things first
Because we are living through the reno and already have tenants, we have had to do some things out of order of the way they are usually done. Case in point is the intercom/buzzer system. When it was just T and I living in the building the "scream and scramble" method of answering the door worked. Not so -when there are 4 other people living amoungst us. Our tenants were missing package deliveries and friend meet ups (the doorbell system that had been in the building was the home depot variety, had to be installed a couple of decades ago and didn't always work).
The whole thing came to a head when we came home one night to find a rope hanging down from the front side of the house from the our 4th floor tenant's apartment. We didn't know what to make of it. Did they have to haul an item up the side of the building? Were they training for a mount Everest climb? When we inquired, they admitted it was their attempt at a Macguyver like doorbell (they tied a rope to a spoon and put the spoon in a pot so when a friend arrived they could yank on the rope which would then make a noise to signal they were down stairs). It was at that point that we knew we had to take action--and we did --by following up on a rec made in the Brownstoner forum and hired Antonio -- locksmith and intercom installer extrordinaire. Although scheduling was a bit of a pain, Antonio was reliable and just a generally nice guy. He showed up when he said he was going to, called when he was going to be late or if he had to reschedule. He even made a conscious effort not to put too many holes in our walls. We also think his price for the work was fair. Let me know if you need his info or just search the forum.
The tenant apartments had audio intercom and buzzer systems installed--but we had him run a video wire in the event we ever wanted to upgrade. In our duplex we had video units installed. We went with the Aiphone mainly because they were considerably less expensive than their competitors. They work fine and the video is surprisingly sharp.
Interior video
That said, I wish the interior units were a bit sleeker and not white plastic but they are no more cumbersome then the alarm control pad and totally do the trick.
May 1, 2008
What's black and white with nickel finishes?
The last rental's bathroom!
As noted in my last post, we brought in a hired hand to help us out with the 3rd floor rear bathroom and......drumroll please...... he actually showed up, did the work and did it well.
Here are some pics to show the progression.
We decided to keep as much of the original subway tile as we could. We added the black border in order to blend the old subway tile with the new subway tile--which gave us the color scheme and design theme for the room.
We spent more on this bathroom than the others, and not just because me and T are going to be the first tenants. (We are movin' on up into it to live like human people while work is being done on the duplex.) The main reason we spent more on this bathroom than on the two other rentals is because even though it's the smallest of all the rentals and though its 1930s subway tile walls were in better shape than the others, the rest of the space was in the worst shape of all three. So money had to be spent since it was a complete overhaul. However, since we're living there for the next 6-9 months, we did spend a bit more on materials and fixtures than we might otherwise have. That said--we did save some money by buying some of the white subway tile (200+ tiles for $45) and the sink ($10) at BuildItGreen in Queens. We also saved money on the light fixture (about $20, I think), the faucet (about $20), and the shower doors (a Kohler "brand," $300) by hunting for bargains at Lowes and Home Depot--and using those coupons they keep sending us in the mail since we began dumping piles of money into their registers last year. However, we did splurge on the shower fixture.
After spending a day in a zipcar going all over Brooklyn to tile stores and being told that black subway tile is "rare" at the few places that even carried it--meaning it's both expensive and has to be special ordered--"it's just black subway tile, like the white stuff, but black," T kept saying in growing disbelief and frustration--we found the black subway tile at our very own Home Depot a few blocks away in Bed Stuy (at which you cannot find, strangely, plain white and black 12 x 12-inch tile).
The black and white hex tile was found at Bella on the LES--a great no-attitude spot--much unlike the spots we went to in Bkln. The medicine cabinet and the wall-mounted cabinet are from Ikea. Actually the "wall-mounted" cabinet,is a vanity for the sink that was supposed to go there, which was measured and picked out by our first contractor (who we parted company with many moons ago now--a lifetime, it seems). It turned out to be way too large for the space (thanks for the great measuring work and advice, guys), so we re-purposed it to make up for the storage space lost by having a wall-mounted sink (although I still have the Ikea sink and faucet and am dreading the fight when I try to return them a year after purchasing).
