Windsor Terrace Reno

A lot of work has happened in the house over the past few months. The team of tireless workers has made that happen so I don’t want to sound ungrateful but sometimes its very frustrating when smaller projects drag on.

I’ve been very lucky that most of the really frustrating projects have been pretty unimportant in the scheme of things. That doesn’t make it much less irritating.

Here is a sneak peek at two projects that take two steps forward and one step back on a regular basis.

The first is the built in unit in the little room that sits between my living and dining rooms. I’m told its a “music room”, useful for the Victorians but who knows if that is true. Since its too small to put it to any specific purpose, we decided to make it a bit of a pass through library. I wanted to make use of the leaded glass doors that were elsewhere in the house (and couldn’t be used in their old spot)

As part of the bid for the contractor, I drew this out sketch so the contractor could see exactly what I had in mind.

Ok, so maybe its not the worlds most beautiful drawing but I think the general look is pretty clear. I made notes in the margins about how it was to be constructed as well as providing photos of other cabinets that looked similar.

I had discussed exactly what I wanted with the contractor multiple times after the drawing was given to make sure it was on track. I was told it was being custom made at the woodworker and would be installed toward the end of the job. We’ll, “it” was installed

I’m not sure what drawing they were looking at but it was not what I had specified and it was definitely not custom made. Not entirely apparent from this photo but this is a bunch of crappy stock cabinetry screwed together. I was not a happy camper.

I seriously considered having them remove the whole thing and scrap the project because after seeing this, I was so frustrated and I didn’t want to deal with it. But then I remembered they had removed some of the inlay detail floors under this to repair the missing pieces in the living room. Arrghh.

In the interest of maintaing good relations and my own sanity, I focused on the two main issues: the cabinet doors were tiny (to give you a sense of scale, they were about as wide as a shoebox) . I wanted 4 doors, not 8! I also pointed out that there was a lot of molding that needed to get added to make this look finished. I let go the other issues of it not being made of quality wood; the lower part not having the inset style as specified, it having a toe kick area despite specifiying a furniture like base, it not being custom fit for the space; it not going all the way to the ceiling; as well as a few other problems. He agreed to make the change and it looked a lot better.

But it still wasn’t right. For one, they had broken our glass doors while installing them. Did they think I was not going to notice that? Secondly, the doors and drawers didn’t work properly. And lastly the molding was added but in a weird way – like the crown was not sitting at the edge but rather it was pushed back a few inches. And there were other issues too (I won’t bother boring you with those).

This built-in continues to be a source of annoyance. Every time something gets fixed, something else is either broken or done improperly. I have nightmares about this monstrosity. Hopefully it will get done “well enough” and I’ll replace it with what I really want some years down the road when my memories of this renovation has faded.

The other nagging project is our closet systems. This has nothing to do with the contractor. My annoyance is aimed directly at the Container Store. Dear Container Store: You lured me in with your pretty advertisements and promises of an organized wardrobe in easy to follow steps. You cruel vixen, you evil temptress, I trusted you and you have left me unfashionably bereft.

We selected the Container Store’s elfa closet system because it was a) easy to get b) could be configured to make the best use of the space c) cheaper than similar alternatives d) looked pretty cute in the store and e) promised it was easy to install.

My closet all ready to receive its due.

We went to the Container Store during their 30% off sale with measurements in hand. The salespeople were very helpful and designed our closets for us. They even delivered right to our door! It seemed pretty straightforward. We left with the plans and waited for the parts to get there.

When the boxes did arrive our hopes for a straight forward assembly vanished! There were so many parts without much in the way of labeling. We had ordered systems for all of the clothing closets in the house so it took us a lot of carrying these heavy things all over the house to get them to the right room.

The main rails that the system hangs on got installed but other things were going on so I decided I’d take a crack at putting it together myself. Just unpacking the boxes took forever b/c every part is wrapped within an inch of its life. And then to be extra annoying, every single piece (and there were many) had one of these sku # stickers on them. Is this really necessary? Its time consuming enough to put this together, peeling each of these off one by one only adds to the frustration level.

The shelves have a locking mechanism to keep them in place. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to press down in the right place and the right amount of brute force (while precariously balanced on a ladder) before I picked up the technique. So far, so good.

The drawers were a lot less cooperative. I spent at least an hour unpacking, unpeeling, setting up on the rails followed by trying to lock them into place, hearing the telltale “clicking into place” sound only to have the drawers fall to the ground if I put some minor pressure on them. I kept reading the directions, trying again and I’d still get a heap of drawers at my feet. Arrgggghhhh!

In walks contractor who tells me he tried to install this all earlier and the drawers don’t lock into place properly. File that under things I would have liked to know before.

Anyone else have these drawers and like to share with me the secret to getting these things not to fall out into a heap of metal and wood veneer?

