Reuse. Rehabilitate. Restore. Architectural salvage and repurposed pieces for the home.
As you may have already read, we’re making some changes around here. One of those changes is this website. Yikes! The blog is going to get it’s own page while the main page will become static. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and all the archives won’t get lost, but you may see the site doing funny things while we’re working on it. Post may be less frequent until the renovation is finished.
Reclaimed Home is going back to its roots! After moving back to Brooklyn, where space is an issue, we stopped collecting larger salvaged items for reuse. Well, it’s time to expand again.
Starting a tiny home based business was a breeze. Starting a small business with a team is a bit more challenging. But you know what? It’s important that we do this now for a variety of reasons.
Saving building materials from the landfills. Mother Earth is screaming for help. Tons of demolition rubbish goes into dumpsters every day.
Presenting restoration options for folks of all income levels. We’re going through some rough economic times. Why shouldn’t everyone have the same access to beautiful architectural details and furnishings for their dwellings?
Preserve our history! Old homes are being torn down to make way for new construction. Historic details are discarded of during renovations. The skilled craftspeople who created these materials are long gone. Let’s give their work a second life.
Here’s what you can do to help us achieve our goals. If it can be recycled, please don’t throw it out! We’ll take reusable materials off your hands. If you’re doing a renovation or know of someone who is, contact us before you allow your contractor to destroy house parts and throw them in the dumpster. We’ll carefully remove the items for you so someone else can make use of them.
It will save you demolition fees. It will save you disposal rates. Most importantly, it will save our planet from overflowing landfills.
You can email us by hitting the “contact” link at the top of the middle column. We thank you and Momma Earth thanks you.
I’m stealing this idea from my friend Judy’s blog, Bad Advice, flipping it around and running with it. See, Judy thought she should be more positive, so she’s posting 101 things she likes. Screw positive. I’m not motivated enough to come up with 101, so here are 10 things I hate.
1. Contractors who don’t call back, don’t show up or don’t do the job right. I can come up with a list of 101 things I hate about contractors, but this is good enough.
2. The constant upkeep. Just when you think you’ve finished renovations, it’s time to start over again. Appliances breaking down, doors falling off the hinges, blah, blah, blah.
3. Oy, it’s expensive! Yeah, this is part of upkeep, but I have to stretch it out to 10. Things like the facade. Damn, that’s gonna cost like a year’s salary. My husband’s, not my measly two cents.
4. Realtor’s postcards. Go away. Just because I’m listing 10 things doesn’t mean I want to sell my house.
5. Backyard. It’s a lovely idea in theory and there’s nothing like sending my dogs out there when I don’t want to walk them. Actually, wouldn’t live without one. But, do I get to enjoy it? Between the mosquitoes and the dog shit….nah.
6. Tenants. Believe me, it would be nice to live in the whole house. Who could afford that? I wasn’t one of those kids who liked sharing. Plus, walls are thin. Can’t have loud sex.
7. Property taxes. This totally doesn’t apply to NYC where taxes are low, but we felt so ripped off on our upstate taxes. The toughest nut was the school tax and we didn’t even have kids! Or sidewalks or public trash bins. What were we paying for?
8. Space. Again, like the backyard. A great thing, really! Until every acquaintance and distant cousin wants to sleep on your couch.
9. Worries. In the past, we’ve had tenants and petsitters call us while we’re on vacation. Frozen pipes, broken locks, flooded basements. Luckily, that was all one house, which we unloaded years ago. Mmmwwwwaaaahhhhaaaahhhhaaaaaahhhhaaaaa!!!
10. Lack of a life. Every weekend with the working on the house and the Home Depot trips.
Honestly, I had trouble coming up with 2-10. I just felt like kvetching, but it’s not a bad thing to own a home. If I thought so, I wouldn’t be addicted to scoring every few years.
It’s summer break time! We’re taking the dawgs and heading up to this vacation rental in Red Hook. FYI, VRBO is the easiest dog friendly rental search. Alls you have to do is look for the paw prints.
Anyhoo, the kind folks at Douglas Elliman New York have supplied me with two days of guest posts this week. Tomorrow and Wednesday are all theirs so be kind to them and read it, then go out and buy one of their eight million dollar properties.
I may cut out on you by Thursday and Friday or you may hear from me if the mood strikes. Ya never know.
See you next Monday, if not sooner!
Flashback: July 27th, 2009. The Reclaimed Home post of the day was “Garden Apartment Now Livable!”. So, where do we stand now in the world of home renovations? Finished?
