February 28, 2012

One down, two to go.

The old bathroom with blue toilet, faux marble formica and pink stenciled flowers

There’s so much to catch up with on our renovation – thought I show you the downstairs bath redo next. It was one of the first things to go and the last to be completed since we had the one upstairs that wasn’t in too bad of shape. We did the demo with the rest of the house – out went close to sixty years of bathroom layers, we wired and plumbed it and then the contractor used it for storage while working on the kitchen. A couple of months after moving in, it was clear six people and one toilet was not workable long term so it jumped up on the priority list.

wall to the kitchen — Dad, cleaning out the bathroom during the demolition

The house has one full bath up, one down dating from the days when, believe it or not, our micro 1200 sq ft home was a 2-family. Out came the blue toilet and tub (with a rusted out bottom, conveniently hidden during the inspection by a rubber bath mat). Gone, the pink stenciled wall flowers. Layers of floor tiles came next until finally the space was a empty except for the now uncovered old door to the back yard where the home’s first accommodations (aka: the outhouse) would have been.

toilet copy — This is likely what a modest Brooklyn bathroom consisted of

I’ve been asking some of the long-time residents of our block if they remember when the first indoor plumbing was added to most of the circa 1860-1900 homes and they think it was the 1920′s. One contractor I spoke with who grew up around the corner said he remembers when they had one toilet in the hall at his home and took a bath in the kitchen. He said some of the houses he works on still have only one bath on the first floor and for the tenants on the 2nd or 3rd floors they walk downstairs. Even so, it would be better than sharing a ‘three holer’ with a large building of your neighbors. The ladies up the block were amazed when I told them my grandparents never did have indoor plumbing and the other set put the first bath into their home in the 1950′s. One of the perks of living in the big city I suppose.

tenament toilet and resident - douglas flats (Washington) 1908 — A tenement toilet from Douglass Flats in Washington, c. 1908

The fancier homes like the one I used to live in on the other side of town would have had much nicer bathrooms – maybe even featuring a “Mott” toilet like the one pictured below. There’s a plumber on Court Street who has some old toilets in his window that date back to earlier times.

A fancy 'Mott' toiliet from NYC, c. 1888

This room where the bath is in our house was likely the location of the home’s first toilet and the timbers under the floor look worse for the wear. Yep, termites – with a healthy dose of rot tossed in. Nothing that can’t be fixed during the next phase of the renovation though.

secret door to the back yard — secret door to the backyard bordered by rotted lath walls

You can see the old three panel door to the back yard we uncovered in the wall behind the tub – in fact, it’s still there holding up the wall.

As for the new bath, we had visions of a light, spa-like retreat so lots of work to do! Funny thing about re-decorating, sometimes you take out the old, only to replace it with a more updated version of the same. As we searched for new tile, I fell in love with a swirly aqueous number from Spain for the floor that looks like the phosphorescent night ocean.

floor tile detail — Spanish tile for the floors

Peeling back layers of tile and paint, I suddenly realized our new color scheme wasn’t so far off and earlier one you can see under the white tiles.

Layers of old floor tiles - spa blue underneath

For the sink wall we chose a translucent Italian glass tile the color of tumbled sea glass. White subway tiles line the shower/tub to the top of the nine foot ceiling.

glass tile detail — Glass wall tiles behind the sink

After months of searching (and using a plastic curtain liner), finally, the perfect cotton lawn pintuck curtain turned up at West Elm – luckily we bought two because it’s discontinued.

Mostly finished, the new bathroom is our very own refreshing oasis and something to look forward to during morning showers and candlelight baths (all two of them) in the deep roman tub (made of lightweight plastic because it IS a 150 year old wood frame house after all).

IKEA sink and faucet, marimekko towel, full mirror to ceiling.

We secured some fixtures from IKEA and the bathroom was done by Christmas. Well, almost done. What’s left is the most painful part of being a designer – picking a paint color. At the moment we’re thinking of glazing the wall opposite the sink in a deep mysterious indigo wash like the one in this last photo. Could be just the thing.

January 28, 2012

Fireplace

We’re gearing up for the next big renovation – adding a new living room/great room to the back of the house and we *hope* a bedroom upstairs and/or a finished basement. I’ve been spending some time on Pinterest – ok, maybe a LOT of time – looking at images of fireplaces and dreaming of finally having one. There’s nothing like that mesmerizing feeling you get from staring into a fire and all six of us are starved for some of it. We used some of our Christmas money from the grandparents to buy an outdoor fire pit we’ve become addicted to (winter s’mores – yum!) and having one indoors would be amazing. As we meet with architects and dream of how we want the room to look what’s really on our mind is, “What will the fireplace look like and will it be done in time for Christmas?”