The medicine cabinet and storage cabinet are not just hung on the wall, but are sunk into the wall. We built a new wall using 2 x 3s to frame it in order to hide the previously exposed pipes ( we did not want to go through all the trouble of tearing out the old tile and plaster). We simply cleaned up the piping, threw up new wall over it all, mounted the cabinets within the frame, then drywalled.
I say "we" but it was almost entirely our guy Henry. Aside from picking all the materials out and T assisting where needed and doing the clean-up so the expensive contractor wasn't wasting time and money sweeping and picking up trash, our only other physical contributions to this little room entailed stripping the window frame and repainting it, which of course also meant pulling out all the crappy old caulk that was smeared on, globbed over, oozed in, and hardened all over the place, as well as doing some minor wood repairs on the frame itself.
T also had to rehang the door so that it opens out rather than in, so you can actually get into the bathroom AND also close the door. He was pretty hesitant to do it after the fiasco of rehanging his first door in one of the other rentals, which involved mounting it and taking it down at least 5 times. I participated by ...well..nagging T to hang the door, helping with repairs of the frame and by boiling and stripping the door hardware.
Once everything was installed, we were both pretty struck by the differences in craftmanship and material quality between the old subway tile and the new. The old tiles were a full half-inch thick and were mudded into the wall with big dollops of cement. They barely showed a grout line and the wall itself was a perfectly flat plane. While our guy did a great job at a really faircprice, and though he himself is conscientious and cares about the quality of the materials and his own work, it just wasn't the same. The difference is in the quality and price of materials these days and in the old-school know-how of the contractors who do the work nowadays. Of course, if you have the time and money, you can get anything and have the work look like a Renaissance cathedral, but for those of us at this price point, it's always interesting seeing the differences between then and now.
I know some will say that we should have just torn all the walls out and retiled with new half-inch tile and new plaster walls (as did 3 of the 4 contractors who gave us estimates), but we aren't restoring, we're renovating, and while we're very mindful of the original work and details, we aren't out to replicate everything to bring back the original beauty of the house. (And besides, this work isn't "original" anyway, it's from the first major renovation of the house, done about 40 yrs after it was built.) We're keeping what we can, and doing what we have to with the rest. I know it would look sleeker with conforming subway tiles but I like the idea of two eras coming together in this little bathroom and even like the aesthetic. So I'm glad we did it our way--because that approach is more in line not with just our wallets, but with who we are.
February 27, 2008
Small Space, Big Work
So while T and I are renovating the small kitchen in the 3rd rental ourselves, we had to hire some professional help for the bathroom. The job was just too big for us, involving plumbing, electrical, carpentry, tiling, the whole nine. Early on in the reno, we discovered a wicked leak where the bathtub connected to the drain and once we pulled out the tub, sink, and toilet, and scraped off most of the linoleum tiles we discovered that it had been a problem for a while. YIKES.
They ripped through the floor in a couple of places to get at the plumbing for the toilet and to move the tub drain in order to build an entirely new shower. The new wall is framed with 2x3 studs; it will hide the plumbing and make up the few inches we need for the 48" shower base to fit correctly. The vanity we bought months ago at Ikea on the advice of our first contractor won't actually fit into this bathroom, so T built a top for it (where the sink would've gone) and we're mounting it into the new wall above the toilet as a storage cabinet. The floor is getting retiled, as are the walls in the shower area, though we will be keeping some of the 1930s subway tile from when the building was converted into a five-family. Some electrical wiring is getting moved so everything is up to code. And we're changing the door so that it swings out, since you won't actually be able to step in and close the door if it swings into the bathroom. New York, baby.
Basically there is very little that isn't being done in this little room.
Because we know enough to know what we're not ready to do ourselves, and we don't have the time to spend the next several weeks or couple months learning how to do most of it ourselves (all but the plumbing and electrical, that is), and mostly because we simply didn't want to screw it up, we brought in a number of contractors over the last couple weeks to get estimates. And of course, they were all over the map in price and plan. But we settled on one and he started yesterday and even showed up again today (I'm right now listening to the sweet sounds of him and his guy drilling the hell out of something upstairs), so here's hoping for the best.
February 26, 2008
Laying...in wait
With the groundwork all but done in the kitchen--it is only a matter of days before the tiles
and cabinets
take their places.
