The tide turns

We have finally passed the midway point and we can see the light at the end, although sometimes we have to squint to see it. I haven't posted in about a month because the job has been in that stage where there isn't much visible progress. The wiring is done and the wallboard is up. So now the taping and spackling drags on. I have been telling Steve for the last 3 weeks that we have 6 more weeks to go. I think he is catching on.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that we have spent the last month skipping happily along. It has been filled with drama. We applied for building permission and got city approval to take 3' of dead end hallway space to locate a window onto the light well. Not everyone is happy about that. Oy!

One of the bright spots has been our trips to the millworker's shop in Brooklyn (yes we do travel across the river.) They have done a beautiful job with the walnut kitchen cabinets. This is one of the island cabinets that will be set in a stainless steel frame.And 5 coats of linseed oil later... Ira is very excited.

Eau et gas à tous les étages

So, why the long silence? Well the project is in the middle phase. During this portion progress appears slowly (and doesn't photograph well). The plumbing and electrical lines were being run in the walls. Sprinkler lines were relocated and new heads installed. A new electrical panel went in. Basically all the guts (or "roughing") is going on. 

The tub and toilet carriers (wall mounted w.c.s) were installed. All the fixture controls are located and valves installed.

We had to box out and insulate the risers in the entry; a decision we made after hearing the rush of water with each flush from upstairs.

We made a couple last minute calls to leave "fragments" of the old stuff visible.
Steve's pride and joy, water and gas (for the grill) on the terrace.
The connection between the rooms made visible by the long rays of light. That's the ticket.

Space takes shape

It was a good week. In the blink of an eye, the spaces start to take shape. The framing has been going up quickly, followed by some of the gypsum board (sheetrock) on one side, so plumbing and electrical work can be done on the opposite side. 

Romy and his crew, Hanson and Jacquie Chan (even Romy doesn't know his real name), completed all the plumbing connections in the ceiling of the floor below us. Some of this is really trial and error. The water supply line turned out not to have any water in it and one wet core drilling of the slab found some live, buried electrical conduits. Romy made his way around all of these obstacles. This is some of the joy of working in an old building. 

This is the view from the living room toward the bath/closet volume, sleeping area on the left. Eventually a sliding door will close off the sleeping space.

As the contractors patched up the holes they made in the apartment below, Steve and I did more demolition for our downstairs neighbor. She comes back this Tuesday, and will hopefully be happy with the progress in her place. Next week, I will post some of the drawings of the place.

When demolition becomes construction

Here is a sample from the week before last of the finished concrete floor. Just a tease.

The anxiety about finishing the disruptive work in our downstairs neighbor's apartment while she is away escalated this week. After a couple days it became clear that was not going to happen. So i took it upon myself to get things going. The difference between a contractor's job and mine was drilled in this week. While the buzz of power and yelling at workmen is strong, so is the headache.

After a probe in the W/D closet below, that required breaking through a plaster and lathe wall (translation: an inch or two of dust), Romy wanted the entire wall broken down. That happened the next day and Wednesday he chopped a hole in the concrete slab floor. He also core drilled holes in the locations where the pipes were to be moved (above). If you look closely at this shot below, you can see Romy downstairs.
By the end of the week the waste and vent lines were in their new locations. There is a building wide water shut off scheduled for Monday. So, Romy plans on taking advantage of that to reroute the water supply line. The gas line rerouting will require that the entire building's gas supply be shut off, then Romy must go to every unit to restart any pilot lights (44 units). The management is trying to get keys to all units to do this, but until then we wait....
While Romy has been focusing on the new kitchen area, Joseph's men have chalked the wall locations and started framing the bathrooms and closets. Steve is mourning the loss of open space. Hey, it's my job. 
As the diplomatic relations with Katie, in the apartment below us, continue, we learned that she may stay away another week. Great news since Romy is far from finished. Katie has a friend staying at her place who has been very patient (she had absolutely no idea what she signed up for when when she agreed to stay there). In return for all of this mess, we agreed to do some work in Katie's apartment. So, Saturday we found ourselves back at demolition work taking down some of the wall in her place. Trying to do that while someone is living there makes you acutely aware of the extent of dust caused by removing just one piece of sheetrock. Micromanaging this job has left me completely exhausted. I sooo need a vacation!

It takes a building

The carting crew showed up a few hours later than scheduled last Monday. I'm going to have to get used to "Contractor's Time." Two days work turned to three and that bumped the concrete guy back two days. Then the concrete guy went from "we can knock it out in a day" to "this will take four days." I will also have to get used to contractor's warped sense of reality. 

