Our new electrician, Paulie of Phase Out, showed incredible professionalism during our meeting on Saturday. He’s actually an electrician we used before the renovation–and we wish we had insisted that K-construction use him as a subcontractor for our renovation. He came to our meeting equipped with a laptop, and managed to squeeze in a mini-consultation with a plumber friend about a garbage disposal issue by taking digital photos and emailing them on the spot while on his cell. He was able to re-do our estimate in our presence, and we were able to print out the revised contract immediately, sign it and send him off with a deposit.
Our friend Linda recommended White Box Builders to do the ceiling cabinetry in the hallway, and we signed a contract with Matt, as well. I am still feeling quite conflicted about the veneer issue, however. Luke told me that I was making him insane with my neurosis about it. It’s just that it’s a significant volume (a box about 3′x25′) in our home, and expensive, and I would hate to make a mistake about the type of wood used. At this point, I wonder if we should just use the least expensive option available, and have lower expectations about how it should look. (Not from the point of view of the carpentry, just the look of the veneer itself). (more…)
August 13th, 2007
We were out of town for a couple of weeks, and it was such a relief to be so immersed in other activities that we did not give the renovation more than a passing thought; but this morning an electrical inspector from the city came to check the work that was done so far by K-Construction’s electrician, Belmont. He found some problems. Lights were not supposed to share circuits with outlets, for example. We have another electrician who we are scheduling to fix all of the problems and finish the work. Hopefully, he’ll be able to do the job at the end of next week.
We were also recommended a cabinet-maker who is hopefully going to do the closet fittings and the ceiling core.
July 31st, 2007
As of today, the kitchen counter, sink, and faucets were installed, and we now have a functional kitchen!!! There are still some issues, both aesthetic and technical still to be addressed, but we can close up our temporary kitchen in favor of the real deal. We have new bids in to finish the rest of the work needed. The living room and bedroom are now partially furnished (and we are woefully aware of how shabby all of our old stuff looks in the new space, alas…), and K-construction picked up the last of their items, like a ladder, a shop vac, and other assorted belongings. Perhaps by the end of August we’ll be completely sorted out and finished, a mere year after the process started!!!!!! (And that is not counting the planning stage, which was a good, solid, 2-year ordeal.)
July 18th, 2007
A couple of weekends ago, we walked from Brooklyn Heights to Lowe’s at 2nd Avenue near the Gowanus Canal to see if we could get white penny-round mosaic tile. The kitchen backsplash, at long last, finally decided upon. At this point, the decision-making was very simple: it really just boiled down to expenses; and these tiles, while economical are charming and classic and a little less boring than white subway tiles. As it turns out, Lowe’s did not have the tiles, but I got some great pictures of the canal. A strangely peaceful co-existence of industrial and natural elements, although it made me wish for the day when the Gowanus is cleaned of its pollutants.
July 11th, 2007
Last night was kind of horrible. Not only did we have to inform K-Construction that their contract was terminated; but we also had to confront the downstairs neighbor with the fact that we are not going to repair her deteriorating apartment, since our renovation work had a negligible impact on her already-decaying abode.
We met with Kristof last Thursday, and Luke went over point-by-point all the work that needed to be done, and made up a schedule for meeting deadlines. Then we gave him a new contract that stated that he needed to meet the deadlines for completion or incur financial penalties. We have not heard a word from him, so we called him last night to tell him that the contract is over. Meanwhile, we are scheduling a plumber, electrician, and woodworker to complete the work. Work by K-Construction for the month of June had trickled down to one worker coming over for about one hour once a week. We found this unacceptable, and did not want to continue in this manner. The bathroom is STILL incomplete–two pieces of mirror were not installed, nor the saddle grouted, nor the tile trim grouted at the top, nor two sets of hooks installed. It’s probably at most about a day’s work for two men, but it didn’t happen.
(more…)
July 10th, 2007
A sunny corner in the apartment. Finally, some images, now that we have our own internet connection back (instead of piggybacking) I can post some pictures.
I’m excited about an idea I had for the closet core, which was instead of drywalling its ceiling, to install translucent plastic panels in its ceiling, so that natural light would make the contents more readily visible. The inspiration was a moving truck, with a corrugated plastic roof. So, it ended up working out quite nicely, as thumbnails (click for larger images) show below:
Philo certainly agrees, we can’t keep him out of there.
July 7th, 2007
Must say something positive, despite kitchen, bathroom, electrical, and ceiling storage STILL being incomplete, instead of spiraling into insanity and extreme negativism towards K-construction for continuing to delay our job as if they were a slug-sloth hybrid rather than human beings.
So, the good thing is, we’ve not turned on the air conditioning at all this summer. True, it has not been an inordinately steamy summer thus far, but nevertheless; with the new windows, we have excellent cross breezes, and the few days that it has been very hot, it’s been cooler inside the apartment than outdoors. The second benefit of the windows is the light. I haven’t looked at the electric bill yet, but we do not have to turn on lights during the day at all (it was a necessity before, if one wished to use the kitchen) and can forego them until 8pm-ish (which will obviously change in the winter). We’ve also discovered, with clever arrangements of mirrors and interior windows at the top two foot perimeter of the bathroom walls, that the two tiny lights we have in the bathroom have expanded lumens due to all the reflected light.
