Week T-8

Starting to feel a little more settled in Willow Street.  The noise of the Brooklyn Bridge is now just dulcet tones - Montague Street is going to feel like being in Vermont :)

Headed over this weekend in between studying for Series 3, Bridal shower and packing for volunteering in Alabama!!!

The schedule - who knows if they will stick to it - but you can but hope

 This shows the old 7C entry door.  Frame now removed as they are going to change the swing of the door.

 New mud sub floor below what will be the kitchen and the hallway to the bathroom - this is for the tiles.

 Looking up at stairs - slim little line is the air con vent for when we have central air

 Sub floor down in the 8th floor bathroom

 New stained glass windows for the master bedroom window - colors not really great, need to work harder at my photography skills :)

 Fireplace showing some of the detail that has been exposed - this is in the new master bedroom

 Door removed from the 8th floor as a brand new one was needed

Hope these make sense broken ankle :)

Mainly ductwork update

So Shorty has read the contractor and architect the riot act!!!  15 Nov we are kicked out of Willow Street and we expect to be back in Montague Street.

Just had site visit and the riot act seems to have worked.

Some photos from last weekend - it has progressed since then, but no more photos:

Looking into the new den, where Shorty hopes to install a 55" TV!!!

 This is the old waste line, you need to have one per apartment, but since we are combining we can remove this for a smoother wall.  Now of course this means additional money - but hey everyone told us double the budget!!!

Looking back into the kitchen - somewhat reminiscent of when we had water damage

  The duct work that hasn't yet been installed

 Looking down into the den - still looking a little bit like a work shop, but I suppose they have to work somewhere

 Waste pipe for the shower - oh how nice would it be to take a shower in here

 Bathroom piping.  Apparently the Department of Buildings is coming in on Thursday to inspect so that we (well the contractors) can put the flooring down and start on the mud sub floor - for water proofing

 Duct work in the man cave - sorry lot's of pictures of the duct work as this is the major movement

 Air vents for when we are lying in our new bed and listening to the oh so silent central air - ahhhhhh

 Couple of pictures of the refurbished stained glass windows - Brian you are magical - what an amazing job…..

 Random picture of a red squirrel feeding off our bird feeder!!!

Time for a moan......

So all good things must come to an end.  Sadly 7D (the apartment next to 7C) is being sold and so we had to move out.  We hummed and hawed various options, Stamford, Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights and decided (maybe against our better judgement) to stay in Brooklyn Heights.

So we opted for an apartment on the 5th floor (4th floor for those of you who start at Ground level versus 1), furnished (hmmm) and a walk-up - yes no lift (elevator for the few Americans who read this blog).  Seemed like a good idea at the time, put everything in storage, live close by to keep an eye on proceedings etc.........

We spent this weekend sorting - things to go to Willow Street (new apt) based on a possibly 2-3 month stay, things to store in basement as may be needed during construction, things to go to storage, things to go to Vermont..... Much wine was needed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Monday comes around, a beautiful day.  The packers arrive early, which is bad news as we can only pick up keys for Willow Street after they had finished packing 7D so could no longer avail ourselves of their help to take our "stuff" up 4 flights (66 stairs up, 66 stairs down).  Shorty very kindly came home early from work to help me out.  I deposited Hippo in the new apartment, did some work (their high speed internet is genuinely high speed) and headed back to Montague Street to meet Shorty.

6 bags/boxes down from Montague Street (in a lift) and into the car - ready to rock and roll.  Well....... that was not going to happen too fast as the Range Rover battery was dead!!!!  Straight into - seriously this is happening mode! Car has 100,000 miles on it and choose today to die.  What to do lah!  This is where having contractors comes in handy - 10 minutes and a nifty little contractor with van and jump cables comes to our rescue - thank you Perfect Renovation and Brian.  Back in business, but now slower as we can't turn the engine off........

Up and down, up and down.... We took in turns, admittedly Shorty carried the heavier stuff, I carried Hippo's beds....  Then it was back to 7D for Shorty to dismantle TV for storage in basement and Nicola to unpack at Willow Street. 

Great views of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, Estelle & Henrik's apartment in Dumbo........ Shower time, all done.... Nope the bathtub that the shower runs into won't drain - marvellous.  Ah well we are filthy so our feet will just have to remain filthy.

