I’m posting this a month later, but we had a housewarming to distract ourselves from legal and collection irritations; and to thank all of our patient friends, neighbors, and co-workers for listening to renovation-related babble for two years. We managed to fit 40 people in at the height of it!
Pre-party food pix:
Obviously, I harbor an inner Martha-esque hobgoblin when it
comes to food and entertaining.
Add comment April 9th, 2008
The end of 2007 marked some semi-resolutions of the various problems we’d been dealing with, and a huge surge of DIY improvements, motivated in large part by my parents coming to visit for Christmas.
We also navigated small claims court on December 19th, and won a judgement against Paul Martinez of PhaseOut Mechanical Corp, the second electrician we had hired to rectify and complete work left undone by K-Construction. PhaseOut took our deposit and did not do a single thing that we contracted him to do during an 8-week period, including returning our deposit. Since he did not bother showing up in court, the arbitrator said he believed us, and deferred judgement in our favor. Now we have to force him to pay up, which will necessitate hiring a sherif to repossess his car or something of that unsavory nature.
Luke tackled drilling holes in the bathroom tiles. Initially quite intimidating, (drilling through glass tiles? Won’t they shatter, crack, and splinter into pieces?!?!) we looked up a section on drilling holes in apartment therapy, which had a nice step-by-step guide. After practicing on a leftover tile, Luke tackled installing a glass shower door with gusto. He also discovered that periodically putting the hot drill bit in a piece of ice in a shot glass was quite helpful. Then he drilled holes for the toilet paper holder (at long last…the toilet paper consistently in one place instead of migrating to various inaccessible corners–with predictably comic results!) and a multi-pronged hook for bathroom towels.
We continued to divest ourselves of books, clothes, and at long last: the French doors were finally sold to a modern dancer in Williamsburg.
My parents then arrived on the evening of the 23rd. On the morning of the 24th, my father was antsy to get started: he was going to tile our kitchen backsplash for us. We made a quick trip to the hardware store to obtain mastic, and then he set to for about 8 hours, putting up the white ceramic penny round mosaic tiles. He also installed the stainless steel backsplash for the stove, and got the range hood working. He brought a tile cutter with him, and spent a lot of time cutting the penny rounds in half to go around the edges. Since the electrical outlets in the kitchen were poorly placed, he also cut the border tiles down to about two inches high so they would fit correctly. After getting the tile up, I then had my shift in the kitchen preparing Christmas Eve dinner. On Christmas day, the half-cut penny rounds had to be glued in, and the next day, grouting of the backsplash commenced. Luke and I both took turns grouting. And voila! It was done. I just could not get over it. After living with ratty unfinished sheetrock for so long, it was a shock to look over and see it tiled. All in all a most fabulous Christmas present!
The final result, although we still have electrical issues, hence all the wires:
some Christmas pix–my mom checking out the amaryllis 
2 comments January 2nd, 2008
As I suspected, we have to take Paul Martinez of Phase Out Mechanical to small claims court, since he walked off with our deposit without doing any work; and he has refused to return it despite much encouragement to do so. Court date is set: December 19. He’s truly a despicable little crook.
Add comment November 15th, 2007
After living so long without the bulk of our belongings–over a year–it was simultaneously overwhelming, depressing and tiring to get everything back from storage. We determined that financially we needed to stop paying for storage, but now I wonder if my peace of mind is actually worth more than being fiscally prudent! We started out with about 45 boxes–4 high, 5 across, and 2 deep, which we’ve winnowed down to a little less than half, which is still too much STUFF!
So far we’ve donated furniture, books, and clothes and knick-knacks to housing works, I’ve gotten rid of bottles and bottles of hair + beauty products on freecycle, and Luke has taken so many books to the used book store that we have $75 credit there now. And yet, there is still more to cope with…ugh.
Of course the flip side of opening all these boxes of unwanted stuff is that we do see things we want to keep. “Oh, here’s my squid-shaped whisk. Let’s get rid of everything except for that…and here’s the lava rock I picked up at Mons Klint on the seashore in Denmark. I can’t get rid of that. We’ll get rid of everything but the squid-shaped whisk and the lava rock from Mons Klint. Oh, and there’s the exquisite silk obi I got on ebay that came all the way from Japan. Let’s get rid of everything, but I’m going to keep the squid whisk, the lava rock from Mons Klint and the exquisite silk obi….” just like that scene in The Jerk with Steve Martin (as Luke pointed out).
It is appalling how time-consuming it is to sort and discard and stash belongings, and doubly appalling that we lived with all this crap for so long! Furthermore, everything mostly seems really junky in the renovated space. I suppose the good thing is, once we’ve sorted it all out, we’ll be quite vigilant about not allowing our possessions to possess us again!
Add comment November 15th, 2007
Karyn conceived of a beautiful chandelier for our dining room, inspired by similar ones she had seen, and dedicatedly fashioned it at her studio over the past few months. Last week it was ready for hanging and is unquestionably the most beautiful and dramatic element in our entire apartment. K special ordered several different types of branches and chose these ones as most suited to her concept. She laboriously painted them, coated them with resin and applied jewels and crystals to arrive at this stunning suspension evoking coral and the aquatic realms which we love so.