Contractor’s solution is to put a screw in the sides of the drawer rail to hold in place. Seems like a good idea. Of course, its not done yet and so my closet sits idlely mocking me while I continue to fish my clothing out of cardboard boxes.

Ok, end of bitch session. Im hoping both of these projects will be done by next week and I’ll be able to share the happy outcome. Anyone want to take the under/over?

I usually post as things happen but this post will be more of a summation of what’s happening in the rear.

One of the drawbacks of this house is that yard is pretty small. That wasn’t really a big drawback for us since a) I don’t want a lot of backyard space to maintain and b) prospect park is a block away should I ever have the desire to run around in circles in the sunshine. So while a lot of homeowners reveal in having an amazing backyard, its just wasn’t very high on the priority list for us.

When we started the renovation, we knew we had to do something with the backyard. It was a complete jungle back there. Overgrown weeds had totally taken over the small space. You couldn’t even walk more than a few feet from the back door because the weeds were so thick.

(not a stock photo – this is how it looked last year)

Our plan was simple. Get rid of the weeds, make a simple planting bed at the back and cover the rest with pavers. We briefly considered doing something a little more fun like a koi pond ( a personal dream of mine) but there were so many other things going on at the same time, we never had time to do the right research so we let it go.

When the demolition started, some of the weeds were removed to allow some movement outside. Naturally, a layer of random junk and debris collected there as well.
As the winter was drawing closer, the crew got started on backyard to beat the ground freezing.

You can see here how the yard originally had planting beds at the back and both sides. It made the backyard feel really cramped to us so we had a larger planting bed created in the back only. That way we can add some nice trees for privacy and shade.

Once that was done, the back cinderblock wall that was collapsing got rebuilt, the drain got cleaned of weeds and the cement by the back door got repaired

I originally wanted real cobblestones for the backyard but our contractor balked at the prospect of so much more work of working with a more uneven stone. I think it would have looked a lot nicer because the herringbone pattern would have been more attractive with a rectangular stone and real cobblestones don’t have that cement look but I gave in anyway. It just wasn’t worth making a big deal about the backyard.

And here it is in its semi-final state. Of course we still have to add plants and some decorative touches but it turned out nice enough.

I won’t lie – I want a koi pond. Maybe in my next life.

While most “surprises” of renovation, are negative, this one has a positive spin. You may remember one of my earlier posts where I mentioned my adoration of this doorknob.

Actually I really loved all the door hardware. I spent a lot of time painstakingly removing them from the doors using putty knives and dremel followed by boiling the old paint off and cleaning each with toothbrush and toolpicks. I was quite happy with the cleaned up versions because they still had their patina without the dirt and paint.

After many months of sitting in bins, I gave all of the old hardware to the contractor to re-install. Imagine my surprise when I saw them a few weeks later completely stripped of the patina and shiny?

This isn’t at all what I would have asked for but I can’t imagine how much time and elbow grease must have spent getting these so clean. So while it isn’t what I thought I wanted, I think these look pretty good. I even like the mismatch of silver knob and brass plate. In fact, I was planning on using those shades as accents in the decorating so I guess this gets filed under”happy accidents”.

In other progress, our washer/dryer have moved into its home on the second floor closet. Its inaugural wash is in the works.

The island has been fully installed, sink installation in progress and the recessed lights that were in the wrong place have been moved.

Lastly our appliances arrived! Here is the giant fridge.

I went appliance shopping thinking I would end up with a counter depth refrigerator but ended up going with this one. It juts out quite a lot but when I saw that even the counter depth ones jutted out and I would have had to give up crushed ice in the door, this one came out on top. Its a Ge Profile. I’ve had Ge Profile appliances before and figured it was good to stick with what we’re happy with.

Went with the Ge Cafe stove, microwave and dishwasher. This is a new line but I really liked how the slide in range didn’t have a big control panel on the back as well as its double oven feature. Since its new, there weren’t a whole lot of reviews on this so keeping fingers crossed its not going to make me rue this decision.

Countertops are scheduled to arrive this week. Fully functioning kitchen soon to follow.

As the kitchen gets fine tuned, no other major transformations have taken place this week. There have been a series of small tasks being crossed off that give me great joy. Sometimes the little things make a big difference. As much for the thing itself as for the reminder we are getting closer to the finish line.

This first thing isn’t really that small but its getting lumped into the small miracles list.

When we bought the house, one of the first things we noticed was that the bench in the parlor hallstand was broken and its other “leg” was no where to be found. We discussed this with our architect as well as the various contractors we interviewed and all manner of repair solutions were suggested. Despite a few very good ideas, I still really wanted a matching pair of phoenix in the house. So I was quite shocked when our contractor told us he could have a copy of the remaining leg made. We didn’t hold out much hope and figured whatever came back would likely be a poor imitation of the original.

