@BrooklynRowHouse

In January 1999, I said goodbye to my downtown loft and moved into an old row house.  While I got it at a terrific price, it took almost a year to close the deal.  Sellers were dying, powers of attorney were dying, people were falling off roofs and my mortgage commitment was days away from expiring.  It was a fitting prologue to the story.

I liked the style of the house but the initial attraction was the attached garage for my bikes. Almost every house on the street, except this one, was well cared for.  The neighborhood was quiet and there was a pretty park at the end of the block, not that I would have time to actually visit it over the next few years.

The house had great bones but suffered from decades of neglect.  I questioned whether or not I had bitten off more than I could chew.  This wouldn't be a rip-and-replace for one thing.  In my youth, I had worked on gut rehabs, which were essentially new construction. My prior home was a 5000 square foot factory space that I'd converted into a residential loft.  I'd designed and built a couple of commercial recording studios.  I had some cabinet and furniture making experience. But I wasn't really sure what to do with an old house, except what I saw on TV.
Recent posts

"You can do it. We can help."...read more  

Posted 2 days 22 hours ago.

A couple of weeks ago, I did my annual pre-heating season ritual of flushing my 42 year-old Weil-McLain steam boiler in preparation for the ceremonial relighting of the pilot light.  I learned later from a plumber that you shouldn't flush a cold boiler because the fresh incoming water will leave chemical deposits.  It was academic in this case however because the boiler drained dry. WTF?  The low water cutoff (LWCO)/autofeed should have replenished the boiler with fresh water.  It didn't.  Granted, the LWCO looks like some sort of World War 2-era device and it had never been serviced since I bought the house so I wasn't surprised that it had failed.  I called the most knowledgeable plumber I knew in the neighborhood.  If ever there was a plumbing geek, it's him.  He even collects old boile...read more  

Posted 13 weeks 6 days ago.

The #1 question I get asked on this blog is "What's your #1 piece of advice for a novice DIYer?"   I sort of hate that question because every situation is unique. Is it "prime before you paint?"  Or "measure twice, cut once?"  Or "dull blades are dangerous?"  Or "make certain the breaker is really off?" Fact is, you'll find lots of sites with lots of Top Ten lists for do-it-yourselfers.   Just read the first thing on the list, I guess. My answer is usually to reject the question.  Or maybe it should be, "If you think that a #1 piece of advice is going to help you, then my #1 piece of advice would be to call a contractor." But then I discovered something that was just too good not to share.   This is now my #1 Piece of Advice For The Novice DIYer:...read more  

Posted 13 weeks 6 days ago.