Bullets In The Back Yard

Posted on June 12, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

Yesterday we had some architecture students over to the house and one of them noticed something… We’re not sure what to make of it and we don’t know how long they’ve been there, but there are a whole bunch of bullets in our back yard…

There used to be concrete covering the back yard. We’re not sure if they were under the concrete or whether they’ve been thrown there recently. Given the oxidation I’m guessing they’ve been there a while.

What’s the proper way to dispose of bullets? Should we take them to the police precinct?

UPDATE:

So I gathered the bullets up and took them into the precinct. They were NOT happy to see me – they said I should have called 911. But seriously… flashing lights and sirens for a bunch of old bullets? They also thought I was bonkers for waiting two days to deal with them since I saw them on Saturday and didn’t do anything until Monday. But it’s not like they were going anywhere… I think they were most upset that they couldn’t get someone else to do the paperwork. They seemed to agree with me that the bullets were quite old – probably under the concrete for decades.

I stopped counting bullets at 30. I think there were probably 50 bullets there – at least three different calibers. There were these little baby bullets – I’d never seen anything that small before. The big ones seemed like they were on the small side of what you’d use in a rifle.

Bulkhead Taking Shape, Plumbing Progress

Posted on June 5, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

It’s been a little while since I wrote up a status report on the house. Things are coming along, but the change is less dramatic and more incremental.

The Bulkhead

The one thing that’s a bit dramatic is the bulkhead on the roof (or “the penthouse” if you want to take a legalistic definition of it as the DOB does).

Our roof deck looks a bit small in that picture – the three of us sorta fill up the space, but that’s partially a depth perception thing with the photo. But then again, our place is only 15 feet wide.

The two big openings will be pretty much all glass. The one on the right will have a glass door and a window. The one on the left will have two windows. Each window/door will be 3′ x 7′ – so nice and big with lots of glass to get light into the building.

We’ve opted for a bulkhead in lieu of a skylight because it should get a better quality of light into the house. Skylights, being flat on the roof, get the most light/heat in the summer and less light/heat in the winter. That’s the opposite of what you actually want. We wanted a big scoop to catch light/heat in the winter when the sun is low on the horizon and give us less light/heat in the summer when the sun is high in the sky – a bulkhead achieves that goal. Initially we weren’t going to make it go all the way across the building, but were forced to by zoning rules regarding “side yards”.

At some point we’ll also put a retractable awning above the door/windows so we can have shade in the summer when we’re sitting up on the roof deck or if too much light is getting into the building. Dan’s “clean studio” in the front of the building will have large clerestory windows directly opposite the bulkhead windows. That room in particular may be too bright at times.

Since Manhattan points NNE, the bulkhead windows will face SSW. The photo above was taken about 10am and the sun hadn’t hit the windows yet (morning light in Manhattan, north of the Village, hits the “North” side of buildings). So the bulkhead will mostly get light in the afternoon and early evening. though there will be a fair amount of reflected light coming in the morning.

Just behind the bulkhead steel beams have gone in which will hold the condensor units for the mini-split A/C system. Originally our architect was planning on mounting them on pads on the roof, but everyone told us that would be a bad idea since we’d feel the vibration and hear the noise. Steel beams are the best way to go.

Cellar Windows

Staying on the window theme… The openings for the windows in the cellar have been made larger. Since Manhattan real estate is all about maximizing every square foot, we decided early on that we wanted to have part of the cellar dedicated to the tenant. It should make the apartment more attractive and make it almost as good as a 2 bedroom.

We went into a lot of townhouse cellars during our search and didn’t like any of them. So, to make it feel less like a cellar and actually a place someone would want to spend time, we did two things – we lowered the floor in the cellar a few inches and raised the floor on the ground level to give both levels a full 8 feet of height.

But the size of the windows was also really important. We wanted as much natural light to get into the cellar as possible. The window face South, so it should be possible to get a lot of light in there. We figured we’d lower the bottom of the windows slightly and since one of the windows went up pretty high we thought we’d have a bench by the window on the ground floor to give clearance for a bigger window below. But Dan never did like the bench idea. He always wanted smaller windows and a flat floor in the rental bedroom.

Well, it looks like Dan is getting his way 🙂 The contractor had to replace the lintel between the windows (it was cracked), and when he put in the new one he lowered it so it’s now even with the other, smaller, window (which looks “right”). The bigger cellar windows are a pretty nice size even with the top being lower on the one window. And the flat floor in the bedroom is definitely nice. So that’s a deviation from the plans we all seem to like.

That means the window in the rental bedroom (ground floor) is now the same size as the door. We’ll have the contractor put brick in the bottom of the opening to avoid the need for tempered glass in the bottom pane and make that window more like the rest of the windows in the house which have their sills at about 18 to 20 inches off the floor.