But one day we noticed that the hallstand had been repaired during the days work! And not only was it repaired but the phoenix carving had a beautiful match. If I didn’t look closely, I would be hard pressed to know which one was new! I was seriously impressed. I have no clue where our contractor found someone to do the carving (he later told us it wasn’t easy) nor do I care too much. Im just happy it was done so well. Can’t wait to see this baby painted.

Back on to the “little” things list, our doorbell got installed. Doesn’t it look purdy?

I will say that Im a little annoyed that the button part doesn’t light up. I assumed the plastic button was there because its illuminated. Evidently it was just a cheapo button on a the brass fixture. So annoying.

The faucets in our master bathroom got installed.

Can you sense a theme here? I like shiny things.

The corbels were installed in the ceiling divide between dining room and kitchen. Its a small detail but I think it adds a nice texture and a whisper of interest to a really boxy room.

And finally our dining room and living room light fixtures got installed. Two chandeliers and two sets of sconces now in place.

Woo-hoo.

Finally, our cabinets have arrived. They took the full 4 months that was estimated when we put in our order. But at least they showed up on time.

Contractor made short work of putting them up. Here is the kitchen in its semi-finished form. Pretty much all the cabinets are in except for the end panel that will be installed to the left of the island once the dishwasher is in place. Its still missing appliances, fixtures, sink, trim molding, hardware, countertops and the large panel that covers up the back of the island but this gives a good idea of what its going to look like.

To give you a sense of the transformation, this is what it looked like a week or so before the cabinets got installed.

After we ordered the cabinets but before they arrived, I was getting worried that maybe I had picked too yellow of a color or maybe the style wouldn’t look right in there. You can look back to an earlier post about the kitchen design but this photo collage of my inspiration kitchens can give you a sense of what I was going for. Obviously, I had a lot of limitations that these kitchens don’t have but Im really happy with how its coming together.

Now that we have the cabinets on their way, it was time to pick the counters. This decision has been much discussed since we started on the renovation. I fell in love with soapstone pretty early on but I know its a soft stone. I liked the idea of how it ages but its not for everyone. Most granite fabricators warn against it (but are also generally misinformed about soapstone properties so that sort of negates that “expert” opinion) Mr. Limestone wanted to stick with granite since we had experience with it. For a while I was going to give in and get black hones granite since it looks similar and is much harder. That was until I started reading internet reviews of black honed granite. After hearing about how it scratches, stains, and is impossible to keep looking good, I had enough of waffling. Soapstone it is.

Keeping fingers crossed that everything makes it to my kitchen in one piece.

I can’t wait for this part of the project to be finished!

Now with the paint posts behind me, I can move on to other progress made. We were still waiting for our kitchen cabinets after the painting was done so the floors were the next big thing on the list.

If you go back to the beginning of this blog to the original photos, you get a small sense of how poorly the house had been taken care of over the years. I saw small sense because photos have a way of glossing over the most unattractive bits, the musty smell and all the other facets of a run down house.

With so little upkeep over the years, the floors were not in great shape.

Even the parts of the floor that had no real “damage” had a few decades worth of wear and dirt on them. And I don’t mean just normal dirt. Any protective finish these floors once had was long gone.

During our initial walk throughs, the contractor seemed quite confident that he could repair and refinish the floors without a problem. We weren’t quite how that would play out but we figured we’d take our chances and hope for the best. (Despite our uncertainty, we insisted that he put down boards to protect the floors. We had to ask a few times for these as Im sure the workers thought us nuts to be protecting what looked like junk.)

As the work progressed, there were several areas where some of the “good” floors were taken and moved into a room that needed repair. For example, the room that became our master bath had some unscathed parquet that found its way into bits and pieces of other room repairs.

So we were quite happy to see that once the repairs were made and floors sanded, they were looking pretty good.

Its by no means perfect. There are spots that show their age more than others. But that doesn’t bother me too much. Just another one of those “charms” of an old house. The worst case is in the bright blue room as that was once the upstairs rental kitchen. It was never meant to be exposed and the damage done in that room, is pretty rough even after the sanding. I may just leave it with stains and all or I may go crazy and paint it. A decision for another time.

Then we had to decide the stain. I really wanted a dark floor. Husband and contractor suggested no stain color – just sealer and poly. Their main concern was that a darker stain would have hide the original inlays that we worked so hard to save. Their points were valid so I gave in and went with it. It looks nice. Is it what I wanted? Not really. I still think it would have looked better with the darker stain. While I am partially regretting not holding firm on the dark floors – what is done is done. I think Mr. Limestone is very happy with it so thats a good thing.

