January 20, 2009
We are 5 1/2 weeks away from completion! Still pretty hard to imagine, but Mike and his cavalry have been working like mad―plastering the walls/ceilings and laying new hardwood floors. This photo show the stunning plaster crown in our kitchen, recreated by Kevin Perez. After the jump is the lovely wood floor of the garden level living room.
January 13, 2009
photo by Ryan Benyi
The interior walk-through closet areas of the two 2nd-floor bedrooms were sacred to Kevin and me from the moment we saw them. We chanted the names of the wood species to anyone who would listen: bird's-eye maple cabinets, doors and mantel pieces in the master bedroom and oak in the back bedroom. Their survival through decades of hard and messy use while they were kitchenettes for the boarding house units exalted them even more in our minds. It is miraculous how intact they had managed to remain.
When our architect, Susanne Lyn, told us that our salvaged, cast-iron spiral staircase should be installed by the exterior wall of the house, we were unswayed.
January 12, 2009
I just had to share this photo. Our little one with Mike at a meeting at the house. He loves Mike's voice. Too cute…the baby that is. Just kidding. We think Mike is cute too.
January 12, 2009
Contractor Mike Streaman (left) with wood restorer John Thomas and homeowner Karen Shen at Thomas's art opening
We were able to take a few hours off from choosing paint colors for the house interior to trek into Manhattan and attend the opening of John Thomas's exhibition of paintings at OK Harris gallery in Soho. Mike Streaman took time off from the construction to also attend the show.
John is masterfully refinishing our cherished, original woodwork throughout the house―from the double front doors at the top of the stoop to the bird's-eye maple and oak cabinetry on the 2nd floor to the intricate fretwork in the living room, which he told me he is dying to get his hands on.
January 7, 2009
Thus far in our renovation, we have had three major, hand-wringing decisions between preserving or changing. Here is a recap of the first:
When we first saw the master bathroom, it fulfilled our longing for a romantic, well-lit and -ventilated past, with its ornate tiles, original mirror and huge window. (NYC bathrooms and kitchens rarely have windows.) We knew we had to find a vintage clawfoot tub and place it in its rightful position. Within a month of closing, I found one on Brownstoner's forum, and Kevin―with the more than generous help of our friend Charles―hauled it up the stoop into our front parlor. Our plan was to set it up with a hand-held shower only, for the kids' baths upstairs, and then have Kevin and I trek two flights downstairs to shower in the compact "laundry" bathroom on the garden level.
In October, after Mike Streaman came on board the project as our GC, he immediately vetoed our vintage tub.
January 6, 2009
Hello, everyone! I am Kevin Costello, the other first-time homeowner and blogger. I am very excited to be a part of a show that I've watched since I was a kid.
Welcome to our home! It doesn’t look much like a home yet, but all the work Mike, Vinnie, Randy and Eric are doing is starting to come together so quickly that every day there are drastic changes. There is so much to catch up on; over the coming weeks, I will randomly pick areas to talk about.
One of the first things is the complete transformation of the back of the house.
January 5, 2009
Kevin and I joined Mike (Streaman, our contractor, in photo 2nd from left) and his crew at the house for an early New Year's Eve celebration. It was nice to spend some time with the guys over homemade cookies.
Mike proudly showed us the first newly skim-coated plaster wall in the house, in one of the bedrooms on the 3rd floor. The perfection and meticulous smoothness of Mike's walls, which we had long admired in our friends' renovated brownstone, was one of the many things that attracted us to Mike.
We also enjoyed our first viewing of the newly installed wainscoting in the main vestibule…
December 29, 2008
Happy Holidays to everyone! I am Karen Shen, first-time house-owner, renovator and blogger. It's hard for me to believe that we are already past the half-way mark in our super-accelerated, 4 1/2 month renovation. Kevin and I are still in shock that our house was chosen to be on TOH! We are honored that ours will be the show's first NYC project in its 30-year history and hope it will set a positive precedent for more TOH NYC projects in the future (and bring some good buzz to Brooklyn!)
So far, the whole experience has been pretty overwhelming, but totally thrilling, full of surprises and, we know in the end, worthwhile...
November 24, 2008
When This Old House leaves Boston to go on the road, we rely on our local contractors for a LOT – they have to do high-quality work that we can get behind both on and off the show, they must be able to move heaven and earth to meet immovable (and sometimes seemingly impossible) deadlines, and they must agree to work under the microscope of this multi-media experience – live 24-hour webcams, visits from the press, photos and interviews for This Old House magazine, not to mention the presence of a national TV show with millions of viewers.
November 20, 2008
Perhaps surprisingly, in nearly 30 years of This Old House, we had yet to renovate in New York City. So last Spring we put out a call for entries, and received hundreds of proposals from all five boroughs… but we heard overwhelmingly (over 1/4th of all submissions!) from renovation-obsessed Brooklyn. So here we are.
We’ve been talking with our new homeowners there, Karen Shen and Kevin Costello, on and off since July, but there was a lot to finalize and to line up, so work did not begin until early October. And if you’ve been watching the webcams lately, you can see that work there is flying – with most of the demo done, and new framing largely complete.
Expand your knowledge about topics covered in the print edition of This Old House.
