They are using the word "soon"

This week we'll send over our construction documents to the contractor, and receive a revised pricing on our project. Tuesday our architect will be reviewing with a window installer what pricing would be for the whole house versus just the kitchen windows, which is what initially we have planned to do. We'd like to do all the windows in the house, but its not a cheap process.

Our Other Blog

While it won't change the experience too much as we're still pretty early in this endeavor, we've decided that the broader neighborhood commentary and observations should be organized in a separate and discrete way from the house renovation project. As such, we've begun a blog called Boerum Hill Blog (see link at right) which will be repository for such ramblings. At some point perhaps when we're more sophisticated that will be merely an alternate tab on the same domain, but for now this will do.

Also, in a nod to the terrific coverage of our esteemed neighboring community observer and commentator Mr. Brownstoner, we are seeking to contribute to the community dialogue in a lower volume, perhaps slightly more targeted way. The other thing we'll say is that we won't be terribly active to begin with as we've got a wedding to plan and a house renovation to get going, and well, generally speaking, alot going on right now. That said, we look forward to becoming more involved in our wonderful and beloved neighborhood.

Just call him chill (or 'pink tongue')

We hope the owner does not mind, but we had to share the sight of this pink tongued fuzzball snoozing on Sunday in our neighborhood favorite, the Brooklyn Inn. This might be the most chill dog we have seen in quite some time. Pretty much ideal -- Sunday, snooze, newspaper, beer. And a warm lap. Can't beat it.

Its here?

So even after today's bizarre flurry/ blizzard, we're optimistic we're pretty close to spring. Well, in any case, our magnolia tree in front of the house thinks so at least. For us, that's good enough.

Better be skinny

So this is one of our favorite observations of our new abode -- the resourcefulness of the previous owner in cutting away the counter of the sink in order to allow the door to close. The other aspect of this less-than-usable WC is that the room itself is so narrow that the access to the tub (behind toilet) is only about 16" wide. Might motivate one to go one a crash diet. Not going to take too many showers there. (Actually, this bathroom will be seeing the inside of the dumpster)

The stack and other house viscera

As promised, here are the additional pics of our liberation of the insides of the walls. Our architect was having fun here. Also see the soil stack which goes right up the middle of the house. Lots of twists and turns here.

Mantel questions

As we mentioned previously, here's some of our foot-powered liberation handiwork. This used to be a fireplace as you can see. We're hoping to take the mantel from the top floor front and bring it down here (back of parlor), which will be nice to have in the kitchen. The mantel will be a nice counterpoint to the modern kitchen design that our architect is formulating. We're not sure why the mantels in several of the rooms of the house are gone. It is conceivable that at some point the fireplaces were too much to maintain and thus closed up, which could be the reason. Though why would you remove them? Another view is that there was a shortage of money and the mantels we sold. The final question is, for the mantels which remain, why would you paint them?