February 23, 2008
The Sky is Falling
Just kidding -but the ceiling in the third floor rear apartment had to come down. It was saggy and uneven in places so I took a crow bar and a hammer and got set to bring that baby down. Having never done this before -I was amazed that such a small space could have so much debris. I must admit I was feeling sort of badass with my respirator, googles and crow bar and got about half of the ceiling down until T came up and started pointing out the various dead bugs and other nastiness that had come down with the plaster and were now covering my head shoulders and floor. I didn't get much done after that--I am not the biggest fan of dead bugs raining down on my head so I passed the crow bar to T while admitting my wussiness (is that a word?).
stripped to the lathe
Anyway, last weekend we put up the dry wall. Again, we had never done this before so it took us a couple of tries to get the board cut correctly for the space and to fit over the light fixtures.
Yep believe it--we re-purposed the clawfoot into a work bench.
We eventually succeeded and I have never thought a piece of dry wall could look so pretty.
February 12, 2008
Strip Happy
We can't do very much else until we get the first round of drawings from our newly hired architect, so we are tackling the ornate wooden columns in what will one day be our guestroom/office.
An ambitious project indeed, but weghaddado wha weghaddado.
We are currently using Citrus Strip on the column. We have found that the trick is to paint on the thickest coating of the stuff as possible, wrap the thing with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out, and let it do its work over a 24- to 36-hour period. We then get to scraping using sharp pull scrapers (we bought them through the Silent Paint Stripper site). If the paint doesn't come off, we no longer fight it or curse at it like we did when we first began learning how to strip--we just throw on another coat.
Look at all these lovely colors--sort of psychedelic, man
We needed to repeat the process 3 times for this result.
We have no idea what kind of wood this is or why some of it is light and some dark--if anyone has some insight, let us know. We plan on staining this woodwork at some point in the future so if anyone would like to post some pointers, we would appreciate it.
February 7, 2008
Stripping......the door
A century plus of use and abuse have taken there toll on a number of our grand ole doors--there have been locks and door handles and hinges and bars and hooks and tacts (T's favorite) that have been put on and taken off that a couple of the doors look like some monster alien termites have had their way with them (we don't have termites--I am just trying to give you an image here). Anyway, the point being that some of these doors will not be savage-able--at least not by us (don't worry-we aren't going to throw them away--we will either keep them in the basement or drop them at Eddie's).
One of the quirky things about this house is that no single door in the entire house is exactly the same in any dimension so even though we plan on closing up some doorways we can't necessary re-purpose those doors to another portal. Which brought us to Eddie's Salvage--where we have spent hours on end measuring every door in the place (and if you have been to Eddie's you know there are a helluva lot of doors). We did find one door at Eddie's that was pretty close to the dimensions we needed for the garden floor entrance and now fits perfectly thanks to T's handy new electric planer.
We have been stripping this ole door on and off since December-outside when weather permits (yes it has been cold but with the chimnea going, winter gear on, resperators, goggles and 2 heat guns going--we have managed not to freeze to death) and more recently inside with chemicals--(the details work lends itself better to the chemical method)
Outside with the heat gun
The good news is we have discovered a use for our overpriced silent paint remover--it takes off a couple of layers of paint on the flat large surfaces and makes it faster to use the more traditional heat gun to take off the rest.
Inside with chemicals
Detail
Unfortunately-I do not have any before pics of this door but it was the typical, coated with more than enough paint to obliterate any detail.
We plan on painting it the same color as the Parlor entry doors--a deep dark red.
Hope to have more pics soon.
January 6, 2008
My Favorite Things
With 2007 now over, 2008 just begun and in celebration of David Letterman being back on the air, I thought I would channel the late night talk show and write up our own Top-10 list of favorite things that we've accomplished in the reno thus far (be forewarned that this list will not be as funny as any delivered by Letterman).
10. The front double doors. When we bought the place, the locks and hardware much to be desired in terms of security and looks. We replaced them:
I love the bronze hardware and I think it will age beautifully as years go by.
We also had iron scrollwork installed over the glass, on the inside of the doors. I LOVE the way they look. It works with all the other ironwork (on the windows, the original stair rails, and the fence) and makes the doors look more substantial, without creating a jailhouse door aesthetic. Added bonus is that I can hang holiday cheer on them.
