Nothing scary about these forgotten beauties. They just look neglected and maybe haunted is all. What’r’ya, frightened of some spirits? Boo!
Tear Down? Think Again.
This is an impressive resurrection of a Calvert Vaux Beaux Arts home as reported by Newburgh Restoration. Work was completed by architect Drew Kartiganer back in 2002.
Are you ready for the after shot?
Unfortunately, the interior is not all that impressive, but one can’t complain when the house was brought back to life. Check out the work shots and interiors at Newburgh Restoration.
Bed Stuy House Tour
It’s house tour season! This weekend, come check out my neighborhood. The Brownstoners of Bed Stuy have organized their 35th annual tour for this Saturday, October 19th. What makes Bed Stuy so unique in the old home department is that to date, the homeowners have not done extensive renovations, so all of the original details remain. But hurry up! With gentrification, dumpster diving may become more exciting than house touring for all of you lovers of historic materials.
Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. It is advised to go with the advance purchase as these events have sold out in the past. No online purchase. Click on the image or link to see where you can purchase tix.
Reclaimed Wainscoting Ideas
Wainscoting breaks up a room and adds dimension to otherwise flat walls. Who says you have to buy wainscoting at your local big box shop or even use “wainscot” at all? There are plenty of materials that can be used to liven up those walls.
Good ole’ reclaimed boards will do the trick. Sure, tongue and groove would be more solid but you gotta work with what you’ve got. If what you’ve got are a bunch of old boards, go for it!
Probably a tedious job, but the end result pays off. These vintage yard sticks are pretty ingenious.
Corrugated metal is THE way to go for an industrial look. Perfect for damp basements where one worries about mold. Rust isn’t as deadly. 😉
Ok, so this wainscoting idea is made from new materials but you get the picture. Let’s say those iron scrolly objects can be any found material. They don’t have to be the same object either. What if each frame included a unique three dimensional object? What if it wasn’t three dimensional at all? Just frame different images or paint techniques? Maps? Collage? The possibilities are endless.
Old Storefronts
Image via Brownstoner
Steven Soderbergh and his talented crew have transported a Bed Stuy corner back in time for the filming of a show called “The Knick”. They’ve been there for awhile now but this morning as I passed I thought it would be great if they could just leave the signage up forever. Walking through there makes me want to live in the past, man!
New York has been transformed over the years and change is good, blah, blah, blah, but I do miss some of those vintage shop fronts. Here are some that lasted longer than the rest.
Starting with a fairly obvious one, Vesuvio in Soho. Image from News Gallery.
Zig Zag Records closed it’s doors about two years ago, but will always be remembered by alt-rock Brooklynites growing up in the 80’s as the place that sold NME and rare UK records. Photo via Forgotten NY.
The Meat Market in Bed Stuy is now a vintage clothing shop, ironically called The Meat Market. Good for them. Vintage shop. Vintage signage.
Yonah Shimmel has been around forever. Forever! Did you know that back in the 80’s they had a shop on the Upper East Side? I used to go in there every morning to pick up my breakfast. Not a knish. A poppy seed mohn. Photo via Forward.
Bless DiFara Pizza. Honestly, I never considered this Midwood pizza shop to be anything special when I was growing up in the neighborhood, but look at them now…one of the highest rated pizzas in NYC. Same signage though.
Unfortunately, Walters Hardware closed a few years ago. Not sure what has happened to the storefront as I haven’t been out to Astoria lately.
Habitat Lego Build Challenge
World Habitat Day was celebrated on October 7th. Some chapters held Lego Build competitions. Not all of the entries are online yet but New Zealand has a few that we can look at and vote on if we so desire. They are all winners!
Eight year old Adrian who built the house shown above says “This mansion is in the city for a whole family. It has water and solar power. The family has no car; they use a plane. They have treasures hidden inside.” Guess nobody told Adrian that a private plane negates the solar power savings, but it’s cool. Who wouldn’t want a plane?
