UpState Update: Two Floors Nearly Finished!!

We went up to the house yesterday and LO AND BEHOLD! it is a dwelling!!  We might be closer to turning some income out of this monster than I'd been thinking.  (there's been a lot of depressed thinking and check-writing lately.)
Just look at these pix:

 This is the Great Room (that is what we have decided to call the main floor which houses the kitchen, living room, dining room and staircase up to the Master Suite).  The plywood floor is down, the kitchen floor is tiled and all the windows and doors have been trimmed out.  

Take note of that last item: doors.  That door over there on the right is new!  It is the entrance from the entry structure into the upper two floors of the house.  My idea!!  This has the added benefit of trapping heat in the great room and upper floors so that winterizing is cheaper and/or winter renters can just dwell in those upper spaces and skip the chilly bottom.

This is the view from the upper landing in the entry structure (door slides into the wall at left):

And this is the view from inside the Great Room looking toward the landing (door slides into the wall at right):

And here is the view of the inside of the entry structure seen from the upper landing outside the Great Room.  The new thing here is the three big beams you see which intersect just above center (not the ugly 2"x8"s in the foreground in the lower center - those are just safety rails until we get a real railing installed).  These beams replace a bunch of ugly framing elements that would have required sheetrocking over them.  We used 4"x11" rough cut maple beams so, in addition to being big and cool looking, they are a lovely wood.  This is one choice I think definitely improves resale value - good use of local lumber.  We can market that the way folks do: Features Locally grown sustainable hardwoods! YEAH!!

And looky looky!!! Big update in the Master Bath.  The shower glass is installed!!  We finally have a complete shower enclosure!  It is pretty exciting.  We still need the fixtures to be installed, but the glass looks amazing.  The shower is the nicest (and most expensive) room in the house -- way nicer than any bathroom in our place and nicer than any bathroom we expect to have in a house we live in anytime soon (maybe once we rent/sell this place we will be able to afford a nice bathroom of our own).  Note also that the bathroom door has also been installed.

Here is the view of the bathroom door from the Master Bedroom side:

Oh, and finally, the steps have been installed on the back deck.  We are hoping that the inspector does not require us to install railings since it is such a short staircase.

Please don't ask what is left to do.  There is a lot.  Off the top of my head, we still have to do the following: The main staircase from the Great Room to the Master Suite needs to be completely re-built.  The staircases in the entry structure need to be built since the ones we have in there now are just utility staircases for the construction period.  We need all surfaces finished (painted or varnished).  Plumbing fixtures need to be installed.  A lot of electric boxes need to be finished so that fixtures can be hung.  The floors need to be sanded and sealed.  Closet doors are needed in the bedroom.  We need a new hearthstone and we need to tile, stone or otherwise finish the fireplace surround and chimney.  Oh, and did you notice that there is no kitchen in the kitchen (maybe we'll leave this for a buyer? but if we rent it first, we'll have to put in some basic kitchen stuff)? And that is just the stuff I can think of.  So, there is a lot to do.  

Oh, and there is also the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom which has not been touched for over a year and which we are just going to board up and leave for later.  If we're selling, that's less important than if we're renting.  Extra bedrooms is extra rentful magic.

The Door in the Window - Nearly Final Edition

This will be the third post about this one little design element, but I think it is well deserved.

Remember this:

And this:

Well, today they look like this!

INVENTORY: Bathroom Vanity Lights

This is certain to be a boring post.  And I am not sure why I care.  This blog is supposed to be a dialogue with my wife and heaven knows I often bore her much worse than this post ever could.  But still, on the off chance anyone else is reading this, go ahead and change the channel.  And away we go...

We have pretty much every fixture in the master bath figured out now except for the following:

• Towel Bars
• Lights over the sink / Vanity lights
• A chair or stool to set beside the tub to accommodate a baby washer or a dry friend of a tubber - but that is just furniture

This post is concerned with the lights over the sink.  As with most things in this house, the requirements for the lights over the bathroom sink present certain problems. Specifically, although the wall behind the sink is flat (unlike the rest of the house), it is not square - by which I mean, this bathroom is on the top floor and the ceiling/roof slopes down towards the right side of the sink counter.  Therefore, the placement of the light on the right side of the sink is going to be a little cramped by the ceiling dropping down over it.  Look.

It feels pretty cramped on the right side of that space by the wall with your head bumping the ceiling.  And, because of the ceiling the light on the right has will probably have to be placed a little lower on the wall than you might normally install it - and, inevitably, the one on the left will be positioned to match.  The wires you see in the photo are just guesses at light location - they will be moved and boxes will be installed in the final location once we pick out our lighting.

Anyway, there is no dearth of choices when it comes to vanity sconces.  Resto Hardware, West Elm and the rest are positively bursting with them - but obviously, that isn't how we roll (we being me mostly).

Anyway, to the point, last weekend I found a pair of wall sconce lights at BIG NYC in Astoria that I think will probably do the trick... maybe.  Here they are.

What are they?  Urban Archaeology "Loft Light".  They are supposed to have glass cylinders on them.