July 3rd, 2007
We had decided to go with a Silestone counter, and the process to approve it and get it installed has been excruciating. We placed our initial order on May 23. It took them 11 business days to visit to make the template (June 6), then another 4 business days (June 12) to email the approval form. They caused consternation by saying that we did not have enough clearance to properly install the counter –which we then had to discuss with Dubravka. We returned their form on June 18, and I called them on June 20 with queries about when we could expect an install. Richard, of E-counters told me, possibly the first week of July, but he would not commit to a firm date. I called again on May 28, and was told I would get a call back on the 29th.
I then called Selective Surfaces, the actual vendor of Silestone in our area, Selective Surfaces, and was given a date of July 17! WTF? The rep, who identified himself as “Jonathan” said that the material wasn’t up to standard, so they were going to re-order it. I got off the phone with him, and then another Selective Surfaces rep called me with the same information. I told her that “Jonathan” and I had spoken about it already. She said there was no one at the company named Jonathan, I must have meant Joshua, and for no apparent reason, patched me in to Jona-shua or whatever his name is.
The whole tenor of our experience with this company has been most unsatisfactory. Firstly, they–Selective Surfaces–hides behind “E-counters.com”, and secondly, all of our verbal communication has been fraught with rudeness and flippancy from the various reps. They basically called Luke a liar when we were trying to arrange the initial template visit; and they were very condescending towards me and quite annoyingly, unable to pinpoint an install date two weeks after we approved the form for fabrication. They completely disregarded the fact that we’d need lead time to arrange for a plumber to finish the sink install (we had already told K-Construction to have the plumber ready to work on the second week of July based on the vague initial install estimate), and defended their employee giving me a wrong name. (the same guy, I must point out, who was incredibly rude to Luke initially.)
E-counters.com states that installs are 2-4 weeks. This will be 9 weeks.
So, we are without a kitchen until Mid-August, it looks like, now, since we’ll be out of town for two weeks, and no work can happen while we’re away. This is one of those times when we berate ourselves for being so stupid as to have embarked on such a folly.
June 29th, 2007
My visit to the veneer showroom was reminiscent of the errands I used to run for Nile, Inc, the architectural design firm which employed me in my first real job in NYC. Terese would send me to obscure showrooms, old-world and passionate in their highly crafted trades, more as a field trip or treat rather than utilizing my services as a beleaguered peon as some firms would have been wont to do. Anyway, the library-like lofty top floor windowed space on Fifth Avenue and 28th Street had hundreds of specialized brown metal drawers at counter height, about 10-15 feet long and 1-4 feet wide, fitting thousands of sheets of papery veneers. I immediately saw the one that we would like to use, an English Fiddleback Sycamore, see representative picture above.
Unfortunately, it was not such a simple endeavor to say, “Oh yes, that one, please, just put it on my card.” First of all, the representative, Dan, was frankly appalled that I was not accompanied by an architect nor contractor. “They just sent you out into the world by yourself?” Secondly, the job was much too small for them, as their minimum order is 1000 square feet (we need only about 200 square feet). Dan was kind enough to look over the plans and answer some of my questions and give me contacts for some other people who might be able to provide the veneer/do the work for us. Altogether, he spent 45 minutes assisting me although we won’t be able to give him business. Ah, the kindness of strangers…
But, this does not resolve nor come close to resolving our dilemma of building the ceiling storage, as it is apparently not just a matter of selecting a veneer, but also insuring that it is properly engineered and built. It was Dan’s opinion that the plans I showed him were not sufficiently detailed to prevent a fiasco in the making; although I took his opinion with a grain of salt, since his trade is clearly high-end, and we are decidedly not, with our ikea kitchen, et al. (Although he claimed to have an ikea kitchen, too, I thought that was more politeness than actual truth).
June 20th, 2007
After last week’s fallow, this week is starting to ramp up. The hallway ceiling storage cabinet is at long last being addressed–I finally have an appointment to look at veneers tomorrow morning; and K-Construction is also going to finish up the bathroom this week.
We’ve only seen a few samples of veneer, which have proved to be unacceptable, mainly for color reasons–too dark to serve well as a large volume overhead. Dubravka suggested looking into sycamore, which is a very white wood, and it does seem that it comes in variations like fiddleback and crotch that have interesting patterns, too. I suppose I envision the ceiling storage as looking, rather whimsically, like a puffy white cloud contained in a box overhead. Once we choose a veneer and have the ceiling cabinets fabricated and installed, we can then recall the pods with all of our belongings and properly move back in! Although, after living without our stuff for 8 months, we will probably decide to sell about half of it off…
June 19th, 2007
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