Amos, 6, with his waterproof houseboat
Goodbye Planet Earth
It’s not everyday that I can blend my favorite musicians with the subject matter of this blog, but today is my lucky day! File this one under “green”, “treehugger”, “environment”, thank you.
Recognize this guy? It’s Carl aka Chas Smash from Madness, the ska band that has been around since the 70’s but people in this country only think of them as the one hit “Our House” wonder. Quite a shift from the danceable nutty tunes we usually see him doing.
It’s beautiful, no?
Recycled Sheetrock Scraps
Don’t throw away those drywall scraps. If you keep what you cut you can reuse it in an art project. Shown here are very levelheaded colors for an office building. There are so many options with this. Go bold! Do photo transfers! Use textures! Caulk the seams!
It’s easy enough to do. Just glue the pieces to a board. You can even paint them before laying them out if you suck at painting.
PS: Of course you can do it with your wood scraps too.
Real World Upcycling
It’s become quite common to see upcycled projects on Pinterest and various blogs, but how often do we get to see creative recycling solutions in real homes? These are just a few of the phone snappies I shot on the Crown Heights North house tour on Saturday.
The old wine box backsplash is a great idea! This one was behind a counter that was not located near the sink, but since wood and water don’t mix, it would be advisable to seal wood with a good marine varnish if it is near a faucet. Heck, seal it anyway if you’re working with food.
This homeowner picked up some reclaimed wood at a salvage supplier and bought the piping at Home Depot. Cost of materials and skill level not that high. I’ve seen similar on Etsy going for $1800. My friends, THAT is why you need to DIY!
Can’t decide what to do with those old wine bottles? Very cool looking garden trim that wouldn’t last 5 minutes with my dogs, but if you have a pet free, child free home…awesome!
Recycling Events
If you’re anything like me, you have about four defunct Macbooks sitting in a closet somewhere taking up valuable space. And if you’re anything like me, they’ve been there for years and what I’m about to share with you won’t change that.
But I’ll try.
Hey kids! Gather up your old electronics for the eWaste Recycling program taking place all month throughout the city (mostly Manhattan and Brooklyn with a touch of Queens). You can recycle not only computers but they are taking TV’s, video games, cell phones and “other” as well. Click on the link to see locations and dates.
If you’re a lungeyelander (translation: Long Islander) or live in parts of Queens blessed with LIPA service (and when I say “blessed” I mean “cursed”), you can actually get some bucks for recycling your old appliances. They are paying $50 for each working fridge or freezer including free pick up. No need to deal with Craigslist crazies! $20 voucher for working air conditioners and dehumidifiers as well. There are some guidelines to follow. Click that link to find out!
Check out Grow NYC for swaps and other recycling events. They are da bomb! Do people still say that? What do you want from me? I’m 48 years old.
Habitat ReStore NYC!
For all of you second hand building material diehards in the boroughs, patience has paid off! Habitat for Humanity expects to open their first NYC ReStore by March 2014. They will start researching locations in November but wherever it is, it will be a helluva lot easier to get to than any of the other ReStores at the moment.
As soon as we know more details, you’ll know.
Crown Heights North House Tour
Whattcha doin’ this Saturday? Come check out some of the lovely rowhouses in Crown Heights! Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. See you there!
Manhattan is the New Brooklyn
Coming of age in Brooklyn in the 70’s and 80’s meant that you were a bridge and tunnel person. Brooklyn was not the hip utopia it is these days. One had to cross the water into the city for anything resembling culture. Now Brooklyn is the place to be. It’s become more of a brand than a boro. Do you know how many dogs are named “Brooklyn”? A lot.
As you know, housing prices are just about up there with Manhattan now. Is it sustainable?
This past weekend was an eye opener for me that things may have gotten too extreme. Just a couple of personal anecdotes to share…
Ran into an old friend from Park Slope (as in born and raised). The guy has bucks. His family still owns a building right on the park. He was saying how he moved out of the neighborhood because he couldn’t take the sense of entitlement anymore. Now lives in Manhattan. I was thinking “Jeez, Brooklyn has gotten so snotty that you fled to the city?” It kind of makes sense when you think how it feels like to see your home town change so drastically. He doesn’t hold the same sentimental memories of the city because it was never his own community.
