Our New Bathroom Window (Openings)

Posted on May 25, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

One thing we like about our place is that it’s an end unit. That means we can put windows in the sidewall to get air and light into the bathrooms. They’re not “legal” windows in that they can’t count towards air and light calculations nor can the be the required window for a bedroom since they’re on a lot line. But they’re legal in the sense that they’re allowed – though they either have to have wire glass in them or there has to be a sprinkler head in front of the window (we’re opting for wire glass).

We’re putting a small window in each of the bathrooms – so 4 windows total. Two are in, and one is in progress. Here’s what the opening looks like – almost looks original…

You’ll notice that at the top there’s steel. The steel is two rather large angle irons – it’s not a flat piece of steel. The angle gives it strength, but you sorta have to deconstruct the wall to get the angle iron in place. Here’s what it looks like as they deconstruct the wall to get the angle iron in place…

The window that we put in there will be double glazed. The outer pane will be wire glass (required by fire code). The inner pane will be “frosted” – the question has been what type of frosting we should use. The window manufacturer has 32 different choices(!) The leading candidate at this point is this one…

We weren’t considering that glass ’cause we thought it showed too much (the window will be in the shower area). However, what we realized today is that it’s almost impossible for the people across the alleyway to see much of anything so we can go for a glass that’s a little closer to clear. We’d rather have a window that shows something outside (even if it’s a brick wall) than to have something that’s so opaque that it’s just a boring white panel.

As you can see from the first two pictures, a fair amount of light will come into the windows – more than you might think on a narrow 4-5 foot alleyway. Should make the bathrooms noticeably better…

Reno Tip: Your Water Connection Should Be Job #1

Posted on May 25, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

Well, I think we’re up against our first delay. Our contractor contacted ConEd first thing in the project because he needed electricity for his tools, but he waited a little to figure out the water situation. Turns out that was a mistake.

ConEd won’t put in gas and electric until water has been resolved because too many times the guys doing the water mess up the ConEd connections. We were hoping our existing water connection would be good, but it’s not – we need a new connection. On top of that the mechanical engineer certifying the sprinkler system wants more heads and now we’re over 30 sprinkler heads – so we need a larger than normal connection to the water main (3″ instead of 2″).

Thanks to our highly efficient city government it’s going to be a 2 month wait to get approval for the new water connection. Then probably a week or two to actually get the work done. Then probably another couple weeks for ConEd. Only after the water connection is made can the plumbing be inspected. Insulation can’t be put in until the plumbing is inspected. Sheetrock can’t be put up until the insulation is done. And generally things just go more slowly when the guys are working on a generator instead of a real electrical connection. There’s still work that can be done while we’re waiting on the water and on ConEd, but it’s going to delay things.

So word to the wise renovator is to deal with your water (and sewer) connections first – you’ll save time down the road…

Roof Deck Railings Now NOT OK With FDNY

Posted on May 25, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

A couple days ago we went in for another Post Amendment Approval meeting (we were approved). As the plan examiner was stamping the plans he noticed the railing on our roof deck and told us they were no longer permitted by FDNY. We’re OK (with DOB) because we’re already approved and permits have been pulled and work started. But all new projects with roof deck railings have to get approved by FDNY before DOB will approve the plans.

Here’s a railing from another townhouse, just so you know what I’m talking about…

The problem is that firemen (in full gear) have grabbed hold of those railings and they’ve given way and the firemen have fallen. There are regulations about loads that the railings need to support, but enough railings don’t meet the regulations that FDNY is now banning them completely.

What FDNY wants is a brick parapet wall. Because deck railings have to be higher than regular parapet walls I’m not sure whether they’d be OK with a railing on top of a brick parapet – somehow I suspect those would have all the same issues as full railings. That means FDNY really wants you to have brick parapet walls that are 42″ off your roof (so much for looking at the view when you’re sitting on your roof deck). The plan examiner did mention that he’s seen FDNY give variances for railings, but to get those variances people had to put a gate into the railing.

The supports for our railing will be fasten directly to the roof joists (rafters). But apparently that may not be enough to keep FDNY happy. So now we need to figure out whether we want to get the FDNY variance. DOB isn’t requiring it, but it might become an issue when we go through our C of O inspection. Personally I understand where they’re coming from, but having them change the rules after approval is frustrating.

Good Overview Of Real Estate Market

Posted on May 21, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

I thought this interview with Richard LeFrak had a lot of truth in it…

The take-aways are:

There’s a glut of single-family homes across the nation. Values are still 10 to 15% higher than they should be and are likely to continue to decline.
Rental properties are doing very well right now since people are afraid of being trapped in a bad investment if they buy, so they’re renting.
A lot depends on the City. If the City has job growth its real estate market is fine (e.g. Washington D.C.)
Commercial real may be going back into a bubble. Low interest rates are what’s spurring the investment.
New York City is doing pretty well.

The Mess In Our Back Yard

Posted on May 17, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

We knew our back yard was a bit of a mess. It was clear that when they were renovating the building adjacent to ours that they had just dumped a bunch of garbage in our back yard. We figured there was about a foot of garbage back there…

On top of that when a friend of ours (who does gardening for a living) saw the garden he said the plants that were going in it were rather insidious – that we should kill them with RoundUp and then put black plastic over the entire garden for a summer to try to kill them.

There’s so little in our place there aren’t many surprises, but it seems like every time there could be a surprise we’ve got one. The back yard isn’t going the way we thought it would… They’ve started removing the garbage – and surprise! There’s concrete under everything…

You can’t quite tell, but the retaining wall on the side has about 2 1/2 cinder blocks in it – so it’s about 20″ high (plus the cap stone). And most of the “debris” is actually mostly dirt and rocks. I still don’t know how we have so many river rocks in the middle of Harlem, but there they are.

Our plans just call for removing the debris. It doesn’t mention anything about removing concrete – so we’ll have to work that out with the contractor since we don’t want a concrete back yard! That said, we don’t have to worry about insidious plants growing in a concrete back yard…

The other question is how do we integrate those huge rocks into our landscape design? I was really thinking of going a different direction… But we’ll figure something out. Dan says we should look at Japanese garden designs.