B I Z Z A R O W O R L D

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while we undergo major demolition and rebuilding in our kitchen and bathroom, the other parts of our house are serving different and multiple purposes. the cats are now eating in the bathroom, the litterbox is under the desk, and i'm doing my hair etc in the laundry room where there's also a chopbox and table saw stored. i'm sure the novelty will wear

off very quickly.

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U N I T # 3 B E F O R E & A F T E R

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we are lucky enough to have 2 rental units in our house. one was already in fairly good shape when we bought the place, but the other was pretty bad right from the open house. we bought our building with the tenants already in place. a good tenant in the good apartment and bad tenants in the bad apartment. not bad as in bad people...annoying, yes. but bad in a dirty, loud, young&naive, why do i have bugs oh maybe it's all the food out, way.

forward to the winter of 2009...when these gems left we fully gutted and renovated the leaky bathroom and 1972-era kitchen. there will be no drop ceilings in my house!

oddly, this is the only part of the house that still has some of the lovely details of a house made in 1901. including some great moldings, original wood floors, and a marble mantle, which is the only mantle left in a house that probably had 3 of them. of course i'm jealous and secretly wish the mantle was on our floor (we'll buy one when we get to that room).

this renovation was alot of work... alot of long hours after work and torturous weekends along with our (somewhat) trusty friend phil and our plumber jon.

it came out wonderfully and has pretty much held up through one set of tenants (although they did cause some damage, through no fault of the materials).

heres to many years of happy, careful tenants.

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T H E B I D S . . .

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...they are a comin' in. yikes!

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B A T H R O O M B E F O R E & A F T E R

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downstairs bathroom before (circa 2004)

and after! (late 2006)

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M O R E G R A Y K I T C H E N S

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here's another amazing gray kitchen from levinson/mcdavid architects

right here in brooklyn. love it!

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K I T C H E N C O L O R 2

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ok i love gray. haven't seen too many grayish kitchens...at least not in person.

i'm diggin' the idea of possible gray cabinets. the first 2 photos are an

amazing kitchen that is my major inspiration right now....with maybe not

such a crazy floor and not so glam & sparkly. the cabs are a very light gray.

photos from newmanandwolen.com.

this last one's nice too...more white then gray and very classic. like the

gray countertops/backsplash. it's something i've been thinking about since

the beginning of our planning.

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S T A I R C A S E B E F O R E & A F T E R

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there was a pretty narly looking staircase to the lower level here before.

looks like the staircase to hell...for a little while it was. we got right to ripping

out everything in the basement that the former 'owner/dirtbag/crazy person'

put in before. i mean, how can you even live like that?

the metal parts of the staircase had to be welded on site. fun!

installed and waiting for beefy maple treads.

then chris got to work on the gorgeous maple treads. nice and thick!

once everything's in place it's pretty freaking cool! an amazing transformation

if i do say so myself. it's funny looking back at these old pictures...how did we

see beyond the grossness and filth to buy this place...and think we'd live in it

as-is for a while? That changed quickly!

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