As for the finish, I knew straight away I wanted a glossy finish. That seems to be a very unpopular choice for many brownstoners and I am aware. Im quite happy with the glossy finish and Ill tell you why. For one, the gloss adds light. In a house like this where light is a commodity, adding it in such a universal and “free” way was a no brainer. Second, a matte finish is a much more rustic choice. It can look lovely in the right setting and I have selected it myself in other homes. While there are other things that can give a rustic look in this house, none of them are intentional. I want the house to look polished and a matte finish to the floors wasn’t going to cut it for me. Third, my style tends to be a little bit older with a dash of contemporary thrown in to mix it up. The floors are definitely the old lady in me and I think it suits the house. Im sure a lot of people would disagree with my logic and thats okay but I figured I’d throw my reasoning out there too.

What can I say? Sometimes when something is universally hated, I tend to be drawn to it.

For those sick of seeing paint related post, I think this will be the last one so rest easy. But I feel obligated to show the rest of the color choices since it was a big deal to me.

I made a specific effort to keep the downstairs colors neutral because so many other elements like furniture, fabric, appliances, etc..get added in living/dining/kitchens. Since the upstairs is essentially bedrooms, I wanted a little bit more color while still being a relaxing scheme.

(Ignore the blue border – that’s painters tape)

The hallway space got the same color as downstairs – pale gray on the walls, china white ceiling, bone white trim.

The tiny little nothing room got a color called “Silver Marlin” It looked pretty green on the chip but is very blue in person. Very pretty and doesn’t look too baby blue. I really like it.

Our master bath got a muted blue-green called “Quiet Moments”. It always seems to come out darker in the photos than it is in person but it really works nicely with the green accents in the floor and the grey veining the vanity top. Its really soothing and I love it.

The master bedroom got one shade darker than the bathroom which is called “Beach Glass”.

The guest bedroom got a medium sage green color. I’ll admit I don’t really love this shade. I didn’t love it on the chip and I don’t love it on the wall. I sort of wanted a green but I couldn’t find the right shade so I just picked something that wouldn’t be too offensive. At the last minute I ended up going with something called “Saybrook Sage”. Its one of Benjamin Moore’s historical colors so I figured it wouldn’t be too annoying. And its totally fine.

And finally came the little room that will be all mine for my various crafty activities. I didn’t want such a soothing color in there. I seriously considered doing some kind of silver leaf treatment on the walls but that was ruled out because its too complicated and expensive to do properly. After much back and forth, I finally settled on a bright teal blue. (I also used this color for the inside of most of our closets)

So that’s pretty much it for the paint colors. I’m so glad to have those decisions made and behind me.

As I mentioned in the previous paint post, not all of my decisions were good ones. Excuse my crudeness but I call this post the “skid mark” edition.

For the most part, I’ve picked various shades of grey, blue-greens and cream for most of the house. When it came time to pick the color for the hall bath on the second floor, I figured I should go dark just to add a little interest to the colorless bathroom. It has plenty of light – both natural (skylight) and artificial (recessed ceiling and over medicine cabinet fixture) and I wanted to pick something a little more interesting than the pale blue green shades in the rest of the bathrooms.

I didn’t want to pick a totally different color so I went with one shade darker than the “greige” shade (silver fox) in our living room. It was a pretty dark shade on the sample but it seemed to have enough grey in it to give it a bit of an edge to a really traditional bathroom. And even the name of the color, stardust, sounded beautiful.

Much to my surprise and horror, that color is not gray at all but a Hershey color brown. It might be a beautiful color in another room but a milk chocolate shade on the walls of a bathroom conjures only one thought – poo!

Lucky for us, its a small room and it was repainted with some leftover paint. Even though its now a much more pleasing shade (beach glass), it will forever be known as the poo bathroom to me.

Hey – what can I say? They can’t all be winners.

A little sneak peak at our scary man of the stairs. Despite his age and what he has been through these past few months, he is looking quite handsome to me. For those curious, the wood was stained dark walnut.

The latest decision to be made is what to paint the stair risers. For those obsessed with staining everything in site: yes,they need to be painted. I want to paint them black – its a tiny bit unusual but the black will work nicely with the pale grey on the walls and dark stain of the stair treads. It will also hide ugly scuff marks better. And its not any sort of strange choice like orange or teal. So whats the problem? Mr. Limestone didn’t have an opinion on this until our contractor and architect chimed in that the cream would be nicer Now Mr. Limestone is literally insisting that they be painted cream.

Why is it that when I needed help picking paint colors, no one has an opinion but when Im sure of something then everyone has to chime in? Im sure intentions are good but its quite annoying.

I used to believe that whenever I would say white, Mr. Limestone would say black just to drive me completely up a wall. But I was wrong. In fact, when I say black, he says cream! A world of difference.

Whatever the shade, its quite close to being done. We’re both in total agreement that a good thing.