On the flip side

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.

Happy Accidents and Other Progress

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.

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

Furniture shopping/lusting continues...

I want these chairs as the ends of my yet unfound dining room table. I like how they have a little curve where the back mets the seat - much like the couch Ive ordered. In addition to liking the style, they are quite comfy. Problems? They are too damn expensive and they don't come in a gray fabric.

I know Ive seen these chairs in gray silk. Anyone want to tell me where?

Little wonders

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 in some half ass manner 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.

Kitchen Progress Heats Up

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.

And this is what the space looked like during the demolition (this photo is taken from the opposite side of the room) after the wall that made this space two rooms was taken out.


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.


We took a trip this weekend to pick out the stone. Very exciting. The owner was very patient and pulled out various slabs until we found the one that had the veining I wanted without being too busy. Its a Santa Rita soapstone called "Black Venata"

For those wondering why part of the stone is gray and part is black - soapstone is gray green stone that gets darker over time. You can speed up the natural darkening process by oiling the stone with bee's wax or mineral oil. You can also leave it in its natural state and let it get dark on its own. The oil is not a sealer and is only for decorative purposes - soapstone is non-porous, it does not need to be sealed. While its not porous - it is much softer than granite so it develops a "patina" of wear...kind of like what you might see with old marble.

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!

The first furniture order

We've been so busy with other things that I haven't had a whole lot of chance to think of furniture. But its been at the back of my mind since we started oh so many many many months ago - where am I going to sit once this renovation is finally done??

So with just a few more weeks to go before I retake full possession of the house as my home, I figured it was time to get the furniture ordered. I knew it was unlikely I'd find something I liked that was "in stock" so I was looking at 3 months (at least) from the time we ordered.

I went on my first offcial furniture shopping outage last week to get a first look around. I found myself at Domain Home a bit by design, a bit by accident. Never actually figured I would order something but what do you know? We have a couch and two chairs on order!

Its this style

but in this velvet fabric combo called linen and expresso


In a manner very unlike me, I ordered these quite on a whim. I just liked the deco styled lines of the arms, the nice fabric and the fact it came in an appropriately "smaller" scale at 79 inches wide. Its made by McCreary Modern which seems to get some mixed reviews online. Its the same company that manufacters the sofas for Jonathan Adler and Room&Board so I figure its likely the same quality I would have gotten if I had found something I liked at my old favorite Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

I would have loved to do the chairs in the reverse (brown fabric with linen piping) but thanks to this member of our family that would not have been practical.


The saleswoman tells me it will take 14 weeks to arrive. Bummer. So I guess we'll be sitting on boxes for a bit longer than I would have liked.

A little bit weird but this store didn't take a deposit. They just put the order in. Isn't that strange? I hope that doesn't mean they are going to call me at week 13 and tell me they can't make the couch or some weird thing like that. Keep fingers crossed because Im not good at sitting Indian style for long periods of time.

Beneath my feet.

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.


The worst parts were where years of a leaking roof or rusty radiator had warped the boards completely requiring some time consuming replacement using salvage parquet. In other parts there were inexplicable holes in the ground that let you see completely through to the floor below. And that to the rather unattractive corners that were left bare when we had the radiators removed and we had quite a mess underfoot.

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.

The power of paint - part 3

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".

When I first saw it, I was convinced the painters must have made a mistake because it looked weird and dark. Then I realized it wasn't the color but it was the finish. The whole room was painted in semi-gloss. It looked very intuitional because the walls had a "washable with a fire hose" type of look. More importantly, every tiny imperfection was practically glowing b/c of the sheen. The painters realized their mistake and repainted it with the extra "Silver Marlin" paint they had from the tiny room. Its not the color I originally selected but there was no point wasting that extra paint for a tiny shade difference. (The extra semi gloss Beach Glass is what got used in repainting the poo bathroom).


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)

Love how this turned out. Its quite bright but that was the intention. I have a lot of black accents in here so I think its a nice color to pop.

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

The power of paint - part 2

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!

I don't think this photo shows how bad it looked in person but it was legendary. It had to go.

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.

I say po-ta-to, You say po-tat-o

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.

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 little bit unusual but the black will work nicely with the pale grey 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 I'm 100% sure then everyone has to chime in?

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.

Welcome to the boudoir.

I don't generally swoon when I visit the beautiful sprawling suburban homes of our friends - I love living in Brooklyn, I love the character of older homes, suburban life is not for me. But when we were starting this and we were trying to put the best of modern life in the house, we couldn't help but think lustfully of those fabulous master suites with a huge bedroom area, giant walk in closets and en suite bathroom complete with giant soaking tub, separate shower, etc. We knew we couldn't do anything that grand - we simply didn't have the space. That didn't mean we couldn't do some scaled down version of the master suite.