We’re especially drawn to fireplaces with built-in seating, shelves and wood storage – blame it on the urban urge to fit everything into a compact, efficient space. Some also have windows in their design. Our favorites are simple, modern and ‘elemental’ – reducing fire to it’s essence.

Love the cozy light from the window and the simple mantel. Who wouldn’t want to curl up in that chair with a book (or iPad)?

Such a stunning use of Tom Dixon’s ‘Beat’ lights and a nice cozy bench I can picture laying on, soaking up the fire’s warmth. It’s nice the way the wall is out over the fireplace creating a large horizontal opening.

Stacked wood creates a nice visual composition and a stone slab makes a simple hearth

January 3, 2012

Spring Thoughts

Front Garden Path — Path made of Ohio foundation stones

Nothing like winter’s chills to get us thinking about spring. After so much work on the inside of the house, we spent the spring and summer months of last year planting in the garden and enjoying our first harvest of vegetables and flowers. Mom and dad K helped us install a bluestone cap to the unfinished retaining wall in the back and brought hand-hewn flagstones from Ohio that used to be in the basement of the farm house dad grew up in for a path in the front garden. (For their age, my parents totally rock!) The kids love meandering via the garden to the front door while we unlock it and it’s a lovely sentimental connection to our country roots.

Away went the old scruffy holly and gangly rose bushes (mom replanted them at her house in Ohio – she loves orphan plants) and we repurposed gravel-bound hosta and day lilies to new locations in the updated layout, added an assortment of flower and foliage plants topped it all off with a Japanese Stewartia tree. The garden now looks like the start of a shady woodland path with clusters of like plants grouped together and interesting discoveries to make as you wander along the path. The top photo was taken shortly after the garden was planted in July and the one below is how it looked when we first moved in. In October we planted hundreds of bulbs for waves of spring color along the path and clusters of crocus and daffodils here and there among the bushes. A bed of bearded iris will make a big show in front of the stewartia tree through June and July. The kids have no idea and I can’t wait to see their faces when the things wake up and the delight begins.

Front Yard, Before — Front Garden, before: hosta & holly and gravel covered dirt

Setting Bluestone — Mom & Dad buttering the wall

New bluestone cap — Bluestone sets the retaining wall off nicely

In the back we planted raspberries, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, onions, eggplant and herbs in raised beds along the fence and in March started our family composting operation that includes worm bins in the basement and a year-round compost system in the back garden. Because the soil is contaminated from the nearby Gowanus Canal with industrial waste from the last two centuries, we are careful to practice safe gardening and installed a barrier at the bottoms of the new beds to keep the roots contained and put clean fill in the beds. We’ll use the composted organic kitchen waste in the garden. We mulched tree leaves to provide winter cover for the flower beds. Both the front and back will likely undergo major changes with future renovations – thank goodness they look half way decent now in the mean time! It was a lot of back breaking work – especially digging all the trash out of the back flower beds. That was a project that took the whole family weeks!

Debris in the dirt — We sifted buckets of debris from the back flower beds

We used a pick axe and our hands to break up the cement-like soil packed with bricks, rocks, broken glass, household trash and riddled with roots. Next was sifting 10 gallon bucket after bucket of gravel and glass shards from the remaining soil and adding back at least a dozen bags of soil and amendments to take the place of all the rubble removed before finally planting roses, shrubs and flowers. The difference was amazing. Mom and dad took the buckets of gravel for their driveway in Ohio so I suppose you could say we traded some small rocks in for some bigger ones. Every time they visit now they bring us a truck load of good Ohio topsoil – we’re so lucky!!

Raised Garden Beds — Construction of the raised garden beds

Before: Rear Garden Bed — Before: rear garden weed patch

Over the winter we have a couple more projects: building a fence with a gate to protect this year’s vegetable garden from the digging adventures of our new pup, Roxy, and installing a raspberry trellis before spring comes and thorny canes take over the yard. We’ll be sure to post pictures of the bulbs when they come up in spring and keep you updated on plans for the vegetable garden. Last week we worked close to forty pounds of worm castings into the soil and have plans to raise one of the containers another 12″ for nice deep tomato roots. This year I’m buying plants instead of growing from seed – we only need six tomato plants so it’s a lot more practical. We’ll definitely plant Japanese eggplant again, some pole beans and look forward to our first season of mature raspberries and strawberries – that is if we can outsmart the critters who like to eat them. The down side of having one of the only gardens around is you’re the go-to snack joint for the local birds, squirrels and raccoon population.