Hardly. It’s funny that I decided to look up past posts on today of all days, when I’m taking my dogs and my visiting mom and fleeing the scene for a couple of days. The window guys are on week 3 of installation and the garden and parlor apartments are once again, works in progress.
So, how did it all work out with that to-do list I posted 2 years ago?
1. Work around windows. Still no sills. But at least the windows will be new.
2. Get shutters in. Oh yeah. They will be coming out and going back in. Again…windows.
3. Radiator covers. Radiator covers. Check!
4. Sink, counter top, backsplash. Mini Kitchen. Check. But we’ll be taking it out now that we have a full kitchen on the parlor floor.
5. Paint sink base. Yeah.
6. Finish molding. Yup.
7. Strip doors (ugh, more stripping). Ah, we just painted them white.
8. Clean up mantel. Um…
9. Re-do hearth (damn, forgot about that!). Later.
10. “Fancy paint” for trim and medallion. Painted medallion done. Still no light fixture.
We’re undertaking another big restoration project here. Only this time it’s not a house. It’s this site.
Back when Reclaimed Home launched in 2007, the idea was to cover local housing options and renovation ideas with a touch of eco-green salvaged bits and bobbles. Twas one person doing 5 posts per day, 5 days per week. Well, couldn’t keep up that pace.
RH is sort of going back to it’s roots. The intention is to make the site more user friendly and interactive. We’ll sort out categories and resources better, add some DIY videos and sprinkle it with a bit of real estate chat.
This won’t be done overnight and if it’s anything like my renovations, it can take years (but it won’t). In the meantime, you may see some recycling of old posts as I go through the archives. You may also see some funky stuff happening with the design or even a day or two without a post. DO NOT PANIC! Everything and everyone has to go through changes.
Please follow on Twitter and Facebook and do share any suggestions in the comments here. Thankyouverymuch.
Don’t you remember the date, honey? It was one year ago that I returned to you after the longest break up of our relationship evah. Seven years apart! Ok, so I never reeeaaalllly left. But Happy Anniversary to my favorite borough!
One year ago (Ok, I’m talking to you now, reader), we gave up the “better quality of life” in a small town to come back to where we belong. Sometimes we wonder why we ever left, but all of us (well, many of us) have a love/hate relationship with the city and hubby and I were in “hate” mode. It wasn’t the crazy rat race that bothered us, it was that the city was becoming more like a suburb, so why not live in the country with clean air and more land and less expenses?
Well, easier said than done. It’s hard to wrap your head around not being able to get what you want when you want if you’re from the city that never sleeps. But hey, we lasted 7 years!
So, one year back. How is it?
Answer: Still happy! Still not pissed off riding the overcrowded subway or seeing people litter or having cars cut me off. I mean, yeah, I yell and scream, but that’s good for ya. It lets off steam. Otherwise, you get ulcers.
The best part about being back is that we now take advantage of what NYC has to offer. Whereas 7 years ago, we just kind of hung out around our neighborhood of Park Slope when not working on the house, we no longer take anything for granted. Any Broadway show or concert we want to see, we make sure to book. We try new restaurants now instead of eating at the most convenient place. After a year of being back, we still feel like tourists in our own city! (Well, the hubby is from Dublin originally, so it’s only been HIS city since 1986.)
We have neighbors that are like family on the Bed Stuy block we live on. Our renovations are almost done (sort of). I’m in touch with old friends from every decade of my life and BTW, I’m not the only one who returned to Brooklyn after a hiatus.
So, one year in….it’s still good.
Veteran comedian Richard Lewis played Carolines on Broadway over the weekend and I was lucky enough to grab tickets to the show. Never been to Carolines and guess what? Won’t be going back any time soon.
The tickets were close to $40 and there was a 2 drink minimum. No problem. Grab a drink at the bar. They “suggested” we check our coats for an extra 2 bucks. My husband was under the impression that the coat check was mandatory. Whatev. Another few bucks for the bathroom attendant. I hate when there’s a bathroom attendant and I’m guilted into tipping her. I can turn on my own water and take a paper towel, thanks.
Anyhoo, I digress. So, it’s a nice place. Not the dive bars or fast food joints I frequent (I kid. Haven’t in a good 20 years). I don’t have a problem with any of this so far, but it’s background for my story.
Here’s my beef….
After we were seated and before the show started, I left my table to relieve myself and have another awkward moment with the bathroom attendant. I fell down a step in the middle of the room and twisted my ankle. Yes, I’m a klutz, but the people who saw it and my own husband who knows how clumsy I am said that the step was in a dangerous spot. It was dark in the club and although there was a single fluorescent strip on the stair, there was no warning of it coming up. Especially as the sound system came up right before it.
