Monday, February 23, 2009

what's going on here?

In all of the time between my posts you'd think we would have done a ton of things in our house - but you'd be wrong. It's been really cold inside and my hands don't work when they're cold.
We are lucky enough to still have all of the original storm windows for the house. They have been sitting in our basement for a very long time - they even have the cobwebs to prove it. They are all engraved with locations so it's just a matter of figuring out which way is north and hanging them up.
We put up all of the storm windows that we could. They cut the cold and stop some of the wind. Our house is tall so the only windows we've been able to cover ourselves are on the ground level and the ones that we could reach from the front porch roof and back mud room roof. They, like the rest of our trim, need scraping and fresh paint. I love the 4 pane design over our existing windows and how they compliment the glass vestibule. I think we'll keep them up year round on the front and back of the house to keep the cold out in the winter and the cool in in the summer.


I know I said we'd be hanging lights but what I didn't realize is how hard it would be. Every room has had at least two problems to address. In the foyer we needed a deeper ceiling canopy, in our bedroom we have to add wood to have something to mount the fixture to, in our office we also had to crack open the ceiling and move some stuff around, we have weird metal things sticking out from here and there and a lot of re-plastering to do.
One of the bedrooms needing a larger ceiling cap and some plaster work:

The office now has a Structo-Lite foundation and now needs a coat of plaster:

Some of the bulbs broke for this fixture so we'll need to find more (they're a little hard to find.) This one has glass globes that cover the bulbs (not currently on) but it's still too bright and we'll need to put it on a dimmer.

This one is vintage and in its previous life it hung in our old kitchen:
We haven't tackled our bedroom yet but I did purchase a white Kulla lamp for this spot.

Below is the only fixture we were able to actually hang. It's in our living room and guess what? We hate it. I love the fixture. I love the medallion. I hate them together. Since the medallion is already up, we're going to have to find another fixture for here. Any suggestions would be welcome - whatever it is it can't hang too low because we've installed a TV above the fireplace.

We still have not painted our upstairs bathroom. I did spend an eternity patching and sanding all of the trim and walls. I have another quick sanding to do and then we'll be ready for paint. We actually even agreed on a paint color! We'll be using Benjamin Moore's French Beret. I'm trying the Aura paint in here since it's supposed to be cleanable and mold resistant and just so amazing... that's what I hear anyway.
French Beret:

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

so, let's make the most of this beautiful day...

The beautiful weather today is putting me in the mood for a nice walk around the neighborhood. Maybe this evening after work?
For now, I thought I'd post a link to Forgotten NY's latest walking tour of St. George for you to check out - it's an interesting read. I actually happened to catch the tour group stopped in front of our house from our living room window when they did this tour! Here's another link to an older Forgotten NY St. George walking tour from back in 1999.
And I thought I'd share a few old photos we've taken around the neighborhood over the last 6 years or so...

Walking up from the ferry at night - view of Carrere and Hastings designed Borough Hall.

An unsung bit of prairie architecture on St. Marks Place close to Hamilton Ave.

St. Peter's church on St. Marks Place.

A face of Stuyvesant Place.

Crumbling brick near Bay Street Landing ("The Pearl" being built in the background.)

Corner of Westervelt Ave. and St. Marks Place - house designed by Edward A. Sargent.

Opposite side of same corner - brick colonial with plaster lions keeping guard.