9. Our new mailboxes. I special ordered them to match the front door hardware. Silly I know--but it's the little things that make me happy. Of course, we couldn't find a new set that fit the already-exisiting hole for the old ones, so T spent a few hours building out a new mount and securing them in place.
8. Hot water heaters. There is nothing like a hot shower and I am so happy we installed two 50-gallon tanks (over the advice of our plumber, but following that of fellow brownstoners) because there is nothing like KNOWING you can take a LONG hot shower at the end of a long hard day--even when you have tenants showering at the same time. And it has made our old oil-burning furnace much more efficient; controlled by a new-ish thermostat and burner, it no longer fires constantly in order to keep water heated, but is now used only to heat the home.
7. Our home security and fire alert system. It really allows me not to fret that the building is going to burn down when we go away for the weekend. And since our 4th-floor tenants already burned a dinner that set off the system and brought out NY's Bravest in no time flat, we know both that the system works and that the FD actually responds to calls in our 'hood. Priceless.(It all happened while we were out on a Sat night, so by the time we found out about it, the whole thing was just a funny story.)
6. The nickel-finish shower we installed in what is presently our main bathroom. From Signature Hardware, this shower is a joy each and every day. I love the way it looks and I love the feeling of bathing in a warm waterfall.
5. Our new common area hall lights.
4. The completed rental apartments. The two apartments came out great and our tenants are really cool. I love the 4th-floor kitchen with the granite counter top and the breakfast bar and the way the apartment flows.
I am also really happy about the way our redesigned kitchen area came out in Apt 3.
Having tenants you like and can trust in the house makes it feel more like a home (although this may be post co-op trauma)--especially when they understand how hard you're working on the house and are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt when you tell them "uh, you won't be able to use your kitchen sink for a few days until we can get that drainpipe replaced" or "I hope to get your bedroom door mounted next week--as soon as I can find a replacement at a restoration and salvage shop." Now that the sweat equity and sweet greenbacks have been invested, we are starting to get a little something back every month--and it feels great.
3. The floors. Yay!
2. The bannister and garden-level newel post. We're still intimidated by the main-stair newel post, so it remains the last bastion of purple from the previous owners.
But we're SOOOOOO happy with the bannisters and smaller newel post, that it doesn't even matter for now. We just finished the post.
It was a project that burned each of us out on more than one occasion so it was truly a tag-team effort. We used just about every product out there--Peel Away, Citrus-Strip, Rock Miracle, Zip n Strip; with every combination of tools: pull scrapers, push scrapers, sand paper of every grade, metal brushes, fine steel wool, course steel wool, dental tools, orbital sander; and cleaned it up with after wash, denatured alcohol, and mineral spirits before sanding it and cleaning it all over again. We topped it all off with teak oil--which was downright fun to put on. The post transformed before our eyes as the wood happily drank the oil in.
A note about the teak oil, when we first began stripping the bannister for the main stairway, T was set on applying a good thick coating of poly, since those stairs are in the public hall and would potentially receive the most abuse. But after a good deal of online research and talking to a couple handymen, I convinced him that teak oil was the better way to go, since it would mean not having to strip the poly every now and again to redo the bannister, nor of having the chance of non-matching touch-ups to fix small dings and other minor infractions. With the teak oil, you need only sand the section that needs fixing and then reapply. It needs a couple coatings per year, but doing so is both quick and easy, and the wood looks amazing afterwards.
And the number one best thing we have done with the house so far is................................
1. The Banishment of the Purple Hallway (from the main hall): This is a monumental event. I think it looks just grand.
(Well, the near banishment, since the aforementioned main newel post continues to display the royal color. Ah, but his days as king of the castle are numbered...so stay tuned.)
December 15, 2007
Reality Check
We all know there are a number of "fucktards" who frequent the Brownstoner--who are more likely than not logged in anonymously as "guest" and who take advantage of their anonymity to be generally obnoxious. I, along with my fellow bloggers and forum posters, generally ignore them but every once in a while they bring something up that merits a response or perhaps some clarification. In this case, the recent flurry of responses to a long posting laying out the current state of the duplex in which T and I are living in our brownstone has made me realize that very few of our readers know who the hell we are, and that I need to re-evaluate why I even write this blog.