Eggplant — Summer eggplant growing in the vegetable garden

February 17, 2011

Kid-friendly

DSCN1339 — Where the kids LIVE when they're at home

We’ve been dying to post the kids’ room and finally it’s presentable enough to make public. Of all the transformations in the house, this one is not only the most dramatic, but is also the most loved and lived in.

When we originally saw the house, the layout of the two extra bedrooms was key in making it work for our four-kid combo pack. The one larger room (16′ x 13′) would become a boys’ sleeping nook and kids’ play room and the smaller room (8′x 6′) would be for the girls to sleep in (and also meets their very important girlie privacy needs).

The original room had the same lovely linoleum as the master bedroom and a drop ceiling like the kitchen. A former kitchenette from a long ago apartment had been closed off and turned into the strangest closet you’ve ever seen (13′ wide x 3 1/2′ deep with a 28″ door in the wall to get to it). This space would become the boys’ sleeping nook and closet.

DSCN1062 — New closet, in progress with sleeping nook, left

We did a lot of demo in this room, including the exterior wall and ceiling to add insulation. The floors came out revealing more linoleum which we left, installing wall to wall Berber carpet over top. We chose not to level the floors in the upstairs due to time constraints and pushing it off until later down the road when the kids move out. They like to spend all their spare time in the new space. Who wouldn’t? They have their own iMac, art gallery, a TV where they play Wii and do TV stuff, they play games, do their homework and have a cozy sofa for curling up and reading. On any given evening, we grown-ups are downstairs making dinner and the kids will all be upstairs: playing Lego, drawing, goofing and chasing around. It’s their own little universe made just for them and is a BIG reason why our tiny house works.

DSCN1329 — We bought this artwork for the kids' room because the characters reminded us of the four of them

February 8, 2011

Just Add a (back) Splash of Tile and It’s Done

A quick post to give you a peek at how the kitchen is progressing. It’s mostly done and only awaits back splash tile, a new floor after our backyard is done (the linoleum is a placeholder) and some wall paint. The first photo (below) is how it looks right now and the second one shows the same view from when we first saw the house. Amazing the difference! The yellow-green paint sample you see next to the trumpet print is the what we’ll put on the walls and we’re thinking of using a colorful glass mosaic for the back splash tile. The cabinets are the AKURUM/ RATIONELL system from Ikea, as are the Domsjo sink (sorry, no link) and TÄRNAN faucet . The counter tops are Caesarstone in ‘Blizzard’, the Halo fan is from The Modern Fan Company and the stove is a 36″ Blue Star range with six burners.

We kept everything mostly in the same places, adding a stacked washer/dryer where the old refrigerator was (they were in the basement) and moving the sink over toward the stove to accommodate a dishwasher – a must have for our big hungry family. We love the height of the restored tin ceiling that was hiding behind the old dropped one, and the full-depth counter that replaced the 12″ wide one that was there before. The Room and Board kitchen table and Eames, lcm chairs from my old apartment fit perfectly and we’re even able to put both leaves in. The eat-in style of the kitchen helps to create a wonderful family atmosphere and with the south-facing garden light, it’s always the brightest, warmest spot in the house – just the way we like it.

January 1, 2011

We’re Cookin!

This is is what our kitchen looked like, below, at mid-project. You may recall it’s original state – peeling formica, faux brick, faux walnut paneling, drop ceiling and as it turned out, several layers of flooring: vinyl, more vinyl, brittle wood parquet secured by hundreds of nails, linoleum, more linoleum, roofing lumber used as flooring with still more nails and finally, the original pine plank floors. Sadly, after 150 years, they had seen much better days. In one spot, they were damaged by a long ago fire in the basement, in others by wood eating insects, water damage and dry rot. All in all, not much could be salvaged.

The good news was that behind the drop ceiling was a near pristine original tin one with only two coats of paint on it at most, very few holes and no rust damage at all. Even better, we found a perfect match on-line for a few sections needed to replace the Art Deco patch job done when the house was electrified.

Once the floor boards were removed, the next step was to level the floor. At one point in the project before the floor came out we had a small flood in the kitchen from a problem with the eave spout. The water collected in the center of the kitchen where it formed a deep pool in the middle of the three-inch dip in the floor. That’s how bad it was.

The next step, after removing the floor boards, was to ‘sister’ the the joists with new lumber to level them. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see how much the old joists sag at right near the center of the kitchen and the way they come up to the left near the wall.

The existing joists not only had a dramatic sway to them, they were spindly 4×6′s, spaced 20″ apart instead of old ‘to code’ 4×12″ joists at 18″ apart. If you jumped up and down, the whole place bounced. Surveying the scene confirmed we were nuts do be doing this – anyone else would tear it down – but somehow we ~~knew~~ hoped it would all work out.

