More Incremental Progress

Posted on May 15, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

A number of things are progressing at the building…

They’ve put orange plastic netting in front of the windows so no one can fall out (good idea).

Windows with orange safety netting

Have I mentioned previously that we’re very happy that the wall supporting the cornice is in great shape? Apparently the cornice wall is the reason why a lot of cornices have to be ripped down. If the wall is bad, the cornice has to go. Having a good cornice wall drastically ups the chances of being able to just repair and keep our cornice.

They’re starting to frame the interior walls…

Framing for walls in place

Now that the plumbing is done in the cellar, they’re pouring the concrete floor. Technically pouring the floor is a “repair” since there was an old floor that was in poor condition.

Concrete floor in townhouse cellar

[Like the stick figure graffiti?]

The critical project at the moment is to raise the parapet walls 15″ to comply with current fire code.

Harlem townhouse parapet wall

That’s delaying building the bulkhead (since parts of the bulkhead rest on the parapet) and the delay with the bulkhead is delaying ordering windows (since we have to measure the bulkhead for the window order). And of course the house can’t be properly closed up until the windows are in…

The historic preservation folks aren’t happy about raising the parapet walls since it amounts to altering the structure of the building. But fire code trumps historic preservation, so they just have to accept it.

Speaking of things that can’t get done before other things… The big problem right now is that ConEd won’t re-establish gas and electrical service until after we re-establish water service. Apparently getting the water service reconnected is a huge hassle since we have to go through DEP. The water main subcontractor is trying to find loopholes to make the process faster. We were hoping the current connection would work, but only a tickle of water came out when they opened the valve. And yes, DEP does send you a water bill even when your property has no water service.

Also water related… the architect and the sprinkler engineer are trying to figure out the proper number of sprinkler heads in the building. We’re very close to the limit of 30 heads above which a second connection to the water main is required.

We did have one victory on the bureaucratic front… We finally got the previous owner’s old job for demolition closed out. They should have taken care of it years ago, but they didn’t. Notice the “X Signed Off” in the screenshot below…

Demolition job signed off

That’s one of those things that has to happen before we can get our C of O. But more importantly we were in a race against time on it since the old owner’s engineer had filed papers to get his name off the job. That could have potentially resulted in a(nother) stop work order.

So lots of little stuff is happening…

We Have A Roof & A View! (Sorta)

Posted on May 7, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

The roof, while far from done, got put up Friday – well enough to stand on at least…

The next thing we have to figure out is whether the slope of the roof will be uncomfortable as a deck. It changes by about 7 inches every 10 feet. We could do three level areas with one step between each, or we could live with the slope. We went to Home Depot this afternoon and got some plastic lawn chairs and plan on sitting up there this weekend to see whether it bothers us. (Anyone want to join us for a beer on the roof?) If we want to do three level areas we’ll need to raise the railings a bit to compensate for the additional height.

The roof lets us get a peek at our view. While we’ve stood on the roof of the apartment building next door, we’ve never actually seen the view from our own roof until today. It’s a story lower than the apartment building, and the view isn’t quite as good – it’s a bit obstructed…

(Click picture to see bigger version).

We can see midtown a bit. Citicorp is visible, and from the right angle the top of Empire State is visible, but much of the Midtown view is obstructed by the apartment buildings on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. And being Harlem it’s off in the distance anyway. Here’s a blow up of the best part of the view…

(Click for bigger version).

I gotta say though… The fact that our view is so precarious makes me want the boundaries of the Mount Morris Park Landmark District expanded so our neighbors to the south can’t build up and block our view. Thing is, even if they’re landmarked they could still build up a little and block things for us – by adding a bulkhead like we’re doing…

Honestly though, the most interesting thing on the horizon we see when we turn around and look across and down the block a bit at The Greater Metropolitan Baptist Church (originally a German Lutheran church)…

The nicest part of the roof deck is that it’s less of a fish bowl than the back yard. There’s a bit more privacy than the back yard ’cause it can be seen by fewer windows…

Construction Doorways

Posted on May 4, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

Bricked up doorway for workmen in Harlem townhouse One interesting detail we’ve seen in a number of Harlem townhouses that have exposed brick walls are old, original, bricked up doorways between the townhouses (see photo on right).

The old buildings you see in Harlem were built by speculative developers during a real estate boom (yes, that concept is nothing new). Developers would buy a parcel of land and sub-divide it by putting a number of townhouses up at once. Generally all of them would be identical, or just differ in minor ways.

Because they were building several buildings at once they’d put in passageways so the workers could go from one house to the next quickly. Then towards the end of the project all the doorsways would be all bricked up before the walls were plastered.

We have one of these on every floor. The lintels are in a variety of conditions. Originally they were wood. Some are in good condition, others are rotten and need to be replaced. One of them had the wood pulled out and brick put in (because it was in a kitchenette – which was a good thing since that’s where a major fire started).

Our doorways will still be visible when we’re done since we’re leaving the party wall as exposed brick. The old doorways will give the brick walls a little more character and may even prompt a question or two from observant guests.

Look Ma… No Roof!

Posted on May 4, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

No Roof…

Last Friday the contractor took off the roof. It had been pretty badly damaged in a fire nearly 15 years ago. It’s sorta amazing it was still more or less in one piece.

Having the roof off was a curious thing… it was a bit like having a private deck on the top floor of the building…

Once again, nice big windows – 🙂

They’ve started putting in the rafters for the roof. It’s going a little slowly because the bricks in the parapet aren’t in as good condition as the ones lower down in the wall.

Hopefully by the end of the week I can get up and walk on our “roof deck”. I put the ladder up on the top floor at one point and tried to see if I could see the Midtown skyline – not quite, but the roof deck will be 10′ higher. I’m sort of obsessing – wondering if the townhouse behind us will block our view. I’ll know soon enough.

More DOB Issues…

In other news, we passed our first plumbing inspection by default – the inspector didn’t show up. Apparently that’s pretty common – the inspectors focus on inspecting the work of problem plumbers or unknown plumbers and don’t worry so much about well-known plumbers who always pass inspections. That means we can now pour the concrete for our cellar floor.

Also DOB related is that our Post Amendment Approval (PAA) meeting was canceled at the last minute today. I’m guessing the plan examiner was out sick. That wouldn’t be a big deal except that we’ve been trying since mid-February to get the appointment and now it’s delayed another two weeks – to 3 months after we first requested it.

And here’s one gratuitous picture I thought was sorta cool…

The mason stands on those rolling scaffolds to do brick work between the joists.

The Placement Of ConEd Meters

Posted on May 4, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

Apparently ConEd had told our contractor that they wanted to put the meters on the outside of the building so they could be easily read. Our contractor didn’t bring the issue up with us and ConEd only made a passing comment to me at one point.

When it really sunk in that they were putting the electrical meters on the front of the building we got a bit upset. I mean gas and electric meters on the front of a townhouse can be incredibly ugly (see pic below). I talked it over with Dan and with our architect and we decided to be firm that the meters must go in the cellar, as per plans.

Luckily we now have documentation that the National Park Service considers our building historically significant, so we were able to simply refuse on the basis that visible meters would alter the historic character of the building. At least ConEd understands that historic preservation trumps their needs/desires.

The really ridiculous part is that the technology exists to remotely read meters, but apparently it’s not being used because of the strength of the meter readers’ union.