I was first inspired to write after months of reading all the other blogs and realizing that our particular situation was not represented. We are regular people, who prior to this undertaking did not have any experience or expertise in renovating or restoring brownstones. But we loved them and spent many a day walking the streets of Brownstone Brooklyn dreaming of having one of our own. Like many many many other brownstone lovers these days, we were priced out of Park Slope and Fort Greene, so our searching led us to the streets of Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, and Crown Heights until we found the place you have been reading about.
We do not have a ton of money but we have good white-collar jobs and manage to earn, eat, pay the mortgage, and even save a little. That said, we aren't able to hire an army of contractors and get all the work done all at once while living at the Four Seasons during renovations. And here is the reality check for all the naysayers claiming we bitch too much, know too little, should've known about or expected everything we've encountered, and otherwise speak from a height of knowledge and wisdom that they apparently have occupied since birth, when they strode through the waves like Venus from the shell, armed with hammer and T-square, architectural renderings, and a rolodex full of excellent and honest contractors. The reality is that though we came into this with no background in building or renovating and while we've struggled and haven't always known the best practice or next step of each moment of our renovation, and while it would've been easier and more comfortable to try and get others to do everything and to live elsewhere while the work was being done, that's not why we bought the house and not what we were ever interested in doing in the first place. I wouldn't say we like living in these conditions but we wouldn't live anywhere else during this undertaking--even if we could afford it. When we go away for a weekend, we are always desperate to get back at the end of it. It's a sickness to be sure--but one I'd assume that most of you are afflicted with too. Owning and renovating an old house is by definition a love-hate relationship. If you live on-site and are doing as much of the work yourself as possible and love every moment of it, you either enjoy a good bondage and spanking session every now and again or know just the person to supply you with some very nice drugs--or both.
This blog was supposed to be a venue for me to VENT and to be part of a COMMUNITY. I thought perhaps the blog would get other people in like situations to post not only about their brilliant strategies and success stories, but also about planning that wasn't so successful and difficulties that arose and how they overcame problems--expected or not. And in turn, I thought our stories would be encouraging to others, since in spite of our own difficulties, unpleasant surprises, and just-plain-hardship, we continue to make what we feel are ultimately good decisions that have led to real progress and which have sustained our love for this house and our desire to continue with it until done. I thought that the community would share their knowledge and resources with us. I didn't think the hardships and frustrations that I share here would be interpreted as negative--they are all stories of powering on and through. We did not go into this renovation thinking we would do most of the work ourselves but those are the cards we have been dealt and we are playing them. I'm reminded of a something T says about his trouble-making teenage years: "I almost never set a 'good example' for my brother and sister growing up, but I sure as hell showed them what NOT to do."
Real renovation is not "Flip That House" or "Trading Spaces" or whatever personality shows are on HGTV. Real renovation is about spending 30 hours every weekend stripping wood until your hands are so raw, red, and swollen that you can barely move them--only to discover that the beautiful wood you're trying to uncover and restore is still not visible.
Real renovation is about installing a vanity and sink and the floor beneath it falling through to the room below. A renovation of this size means there are times when you're not sure what to do first or next, where to spend your resources, how best to utilize limited time.
I never expected it would be easy but I also didn't expect it to be this hard. Sharing this with others is not whining and it doesn't make me a wimp. It makes me honest. Everyone who has ever done any renovating knows that there are days when the end seems very far away and the gameplan seems insufficient.
I have a smart-ass, cynical, and sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor. It's clear that many readers don't get that. When I say I am "chipping paint off the door like chocolate" or that our renovation pillow has had all the feathers beat out of it, I do not mean those things literally. I AM BEING FUNNY--maybe not ha-ha funny or even belly-chuckle funny, but hopefully "heh, goddamn" funny. Laugh (it relieves stress); be nice; OR
I'll have to sick my cat on ya....................
