back of the house is done

the crew finished up work this past week, and the back is done! we like it. the bottom pic is included as a reference of what the back used to look like.

painting

a new coat of tharacoat; a stucco/cement type paint. the crew also chipped and ground off the old paint on the fire escape and repainted it.

work on the back

here's what the house looked like with the work crew's homemade scaffolding system in place. they replaced the asphalt shingles on the top level, fixing some leaks, and repaired and repainted the cornices and moulding (at the top). they also repaired some brick/mortar issues, and then repainted the whole house.

these are the new shingles that went up.

new concrete

concrete has been jack-hammerd out and re-poured in the courtyard in front of our house and our sidewalk. check out the tree ring/square ready for a new tree!

you can see a little bit of the new cellar door too. the old one literally fell apart from rusting. one of the next things on the list is to paint the bottom door under the stoop and to replace the main door to the house. then put up a light.

front o' the house.

here's some pictures of the outside front of the house, 90% done. new "slate" shingles on the top, brownstone completed, new rain spouts, brickwork done, and cornice completed.

looking up

at the cornice, which has been primered.

outside work

Here's more pics of the outside work. Our house is shrouded with a dust cloth, giving it a decidely funereal quality, except for the blue tarp on top...

Second pic shows some brownstone color samples that the crew put down for us to look at. Last pic shows some of the detail work that they did recreating the original design.

grout and cornice

Here's some pics with the new grout that has been installed between the bricks. Looks really good.







And pics of the cornice repair, where they've matched the old moldings with new.


Some of the bigger curved pieces they made by hand from an 8"x8" treated post in our back yard. Kind of neat to see the guys carving the curve with chisels.

Repointing and repair to the front

For reference, the first two are a couple of pics of the house, from 2007 when we bought it. We decided a few months ago to start contacting contractors and price out repairing the brick and brownstone, the concrete courtyard, and our sidewalk. After getting a recommendation from a neighbor, we found a great guy who started right away.

The bottom two pics show brickwork; they've removed all of the old grout from between the bricks and cleaned the paint off of the outside of the brick. They've also ground/chipped down the brownstone around the windows and doors, and are prepairing it for a base coat.



































The cornice can be seen in the bottom picture (looking up). They have stripped the old paint from it and are replacing rotted and missing pieces. They are having the moldings cut to match.

laundry room counter

These are from 01/10, and show the installation of the cabinet/countertop configuration of the laundry room. We went back and forth on whether to tile this, and ultimately decided to go with cabinet-grade plywood and some polyurethane, with the idea that if we didn't like it, we could tile it later. First pic shows the countertop upside down with the cutouts for the toilet and the back door.

Here's the countertop on and the hinged lid above the toilet installed.

Here's the sink installed and cabinet doors.

This is what it looks like when you open up the hidden super-secret toilet compartment. The idea being that when there are events in the backyard, this toilet can be used instead of going all the way up to the third or fourth floors. There will be a blind on the back door window, and a sliding door/screen on the other side of the washer/dryer for privacy.

blog neglecter

dear blog, I'm really sorry for neglecting you for so long. I thought about you, but...it just didn't feel right. It's not you, it's me.
The last post was almost a year and a half ago. Since then, it's safe to say that the interior of all three apartments are pretty much done, and work has slowed waaaay down. What work we have done has been here and there, small projects, and a focus on getting the laundry room up and running. Below are two pics from 11/09 that show the washer and dryer installed, and the toilet. There already was a hookup for the toilet, so we decided to put one back in to be hidden under the countertop that we are installing.

this view shows the toilet, the sink base, and the back door of the house.

painting the fourth floor

painting has come to represent the near-end of any given project. notice the smiles. everybody is happy to be at this point. and the apartment is really starting to feel good, and come together.

this is the new wall, with one of the two french doors hung. you can't see it very well, but on the left side of the picture you can make out a

frosted window we hung, to let a little more light in from the bedroom window to the rest of the apartment.

fireplace discovery and cool light.

so, while replacing/tearing out the old baseboard, i accidentally broke the cover that someone had fashioned before we came along. after some on the spot deciding, the fisher's decided to go ahead an uncover it. it's pretty neat, and has potential to become a nice feature with a little tlc.

and here's the new dining light the fisher's installed above their table.

4th floor mayhem

we just came through a big push on the fourth floor. here's some pics that capture the general feeling of those weeks. most of the fisher's apartment was piled in their kitchen area so we could refinish some parts of the floor that hadn't been done earlier.