From inside the cellar the windows seem pretty big. They will start above the ceiling – immediately under the floor above.That said the framing of the windows (3 1/2″ all around) will make the actual glass area considerably smaller, but they should still be decent sized windows that let in lots of light.

What’s really great is that the back yard is almost 3 feet lower than the sidewalk out front. So, while the ground floor is about a foot below the sidewalk, it’s 18″ to 2′ above the back yard. That means the cellar space is not completely below ground in the back. That makes a huge difference and when the tenants look out the cellar windows they won’t just be looking at the concrete wall of the light well.

Plumbing

Plumbing is progressing pretty well. It’s actually pretty amazing when you think about what our place looked like two and a half months ago. Looking up in the building it feels completely different – you see the guts of a real, modern home…

They’re concentrating their plumbing efforts on our unit initially, since the rental unit isn’t all that secure yet. As you can see in the picture to the right drain vent and supply lines are largely in. There are 4 copper lines running up the building. One is just for the flushometer toilets (so there are no pressure drops when we flush a toilet). Then one for hot water, one for cold water and there’s a little one that’s a return for the hot water so it can circulate and we’ll get hot water as soon as we turn on the tap. Without that it would take forever to get hot water from the cellar to the top floor.

One change we made to the plans was wall mounted toilets in our unit. We had originally wanted wall mounted toilets but thought they were too expensive. But after thinking about it, it’s just so much easier to clean around them, so we told our contractor we were OK with the extra cost ($500/ea) for the wall mounting apparatus.

The tub has also arrived (see picture below) and presumably will be put in place soon. We got the same one Julia Angwin had wanted – a 5.5 foot Kohler “Tea For Two” – a nice, deep soaking tub. Luckily it’s getting put in place while the framing is still flexible. In her case they realized too late that they framed incorrectly so they only had room for the 5 foot version which is completely different – it’s much shallower and was very disappointing for them since it’s not a soaking tub at all. Actually each of the three sizes of Kohler’s Tea For Two is completely different from the other sizes. The 6 footer has armrests built into the sides of the tub (yuck!)

The tub is made out of cast iron and weighs a ton (not really, but it almost feels like it). Metal tubs was another thing Dan wanted, and I’m glad he insisted. We put a fiberglass tub in our last apartment and it’s just not the same… It scratches and feels completely different (doesn’t hold heat, etc.)

The other plumbing thing going on right now is the paperwork to get a new connection to the water main (ours isn’t working). That was submitted this past Tuesday. Apparently it takes a really long time to get a new water main connection – everyone is saying two months. Unfortunately the new water main connection has to be done before the plumbing can be inspected and the walls closed up. And ConEd won’t put in gas and electric until the new water main connection is done. Which is a bit of a problem since it means our contractor has to continue to use generators.

That means early August things will start getting very busy. The windows will be arriving from Austria. The water, electricity and gas will be connected, then a few weeks later insulation will go in and by September hopefully they’ll be putting up sheetrock.

Signs of Life

I’ll leave you with a cute picture… Today we saw a tree that’s trying to grow in the brickwork in our parlor window. How it managed to get situated there and grow even that big is beyond me. But it’s sorta cool…

Hopefully this week the electrician will be in and the roofing guy will get a proper roof on the building so we can stop worrying so much about water pouring in the building when it rains.

West Harlem Came After Central Harlem

Posted on May 30, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

I don’t want to bore people too much with a bunch of maps, but it’s interesting to note that West Harlem (Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill) came well after Central Harlem (which as we saw last time came after East Harlem)…

In my last posted I showed that the period of lots of street openings in Central Harlem was around 1869 to 1872. Looking at the interactive maps on the NY Times, you’ll see the streets in Sugar Hill were opened in the mid 1880s – about 15 years after Central Harlem. Here’s a map from 1884 showing that many of the streets in Sugar Hill hadn’t been opened yet (they were opened a year or two later)…

Remember that actual development (not just street openings) was well under way in Central Harlem by that time.

When you look further south to Hamilton Heights you’ll see that the prime blocks there (the ones currently landmarked), weren’t built until the mid 1890s. Here’s a map from 1892 showing that streets like Hamilton Terrace weren’t open yet.

So in general East Harlem came first, then Central Harlem, then Sugar Hill, then Hamilton Heights.

The Development Of Central Harlem Streets

Posted on May 29, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

The New York Times has an interesting interactive multimedia presentation that shows which streets were opened at what time. I thought I’d do a few screenshots to show the development of Harlem over time…

Starting with 1812, you can see that the only road in Harlem was 8th Avenue (now known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard). However, this isn’t surprising. In 1811 the New York Planning Commission said that “Harlem would not be developed for over a hundred years.” At the time, population was dwindling in Harlem and only 91 families lived in the area as of 1820. Harlem back then was just a few big estates with one school and one church.