And finally, I know I talk about a taboo subject in my blog, and evidently it scares folks and makes them uncomfortable. I think some of you need to get over it because it's an everyday reality. Renovation involves money. You need to buy materials. You need to pay for labor and expertise. You need to pay for hospital bills and the shrink (this is meant to be funny: laugh). You need to forecast and re-forecast. I talk about money because someone needs to. I am the money manager on the project and I count the money--over and over and over. The more I have the more I can do. Sometimes I want to do more with less. Often, I spend more than I want to. It seems sometimes you can spend a lot and get less than you expected in return. And unfortunately, sometimes you spend and get nothing. Those are not good days. I am sure I am not the only one who uses money (but for those of you who don't use or need it, money is a medium of exchange; US currency is green and rectangular; it has pictures of dead presidents on it (well, except for the Benjamins, and everybody knows it's all about the Benjamins). I am sure I am not the only one who has used currency in the renovation of a house. And if I am and the rest of you are out there bartering in a tax-free world, PLEASE let me join your club (though I'd rather not join one called "The Fucktards"), I'll pay you (again, this...is meant...to be...funny).
Ultimately, if you don't like my posts, don't read them. No one is forcing anyone here. And don't waste my time, your time, and everyone else's time whining about me when I could be wasting my own time working on my house or reading the advice of the otherwise helpful and friendly members of the Brownstoner community instead of responding to jerks.
December 1, 2007
Help me if you can I'm feeling down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZOjwXBz3Tk&feature=related (this is my current reno theme song)
Or just overwhelmed, not so self assured.
So we finished the second apartment and although we are thankful we made it through and are happy with the results, and oh-so-glad it's rented, we're spent, stalled out a couple weeks from finishing the last apt.
We haven't said much about our living quarters--the garden and parlor floors--largely because we've been living in just a bedroom, bathroom, and what used to be a kitchen, but is now where we keep our desk and computer.
Our working bathroom:
Our 2 non-functional kitchens (no stoves, working water, 1 frig; T has been grilling almost everyday for the last 5 months):
The floor in the office/kitchen:
Other than pulling up all the nasty carpet and staples, taking out the drop ceiling in the front parlor, stripping the bannister and attempting to strip one of the bay windows, and getting a false start with the painting, we haven't done much with our space, though we've tried to make at least the bedroom comfortable:
As those who have been reading along know, our financial position (thanks in part to our first 4 contractors spending a lot of their time and our money making not very much progress) forced us to spend all of our own time and energy on getting the rentals renovated. The two one-bedroom rentals have been largely cosmetic work; since we blew out the closet walls in order to create a kitchen alcove for each, we have not needed to reconfigure anything. It's now a matter of finishing the details, replacing what needs replacing, making what's there better.
Our area--on the other hand--needs LOADS of work. There is the layout that does not quite work for us. We tried to think of our duplex in terms of the current floor plan, but that just didn't suit our needs, so now we have more of a reconstruction than a renovation on our hands. Our 2 bathrooms are in the middle of each floor, with large rooms before and after and a hall connecting all three. The garden-level back room is the lovely green kitchen seen above and the smaller kitchen, which is going to become a bathroom and is where I am sitting while writing this, is in on the parlor floor, in the back, connected to a large room which will be the library, but which is now where we keep our bed). The current parlor-floor bathroom is going to be blown out to create the kitchen, along with the walls separating the bathroom from the parlor and the walls separating the whole area from the stairs to the garden level, creating an open floor plan. The parlor itself has no ceiling, the original plaster one having been pulled down at some unknown point in the past and the whole covered with a drop-down, which our first contractor tore out and carted off.
We plan to put up a tin ceiling at some unknown point in the future. The downstairs master bath needs to be gutted and rebuilt.
The green kitchen, which will become the master bedroom, has a badly sagging oak floor that needs lots of repair work. There is cracked plaster on the walls and ceilings throughout. The front room on the garden level is largely fine as is, needs some light electrical work, but will make a great office/guest room. It has wainscoting and beautiful woodwork throughout. The problem is that the whole room is full of amazing wood and all of it is under probably 100 years of paint.
You can take a hammer and crack off pieces, like the chocolate coating on an icecream bar, without damaging the wood in the slightest, but damn sure releasing all kinds of neato lead dust. We won't be happy with the room until we restore at least some of its wood. But we tried to strip the bay area and that little bit of progress was more demoralizing than anything else.