Brooklyn Bagel, in CHELSEA!
My second epiphany came when I realized that I had to go into the city to find a real flea market. No, not some hipster artisan curated market, not that there’s anything wrong with, but somewhere to look for real vintage and antique items minus the Etsy sellers. Not that there’s anything wrong with Etsy sellers. I just wanted dirty old antiques sold by crusty middle aged vendors. Luckily, the Antiques Garage, Hell’s Kitchen Flea and 25th Street Market was just what I needed. In Manhattan, not Brooklyn.
Lastly, while wondering around the city, I couldn’t get over how many old people there were. Like even older than me. Way older! And then I realized that there aren’t really all that many old folks left in Brooklyn’s more popular neighborhoods. That seems appropriate enough to me, since I’m considering moving to the city myself when I get old and decrepit. Doorman building with elevator and terrace in the hub of the universe.
Or at least by the time I retire, it will be the hub of the universe once again. The circle is half complete.
Blog TLC
Reclaimed Home is about six years old and will be hitting it’s 2000th post in a couple of weeks. Woot. The blog has always been the face of the business, whatever the incarnation of the moment happens to be. Reclaimed Home (the business) has been involved in real estate, salvage, crafts sales and DIY tutorials.
Last year the blog took a back seat to the Rockaway house project but now that there’s time on my hands I’m looking to tweak some things. In a perfect world, I’d like to see more posts rather than less. Since the blog still just consists of one person, don’t expect me to go back to 5 posts per day as in the beginning. That was f*cked! But I’m open to contributors! Do you hear whatI’msayin?
There will also (probably) be a directory or marketplace added. Not going into too much detail now. You’ll see…if it actually happens before I get distracted with a more exciting project.
In any case, right now I’m just trying to keep up with the massive amount of social media that’s out there. Follow my blog with Bloglovin and BlogHer because I said so. Please? And check out that there sidebar for FBTwitPintRSS. Cheers!
Bungalow Colony Wars
This memory was triggered recently and thought I’d share…
The year was 1970something. A ramshackle bungalow colony named “Greenview” in Spring Glen, NY was the summer getaway for a cluster of cousins coming up from points south. The colony was on it’s last legs. The pool water had a dirty greenish tint and the paint was peeling on every bungalow.
We did have some good times at that dying colony. It was nearly 40 years ago, but I remember the ice cream truck being a highlight of the day. I recall saving at least one frog from that pool. And hikes up the mountain with Bubbie, who wasn’t my bubbie but everyone called her that. We shot pool at the local arcade and went to The Homowack for pinball and bowling. That’s about all there was to Spring Glen, apart from the general store and post office.
Oh yeah, there were the other bungalow colonies.
One night we got word that “Rosenblum’s” was coming to beat us up. If I recall correctly, it was just a girl named Tammy and maybe her demonic brother Keith. We didn’t know them. Tammy was just somewhat of a bully and she happened to get bored one day so she thought she would threaten us. Well, my older cousin Lisa (she was already a teen!) rose to the challenge and scared Tammy off.
Yeah, that was the big rumble. A substantial drama in the life of us 10ish year olds.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, the following summer Greenview finally shuttered its doors. And can you guess where we ended up? Yep, Rosenblum’s. It was a much nicer colony that’s still in existence today. Turns out Tammy wasn’t so bad after all. The first time I hung out with her in her bungalow, she smoked a cigarette and then her mom walked in, smelled it and started to question ME about her daughter’s habit. I wanted to die, but I didn’t crack. Before her mom walked in, she told me about her boyfriend “Toughie” and we bonded over…nah, we didn’t really bond, but she didn’t beat me up, which was cool.
Her brother Keith was totally nuts, but kind of cute. He’s probably in jail now.
*Names have not been changed to protect the bullies. If these people read this, I’m so dead.