After the joists, a new sub-floor went in followed by framing, insulation and new wallboard. In the photo above, you can see where the old chimney is. To the left of this was the former sink. In the new kitchen we built a wall flush with the chimney so we could add a stackable washer/dryer closet to the left, a dishwasher to the right of that and relocate the sink in front of the old chimney. The stove is in the same place to the far right near the window.

We also reinforced the exterior wall which had a great deal of damage in the corner near the stove with new 4×4″ posts. In the photo below you can see the new wall, nice and level, a freshly painted tin ceiling with new cornice and the duct for the stove vent. Along with the floors being off, the whole house leaned three inches to the east and the walls also needed to be straightened. The upside of this was we were able to fit the hard duct for the gas dryer neatly in the space at the top between the old leaning wall and the new one in front of it.

The next photo below shows the kitchen during installation. We chose an Ikea kitchen for the immediate gratification of in-stock delivery and the super reasonable price. Next post, promise, some photos of the mostly finished kitchen. We’re having a whole family paint the kitchen day tomorrow!

August 21, 2010

Only Three Ceilings, Yes?

Time flies and blog posts don’t happen when you finally start a renovation project. The only reason I’m writing now is because it’s 7 am and too early to be at the house, banging on the pink plaster meringue in the living room with a sledge hammer. Three weeks ago this Tuesday we became the proud owners of 112 and right away, the demolition on the ceilings began. By that Wednesday night, the drop ceilings in the kitchen were history, the basement was cleaned out and Jeff and I were covered with dirt from head toe. The next thing we knew, our trusty crew arrived and started tearing away at the layers of acoustic tiles, tin, plaster and lath.

In our bedroom upstairs, the peaks of ceiling plaster and faux beams came out and the guy you see in the photo, below, groaned when he saw what was behind it: tin over plaster.

In the boys’ room next door, an acoustic drop ceiling hid old plaster and lath – all to come down. In the photo below, their ceiling is now gone (no tin here thank goodness) and you can see the roof of the house above the ceiling joists. As old as it is, we were thrilled to discover it to be in excellent condition with little to no water or bug damage. We joked our house has a great foundation and roof – it’s all the stuff in between that needs replaced.

The other thing you might notice in the ceiling above is the complete lack of any insulation. That’s not beacause we took it out – there wasn’t any to begin with. None. Not in any of the walls or ceilings. It’s one of the main reasons we’re doing all this so the house will be snug and stay cool in summer and warm in winter.

So two and a half weeks in, our amazingly good natured contractor’s favorite line is now, “So only three ceilings, yes?” followed by a smile and a chuckle. Our ‘quick’ redo of just the bedroom and living room ceilings has morphed into something MUCH larger, but then we kind of knew it would and so did he. Three ceilings became all the walls, new electrical throughout, 21st century cable and data lines in each room (no more painted over stuff running everywhere across walls and moldings = a happy Jeff), a new bathroom and now, as of this week, leveling the floors in the downstairs which in the kitchen alone, involved tearing out six glued down, nailed together layers chronicling 150 years of flooring fashion.

kitchenfloor — Up comes the old kitchen subfloor, and the joists will next be leveled

We estimate the weight of the extra walls and floors taken out to be in the tons and imagine the house breathing a huge bariatric sigh of relief as it sheds the excess pounds. Today, the old sub floor started to come up and we’re eager to right the sag that in some places measures 2-3″ and to not having to ‘climb’ the kitchen floor instead of cross it to get something out of the frig. Although it may sound extreme, it’s not so unexpected. After all, if you think about it, you’d be sagging a bit in the middle too if you were born in 1865.

July 31, 2010

Anticipation

The counter Jeff set up on the blog is counting down the hours, days and minutes until we are the owners of 112. Last night I couldn’t sleep, thinking about all the things to do between now and Tuesday, after Tuesday, and into infinity. Sheep were not an option. The next thing I knew, this TV commercial was going through my head and I had to laugh.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLoyg3JKRQ

We have an ongoing debate, Jeff and I, about what ketchup to have around the house. I buy only organic, he buys only Heinz – me because of pesticides, he because he fancies there’s a family connection. Amazingly, Heinz introduced an organic ketchup, and they now have it in our small urban grocery store, saving us the potential conflict of a dual ketchup household when we move into 112. Jeff takes his ketchup VERY seriously, right up there with not eating Dunkin Donuts because it’s not Donut Pub (he and the kids hold their breath any time they walk by one). He occasionally has mid-life fantasies (unrealized) about getting a tattoo but can’t decide what he wants. How about this one Jeff?

