Shore Soup has been feeding hurricane Sandy victims in Rockaway since the perfect storm hit the area. Now they want to take it a step further and open up a pay-what-you-can restaurant. It will be mobile until they can get enough funds for brick and mortar. Good idea? Check out the video.
The Real Live Simpsons House
Can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind to do a house in “Flintstones” style. But “The Simpsons“? Never considered the house to be anything special…until seeing it in real life. Now I totally want a cartoon house!
Via Gizmodo.
Greetings from South Queens
Listen to some great Indie rock tunes while helping Queens Sandy survivors. Bands from Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Broad Channel and Rockaway Beach put together a compilation album to benefit those who are still struggling in the hard hit areas. Check it out and/or purchase on CD Baby.
Stenciled Bathtubs
Why didn’t I stencil that clawfoot tub I put in the bathroom? It’s not too late. Love these!
Decor by National Wholesale Liquidators
Before there were Ikeas and Targets in NYC, National Wholesale Liquidators was the place to go for inexpensive home goods. Right there on Broadway just a touch north of Soho (“Noho” my ass) was a three level megastore of savings.
NWL still exists in three boroughs and out in the suburbs. Hey, it’s the type of place where a car comes in handy to schlep all that merch anyway.
Although not quite as stylish as Ikea, it’s a great place to hit if decorating on a budget. They carry a decent selection of table linens, bath accessories, curtains, rugs and bedding. They also stock kitchenware and small appliances as well as large furniture.
Don’t need home goods? The New Jersey store even has a full supermarket and wine shop.
Connecticut Salvage
On the road again. Looking to pick up the last of the building materials this week as Passover week is going to be a non-stop work fest bringing us closer to Renovation’s End.
Have ye ever been to United House Wrecking? If not, you shouldn’t be waiting. This is the kind of place that makes me so sad that I live in a silly little brownstone and not a mansion or huge loft. I mean, check out the carousel above. Who wouldn’t want a carousel in their living room?
UHW has some top of the line architectural salvage. Stained glass, mantels, newell posts, doors. They have been sifted through and all are in good shape. This is where you go when you don’t feel like spending hours restoring the inexpensive stuff. That’s not to say the prices are outrageous here. They are not shocking at all. I saw some decent sized stained glass windows for $150 and a really nice antique chandelier on sale for $500.
United House Wrecking isn’t just salvage. They do antique and reproduction furniture and design as well. Everything is staged so perfectly. A card table with a poker game already laid out, a bar, a child’s room, a mid-century living room that’s to die for. It’s kind of like ABC Carpet but without the cray-cray prices.
The Housatonic Habitat ReStore (Danbury) is 20 miles or so north of UHW. As with all restores, it’s hit or miss on what is needed that day. Yesterday I was in search of tiles because I remembered them having a bunch of awesome Waterworks ceramic. They did have the Waterworks and it was a lovely blue, except I need pink as I’m determined to keep the pink bathroom in the house as it was originally (well, when I bought it, anyway).
While I was there, an estate of some great Chinese furniture was coming in. Some real antique pieces mixed in with a few modern day made in China.
I loved this credenza that houses a stereo system. The side with closed door has room for a bar or record collection. The price was around $150 until the engineer comes around to get that system working and then it goes up.
Today I hit New Joisey.
Big Chill House For Sale
Ah, The Big Chill. The house itself certainly wasn’t the subject of the film and yet it played an important role. A group of friends gather for their buddy’s funeral. They spend the weekend together in this amazing house that has enough bedrooms for each of them, a dining area large enough to seat all of them, a living room where they can all gather comfortably and plenty of land to engage in outdoor sex.
That special house located in Beaufort, South Carolina is up for sale now for a cool $4.5M. Would it make a lovely family residence for someone with deep pockets? Sure. Would it make an even awesomer investment? Hell yeah!
Picture a B&B that does weddings and events. Actually, it was a guest house from the 1930’s-1970’s. Shit, I’d stay there…if I ever found myself in South Carolina. It’s also a great film shoot location. Not only was it The Big Chill House but it was also featured in The Great Santini.
The home was built in 1853. It has seven bedrooms and over seven thousand square feet on 1.38 acres.
If you buy it, I will come. Here’s the listing.
Recycling Old Ladders
Goodbye Rosin Paper. Hello Rubber Tiles
The old standby in renovation floor protection is rosin paper. There are so many drawbacks though. It gets dirty, it tears, it’s time consuming to put down and worst of all, it really doesn’t protect the floors all that well.
Back when I actually had a crafts room in my house, I bought some interlocking rubber tiles at Lowes to protect my hardwood floors. I’ve since gotten rid of the work room (It’s now just a junk room that dreams of one day becoming a dining room.) so I took up those tiles and brought them to the house that’s under renovation.
Sure, the initial investment costs way more than some paper but if the renovation is going on long enough that you have to keep changing the paper or if you’re doing multiple renovations, I say it’s worth it.
The tiles can be washed or mopped so you don’t have to live with the dust. They are water proof apart from the seams. They’ll last forever and they’re totally reusable. No need to install them around the whole house. Just pick them up and take them from room to room as needed.
I purchased Flexco (shown above) because I wanted it to look good in my house but there are less expensive tiles out there if design doesn’t matter.
Before and After Windows
Remember when I was bitching about how time consuming the finishing work is? Well, tada! The windows are finally done!
