General Update

We got the bid in for the exposed brick in the hallway and it was pretty reasonable, so the exposed brick stays.

On another note big hugs and kisses to my Mum who is in hospital after breaking her ankle in 3 places.  She had surgery yesterday and they put in 2 plates to stablise and strengthen her ankle and help the healing.  Hopefully Mummy gets home today - she is with the physio at the moment.

PS Axe made it to the Top of the World

And yes that is deliberate so you have that viral song in your head!!!

Safe descent….

Some history on our building

Someone was having an open house today and on their flyer they had some very interesting information about our building:

The Arlington - 1887 - this was the original name of the building - maybe I will add it to our mailing address - or is that just a tad too pretentious!!!

The building is listed on the National Historic Register - no wonder it is costing us so much to do some of the work :)

The building was designed by Montrose Morris.

Was home to playwright Arthur Miller (still unconfirmed whether Marilyn lived here too - but we understand she didn't like Brooklyn too much) and apparently wrote Death of a Salesman here, artist/filmmaker Marie Menken and poet Willard Maas.

So there you go.  We are also having a lot of work done on the facade of the building - going to look fabulous when done, but a bit like our renovations seems to be taking forever.  Thought I would share a couple of pictures of the work that is being done up at the top of the building.

Also check out some others photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4354292722/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4354141388/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4349645030/

The dormer window that is being fixed

Fiber glass replacement

Picture from 1920's

Looking up from promenade - 62 Montague is the turreted building

Bits and bobs from 8C

Pottered around 8C this afternoon taking some more photos of various things that caught my eye and so thought I would share them.

 Lumber delivered for the building structural work

Where the new joist is going to go - check out the crap underneath - wow this is where you realize this is a very old building!!!!

Some finished work - the nicely painted steel beam that has been treated and recovered to protect and last around the window.

Absolutely no idea where this pipe is from, but wow I am glad it is no longer going to be in my apartment!!!

Why is there a piece of cement stuck to this pipe - at least it is now removed!!!

Original electric box - yes to be replaced

And another original electric box!!!

The strange pipe in the middle is an old gas pipe for the gas lighting when this building was lit by gas in the 1800's

Master Bedroom window work

While they have been waiting to start on the building structural work, they have been focusing on the detailed work required on the master bedroom window frame.  So popped in there this weekend to take some photos and show what they are up.

Looks as though they have a staging zone (workshop) in 7C for the window.  Check out the detail of the frames - quite stunning really.  Looking at some of the bits I would say long ago there was a fire in the apartment and this has left a mark on the frame.

The little bits of yellow are the post it notes numbering which bit is which :)

Enjoy the photos.

Shortys Travels…..

Well I thought I should maybe blog about the theme of our blog :)

12 days to go…..  We are off on holiday to Galapagos on a liveaboard (specialised cruise boat for scuba divers - 14 people only and all about the diving).  Cannot wait - possible things to see - hammerheads, Galapagos sharks, penguins, sea lions, blue footed boobys………  Am so excited, so much better than thinking about renovations.

Going to do a bit of a photo shoot tomorrow so will update on the renovations.

Shorty is in Houston race sailing with the boys!!!

Pales into insignificance…...

Well our woes of renovations pale in comparison to following Axe's blog…..  An old mate of ours from Singapore is currently attempting to summit Mount Everest - a link to his blog is on the side of ours - it makes for fascinating reading.  Our thoughts are with him as he finishes his acclimatization and now pushes for summit.  Go Axe…….

Views from 62 Montague Street

The terrible structural work that has been the hold up of everything in the last month!!!!

This white box used to be a window into the next apartment in the D line

The 2*4 were put up because our contractors were a little worried about a structural joist being supported by a door frame, which is not a load bearing wall!!!!!

Old Apartment - Yes 7C….

Facing north - back towards Montague Street - and the enclosed area that is currently housing our fridge, oven etc….  Also note the rescued ceiling and the lost ceiling (old tin ceiling - what a shame).

Looking back towards the old kitchen

Jon trying to get into shot

Exposed brick - Yes or No????

Who is that sexy dude with his coffee on a Saturday morning????

Master bedroom to be

View towards the front window from the hallway.  I know there have been a few pictures of this, but it is a fabulous window and rock on when it has been renovated!!!

The framing from the original window - removed from the window to be restored by hand.  Can't wait to see the end product.

They are pretending to do work!!!  No seriously this is the only thing they have been able to do while we have been waiting for the structural engineer and building management and Board to decide whether or not they would award the work to our contractors or an independent person (who by the way wanted to charge 3 times as much)……..

Better picture of the soon to be (got to keep optimistic) fireplace in our master bedroom.

As I think we have mentioned before our upstairs next door neighbours (8AE) purchased 8B.  Last Saturday when the Board wanted to do walk through we asked to take some pictures in 8B.  Why did they need to do a walk through - good question.  Reason being was to ensure they understood the competing bids properly…….  Didn't really need to as the only independent bid was 3 times as expensive as ours, so really who cares what the work was.

Anyway - check out this window

Board Meeting Update

Whoo hoo…… The Board made a fabulous decision…..  The structural building work has been given to our contractors.  So work starts again - it's only been a month, but who is counting.

Took some photos over the weekend that I will load shortly, although really not a lot to show other than different cuts of previous photos.

Also on another note and more appropriate to the name of our blog, we have 5 weeks before we head off to Galapagos for a live aboard dive trip.  I have to say though that a 5mm wetsuit is not flatering - although maybe it is just that I am a tad over weight……

And Land Rover has secured us a new VIN for the car.

It's been a good week.

N & J xxx