Now We're Cooking With Gas!

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After what seemed like a forever but was actually only 16 weeks, the team is back. Led by Chris Hanley, and flanked by roofers and masons - we are making our usual sound barrier breaking progress.

The saga of the lapsed insurance and the permit and the new DOB requirement to have a construction superintendent onsite, and finally finding one and being reinstated — is all a boring and exhausting story. The important thing is — we're back!

The first thing Chris did was to completely close up the sides of the addition and put on a plywood roof on my terrace. We did have one night of rain - into the new kitchen area, but I was able to stay ahead of it with buckets and a wet vac.

Then the windows and slider went in on the Parlor level:

The area with the new plywood is the dining room and there will be a 10 foot deck beyond that with stairs down to the garden. This was the area I was trying to keep dry during the rainstorm.

The electrician has been here all week and you can see that the electrical has all been pulled and is ready for fixtures.

On a slightly wider shot:

You can see the whole footprint of the kitchen and dining combo. I will have a 14 ft island where the temporary sink is now. This part of the house is seeing our demo tomorrow!  It is the last demo day of the entire project as the temporary kitchen is deconstructed and the old hardwood floors come up to make room for new subfloor and radiant heat. If all goes smoothly, we will have the new hardwood floors in the next two weeks.

In the garden apartment, even though the ceiling heights are not as spectacular the windows are just as dramatic.

Here you are standing in the dining room of the garden apartment and looking into the living room. The tenant will have the 10x14 area under the deck and I plan to plant it with really nice shade plants. The dark grey area is new concrete to level the floor and that will get fresh tile like the rest of the garden apartment starting tomorrow.

My new temporary kitchen is a real kitchen and while it is small,  it has been great fun to have a more functional space to really do some cooking again.

Of course it you pan back - it's like a movie set in the middle of a construction site and I get my fair share of cleaning up everyday, but soon the dust will be done as they get the tile in and the drywall up.

On the wide shot, you see doors and sheetrock and plywood and oodles of boxes of things.

This is a peak at my new terrace and 36" parapet wall. The wall will be covered by brick on the outside and brownstone stucco on the inside with wire cabling across the opening — the top will have a red limestone capper. The roof is a rubber seal and we will put a TREX deck over it to protect it from punctures and wear and tear. 

And to get out to my terrace, I have a big beautiful door.

We are going to need the mason to build in a new upper lintel before we can install the door. Truth be told, we are making it work, because we ordered a door that was much taller than it needed to be — we could have used an 80" door instead of a 96" door — but we are making it work.

One other signal that we are getting close is that we closed up the bedroom window from what had been a door. 

This would have been a window originally like the mirror house next door. Tasteful security escape window is on it's way and entry into the apartment is through the double door arrangement on the left – fist the security door and then the front door. We will be installing the decorative porch lights next week for both. 

The mason is going to have his hands full trying to get the base coat on before winter. It will be grey and we will probably have to live with it on the front of the house, the inside courtyard wall on the stoop and around the inner front door for the winter. Apparently it needs to cure and then in the spring, we can put a Brownstone topcoat on it, so that it all kind of match.

Whew. It has been a whirlwind, but now everything is moving and I have faith that what can be done will be done around Thanksgiving and that will certainly be something to be grateful for.

—Laurie