July 19, 2010

Sign ‘O’ Our Times

It’s been 23 years since Prince released Sign ‘O’ the Times - a double sided album featuring multiple musical styles and messages. And, as I walk through our soon to be new neighborhood, that title song rings in my head. It could be something as literal as “the signs” or it could be the urban vibe of his music or just the dated graffiti (note, we cannot play the song in this post because last week Prince announced that the Internet is “completely over”).

So, be that as it may, below are some “signs” of what our neighborhood was, is and could be, a block East over towards the Gowanus Canal (which has it’s own storied history).

The next sign to appear in the ‘nabe? How about “Home Sweet Home”.

(click on the pictures to enlarge)

Dead End Before Canal — Dead end before canal

No Dumping Means No Dumping — No dumping means no dumping

Gowanus Canal Tranquility — Gowanus Canal tranquility

A Tree Does Grow in Brooklyn — A tree grows in Brooklyn

Urban Art — Urban art complete with a plaque

June 24, 2010

Before the After: The During

Everyone loves a good ‘before and after’ story. Entire home improvement networks have sprung up as a result, luring us with the promise of the ‘reveal’ after the commercial break. One thing I’ve always loved about renovating is looking past the ‘before’ and imagining the ‘after’. But the part I especially enjoy is precisely what makes a lot of people squeamish – the DURING. It’s not too surprising the words enduring and during are related; both come from the Latin, indurare, which means to ‘make hard’. Renovating a home is an endurance test to be sure and a guaranteed problem solving challenge. No matter how experienced you are it can be a humbling process. I have to give a lot of credit to my parents – without their renovators blood in me, I wouldn’t be considering such a crazy project, and to Jeff, who seems like a pretty good sort, for taking on the challenge together. At each turn, we keep asking each other, “You still in?” and the answer (so far!) is always, “Yes.”

So for those of you out there who think we’re nuts (and to remind myself I have done this three times before and may survive another and hopefully last one) here are some ‘before & after’ pics of the place I live in now. It’s a five story brownstone in the same neighborhood as our new house and the apartment is on the second floor on what used to be the master bedroom level. The room that is now the kitchen/living room would have originally been the master bedroom for the home, with grand, 12ft ceilings ornamented with plaster cornices. When I bought it, it had last been renovated in the early eighties in a patched together way over an earlier 1960′s job that covered up some 1930′s work that was probably the original conversion from rear bedroom and front sitting room to single floor apartment. First is a picture of the kitchen from when I first bought the apartment.

The next picture is of the bedroom on the left. Look close, and you can see the only way to fit the bed in was up against the wall on one side with the head right next to the radiator. Nice. The kitchen window to the right looked out over an asphalt roof littered with broken bottles. The ceilings are dropped to 8 ft in this photo and the windows are 5 ft tall with bars over them. The overall dimension of the room was 16′ x 16′ with a wall down the middle creating two eight foot wide rooms, the kitchen on the right and the bedroom on the left.

DCF 1.0 — Bedroom Next to Kitchen, Before

The next photos are of the demolition process. This is the part where things can start to get hairy. In this case, when the crew started to tear down the sheetrock on the ceiling, they discovered that a previous job on the 3rd floor had used the three foot space between my ceiling and their floor above to dump all of the demolition debris from their renovation. Hundreds of pounds of extra plaster, wood, old food containers and trash had to be carted away as the ceilings were carefully pulled down.

The entire renovation, including the bathroom, laundry room, two front bedrooms, new hardwood floors, and central air conditioning was completed at a breakneck speed in only six weeks. We had a day crew and in the evening the sheet rock and plaster crew would come. During the last week there were four crews working at once.

Almost done: back of house showing the new window and door

This picture above is a view of the back of the house showing the new window to the left and door to the right that leads out to the new deck built over the kitchen extension of the apartment below. The deck cost $15K and added $70K in value to the apt which goes to show you just how precious outdoor space is in NYC!

So that was the BEFORE & DURING, now for the AFTER.

RearWall — New Back Wall with Terrace View

Living Room (computer nook is to the left)

The two separate rooms in the back are now one open kitchen/living room/office and the formerly eight foot ceilings are now eleven feet and the whole room is open to the Southern exposure and new terrace.

So what are we in for with the new house? Who knows – could be anything. The things we don’t know vastly outnumber the ones we do. Maybe we will find that bag of money in a wall. Perhaps we’ll discover termites outnumber us ten thousand to one. We live in Brownstone Brooklyn – anything is possible.