The pair only came with one glass cylinder - but happily I found that Grand Brass sells matching blown glass "opal" milk glass cylinders for a fraction of UrbArch's price (about 83% less).

Here is what they are supposed to look like:

They were very reasonably priced (do I need to keep saying that about everything I pick up? By now it should be clear that I would not purchase it if it weren't reasonably priced - or, if I did, I would try to justify how much I overpaid).

So, why do I think these will work?  Here is why: most of the sconce lights I like sort of blossom off the wall up and a little out, like they need room to grow.  As a result of the sloping wall/ceiling, a sconce with such ambitions is going to look cramped.  Happily, the design of these sconces with the back plate framing the sconce/light element seems to contain that expansive quality.  The frame creates a finite space in which the fixture lives.  I think this makes sense.

As I think about it further, what would probably make most sense would be an overhead vanity light - something situated horizontally over the center of the sink.  It's never too late I guess.  But, for now, we're going with these (unless something better shows up at BIG).

Inventory: toilet paper holder (why I choose what I choose... sometimes)

I picked up this toilet paper holder at BIG Gowanus yesterday.

If you asked me why I bought it, I think my reasons would be unlike most people's reasons for selecting their roll holder.  I wasn't looking for one. I had already paid for what I was there for. But then there it was with some other hardware and it caught my eye and I picked it up and I knew.

Basically, it is big and incredibly heavy (1lb 14oz) and feels good to touch and hold. From the weight, I could tell it is chrome over solid brass. And the chrome is really thick. And the spring in the spool is unusually strong - so strong that you could knock out a tooth if you accidentally let go while squeezing it to install a new roll.  And those flanges on the sides of the spool... Well, they're just so big and heavy. I bought it because it is really well made and a nice simple look. 

So there it is. I'm a sucker for the overbuilt.
When I got home, just for kicks, I took a stab at finding it on the internet. It has no markings on it at all. But I had a hunch. It took me a total of thirty seconds to find it. It is the Yale Club toilet paper holder from Urban Archaeology. No wonder it weighs so darn much.

Heater Grate Update

The heat source in our master bathroom is an in-wall electric heater with fan mounted on the outside wall between the toilet and the tub - highly visible.  It is controlled by a thermostat on the wall just inside the bathroom door, which explains why there is no knob on the hole in the lower left corner.  

I'd like to say it doesn't matter to me what the grill over the heater looks like, but I care a lot.  And this thing makes me sad, especially since we put down a beautiful marble floor and are installing a claw foot tub with classic brass filler and so forth.  This thing just doesn't go.

But not to worry, I am prepared.  I was at BIG NYC a few weeks ago and I spied a vintage cast iron heat register grill with lovely scrollwork.  It was downright cheap so I bought it figuring I would find a use for it.  Looks like it will have a place in our house much sooner than expected.

I am thinking I will paint it off-white and mount it about a half inch off the wall, just in front of the existing sheet metal heater grate. I don't want to get rid of the existing grate because the holes are smaller and I don't want any little fingers getting in there through the big holes in the scrollwork grate.  Yes, I know that the existing heater grate shows through the scrollwork, but that is just because it is white - I intend to paint it flat black so that (hopefully) it looks empty behind the top grate.

Upstate Update: Master Bath Progress

I went up to the house on Sunday for the first time in over two months (due to certain complications with our new contractor) and there was a lot to see -- almost all of it in the master bathroom.  So, in no particular order...

Remember this lovely vanity/counter/sink combo that I picked up at BIG NYC back in February 2012? Here it is sitting at BIG.

Well, after much back and forth about whether it would fit, it looks like it will finally have a home in our master bathroom!  So exciting!!!  I'm glad I don't have to help carry that massive marble slab up the stairs into the bathroom - it weighs an awful lot.

And look how nicely this tile border I devised for the master bath floor came out.

And here are some panoramae I assembled.  They look wonky, but that is just the panorama software.

UPSTATE UPDATE!! Hallelujah!!

I just received these photos of the master bath from our current (and fourth!) contractor:

Here it is! The first photo of our splendidly tiled shower in the master bath!

Here is a detail of that shampoo and soap cubby you see in the above photo...

... but what you couldn't see is that there is another cubby just for me!!  We have "hers" and "his" cubbies!!  Hooray!!

And here is the fixture wall waiting for some beautiful fixtures to go in.  Exciting!!

GOOD GOLLY!!! WE'RE CLASSY!!

CL-inspired question: How much for very little is too much at any price?

The availability of very fine, ordinarily prohibitively priced bathroom fixtures on CL at impossibly low prices causes this enthusiastic bargain-hunter to ask: How much is too much?

This much?

What you see here are three, wide-spread, three-hole bathroom faucets with hardware, a two-hole gooseneck bathroom faucet, a hand-shower, three light sconces and 6 towel bars.  

That big faucet right in the middle front is almost certain to be the faucet in the master bath. 


