Dog days of summer

Things have been very quiet here on the blog. This usually means that life is getting in the way of house projects – and while this has been the case for the past several months, we are coming back full tilt. Prepping for a massive project this weekend, one that we have been meaning to […]

Unabridged to-do list

Making lists is comforting. They provide the illusion of control; a sense of order and the hopefulness that things will get done. I love making lists. I find it is calming. Lists turn chaos into manageable orderly pieces. Lists calm me down. Lists give me hope. Yes, I make lists. Many lists.

Unfinished projects – a visual guide of procrastination

Starting a project is always fun. The excitement of change, the endless possibilities… which end up simply turning into endless projects. Yep, we have a few of those.

Old houses & old house friends

Not that long ago, I had the chance to contribute my 2 cents to an article about the historic row houses of Bed Stuy (and the wholesale modernization that is landing irreplaceable woodwork into dumpsters). You can read it here.

NEDS is closing (for real this time)

You know that feeling when one of the items of your bucket list is soon to be no-more? By now you probably figured out that architectural salvage is my kryptonite. I suppose I came by honestly, a child of parents who built a house with lots of old parts and who still have unused stained […]

TBT: The original sink

In what I rank as the biggest salvage find thus far, we managed to get our hands on the original sink to our house. Finding good stuff can be summarized into two steps: being at the right place at the right time, and not being afraid to ask: can I have that?

And then it was March

It’s been a strange winter, and with this week warm-up, it’s time to take stock of the back yard. Every year, it gets a bandaid and a promise that a full redo is in sight. This year, we’re making it happen. (or so we tell ourselves).

Oh the things you will find.

Old houses are full of surprises. Busted pipes, wonky electrical wiring… but once is a while you find some odd things hidden in the walls, under the floor boards, or buried in the back yard. Unfortunately, our dream of finding a wad of cash has yet to come true. We have, however found this:

TBT: House Plans

I always wanted to pull the original architectural drawings for our house, a task that requires equal parts patience and luck. New York City often notes the building date of 19th century structures as 1899, a year that is essentially random. I’ve been told that this is because there was a fire, and records were […]

Kitchen Floor Band Aid

Our 1895-ish brownstone was originally designed as a 2-family house. The rental apartment was on the top floor, with an owner’s duplex occupying the garden and parlor floors. But you knew that already. This arrangement has always seemed weird to me, because it means that the most ornate floor of the house, the parlor with […]