Lovely meal at the Wine Bar where we could sit outside, thus making only one up/down trip to eat and walk the dog - Thinking.... Dancing - thank you Lucy for that fabulous phrase.

Can the day get worse - yup - Hippo messed on the sofa!  The aircon kicks in and out all night - when it was quiet the lorries (trucks) on the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) roared by and we are now in a double bed!!!!!

So after not much sleep time to rise to a miserable autumn (fall) morning and low and behold no hot water.......

Tonight we are heading to the theater to not have to think about it all.

Tomorrow an impassioned plea to the contractors to finish asap!!!

If you made it this far through the blog well done and thank you :)

Moving weekend….

So apparently things are moving along, but I have to say I am getting a little disheartened by it all.  Mainly because on Monday we have to move apartments and it is all just a little boring to be honest!!!! So here we are in the city for the weekend to pack, but figured we should also take a few photos so that we could update on progress of sorts!!!

Duct work in the spare room for the AC

Duct work ready for the actual ducting

Proving a little difficult to photograph the master window given the light behind it - it we ever sell I think we will get in professionals to make it look a lot better than I have.

A little bit more detail trying to work with the light

Updated master bedroom - coming along

Duct work down the hallway on the 8th floor

Duct work in the 8th floor bathroom - got to love fussy structural engineers - this tiny room is causing us a few problems…..

This will look a lot nicer when finished off but is the outlet for the AC in the man cave

Kitchen wall - yes this was not supposed to be touched, but I am sure there are no more rooms left which haven't been touched…..  Och well it is what it is.

Stained glass windows coming along nicely.

Newish photos - been probably a week

So we have been on holiday for a week so really no idea what is going on in the apartment.  These pictures are therefore from about a week ago.  The last week has been lovely…..  We drove up to Vermont as usual on a Friday night and decided to have a "posh" dinner at the Marsh Tavern at the Equinox hotel, all very nice.  Saturday was low key, we were supposed to play golf but really woke up and just didn't have the notion.  So popped over to see Estelle and Henrik and return a bowl they had brought a delicious desert over to ours in.  They were on their way out with visitors so didn't stay too long.  Then we headed up to the Stratton Tent Sale - quite a bit there, but was such a glorious day just couldn't get our heads around winter gear, so I just got some new mittens.  Then headed to Norse House (bumped into Kim) and then onto Starting Gate (got an extra $10 off a sweater for Shorty because we were driving a Land Rover!!!).  Oh in the meantime we had lunch and Shorty left his credit card up at Stratton…….  Next stop Bromley to sit on the sun deck enjoying some beers with Jeff and Megan - been ages since we have seem them.

Then we drove up to Quebec City with the roof down, sunglasses on and Hippo in the back.  Quebec City is gorgeous for those who have not been…..   We had an amazing time, but have just realised that really this blog is supposed to be about the apartment.  Brakes on and back to renovating reality!!!

A number of photos below of progress…. Starting with the new electrical sockets - don't look like much do they, but when they are all finished they will be in the logical switching on and off order - ahhhhhhh

This photo is looking down from the 8th floor to the newly exposed 7th floor brick, and yes the window treatment is still surviving - although who knows why and how????

This photo is truing to show the leveling they have had to do to the kitchen floor.  For those of you who recall 7C we used to step up to the kitchen - well this is why - the floor slopes!!!

New leveling leading down to the old 7C bathroom - no longer a step up.

New fuse box - how exciting I hear you say…...

This shows the recessed lights and the framing to make the ceiling straight too…  Oh and the wall you see below with chunks taken out of it - if you look at the plans nothing was being touched here!!!!

The molding for the front window in the master bedroom is coming along in its restoration

 This is the window area that has no window left but looking out onto Brooklyn from the spare room- visitors do not despair we are going to put in a proper window

 This is a view from our bedroom door back down along the hallway

 Our bedroom - coming along nicely

 This will be the fireplace in our master bedroom and they are restoring the mantelpiece.

 Restoration of the mantelpiece

 The old weights from the sash window in our bedroom

 Looking down into the general melee that at some point will become our den.

This tile is for the new bathroom floor in the 8th floor bathroom - again those of you familiar with 7C will know that this is the tile for the shower floor in the 7th floor bathroom

This is showing the tiling for the side walls of the 8th floor bathroom