South Stuy Blog: house
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.
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.)
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 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.
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
October 16, 2007
It wouldn't be a reno blog if.......
it 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 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.
September 20, 2007
Blog or Greek Epic?
While other blogs have begun at the beginning, we begin, in the tradition of the Homeric epic, in the middle. There have already already been many memorable moments and adventures (which have entertained our friends to no end and usually prompt a sympathetic hug) that we have had the joy of experiencing (they have made us stronger) and which we (M & T) will share with you during the inevitable slow-downs and stoppages, the days and weeks when yet another contractor has disappeared without a trace and I need to remind myself that this too shall pass.
A little background. My hubby and I bought this house with the proceeds from the sale of our 800-square-foot co-op just off 4th Ave in what was then an area of a "recently expanded" Park Slope (at the time, the area was still full of the Puerto Ricans quickly being pushed out of the neighborhood, and rarely did a deadly stroller-weilding Park Slope mom ever appear, unless she was also a developer with a condo-building twinkle in her eye). When the sale actually went through (with help from the Crown Heights "Jewish Mafia," my recently deceased grandmother, a man who I will refer to herein as the "Magician," and our just-plain-stubborness) we thought we had been through the worst of it (ha, the "worst of it"--I think we can all give a good loud GUFFAW over that bit of un-informed silliness). Anyway, we bought this five-family four-story brownstone knowing that the first order of business would be to get the three rentals ready to go since we are dealing with a VERY limited budget and rental income would be the only way for us to carry the mortgage while renovating. So, our story opens midway through the renovation of the rentals at a time when our cash cushion has become an old beat-up pillow with very little stuffing left and our future hangs on getting at least one apartment rented as soon as humanly possible or at least by October 1--(good times indeed). But before I go any further, let me show you some pics of the house which despite the trials and tribulations, we are absolutely over the moon, head over heals in love with.....
Exterior
Interior Highlights
Yes the paint selection was chosen by the previous owners and no--there is no relation to Prince
Molding
So our plan is to hold on to as much detail as we possibly can without sacrificing comfort and modern amenities. We will occupy the lower 2 floors and basement which we will renovate after the rentals are up and running. Other than that basic formula we are sort of taking it as it comes and what our budget will allow. My next entry will bring everyone up to speed on the rentals--what we had to start with and what we* have accomplished over the last 3 months.
""We" in the context of renovation means M and T, and some combination of pros, friends, all around contractors (which should probably be called handymen) but more on this next time.