All we need now is a kitchen faucet (and walls and floors and ceilings and pipes and wires and, well... everything).  
But seriously, look at these amazing, vintage nickel-plated towel bars!!!

I took all 6 at $25 a pop.  I know that isn't a giveaway price, but see what you get from Home Depot or Lowes for $25 -- IT'S KREEEEPPPPPP!!!  So this was a no-brainer, except that V is going to say, "noooooo!!! we don't need it all!!!" and she will be correct.  So let me explain...


At $35 each, these two brushed nickel sconces from Waterworks (originally $350ish) seemed like an easy solution to either the master bath or guest bath lighting situation.  They would use a clip-on shade (i.e., a shade that clips onto the outside of the bulb).

(and another one just like this one above, but in shiny chrome)

All of this raises a new question: can we get away with mixed metals in the master bath? All the tub hardware is light colored brass.  The shower hardware is all nickel-plated, but that won't show because it is inside the shower and we're probably not going to have a full glass-walled shower. The towel bars are nickel.  The toilet is mercifully free of metal details, although there is a tiny sprig of chromed brass on the flush lever.  It might be odd to put brushed nickel over a brass faucet, so maybe these sconces are better in the guest bath (or on ebay).  The copper bar sink is just folly - folly that will almost certainly find it's way to ebay (but that should pay for the shipping on everything else).


Whatever whatever.  It's all good.  All totaled, the amount I have spent on plumbing fixtures so far is still less than two high quality shower units would have cost (and we have three of those now).  Some of this will inevitably end up on ebay and, maybe just maybe, we can cover the cost of the stuff we keep.


DON'T WORRY, V.  I'M DONE NOW!!!  NO MORE!!!

CL acquisition - Glass Shower Door Hinges

Big morning.  
At 10am I picked up the toilet from the design-build firm uptown.  
Maybe I didn't mention, when I went up to see the toilet (still in boxes, new seat and all), the seller showed me a stack of boxes of Lightolier recessed light fixtures with trim pieces.  They were all brand new and sealed and he was pricing them to give them away.  Since V and I decided a couple weeks ago when we met with the electrician that we will go ahead and install some recessed lighting over the kitchen counter, I bought five of these light fixtures with trim for less than the price of one would cost new.  So I picked those up along with the toilet.  Hooray again for cheap materials on CL.  
Then, I drove out to Westchester to the home of the seller of that shower enclosure from a post or two ago.  It was a fancy home on a mcmansion strewn cul de sac.  Kind of an awful oversized spec-house area.  Just awful.
Turns out the seller had measured wrong and the glass is 3/8", not 1/2".  But that is fine since 3/8" is the standard.  Still, I had decided that the price was too high since all I wanted was the door and not the rest of the enclosure.  After walking through the house and looking at all the awful furniture that she wanted to sell me ("Everything red goes! We're changing the color scheme."), I finally convinced her that I only wanted the shower door and I offered a third of what she had originally asked since it isn't 1/2" and I didn't want the other pieces -- I wasn't just playing her.  I wouldn't have bought it at all if she hadn't come down to my price.  
I spent an hour in her driveway building a wooden frame and support structure to carry it standing on one edge in the back of my car.  
So, now here is the question: the door is set up to be hinged with pivoting hinges on the top and bottom, not a swinging hinge on the back edge.  The bottom hinge is still attached to the door (luckily since it is over $150 new to replace), but sadly the top hinge is missing.  Here's some pix.  Now I have to find the exact right hinge to fit into the space on the door already cut out for that express purpose.


This is the bottom edge of the bottom hinge.

This is the notch/cutout in the top corner of the door where the top hinge clamps on.  Hopefully the replacement hinge won't be too expensive.

cl score / elongated toilets?

[3/29/12 UPDATE: It is ours!]
Seems like the best source for new low-priced plumbing fixtures and lighting and the like is design/build firms that have bought the stuff for jobs and then ended up not using it. 

I found this Waterworks toilet on CL a few weeks ago.  I emailed the seller a few times to ask the price and never heard back.  Then, today, the guy emails me back and says CHEAP! COME GET IT!  It will cost less than the cheapest generic at Home Depot.  So I called him back and we make arrangements for me to pick up and pay and then he starts telling me about the basement they have full of plumbing, construction, lighting and related materials and basically he is just trying to make a few bucks before he gives it away or throws it away.  I told him about BIG NYC and I said I'd hook him up with the folks up there who will certainly come get anything new and useful that he has. 

Anyway, I guess I don't really know the diff between a normal toilet and an "elongated" toilet except that most reviews on the web say they take the same amount of space but the elongated toilet is "more comfortable".  Sounds okay to me. 

I like the look of it.  Kind of old school lines. Mostly, I like that the top lid is flat and has a little lip around it so that anything that gets set on it won't roll off onto the floor. How often do I set stuff on top of a toilet lid? Only when doing repairs in a tenant's bathroom - but on those occasions, there is nothing more irritating than my screwdrivers or whatever rolling off the toilet lid or toilet seat onto the floor. And!! it would be a lovely place for a houseplant.  Right?!