(The banisters look fantastic, though, and we're almost done with the smaller newel post on the garden level.)
We need all kinds of electrical work done (on top of the several thousands of dollars of work we've already had done to upgrade the electrical service and to switch everything over from fuses--we had 40 amps service until just recently--and to do wiring on the third and fourth floors. We're planning on gutting one bathroom, moving the other, along with both kitchens (well, getting rid of one kitchen, moving the other), so we obviously need loads of plumbing work done (again, on top of the several thousands of dollars...). We'd like a cooling system of some sort installed. Basically, the works.
Which brings us back to the Beatles. We need help--someone but not just anyone. We're feeling pretty scorched lately and don't want to invite another scoundrel into our house. I know we need an architect with vision, creativity, and experience with these old houses to draw up plans, file them with the city, and to give us some guidance and support. But it needs to be someone who doesn't work on a percentage of the overall cost because we plan on hiring a building contractor separately and working with our current electrician and plumber. And there's still a lot we can and plan to do ourselves. Does such a person exist?
We aren't sure if we need a GC; we prefer to hire a kitchen/bath guy(s) who can do everything if needed, but we need to keep our jobs, so we might be forced to get one. Regardless, we'd love to get some recommendations for people who do kitchens and baths.
The one thing we know for sure is that we need some help and good advice. We've exhausted our pool of names and numbers. Please send info, contact numbers, actual people ready to work (genius craftsmen who work for next to nothing are preferred), money, building materials, just kidding (kind of). As of now, we plan on finishing up the third apt, moving into that, getting a HELOC loan to cover all of this, try and find a kind of architect we're sure doesn't exist, hire some good builders/contractors, finish our duplex ASAP, and maybe start living again.
November 25, 2007
The Devil is in the details
As reported in my last post--we have had some set backs. It also didn't help much that our handyman disappeared to San Diego to try and cash in on the contracting bonanza resulting from the wildfires.
But as a result-- T and I have done even more of the work ourselves and thus, have saved even more cashola (which is a good thing because we don't have much left). In short order: we built and installed the Ikea cabinets, added the kitchen island support post that we built from two stair posts (to bring some of the house detail into the apt), installed, sanded and polyed the butcher block counters and painted the sideboard,
We also installed the shower conversion kit for the clawfoot tub, recoated the tub with epoxy/porcelain paint, did a lot of sanding, did a lot of patching, installed new locks, completed the closet, and planed the doors.
Once it was finished *and we sat back with a couple beers to admire the work, we noticed one last detail we'd missed before: the sunset views from the apt's bay windows.
**Note-if this entry makes any of this sound easy or as if we worked efficiently or happily-I apologize for the deceit--this work was a result of working every evening from 7-until midnight and every weekend from 11 a.m. until we could no longer be trusted with hammers, chemicals, or drills. This is what it looked like before:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/2644
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/2644
November 5, 2007
Tales of Woe
Just thought I'd share some of the fun times we have been having. As you know, we have been working on apartment number 2. I haven't posted a lot about it because we hit a couple of detours and have been in damage control mode.
First, we were working on the bathroom--trying to get the plumbing hooked up and reinstalling the refurbished sink. The vanity was your typical press-wood model with phony wood grain veneer (what is that stuff--contact paper of some kind?) and we wanted to get rid of it but couldn't find a reasonably priced 18-in vanity on short notice, so we decided to work with what he had. (Question: why are the NYC Home Depots and Loews full of HUUUUUGE vanities and bathroom sinks, but have barely anything for small bathrooms? Where are all these huge NYC bathrooms that people are outfitting from these stores?) T added new support pieces, completely rebuilt the base, and added trim; I put on a new door handle, and painted it; and were both shocked at how new and different it looked after we thoroughly cleaned the sink and added a new faucet (all in matching nickel). Once it was done, we were ready to finish the bathroom, the last piece before being finished with the apt. T and our handyman were doing clean-up before installing the vanity and sink when the handyman's foot went through the floor where the vanity was supposed to go and a large portion of the floor gave out and fell through to the parlor below. Won't be finishing the apt today, T told me on the phone after it happened. As you can imagine--i was just thrilled.