So, my ankle swelled to the size of a plum. The manager and bartender gave me ice and helped me back to my seat. They were nice enough. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Totally related to Richard Lewis’ old age shtick. Nearly peed my pants at his Shecky Greene reference!
End of the night, we get the bill. Nothing comped. Our dinner. Our 2 drink minimum. Really? I’m crippled for a week (or three) from your venue and you’re still sticking me with the 2 drinks per person?
I’m not litigious, but I’m not happy. The cab fare back to Brooklyn instead of a subway, the crutches, the Ace bandages, the week of sitting on my ass, the dog walker….it all adds up. And Carolines couldn’t even acknowledge I was hurt in their club?
So, that’s it. I’m adding Carolines to Walmart list of places to boycott. I’ll find my laughs elsewhere, thank you.
*PS: Fun Facts!
* Shecky Greene is still alive.
* Richard Lewis is credited with inventing “_____ from hell”.
Time to visit the in-laws in the Old Country. I’m taking this opportunity to update the blog software. Don’t freak out if you see the site doing odd things this week. Blogging should resume by the 9th. Perhaps I’ll check in from Dublin. Nah, probably not. Enjoy your snowy week!
No? Tough. Now that we’re all moved back to Brooklyn and have the finances to seek help from a pro, I’m making lists, baby! We’ve been living out of tote boxes for 7 months now, ignoring the mess until Gifted is over on Thursday.
Anyway, here’s the to do list:
1. Hallway Privacy! Yes, we still share a communal hallway with the upstairs tenants. We took over the parlor floor with intention of having garden/parlor duplex. It will get done (this week!) but in the meantime, we’ve been making sure the coast is clear before running upstairs in our jammies. It’s pretty pathetic.
2. Closets! Oops, maybe I have too many clothes. And all I ever wear is a single pair of Levi’s. We need to change the laundry room closet shelving into a hanging clothes closet. There aren’t even doors on it at the moment. But oh, how luxurious it’s going to be! The laundry room is right outside our bedroom. Bed. Laundry. Closet. Perfect for the lazy person.
3. Molding. Our 6 peeing cats are still locked in one room because the hallway isn’t ready. We need to make all cat areas pee proof. That means finishing up the baseboard that we haven’t bothered installing in the 5 years we’ve owned the house. Baseboard + caulk=less pee seepage into floor boards.
4. Light fixtures. For the past 16 years we’ve been renovating one house or another. And for the past 16 years we’ve been living with those light bulb pig tails until a house is ready to sell. Well, I’m determined to enjoy this house! Fabulous light fixtures and all.
5. Basement. We had a kitty hang out in our first house in Park Slope. We didn’t lock them down there, but we made it a comfy area so they would want to stay. The food and litter… basement. We had sealed concrete walls and floor with drains so we could just hose it down. It was a dream to clean. The plan is to recreate that here in Bed Stuy.
Been a busy bee this week making stuff for Saturday’s PS 321 Crafts Fair. The annual event is hosted by the PTA to raise money for the Park Slope school. This is the first year I’ll be doing it, but apparently it gets very busy even though there isn’t much info out there for the public. ‘Tis why I created a Facebook page for the event.
Anyway, between selling the house (not closed yet), the van, a bunch of furniture and doing a renovation and getting ready to refinance, I haven’t had much time to work. Hopefully, I’ll get some more done today and tomorrow and my booth won’t look totally pathetic.
Swing by if you can! Should be lots of cool crafters taking part.
PS 321 is located @ 180 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Hours are 11am-5pm on December 4th.
We rented a truck and some guys last Friday to move the rest of our belongings from Beacon to Brooklyn. Anything left in the house was sold off in our moving sale on Saturday. Apart from a few leftover items that will be donated or dumped, the house is sitting empty, waiting for the new owners to come and make it a home again.
The sale was called for 10am on Saturday. We woke up early to get our personal belongings out of the way. As I sat on the toilet at 9am, the bell rang. And that was it. The early birds had arrived.
The first moving sale we had prior to putting the house on the market was in the driveway. This time, we had things from the basement all the way up to the attic and out to the garage, so we let people wander around.
My husband asked afterward if I felt violated having people rip through our stuff like that. Had we been given that extra hour to get a few more tote boxes out of the house, it would have been fine. But I had forgotten about some boxes in the attic. When I went upstairs in the afternoon, I found Alpine’s garbage scattered about the floor. I felt protective of her. There were a number of antique bottles that we took back from people. That’s a memory that stays together. Not for sale.