After FDB was opened not much of anything happened… By 1834 only a few other streets had been opened – 125th Street, 129th Street, and East Harlem saw 3rd Avenue open.

A bit more happened after 1834. By 1839 you can see that East Harlem was being fleshed out as were a few streets north of 125th. Finally, you also see that 7th Avenue (now known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard) and 5th Avenue are opened, as was Mount Morris Park West.

The activity in East Harlem came about because the New York and Harlem Railroad (now known as Metro North) was incorporated in 1831 and their tracks went through East Harlem.

Over the next 8 years it seems nothing got done in Central Harlem… The 1847 street map is pretty much identical to the one from 1839…

Harlem went into another decline after 1850 – perhaps not in the number of people, but in the quality of people as poor Irish squatters started moving in. By 1857 a little more was happening in Central Harlem, but not much. 119th Street was opened, as was a small portion of 120th Street, and a little bit of 117th over by Morningside Park.

Another 7 years goes by and by 1864 Harlem was still in decline and not much was happening…

Then things start to change… Three years later, by 1867, 124th Street, 122nd Street and 115th Streets had been opened as had a number of smaller sections of streets.

Then the pace of things really starts picking up. Two years later, in 1869, a whole host of streets (including our street – 123rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue) are opened. The Harlem street grid we know today is finally getting fleshed out.

Most of the remaining streets are completed by 1872…

The street building in Harlem was most definitely a case of “if you build it, they will come”. It took the streets being built to get the railroads to come. In 1880 an elevated railroad came to Harlem. And once the railroads were there most of the building started in earnest as real estate speculators tried to cash in on the newly accessible area. The mansard roof townhouses on our street were built that year. Our place (and it’s siblings) were built in 1884. And most of our block was built out by 1890 with a couple of large apartment buildings being completed by 1895.

By 1887 the little blocks over by Morningside Park were completed as was Madison Avenue north of 120th Street.

My Nephew Paul Graduated From Harvard Law!

Posted on May 27, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

I spent yesterday day tripping to Cambridge Mass to see my one and only nephew Paul graduate from Harvard Law. We’re all incredibly proud of him.

Next week he’s moving to NYC (Brooklyn) to study for (& pass) the NY bar. It’ll be great having him around – I haven’t had any of my family in NYC before (other than Paul being here last summer).

Once he passes the bar he’s going into public service law here in New York City. His primary interest is helping the poor with landlord/tenant issues.

Prior to going to Harvard Paul worked for People For The American Way. While there (among other things) he did blogging for RightWingWatch.org, which is ironic given that my parents (his grandparents) are fundamentalist Christians who have given heavily to Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. I used to hear Jerry Falwell specifically name People For The American Way as one of the enemy organizations that were working to undermine “traditional Christian values”.

Needless to say I think Paul (my parents’ only grandson) has managed to get “black sheep” status like I (their only son) have. I did it by majoring in “socialism” (aka Sociology) and by being gay. So it’s somewhat fitting that the two black sheep of the family will both be living in Sodom & Gomorrah (aka New York City). Needless to say I’m baffled by my parents’ belief system which can see evil in a guy with a Harvard Law degree who chooses to dedicate his life to serving the poor. All I can say is that success is the best revenge – though it’s not really about revenge – they’re just irrelevant to our lives – which IMHO is a fate worse than revenge when you’re talking about someone’s only son and only grandson.

Remarkably Harvard Law is incredibly aggressive in getting their graduates to do public service. The commencement brochure had a long list of the names of grads who had done more than 1,000 hours of pro bono service during their time at Harvard and a shorter list of those who had done more than 2,000 hours (one work year) of pro bono service. Paul was on the 1,000+ hours list.

Harvard goes even further in pushing their grads to do public service – they’ll actually pay off their graduates’ student loans if they work for a certain amount of time in public service (or pay a percentage if the graduates work less than the full amount). It’s pretty amazing to think of an army of Harvard Law grads working for equality. Stuff like that can really change the world.

One humorous note was that Ruth Bader Ginsburg made an appearance at the graduation. She attended Harvard back in the late ’50s, when Harvard Law was just starting to admit women. Family obligations required her to move to NYC after her 2nd year. At the time she asked Harvard to let her finish her 3rd year at Columbia and still get a Harvard degree. Harvard declined and she got a degree from Columbia instead. At this year’s main commencement she was finally awarded the degree. Apparently Ginsburg still holds a bit of a grudge ’cause she insisted on also showing up at the Law School commencement and driving home the point that Harvard refused her the degree back in the ’50s. Here she is talking at the Law School commencement (she’s just a bit bigger than a dot – we were sitting towards the back).

It was also great to see people from my family. The picture to the right is my sister Carol – Paul’s proud mom. Paul’s dad was there, his sisters Joi and Bessa were there, my sister Kathy was there, and Paul’s uncle Roger and his family was also there in addition to several friends.