Contractor meeting...

Well went well and not so well.  Now that the opening is open they have laid out positioning for the framing where the walls will go.  Sounds good….  But this has meant redesign - first off some of the walls have to move as otherwise we have to cut through joists to get the duct work in position.  Not so bad…..  But the down side is that in the man cave and the bathroom because of the slope there is a chance that the ceilings may be very low.  Working with the architects to get the ceilings as high as we can, which will probably result in slopey rooms…..  No casters on Jon's chairs in his man cave.

So there is the update.  No pictures as not sure there is much more to show.

Galapagos pictures to follow.

Back from holidays thinking no progress, but…...

Check this out - the opening has been opened, so a couple of views that probably speak for themselves…..
PS - this is not the staircase that we are building, but one for the builders….

Galapagos

Wow we are home after a most amazing trip. Sadly my ears a little rubbish so taking it easy today, but it was all worth it.
What did we see, where do I start...…
Sea lions
More dolphins than I think I have ever seen in my life, including some in the water while we were diving...
Flounder
Blue footed Booby
Frigate birds with their red wattles puffed up!!!
Hammerhead schooling sharks
Galapagos sharks
Silky sharks
Schooling barracuda
Turtles
Marine and land iguana
Darwin finches Vampire finches drinking blood from frigates
White tip and black tip sharks
Flightless cormorant
Penguins
Shit loads of fish and current
Mola Mola
Red lipped bat fish
Scorpion fish
Marble rays with stumpy tails
Eagle rays
And............... 7 sightings of Whale Sharks...... They were amazing and a little scary as they are huge and don't really care where you are...... Pictures and video to follow.

Other news - my Mum is now in a cast and a little more comfortable but bored and frustrated.

The apartment is progressing.

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