The photo shows some of the debris that hit the floor below--the hole wasn't big enough for the vanity (or the handyman) to fall through, but at least we now know why there was a bunch of newspaper from the early 1980s stuffed in the ceiling on the parlor floor.
Since the floor was now open, we made sure the pipes and their connections were solid and then closed up the hole and thought we were out of the woods, and we were--for about 3 days. Once again thinking we were on our last day of work before showing the apt, T was working from home (yes, we have real jobs) while our handyman did some detail work in the space. Sitting at our desk, T was typing to the pleasant sounds of a waterfall when he realized we don't have a waterfall in our home and jumped up wondering where the hell the noise was coming from. Our cat had noticed the sound too and was staring at the source: the dumbwaiter a few feet from the desk. Opening the door, T saw water pouring down the drain pipe that goes from the basement to the fourth floor kitchen of our one occupied rental. Running from dumbwaiter opening to opening, T located a 4-ft long crack in the pipe between the third and fourth floors. Since the previous owner hadn't rented any space for more than 3 yrs, no one knew the pipe had cracked. There hadn't been any leaks when we were checking the house because rust, corrosion, and other drainpipe goo had kept the crack from leaking, but our new tenants' use of the sink had washed away the nastiness. Hoping we wouldn't have to call a plumber to replace the drainpipe, T and our handyman tried epoxy and eletrical tape--$40 worth of epoxy, $20 worth of tape, and 4 hours of standing in the dumbwaiter shaft with hands coated in quick-driving epoxy paste and cramped fingers from wrapping more than four feet of pipe with tape, the leak seemed as bad as ever. So we called the plumber, who came out on a Sat about a week later and replaced the entire length of drain from the basement to the top. The photo shows some of the corrosion on the inside of the pipes that were pulled out.
We're still waiting for the bill, so haven't yet freaked out over the cost.But with at least the plumbing problems fixed, we hope we can finally finish the last details of the second apt.....................stay tuned
October 27, 2007
Floors revealed!
So here were the floors BEFORE:
As you can see our cat was pretty bummed out about them. They were down right dingy.
Then the folks at Summit arrived and BEHOLD:
a ray of light in an otherwise very dark tunnel
The first time I saw these floors after they were resurrected was the very first time I thought that the potential I saw in the house was not just a figment of my imagination.
Mind you--this gloriousness is currently only enjoyed by the tenants and T and I -----when we are working in the tenants' apartments. Many moons from now--we too--will have floors that we can walk barefoot on without the fear of splinters.
October 26, 2007
Freshening UP
Well the paint part went fairly smoothly mostly because we enlisted a pro. We could have done this part ourselves but we splurged becuase we thought a pro would help us get the darn thing rented faster and because Franklin really is the zen master of paint and we really wanted his energy in our house.
The apartment is not very large so we tried to follow the advice of the many design mags we have lying around and brighten up the joint with bright light colors and some contrast.
We were also limited by the paint color that contractor #1 got wrong but which we paid for and didn't want to waste for financial as well as environmental reasons.
October 23, 2007
Next Up
So next up is a Junior one bedroom. Now that the unfinishable floor is finally rented, we have moved on to working on one of the 2 "charming" Junior One Bedrooms (real estate speak for a very small one bedroom). We are attacking this one with way more confidence than we had when working on the unfinishable floor. We think we may have actually acquired some skills from working on the 4th floor and the bannister (I had sanded, scraped, and painted a good deal of that apartment and although it may not sound like much to you--it was more home renovating than I had ever done before and T -although always pretty handy-has learned how to grout, hang doors, fill holes, do light plumbing and all kinds of other stuff) AND we are taking a home maintenance and improvement course (scary huh?)
Our plan is to paint it light and bright (we would love to strip off all (or even just a little) of that caked on paint but we don't have that luxury--we are looking for tenants to occupy come November 1), take that kitchen out of the closet, install some nice clean cabinets, freshen up the bathroom with new fixtures, etc. --- mostly superficial cosmetic stuff. Here's hoping its a bit easier this time.....................
Oh and yes--we did have those floors done. I will post some pics in my next entry