Then I saw we had left a box of old tax files up there. Hopefully, we weren’t visited by an ID thief because they could have gotten our social security numbers and birth dates quite easily. Yeah, that was a big no no. More important than any other expensive possession I grabbed out of the house.
The thing about these sales is people don’t respect your stuff. They don’t carefully go through boxes and closets. They scatter things about. I can’t imagine what it’s like to run an estate sale if you’re a child of an elderly or deceased parent, when it’s a lifetime of memories up for grabs.
I’m not saying I’m not the first one through the door at an estate sale! I love going through people’s old photos and keepsakes. It’s a way of honoring their lives.
Anyway, I don’t know what I’m going on about. We were in the house for 6 years. We were just getting rid of some old junk. I’m just getting sentimental about the house now that the transfer of property is becoming a reality.
There’s a movement to get rid of Columbus Day and make it Indigenous People Day. Instead of going all preachy on y’all, I’ll refer you to the Reconsider Columbus Day and Ian Clark video.
Happy 3 day weekend!
The Stormville Airport Antique Show and Flea Market in Dutchess County takes place on holiday weekends during the warmer months. Since next Monday is Columbus Day, the fair is on this Saturday and Sunday, October 9th and 10th.
There are usually a couple of hundred antiques vendors (that’s a guess) and an area set up near the entrance for new stuff. Admission and parking are free. Vendor’s prices are pretty fair. The only thing I would suggest is getting there way early (like 6:30am) as there is only one road leading to the show and it gets backed up.
It took us moving out of the area to participate, but Reclaimed Home has a booth this weekend. Look for us in site #10, driveway 3. We’ll be emptying out our Beacon house and trying to cram everything into our Brooklyn home of half the size. Much of the furniture for sale is from our own private “estate” (I’m gonna add an LOL here just so you know that’s tongue in cheek).
The flea market inventory we’re bringing is stuff we never want to see again, so prices will be good, especially by the end of the second day. In fact, if you’re a vendor or just some hoarder who wants a bunch of crap, come see us on Sunday afternoon and we’ll make a deal for everything that’s left over.
Here’s what we have…(Bear with me. The only images I have of our personal items are real estate shots.)
That red couch is probably 1920’s/30’s. We bought it in Brooklyn reupholstered. After moving it to Kingston then Beacon and living with it for 6 plus years, the fabric isn’t brand new anymore. Good but not excellent condition. $300
Bought this Eastlake rocker at a shop in Beacon. Paid $350 and would like to get as close as possible. It is comfy!
See that bed? That was our guest room bed. We no longer need it since we don’t have a guest room. Deco. Decent condition. Full. If you’re not paranoid about bed bugs (there aren’t any) we can throw in the mattress and box spring. $110. We also have some twin frames and a Mid Century Queen headboard.
We’re asking $150 for the enamel table. See those chairs in the picture? We have 6 of them. They were our dining room chairs that we bought at Stormville when we first moved into the Beacon house. They never really matched our dining room table (which we’re keeping). Anyhoo, we paid $750 for the set of 6 and will take best offer. They’re English, 1800’s. Disclosure: Our dog chewed a corner of one of them.
Speaking of chairs, we have 4 painted brown ones that would match the table if repainted white. We’ll sell them with table for $200, entire set if ya want.
Antique wood burning stove from Beacon farm house. Needs a good sandblasting or wire brushing and some spray paint. $250
Mid Century reproduction lamps. A guy. A gal. And a whole lotta kitsch. This was actually from my cousin’s house and I have to do right by them. $175 for the pair.
So, you should come to the show. But if there’s anything you’re interested in, let us know and we won’t schlep it to Stormville for nothing.
When we moved out of our Beacon home four months ago, we left most of the furniture and all of our artwork behind to stage the house. It looks great but ah, at what cost, my friends?
For four months now we’ve been living out of totes because there’s nowhere to store the items we would like to unpack. Yes, we have closets and we brought dressers and our bed, a couch, a table and chairs…but honey, it’s not set up as it should be.
And then there are the stupid things we just forgot to pack. “Oh honey, where is such and such?” “In Beacon.” It’s not easy, this double life. But it will all be over soon!
I don’t want to jinx anything, but we can probably take our stuff out at this point. And we will, because if this deal falls through (Oh shit! Did I just jinx it?!) we’ll end up looking for renters by October. So, all of our crap needs to be out either way.
Now I have the horrible task of actually emptying out the entire house (and garage and basement and attic) instead of putting it off.
Ugh, maybe I prefer living without furniture.