Once the debris was removed, the space is amazing. All the goals and challenges of the design are laid out at once. Plumbing lines where they were not supposed to be and views that were planned but only imagined suddenly show up.

The carting guys took away two and a half truck loads of debris (to be sorted and recycled, or so they said.) No containers, just bags and garbage cans. They plugged in our discarded Roomba for extra help; like sending a vacuum cleaner to tackle the Fresh Kill landfill. The hallway had a thick covering of dust that was quickly tracked through the building. The wall pads on the new freight elevator showed up a day after the carting started and quickly looked dilapidated. I prayed for the mercy of all my neighbors. Fortunately, I live in a building where most people have a high threshold for pain.

At the end of the week, the front door had been moved. Open a new door, like Auntie Mame says (or an old door relocated). The last picture shows the view from the new location.

Housing is starting to be an issue. With the hovel beginning to make us depressed, we were saved by our upstairs neighbors who are allowing us to stay at their place while they are away for the week. The catch was that they don't want the dog to stay there. So Veronique, our Rocco-lovin neighbor, is graciously dog-sitting. 

Late Friday afternoon, I spoke with our downstairs neighbor, Katie. She is allowing us to do some of the plumbing work in the ceiling of her apartment. I was coordinating doing a probe in her wall for Monday when she told me that she left town because she couldn't take the noise, and wanted to go to Mexico while the work in her place occurred. The demolition and concrete sanding are really loud, especially in her unit. And the work required in her unit might be messy. I frantically called the contractor to schedule this work. Just the thing everyone wants to hear on a Friday afternoon.

It really takes the cooperation of an entire building to do renovation work on an apartment in New York!

Demolitious

The best thing about demolition is the feeling of exhaustion and washing it away with beer at the end of the day (construction hours, so 4pm of course). Steve and I spent this past Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday getting our sawzall on. We made pretty good progress, with the help of Andrea, Geoff and Cheryl this weekend. I would say we downed about 90% of what needed to come down, pretty much everything below 8'. Rick Naughtin didn't show to do the work above that (and tried to ignore us on the street afterward).

Romy turned off the water and electricity on Monday, leaving us with some utility lights and outlets. We started with the back closet and worked our way forward. There were a few surprises along the way, to be expected. We grew very fond of the sledgehammer that Nina lent us. Andrea was a total Amazon with it. She took down her bedroom walls in no time (my former office.) She also kept us hopped up on coffee to make it through the day. Steve was an animal with the sledgehammer. He took down the storage room walls, made of terra cotta block with plaster, and the 5'-8' swath of the block wall at the front room. 

The part about my job that i love the most is seeing the transformation of space. One of the main objectives for me was to connect the two arms of the space and allow for a more panoramic view. Those ideas were slowly visible as the walls came down. I can't wait for the carting crew to remove all the debris tomorrow so we can get a good look at the whole space!

Teaching an old dog new tricks

This last weekend felt like the official start of our renovation. We packed up and moved on Saturday to what will be our our hovel for the next few months. On Sunday we moved the rest of the stuff to a storage facility. The sublet is a studio about 200 sq. ft. The wobbly bed that came with the place just fits. Rocco is having a hard time because he can't figure out how to jump off the bed since there is so little floor space around it. He has to back out when he walks around it because he can't turn around. Steve has been busy chasing out our roomates (little furry creatures and six legged ones) and dowsing the place with cleaner. Makes me think fondly of my East Village days. Act Up! Fight Back! Aww, the revolution.

Sunday was exhausting but, thanks to Guido at Manhattan Mini Storage, we made a last minute switch and fit everything into an 640 cubic foot storage room over at 29th and 11th. If you ever need storage, go to Guido! As a big thank you, i'm trying to hook him up on some dates. 

Let the demolition begin!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

After three years of living in our loft and endless hours, days, months of discussing our renovation, we are starting! Technically, we are still in warm-up because we haven't signed a contract yet with our contractors. We move out next week into a tiny, tiny studio sublet. And we have started to pack up. But that hasn't prevented us from starting demolition. 

When the preliminary numbers started coming in we had to make cuts in order to make this work. So we decided to take matters into our own hands. We have started doing the demolition ourselves. To begin with, we have been taking up the wood floors.

The plan is to grind down the concrete floors for the new space. Once all the paint is off of them, they are a beautiful dark sand color. With the help of Steve's co-worker Geoff (a verifiable demo animal) we raised all the flooring and subfloor. It now leans against the North wall of the apartment in 4' x 8' sheets.

I will fill you in on the trials and tribulations as well as the design details during the course of this blog. I will also post plans and photos of materials along with progress shots. 

BEFORE:

TODAY: