Some more interactive fun from Public Radio’s Sustainability series. (Are you doing Tess’ challenge?) Ouch….we didn’t do as well as we thought we would’ve. How’s your score?
Posts from September 2007
Dream Homes: Wing’s Castle, Millbrook, NY
I visit Wings Castle whenever I’m in the area because it’s an inspiration to any DIY fanatic. I mean, they built this themselves! With reclaimed materials! The swimming pool is a friggen moat!
When I found out Wings Castle was for sale, I started saving my pennies. Currently listed at $5,850,000, I still have a few more years to go before I can afford it. I’m taking donations if anyone wants to see me finish the ongoing 30+ year project started by Peter Wing.
Buying A Castle
Dracula’s Castle is for sale.
The price of a European castle doesn’t seem as outrageous as the price of a Manhattan studio apartment. You can buy a castle for under a million. Who cares if it’s a shell in Hungary? What else are you planning to do with your retirement?
Castles For Sale
Viviun Real Estate
Mercure Real Estate
Wists Castles
Period Wall Covering
Worth the splurge!
It may not be everyone’s taste, but we drool over this stuff. We’d love to do our whole house, floor to ceiling, with elaborate wall paper. Unfortunately, we can’t afford it. It cost us $800 to do a single room with Bradbury border. At this rate, we’re better off stenciling.
Finding A Pet Friendly Apartment
If you’ve had a glance at our “About” page, you’ll know that our initiation into home ownership began because of our pets. We had 11 cats (not a typo) and a dog at the time. There wasn’t a landlord in this town crazy enough to accept us. We lied about the number of cats, saying we only had 3, but even that was balked at.
There doesn’t seem to be one perfect resource that lists pet friendly rentals. Craigs List usually states whether or not the apartment is pet friendly, but where do all of those animal lovin’ landlords post their rentals?
Here are some helpful resources…
Humane Society
New York Tails
Westchester/Putnam
Urban Hound : Search and post on the forum
Recycled Paper Countertops
The look: A cross between soapstone and formica, if that makes any sense.
We’re aware of 3 companies that manufacture recycled paper countertops.
Shetka: Shredded Counterfit $
ShetkaStone has a 100% sustainable life cycle. Products are manufactured from pre and post consumer waste paper and all by-products can be recycled back into the manufacturing process. ShetkaStone is made from all types of paper, including magazines and telephone books. The color selection is limited, but this seems to be the “greenest” of the paper based countertops.
PaperStone
*Note: At the time of this writing, Paperstone’s website was hit or miss.
Paperstone Certified, by Kliptech, uses 100% post consumer waste paper. The resin is water-based and petroleum-free. PaperStone Organic contains 100% bamboo fiber and a 90% organic resin made from cashew-nut shell oil. Paperstone has a wider color selection than Shetka.
Richlite
Richlite is primarily paper treated with phenolic resin and baked to create a solid sheet. The paper comes from pulp that is derived from trees, which are harvested from certified managed forests in North America. Richlite is less expensive than PaperStone and has the sleekest look of all three, but it’s the least enviro friendly. Go figure.
Lighting by Ikea
I can’t understand why I see so many of those cheesy nipple lights when MU-HU-UCH better options exist.
Is it some big secret that Ikea has cool lighting at great prices? I got sconces for my hallway for five bucks a pop and flush bathroom lights for $12.00.
Check it out…..
Fugly Nip Light from Home Depot: $49.00
$ 9.99 “Pult
$ 39.99 “Tostarp”
$ 39.99 “Horby”
The Zen of Rewiring Antique Fixtures
Disclaimer: We’re not responsible if you fry yourself. This is a summary of what to do. Please click on links for expert advice.
So, you bought yourself an inexpensive, lovely old chandelier from a salvage joint and now you find out that lighting places charge $25 per arm to rewire. Wasn’t that much of a bargain after all, huh? Don’t stress. Rewiring isn’t rocket science.
Tools and Materials You May Need
- Needle-nose pliers
- Screwdrivers (small as well as regular size)
- Lamp wire (Comes in different colors. Keep the fixture color in mind when purchasing.)
- Wire cutter
- Wire stripper
- Wire nuts
- Electrical tape
- Continuity tester
- Sockets (Type depends on fixture. Some antique fixtures may take irregular sockets that need to be special ordered.)
Just Do It
Sit down with your fixture. Take a deep breath. Relax.
Carefully disassemble. Don’t break your irreplaceable glass shades and don’t lose your screws! The fixture may be held together by the finial or screws. To get at the wiring, gently disconnect the sockets from their caps by squeezing or pressing. If you think you might want to use these, test them with a continuity tester. I usually just go for new sockets to be safe. Make sure you don’t take the whole thing apart without remembering where each cord was connected. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s a good idea to take this a step at a time.
Replace the old wiring with new lamp cord. For a single-socket fixture, work from the socket up to the mount. For multi socket, feed the cord from above. First mount the socket cap to the fixture, then do the wiring. Connect wires to the socket terminals, route each socket’s cord back through the cap into the fixture. Leave at least 6 inches of wire out of tube and then snap the socket in place. Strip the wires where all cords meet up with the main cord in the body of fixture, then splice with wire nut.
Check with tester before plugging it in. Both for safety and sanity. You don’t want to install fixture only to find out it doesn’t work. D’uh!
How To Resources
Corner Hardware
HGTV
EHow
How Stuff Works
Supplies and Expert Advice
Antique Lamp Supply
Paxton Hardware
Aurora Lampworks
Lamp Doctor
Rt 9 Lamp and Light
Take the Trash Challenge!
We heard this over the weekend and we are intrigued! Tess Vigeland of Public Radio’s Marketplace has volunteered to spend 2 weeks hauling her household trash around with her. She writes in her blog “This is something of an opening salvo for a project American Public Media shows have been working on all year. It’s called Consumed, and it explores whether our consumer culture is sustainable. The series launches this fall.”
Good luck, Tess! We would join you, but we have, uh, prior commitments.
Tess’ Trash Blog
Bed Stuy: Do
PROS
The first thing I noticed about Bed Stuy is that it’s über friendly. If you don’t like to make eye contact and smile and chat every time you leave your house, this neighborhood may not be for you.
If you crave what NYC was like prior to Guiliani, this is the place to be! Gentrification hasn’t destroyed this area yet. There’s a community feeling, neighbors look out for one another, kids play on the sidewalk, plenty of eccentric characters lurk about and people of all classes and ethnic backgrounds live here.
Gorgeous brownstone stock at semi affordable prices.
The brownstone details have been kept intact for the most part as homeowners couldn’t afford big renovations.
The A train express gets you into the city in less than 20 minutes. J and G lines take a bit longer.
Great location for drivers. Parking isn’t terrible, nor is getting out of the city via BQE or Jackie Robinson or getting into the city via Williamsburg Bridge.
Bed Stuy has a strong black community, both African American and West Indian. It’s getting more diverse every day, but there will hopefully remain an appreciation of black culture and history.
Rental prices are rising along with sales prices. The rental income can make a significant dent in your monthly mortgage payment on multi family homes.
Renters can still find bargains. The old timers don’t post on Craigs. Just walk around the neighborhood and look for signs.
CONS
Not the best schools in the city.
Although crime is down significantly in the area, pockets of sketchy areas still remain. As with any neighborhood, one should stay alert.
The brownstones have details intact, but quick fixes (or no fixes) have taken it’s toll over the years. Most of these homes need lotsa love!
Restaurants and shops are popping up slowly, but more are needed!
OVERALL
It’s been reported that prices are increasing while sales volume is declining. Still the best Brooklyn brownstone bargain in my book.
Probably a better bet for child free folks as the schools aren’t up to snuff.
Not the area for you if you want fine dining and gourmet groceries at your fingertips. Brooklyn as it should be. Park Slope it ain’t!
Bed Stuy Listings: Under $700k
Alpine and Jasper: A Love Story?
Before the Bed Stuy house, we never found anything of value during our renovations. When we started demo on the 4th floor, we discovered a cubby hole that had been closed off for years. What we found in there was a woman’s trash, but the cool thing was that it was trash from the 1940’s.
As we pored over stacks of love letters, newspapers and miscellaneous garbage, we gathered that the woman was probably renting the room when this was a boarding house. Judging from the hair care products, we guessed she was African American. Judging from the letters, liquor bottles and fishnet stockings, we suspected she may have been a bit of a wild one.
Most of the letters were from Private Jasper, who was getting moved around during the war, but was never in combat. The correspondence went on for about three years. Many of the letters were the same: “I miss you.” “Stay Sweet.” It’s clear from the final letters that Alpine stopped writing back to Jasper and he gave up on her, brokenhearted.
We did a search on the internet, but couldn’t find either of them. Perhaps they’re no longer with us or perhaps we didn’t have the time to try harder. We archived the letters and war time newspapers and I plan on using a few of them in a resin countertop so Alpine and Jasper can keep a place in the history of our home.
Dealing With Mice
#1. Get a cat. No? Ok, let’s assume you’ve already cleared away all crumbs, put steel wool in holes and placed all food in tupperware bins. You did that already, right?
Mice don’t like the smell of Fresh Cab or Peppermint Oil. Fresh Cab comes in pouches which you can throw in cabinets and behind the fridge, etc. Peppermint Oil can be purchased at any health food store. Just dab a few drops on cotton balls and scatter around in hidden areas.
If this doesn’t work, go to Plan B: the ultrasonic pest repellent. Forget the small ones though. You’ll have to blow at least forty bucks on the dual technology Viatek or Lentek. We’ve used them in 3 separate apartments now and so far, so good. Works on insects too!
Humane Mouse Traps can be purchased through Peta or Dreaming Earth. Just make sure you don’t let your little buddy suffocate or starve in there. Also be advised that there is usually more than one mouse and they may find their way back.
Building Materials: Get ‘Em While You Can!
This was posted on the forum yesterday. Since I haven’t yet figured out how to allow folks to post photos, I asked her to send me some pics so I can post here. Looks good!
Selling off contents of a modified Post and Beam house in Greenwich, CT. Walls/ceilings of knotty pine, white oak and red oak floors,fir stairs, lofts, loft railings,, Exterior/interior doors, Anderson casements, picture windows, Velux sky lights, French doors, double French doors XO, 6 ft sliders, Trane XL 80 gas furnace, ducting, 40 gal gas hot water tank, toilets, bidet, whirlpool tub, frameless shower doors, electric garage motor,amd more. All materials in EXCELLENT condition. Buyer removes. Cash only.
Also have materials in 9 other houses, includine 4 gorgeous kitchens which are on my website and available NOW. All in EXCELLENT condition. Contact Cathy @203-869-5365 or deepdiscount@optonline.net
If you are a “Dumpster Diver”, and you know if you are one, get to know me! Check out my web site www.deepdiscountdemolition.com, email me your address and I’ll add you to my list for notice of sales. Let me know what you need, if I don’t have it today, I will soon. Recycle, get great stuff at “deep discount” , Thanks
Beacon, NY: Artsy Fartsy, Crunchy Granola Paradise!
The “NY Times” recently described Beacon as “a quirky town that lures creative types many on limited budgets — who shy away from more conventional suburbs”. Indeed, the town that had been run down since the 1960’s is making a comeback as an artist’s haven. Beacon is now home to many galleries, a major modern art museum, antiques shops, yoga, pilates and new age centers, a wonderful health food store, cafes and some exceptional restaurants (although the town could use even more).
PROS
- Homes in town are walkable to Main St, train and river.
- The area is not lacking in culture. There is a vibrant art and music scene.
- Most newcomers are looking to become part of the community.
- Affordable housing stock
- Hudson River, Mountains, Hiking
- Commutable to NYC
- Major highways right near town makes this easily accessible.
CONS
- Although trains take an average of 1 hour, 15 minutes to get to GCT, they are 1 hour apart during off peak hours.
- Tale of Two Cities: Natives and newcomers don’t often mingle.
- Shop owners tend to keep whacky hours. Main St is dead on days DIA doesn’t open.
- Most of the housing stock is very average. There are only a handful of extraordinary homes.