Kitchen cabinets and Millwork

So the kitchen cabinets and millwork (tall bookcase) are coming along.  Shame the windows aren't in before Hurricane Sandy hits - ah well…… Apologies photos not great, but was night time and am not great at flash photography.

This is looking from what will be the dining room into the kitchen - the old back wall of the kitchen (i.e. not where the diner bench was).  Behind this is the bathroom.  The slit at the top is where the air conditioning will come through

Looking back into the dining room - the floor you can see (tiles covered in protection) would be where you stand while cooking (or where Jon stands!!!!)

Close up of the handles - think we made a pretty good choice to be honest

Standing in the kitchen looking towards the "millwork" - apologies tried to move the orange thing, but just a little too heavy on my own - if you imagine the room behind the bookcase is our old master bedroom

Looking from hallway (almost where the door for the old spare room was) back towards the kitchen.  Where you can see the wall above, behind that is the mysterious man cave

Different angle - if you recall the old apartment I am basically standing just in front of the old entrance to the kitchen looking back into the main part of the apartment - yes a few walls have gone

On the left - not so easy to see - are the new hall cupboards - not yet painted - so looking down hall, probably standing almost at our old master bedroom door looking back

Took this photo standing in the old living room, looking through our old master bedroom and behind the bookcase is the spare room and kitchen

Our old and new living room - what a tip - for those of you who have this on a larger screen, be impressed (Chris & Louise especially) at the plant that still is surviving

Looking up from where the dining room will be, with the bookcase to the left and the washed down brick up above on 8th floor

Week who knows what!!!

Not too much to update.  This week has been about choosing paint colors and I have to confess I am not an expert (neither is Jon) on choosing colors.

The architects have given us 5 samples for the master bedroom window and we are thinking maybe of falling back on white and then giving the master bedroom walls some sort of colour.

Then the main area is going to be a bit of an off white colour - how many shades of off white are there - definitely more than 50!

Met the millworker (carpenter) on Tuesday - charming guy.  Have to say it is very nice actually meeting the guys doing the work, rather than it being totally faceless work.  He is building the 2 story bookcase and the kitchen - both of which are coming along.  Bookcase only hindered by us choosing the wall paint colour.

Other than that Shorty passed his Series 3 (commodities futures trading association exam) - and we keep hearing about it!!!!  But big congratulations to him.

So some pictures - unfortunately I am not great at getting them in focus when the light is funky and we tend to be visiting the apartment in the evenings at the moment.  Hopefully most of the pictures are self-explanatory.

Only other think is that the stair drawings have finally been approved!!!!

Millwork

Very bad photo taken at night with iphone, but the millwork is starting to arrive

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.