Framing

The metal frame for the mezzanine is up. We have a loft!

Goodbye 58th Street

From this...

... to this!

My landlord at 58th Street was moving back so despite the renovations not being completed, I packed up my things and said goodbye. So while Cuomo was hustling the gay marriage legislation, Victor and I filled up the U-Haul and put everything I owned into storage. Nothing stands still, we march forward!

High Beam

Check out these lofty beams, exposed after the demolition and removal of popcorn plaster. The real suprise was this massive nearly 14' column hidden in the bathroom, who would have known?
What else is hidden in the closet?

Grey Herringbone

I'm certain that there are more important and urgent matters than finding the perfect floor colour. So I shall not add fuel to this embarrassing middle-class concern, but keep this short with a few photographs of Floroom 2 in Florence.

BIG Karma

The last time Sergio, Victor and I went to BIG (Build-It-Green) we found this lovely matte gold Waterworks Showerhead set only to be told a few days later that it was no longer there. Also gone was a pitch black granite counter top 2" thick which will be a perfect foil to the black stained kitchen cabinets.The only item which they still had was the heavyweight commercial-kitchen-hose style faucet.
In any case we had to drop off our BIG donations (taken-apart wooden loft, two sinks and the stove) so we made a second trip there today. Imagine our delight when we saw the black granite top still there! I will attribute it to good karma from the donations, notwithstanding the tiny tax benefits. The three pieces comprising the granite top were super heavy but we managed to lug it into Victor's van. This will save us precious days on the work schedule not having to custom cast it on site. No picture of it here but cant wait to see it cut to size and installed.

Donations

We will be back next week for the 4' x 8' wood-panelled panels, lumber (from an old water tower) for the staircase threads, open shelves and window seat. There was also a surfer dude buying the same (it's been drying for 100 years!) to make surfboards - how cool is that!

Surfboard maker

Items for sale

White Console

White Console detail

Habitat shelves

White lamp

Saarinen dining set

Demolition man, finally!

After 3 months of tedious back-and-forth and filing for various permissions and permits, we have finally started demolition - what a huge relief we are moving forward!
With the dividing wall (between the previous bedroom and living room) and the 'attic' housing the old AC unit taken down, we have a blank canvas to start from scratch. It's amazing how much space we salvaged just by taking down the 'attic', and moving the AC unit to a smaller housing and routing it through the new mezzanine floor.
See the picture and check out the old monster AC unit (still to be taken down):