Wandernesting

The living room will be an easy room to cover: for the time being, it will be a nice sitting space with a beautiful light fixture, our current furniture and not much else. You’ve definitely got to prioritize when it comes to doing an entire house all at the same time, and things like built-ins will simply have to wait.  More Black Friday sales luck, however, made the light fixture something we had to go for sooner rather than later. Here she is in all her glory:

In fact, this photo of another Brooklyn brownstone served as great inspiration for our living room altogether. We too have a chimney in our space, though ours will be on the opposite wall. Ours also doesn’t have the lovely, period mantel that this one has, so it will be something we may try to find through Brownstoner or a Build it Green at a later date.  We’ll also try to find a great period mirror to complete the look.  The color is very pretty, too – for anyone who is interested, it is Benjamin Moore® Ben® Paint, Coventry Gray HC-169. We may, however, opt for something a little lighter and perhaps in a pale shade of blue, as our kitchen (the other major space on this floor) will feature gray prominently, but I’ve always been a big fan of gray, so you never know!

Our living room will have a similar opening, and our windows and ceiling height are all more or less the same, except everything will be reversed (our stairs and the entry to the parlor are on the other side).  Here is another inspiration photo:

Living room cabinet.

We had hoped to have the space for a separate tv area not in the main living space, but alas, space is always short and you have to compromise somewhere. We’re therefore going to eventually opt for some sort of built in in the living room to house the tv area, but this is probably an “after party” project (after the main renovation, that is).  The tv will be covered and the components area will have a similar grating to the photo above, but overall, we want a more built in look.  Our heating ductwork will go above this cabinet, so something more built in will keep things looking streamlined throughout. Here’s a final potential inspiration photo:

Built in for living room area. Ours will likely have grill work on the cabinet doors for easier component usage, some sort of doors to hide the television, and crown moulding to match the rest of the space.

Finally, the floors throughout the house will be supplied by Premium Wood Flooring, not far from us in Brooklyn. The old flooring was definitely difficult to part with as it was one of the few period details remaining in the house, but past renovations and changes to a two-family took its toll, and it would have been more expensive to restore the floors than to replace with some major compromises in terms of aesthetics and comfort (sound mainly).  The floors also required straightening from years of settling and were quite creaky in spots, which is easier to fix at the sub-floor level anyway.  It turns out that the old floor was actually very thin when it was pulled up, so it may not have survived the renovation, sanding and refinishing that would have been required.  Sorry to see you go, though, old floors.

The original parlor flooring. Very pretty, but thin, warped and super creaky. Still sad to see you go.

We’ll opt for a character grade, tung oil finished walnut throughout the house.  With any luck, the flooring in the living area (and throughout the house) will look something like this when we are all finished:

Character grade wide plank walnut with wood pegs and a natural finish.

Still considering 4 inch versus 5 inch wide plank.  Awaiting the final numbers! Thanks for reading.

One benefit of having started our renovation later than expected is the bevy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales we were able to take advantage of as we start the shopping spree.  Faucets, shower bodies, tubs, toilets and accessories have all been ordered (details in a future post), and we’re finalizing many of the other selections. Next on the “big” list will be confirming our tile choices, which we’ll order once the room sizes are 100% confirmed and we’ve had a chance to review our tile choices with our architects.

One item that couldn’t wait for a later date was our kitchen lighting.  I actually won a contest over the summer with one of our favorite lighting sources, Niche Modern, so we’ve decided to splurge and make their beautiful pendants the focal point in the kitchen.  A Black Friday sale is forcing our hand earlier rather than later, but we are still torn in terms of the color; this is where you, dear readers, come in!

So, to give you an idea of what our kitchen will look like, here are the initial inspiration photos that very much replicate our layout and overall aesthetic:

Ben Herzog’s lovely inspirational kitchen.

Dining area view.

Our kitchen will have a similar layout, though our appliances will be larger overall, and our color scheme will be different.  We will have satin white, shaker cabinets, walnut floors, and grey granite countertops.  The color scheme will actually be quite similar to these two kitchens (without the dark island – our island will also be white):

White cabinets, grey counters, dark floors.

Another white cabinet, grey counter kitchen, this time with the fairly industrial hood and range combo we are going for as well.

So, why all the preemptive background, and what does this all have to do with our post title, Blue or Grey? We’re deciding between the two for our lighting choices.  Here are the line ups on the Niche Modern website:

The Greys:

The Greys.

The Blues:

The Blues.

The Clears:

The Clears.

We will definitely be using two of the longer, bell shaped lights over the island, and one of the four pronged lights over the dining table. The only question is, in a kitchen with lots of white and grey already, do we go with the grey four pronged Terra over the dining table with clear bell-shaped lights over the island (they don’t make grey bell-shaped lights), or go for blue for all three?  Here are some grey and blue lights in similar color schemes:

The Blue light room:

The blue. Too specific? Too blue in a sunny room with white cabinets?

And the grey scheme:

The greys. Safe and sophisticated or boring and the easier choice?

Help! We welcome your thoughts.

After our initial demo debris removal setback, things have been trucking along, literally and figuratively. What might have been two full container loads to haul mushroomed to 10-12 dump truckloads, but progress is progress! The basement level is nearly cleared out and ready for the work to begin, and the 1st floor is coming along. We haven’t braved the trek up to the 2nd floor as the house is of course very dusty, but we’re looking forward to the start of stage 2: straightening the joists, shoring up the sub-flooring and beginning the general structural work.