Can’t find the real “before” shots. Those would be initially clam shell molding with wood paneling. Then there was no molding with new sheetrock. Ok, so fast forward to dirty, uncaulked windows with 1 coat o’ paint molding. That would be the photo above.
And this would be the “after”. Shush, I know there’s still touch up to do on that uneven line, but I swear I’m impressed with my cutting in skills. Never use tape. My hand is steady, Freddy.
So, when it’s not so steady (see mark on wall, left side of window) nothing a little touch up can’t fix.
Broken Angel Dog (and Block Party)
This is Simba. He lived in the most famous building in Clinton Hill, Arthur Hill’s Broken Angel. The 84 year old Arthur was evicted after years of struggling to hang onto his house-as-art project. Now Arthur needs to find a new place and Simba needs fostering. Can you help? If so, please contact shannonkernerATgmailDOTcom.
Perhaps you can meet Simba and Arthur at the Broken Angel Block Party on March 15th. If it looks familiar, yes, it was the backdrop of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. The event takes place all day and night, so stop on by, y’all!
Pre-Offer Home Inspection
It’s essential to have a home inspection after putting an offer on a house. The inspector will take two to four hours to go over every detail so you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Lots of folks back out of the deal after reading the inspector’s report. That’s fine, but there’s no need to waste the $500-$1000 fee if you know what to look for prior to making an offer.
The first time you look at the house, the only items on your mind are location, size and style, right? It’s either a fixer upper or “renovated”. Total fixer uppers are easy. You know it’s gonna be a money pit. But those “renovated” homes are a bit trickier.
On your second visit to the house, take your time to snoop around some more. Here’s what you’re looking for:
1. Floors. Are they bouncy or soggy? If there’s carpeting, what’s underneath? If it’s tongue and groove, check to make sure they have some sanding life left in them. You can tell by the thickness of the boards. It’s not a big deal to replace floors. It’s just an expense.
2. Basement. Do you see any water marks? Is there a dehumidifier down there? A sump pump? If so, ask why.
3. Basement II. Check out the boiler, water heater and electric panel. Let’s keep this fairly simple. How old or new do they look? Do they have maintenance stickers?
4. Basement III. Look up at the ceiling. The floor joists are those 2x6ish pieces of wood spanning every 12″-16″. The beams are chunkier. Maybe they are 4×4 or larger. Maybe they are steel. You want to make sure there are enough posts holding up those beams if it’s wood. The posts should be sitting on concrete, not dirt. If any of this stuff is rotted, they will need to be replaced or “sistered”. Rot could be a sign of larger issues such as water leakage from above or termite infestation.
5. Exterior. If it’s stone, does it have cracks? If brick, will it need pointing? If wood, do you see any peeling paint or wood rot? How are the gutters and flashing? Check the pitch of the landscape to see if water would puddle up and/or enter the house. Are there drains in the back yard?
6. Electric. Make sure there are enough outlets in each room. They should all be three prong. Bathrooms and kitchens should have GFI outlets near water sources. If none of the above, the electric will need an upgrade.
7. Plumbing. Look at the drains under sinks to make sure there there are no leaks. Also check for leaks around toilets and bathtubs. Oh, almost forgot! Go back down to the basement and make sure the copper pipes are not corroded.
8. Follow your nose. Do you smell gas? Mold?
9. Windows. How old do they look? If they are original, have they been maintained or are there storm windows? Do you feel drafts around the windows meaning it’s not insulated?
10. Work quality. This is my own theory. I don’t think an inspector will voice concern about a house if it has a bad caulking job, but hear me out. If the finished product looks sloppy, chances are a low end contractor was used to save costs and that means there may just be band-aids on some problem areas. Look for overuse of caulk, grout film on tile, bumpy sheetrock seams and messy paint jobs. I go a step further and even turn my nose up at material quality. Cheap Home Depot wainscoting is usually covering something nasty! I shouldn’t say that. You’re right. I’m a snob. But buyer beware!
Again, nobody is telling you to be the inspector but these are some things you should look for. Are they fixable? Absolutely! But it’s better to know what you’re getting into before you put in an offer. And that, my friends, is the reason I always buy total wrecks.
Good luck!
MOMA PS1 Rocks it
Call for submissions from artists, designers and architects to put Rockaway back together again. MOMA PS1 started work on the temporary Rockaway dome that will house proposal exhibitions. Dome is set to open to the public in April. Progress, peeps!
Subway Rat Birth Control
For as long as I can remember, rats have been part of the NYC subway experience. Maybe not the most pleasant part, but I swear, those little guys are pretty entertaining while waiting for a train. Not everyone wants to see them though and it’s been pretty difficult to eradicate them completely.
So, what about birth control? Sounds crazy? Well, as a crazy person, I can tell you that for years I’ve been saying that we should have birth control for not only rats and mice but deer, geese and any other species we think of as “pests”. A-ha, I’m not alone! Seems that the MTA is launching a trial run of rat birth control.
The problem is…and I kid you not…New York City rats have a finer palate than most. They’ll need to be baited with the best pizza, Egg Foo Young, KFC and bagels money could find.
Now before you start complaining about your MTA fare or tax dollars going towards this, keep in mind that the $1 million to fund this experiment is coming from the National Institutes of Health and not the MTA.
Crazy? Or brilliant?
Green Brownstone
Curious about green building technology and home maintenance? Well, here’s your chance to learn more! City Tech is offering their “Anatomy of a Green Brownstone” course this Saturday. Four hours for sixty bucks. It covers green roofs, solar and more.