South Stuy Blogtag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy/302008-05-01T16:13:11ZMovable Type Enterprise 1.53What's black and white with nickel finishes?tag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.201062008-05-01T16:11:26Z2008-05-01T16:13:11ZThe 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Small Space, Big Worktag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.195722008-02-27T15:37:03Z2008-02-27T20:00:29ZSo 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Laying...in waittag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.195772008-02-26T15:15:45Z2008-02-26T17:40:03ZWith the groundwork all but done in the kitchen--it is only a matter of days before the tiles and cabinets take their places....HomeSweetstuy
and cabinets
take their places.
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The Sky is Fallingtag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.192442008-02-23T21:46:18Z2008-02-25T01:19:00ZJust 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Strip Happytag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.189162008-02-13T01:43:39Z2008-02-13T01:44:52ZWe 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Stripping......the doortag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.180932008-02-07T14:03:41Z2008-02-07T14:07:08ZA 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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My Favorite Thingstag:www.brownstoner.com,2008:/southstuy//30.180092008-01-07T01:00:19Z2008-01-07T00:56:45ZWith 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.)
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Reality Checktag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.179082007-12-15T17:10:19Z2007-12-15T17:09:23ZWe 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Help me if you can I'm feeling downtag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.175792007-12-01T16:14:17Z2007-12-01T16:14:45Zhttp://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,...HomeSweetstuy
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. ]]>
The Devil is in the detailstag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.171022007-11-25T20:45:30Z2007-11-27T16:06:32ZAs 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--...HomeSweetstuy
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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]]>
Tales of Woetag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.170442007-11-06T01:05:21Z2007-11-06T14:05:50ZJust 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...HomeSweetstuy
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
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Floors revealed!tag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.168392007-10-27T22:45:34Z2007-10-27T22:44:02ZSo 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.
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Freshening UPtag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.167172007-10-26T12:50:47Z2007-10-26T12:47:06ZWell 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...HomeSweetstuy
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.]]>
Next Uptag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.167102007-10-23T04:50:31Z2007-10-23T04:49:39ZSo 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)....HomeSweetstuy
Oh and yes--we did have those floors done. I will post some pics in my next entry
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It wouldn't be a reno blog if.......tag:www.brownstoner.com,2007:/southstuy//30.165602007-10-16T13:49:09Z2007-10-16T13:49:21Zit didn't have the obligatory before and after shots of the bannister. As you know--this is what we started with.............................. Purple and lots of it, its a little intimidating-isn't it? We bought an expensive piece of equipment (the silent paint...HomeSweetstuy
Purple and lots of it, its a little intimidating-isn't it?
We bought an expensive piece of equipment (the silent paint remover)--and the purple defeated it. We got ourselves some peel away 6 with paper. We were skeptical. But it worked ...... sort of----we had to experiment a bit with the time and the thickness. Too much and it was a gooey mess that barely took anything off and required A LOT of scraping. Too little and it was a dry yet strangely still gooey ??? mess that barely removed any paint. In any and all events--it required mucho scraping and many gallons of denatured alcohol (how did I ever get by in life without this stuff?). It also required A LOT of sanding and scrubing with steel wool and even a little zip and strip and at least 2 months of effort and some teak oil but I think the result is pretty amazing.
If anyone has some tips for stripping better, faster or more efficiently--Please share! There is a whole helluva lot of purple I still need to remove.]]>
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.
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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.
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and cabinets
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.
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.
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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.
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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.)
5. Our new common area hall lights.
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.
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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.
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Our 2 non-functional kitchens (no stoves, working water, 1 frig; T has been grilling almost everyday for the last 5 months):
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:
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.
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Oh and yes--we did have those floors done. I will post some pics in my next entry
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If anyone has some tips for stripping better, faster or more efficiently--Please share! There is a whole helluva lot of purple I still need to remove.]]>