Some current shots of the basement and parlor level:

Garden level looking where the kitchen and bathroom once sat. Future playroom (left) and guest bathroom (right).

Parlor floor looking to the back where the new kitchen will be.

Removing the wall between the two parts of the house revealed that the siding to the stairs had been removed.

Old bathroom to be replaced with a dining area.

One item I had sincerely hoped to keep was the parlor level medallion.  Before what was likely many, many coats of paint, it must have been a lovely, well-scaled piece of plasterwork, but in truth, it had seen better days and better detail. With so many thick layers covering the work and weighing down the ceiling, it would have been difficult to marry it into the new ceiling layout, and with absolution from our architects, I’ll bit it a fond farewell. We’re hopeful to perhaps replace with either a new medallion, or, if the budget allows, a snazzy tin ceiling.

We certainly considered ourselves very lucky to have suffered no direct damage as result of Hurricane Sandy, but we are sorry to say that Sandy has officially been an impediment to our renovation nonetheless. We lost a few weeks after approvals due to power outages and backlogs at various departments, our contractor’s home suffering serious damage and now, something one would never think of as a problem: the indefinite suspension of alternate side of the street parking for much of Brooklyn. While you can hear the cheers neighborhood-wide from those thrilled not to have to move their cars, our need for a long, clear strip of parking area to accommodate a container to cart away our debris means that work will virtually cease for another week. Sigh.

The name of the game in our new home will be “transitional.”  We’d like to respect the era of the house and maintain and/or replicate as much as possible throughout, but much of the actual materials will be new.  There are some parts of the house, where we will not attempt to salvage materials: namely, the basement bathroom.

Notice the Alice in Wonderland effect of the walls? It isn’t your screen resolution.

Original clawfoot tub, and some seriously 60s wallpaper and paneling.

There is an original clawfoot tub that is unusually long, but I’m afraid that the more modern, clean take on the bathrooms throughout the house, plus the smaller footprint of these spaces, will mean the tub will be donated. We may try to re-purpose the tin ceiling in the parlor powder room, if there’s a segment that is in good enough shape to salvage.

So, here are some photos of planned components for the space:

Sink: we’re going for a concrete poured sink as this space will be used by kids, gym goers and gardeners primarily. We want something that will be easy to clean, functional but also really snazzy.  Here’s a photo of what we’ve going for:

Concrete trough double sink with open shelving below.

This sink is from Trueform Concrete, which is unfortunately a bit out of our budget. We’re hoping to have something similar fabricated by someone locally.

Floor tile: again, we’re looking for something that will easily mask the inevitable fingerpaint disasters ahead of us, so we’re opting for this awesome slate tile from AKDO:

This is Slate Trellis (tumbled) in Desert Sand. It is surprising affordable too, given how intricate and interesting the pattern.

Wall tile: This is one area that we are going to decide on when we head to our beloved Home and Stone showroom to place the rest of our order. We’re looking at a larger sized tile, stacked (not staggered like subway) in a coordinating color (similar to the wet room photo below, though probably much lighter in color). This tile will be used in the shower and bath area. Stay tuned.

Faucets: we wanted a one handed option for messy hands. This Grohe version fits the overall bill:

Medicine Cabinet: Since the adjoining space will likely be used for guests (and as anyone who lives in New York knows, guests often tend to stay a while), we’ve decided on an oversized medicine cabinet for storage. This may not be the final selection, but we’re leaning in this direction:

Hard to tell from the photo, but this is mirrored inside and out and will extend the length of the sink.

Bathtub: Since the tub will be within a larger wet room, we just wanted something simple and easy to clean. This is very similar to the tub we put in during a previous renovation (this one is by Zuma), and we were very happy with the overall function:

Here is a visual of the “wet room” mentioned above:

Wet room concept: shower and bath within one space to save room.

Since the space isn’t huge, in order to accommodate both a shower and a tub, this will be a great solution. We may choose a more enclosed glass option once it is time to order for more of a steam room effect, but this is a good starting point.

Lighting: The room will have a few recessed lights for function and a light bar over the vanity to tie everything together.We liked the unusual shape and color of this Garbo Wall Sconce, carried by Lightology, but we’ll hunt for a more budget friendly version.

Thanks for reading! Comments and material suggestions are more than welcome!

Today is a day we weren’t sure would ever happen: the day we’d begin to catalog the journey that brought us to our new home in Brooklyn.  Like many who dream of an idyllic life for their family that doesn’t involve apartment living, long commutes from the suburbs or terrible schools, we set our sights on brownstone Brooklyn about a year and a half ago with stars in our eyes and reigning optimism. 100+ house tours, 3 different cities, 9 different sublets, 2 failed offers and many hours of conversation about what we really wanted in life later, we were convinced it would never happen.  We kept taking 2 and 3 month sublets in the hopes that “something would come up” before we would ultimately give up.  Sure enough, days into our avowed last short term sublet and mere weeks after nearly committing to a long-term rental, we found our home: a for sale by owner with a sign in the window. We called, we viewed, we offered, we agreed and suddenly, our ground had finally solidified under our feet.

This will be our journey to making our new house our home. Having renovated an apartment previously, we do have some insight into what lays ahead, but a house is of course a greater adventure and thus (hopefully) worthy of documentation. We hope to use this platform to keep friends and family apprised of our progress, and to perhaps help others in the midst of their own renovation projects.  We’ve taken great inspiration from blogs, Pinterest and Houzz and hope that our amassed information will be useful to others.  So, welcome! Buckle your seatbelts – I suspect we’re in for a wild ride.