We knew we wanted to take the largest bedroom as our own. The bedroom is hardly huge but by old house standards its pretty spacious. It also has the prettiest features on the top floor - the bay windows and a (non working) fireplace. While drawing up the plans, we had a choice about placement. We could take the larger middle, windowless room that was currently open to our bedroom (but could have been closed off to make a private room) or take the really tiny room next door. If we took the really tiny room next door, we could make better use of that space as a bathroom rather than a room so small its barely a bedroom. But if we did that, we would still have no closets in our room. Ultimately, we decided to sacrifice a normal sized middle room in exchange for both a master bathroom and two smallish but walk in closets.

Here is how the two rooms looke before the renovation got started.


The bedroom room itself stayed mostly the same but needed a lot of clean-up. The ceilings were totally wrecked after years of water damage so that was one of the first things that had to go. After what was left of the ceiling came down, we used that opportunity to add some insulation. The area around the fireplace was in very bad shape and needed a lot of plaster repair. There was an extra door to the teeny tiny room next door. I never quite understood the point of that door but that had to go as well to make more wall space.

The once open space connecting the bedroom to the middle room became a short hallway with a closet on either side and the master bathroom at the end of the hall. Since space was tight in there, we used pocket doors.

For the bathroom, we opted for a shower stall rather than a tub. I originally specified a bench in there but ended up scraping it after feeling the contractors weren't able to do it without it looking somewhat different than I imagined. This left enough room for a double vanity which was much more of a practical luxury for us than a tub ever would be. Having my very own medicine cabinet and vanity to store all my junk seems absolutely like heaven.

This was a totally new bathroom of course so we could have went a lot of ways with the style. We ended up with a look thats a tad more contemporary than the other bathrooms in the house but also has some accents that recall the older style. Honed marble basket weave tile, an exposed shower fixture, inset medicine cabinets and the polished nickel finishes were all a modern twist on old. More in line with todays bath choices are the frameless shower doors (not pictured but in progress), vanity style, skylight and light fixtures.

Its hardly grand or spacious or perfect but its quite a luxury for us to have our very own bathroom. I love how its turned out.

Here are photos of the progress from when the work started in Sept to what it looked like at the end of the year.


Not yet installed are the Elfa closet systems. I'm very excited about the prospect of a beautiful closet even though my wardrobe full of rags is hardly worthy. We were lucky that we ended needing to order them just as they had their 30% off sale. Even so, these aren't really cheap by any stretch of the imagination and they require some effort to get sorted but they are a lot cheaper than California Closets. Whether they are worth the price or they do the job or they look as good in place is yet to be seen. What I can say is that the people at the Container Store are quite helpful, they have quite a few nice options and their delivery fee to Brooklyn is only $35. More to come.

I'll post some semi-finished photos in the next paint color post. Its not quite finished but we're quite close in here. The whole space makes me feel a tiny bit more tranquil and there isn't even a bed in here yet. So I'd say it worked out pretty nicely.

Going underground.

Before I show more of the painting progress, I want to go subterranean and welcome you to the "man room". As you may have noticed, the upper floors aesthetic decisions have been mostly decided by me. But Mr. Limestone needed his own space too so we decided to finish the basement space off to serve as manly rec room, storage space, mechanical and utility rooms. Everything you see here was all his decision. And while I may not have been in total agreement on all of his choices, I've stayed mostly silent (which is a real feat for me) and it has turned out much nicer than I had expected.

The whole house looks so much different than it did when we started, the cellar space is the most transformed. Since there was nothing really to restore, it was the most straightforward floor in the whole house.

Here is what the space looked like on inspection day. Considering the condition of the rest of the house, this space being totally cleaned out and with fairly high ceilings (for an underground space) was a nice bonus.


Once the work got started, the transformation was fairly quick.

The back room was framed off for the mechanicals, a front space was walled off for the utilities, main water, etc. Then sheetrock went up to mark off the storage space. the half bathroom and the "man" space.

Slate tiles got installed in the half bathroom. Ceramic tiles that look sort of like wood went down on the floor.
.
Plywood was added to the back of the existing open stairway. Bathroom fixtures got installed.

Finishing touches and paint completed the job. (BM Metallic Silver on the walls, China White trim, Glossy Black for the Stairs)

Its really the only finished floor right now. We do plan on adding some shelves for storage but I'm going to just go ahead and say mission accomplished down below. (insert manly grunt here)