1 comment October 4th, 2007
Phase Out electricians, whom we signed a contract with in August, has spent 8 weeks doing absolutely nothing for our job. They did not get the permit they needed to do work on our apartment, nor did they procure the specified light fixtures. We fired them yesterday, and asked them to return our deposit. It’s unfortunate, because it started off in a very promising manner. I believe we’re going to end up taking them to small claims court to get our deposit back.
1 comment October 3rd, 2007
Kristof Pogorzelski of K-Construction has put a lien on our co-op. Despite their lack of communication, not completing their work, and doing electrical work that is not up to code, they feel they are owed money. We’ve hired a lawyer and we’re in the process of obtaining a bond against the lien. For those intrepid homeowners who are thinking of doing a renovation:
1) Don’t!
2) Insure that you have a lawyer review the contract before signing. Require that the contractor must sign a waiver of lien at each payment.
3) Recognize from the outset however much homework you do; you, as a client of the incredibly unregulated construction industry, will invariably be screwed.
1 comment September 30th, 2007
The post below this one details on-going kitchen issues, but it’s interesting to compare the progress of this room. We built into the airshaft and scooted the whole kitchen over about 10 feet, elongating it to fit against one wall from its previous contorted and inefficient L-shape. We trashed the golden oak cabinets in favor of sleeker and lighter colored ash-veneered ikea cabinets. Cheap and poorly installed terra cotta tiles were replaced with recycled glass terrazzo tiles.
Chipped and water damaged formica counters were replaced with solid-surface silestone counters, enabling us to use an undermount sink for a cleaner look. We purchased a new stove, but kept it smaller so that we could have a cabinet with drawers–which we never had in our old kitchen. K-Construction absconded with the stainless steel panel for the dishwasher, which we kept from the previous kitchen–but now we need to find a new panel.
Add comment August 26th, 2007
(click on thumbnails for larger pix)So, the kitchen. The cabinets and major appliances are in place, the counters installed. We spent some time last weekend installing some of the cabinet hardware. Unfortunately, we cannot install the backsplash until the electrical is completed. To recap, K-construction’s electrical contractor, Belmont, in addition to not completing their work, also did electrical work that was not up to code, forcing us to hire Phase Out electricians. Phase Out has to pull new permits (oh, joy!) with a two-week lead. They also ordered xenon decalume under counter lighting, also with a two-week lead. So right now, we can’t use the dishwasher, for example, because the electrical work was not completed on that circuit. Also MIA are working undercounter lights, and the proper hookup for the microwave.
Less important technically, but infinitely more annoying, is the pink elephant that is the refrigerator. It juts out of its alloted space by 6 inches, looking awful and partially covering a bank of light switches. Dubravka, the architect, appears unwilling to take responsibility for this gaffe. She wants her last payment of $600 to sign off on the job with the DOB, but we contend that it is going to cost us a lot more to address this problem, and imperfectly at that. Her solution was to recess the refrigerator. Now that we don’t have a GC in the game, this creates an unwieldy thornbush. 1) According to the DOB, we’d have to file for another work permit. That alone is enough to make me scream, “Absolutely NOT!” 2) Finding and paying someone to do the work, likely to the tune of $1200+ 3) If the fridge breaks, the space is so specialized that we’ll have wasted money fitting it, and more to refit a new one. (Our current fridge is about 3-4 years old).
We want to go with option #2, which is to purchase a new fridge. But this will still result in some pricked thumbs. 1) a comparable fridge is now $800-1200. 2) We’ll still have to modify the space by removing a cabinet ($150), as no counter-depth fridges on the market will fit in a 64″x30″ space. 3) What a waste of a working refrigerator, and more time and effort spent trying to sell it (we paid about $600, and figure we could get between $200-400 for it). An average net loss of $1350, plus all the research and work trying to rectify it–priceless. Or rather, we think that Dubravka should call it even on the job so that our net loss is not $1950 (adding in her fee of $600) for a mistake that she made.
Add comment August 25th, 2007
When we designed the kitchen, we incorporated an ikea cabinet called the “avsikt”. What we liked about it is the fact that it has a nifty, roll-top door. It seemed to be a useful sort of place to house small appliances. So we got it, it was installed, and I loathed it, because it was too big–hovering just above the faucet in a claustrophobic manner. So although the next size down doesn’t align perfectly with the other cabinetry, I determined that we should purchase that one. We did, and I discovered that I picked the right length, but the wrong width. Another trip to ikea to exchange for the proper size. So then we had the proper size and began to assemble it. (K-construction had assembled the first one).
It turned out to be one of ikea’s more “advanced” put-togethers, but we sweated through about 80% of assembling it in our highly humid apartment, bolstered by many icy-cold hard ciders, and “assistance” from our cats…and discovered that a component was missing. At that point I just wanted to give it up–keep the unwieldy one, return the one we were working on. Especially after Luke called ikea and was hung up on by one csr, and given unsatisfactory options by csr #2 after 15 minute hold times on each call. Since we don’t have a car (we rent or zip), it isn’t easy nor cost-effective for us to get to the store, and they wanted us to un-assemble what we had done for a return. This particular model required that we drill our own holes into the material… and they want us to take it apart? Plus, we had already thrown away all the packaging. And Ikea could not find it within it’s stony corporate bosom to simply mail us the 90 cent component. Still to be resolved….
And finally, Luke’s hilarious interpretation of the Ikea instruction manual:
Add comment August 17th, 2007
