Zenning out

After the double whammy bummer news of last week, hearing that things were delayed at least another week and that my cranky neighbor will be on 24/7 vigilance for something to go wrong so he can pounce on me legally, there's only one thing to do: zen out, Ron, ZEN OUT.

I decided I wasn't even going to call and check-in with my architect, Steve.
Not only is the one week waiting period not over, it's a short work week. Nothing's going to get started.
It will all sort itself out and the job will start when it wants to start. All I can do is breathe...center...and enjoy the upcoming long weekend.
Ommmm.....

Piéce de résistance

Remember how I didn't believe Steve when he said the demolition would start the next day, after all the hazerai about the missing paperwork and deposit?
I WAS RIGHT.
I knew it was too good to be true.
Not only was there another setback...there were TWO.
The contractor was all set to go the next day but then the Super told him the crew couldn't start.
The management company STILL wasn't giving approval.
Steve got in touch with them to ask "What now?"

Paperwork will be the death of me.

Seems they neglected to tell him (on purpose?) that after the Alteration Agreement was signed by me,  there had to be a ONE WEEK WAITING PERIOD for the surrounding tenants to be notified of the renovation on their floor. Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this bureaucratic wormhole I've fallen into. This stipulation is in the TEN PAGE DOCUMENT but it's a line item, it doesn't necessarily jump out at you. But I signed it and agreed to all the rules. Why can't people be humane and tell you these things in advance?
But wait.
It's gets better.
The next day I get an email from the contractor, Guillermo.
When he was at the apartment trying to start the demo (but subsequently being shut down), my neighbor from across the hall, an 80 year old gentleman, spoke to him. As he wrote in his email, "Mr. ______ was not happy at all to hear that we are starting construction work in your apartment. In mode of warning, he advised me to reconsider the project." RECONSIDER THE PROJECT??  What is he talking about? No one in their right mind would buy that apartment in the condition it was in and not renovate it!  He went on to say that the old man had 'breathing problems' and that the last renovation on the floor was a neighbors kitchen that backed onto his kitchen and dust came through the wall and it affected his health.  But best of all, he was going to notify his attorney about the situation and would not cooperate.

I was apoplectic. I called Steve in a panic.
He talked me in off the ledge (I've been out on that damn ledge so often during this apartment odyssey that I ought to set up camp out there).
He said he had been talking to the management company.  I am 100% within my rights as a shareholder to renovate my apartment. Mr. Grumpy Old Man can't do anything to stop it. Steve also said that Guillermo is going to take every precaution under the sun to prevent any dust from getting next door. He's going to double tarp the doorway and will bring in a special air vacuum unit to suck up all the terrifying dust from the job during construction.
I guess the management company spoke to Mr. Grumpy and informed him that he wasn't going to be able to stop the renovation because the next day Guillermo got another letter from his attorney.
It basically stated that Mr. BossyPants has "no interest in hindering construction that is undertaken in compliance with building rules and with consideration of neighboring apartments. In this regard, we want you to be aware that Mr.________ suffers from COPD and will be particularly sensitive to activities that could create excessive dust or that could otherwise hinder his breathing."

In other words, "He's going to be Gladys Kravitz, watching you like a hawk, and if one SPECK of dust gets caught in this throat...WATCH OUT, he's lawyered up."

So that's it for now. The fun never ends, right?
All I can say is 'onward, let's light this candle'.

Marilyn slept here, pt. 2

The other day my friend Joe was asking about the progress of the renovation (or lack thereof).
We got to chatting about my new neighborhood and the building and I casually mentioned the trivia tidbit about Marilyn Monroe having lived there with Arthur Miller back in the 1950s.

Marilyn in '50s NYC

Joe asked me which apartment she lived in. The only thing I could find out on the internet was that she was on the 8th floor (my place is on the 5th). He said, "You know, I have a book titled 'Marilyn's Adresses', it lists all the places she lived and the stories involved. I'll bet your building is in there."

Later that night he texted me the page in the book about her living on Sutton Place...it even said the apartment number, 8E. Mystery solved! It went on to describe her living there with Miller before she went off to film "Bus Stop" and having given a press conference in the lobby (see photos of this in my earlier post about her from April 19th).

A big thanks to Joe for helping with the last piece of the puzzle :)

Close, but no cigar

Well, as is the custom for this project, there was another delay today. AARGH.
Today was supposed to be the day the contractor and his crew began demolition.
That didn't happen.

Why?
It seems there was some paperwork that I needed to sign and get to the management company, an "alteration agreement", stating obvious stipulations. That I would be responsible for damages to the building should they be incurred, that my contractor would have insurance, that the work wouldn't carry on for forever and a day, etc. Common sense stuff. I also had to get them a deposit check for a hefty sum to hold in escrow so that if the aforementioned damages did happen, they'd have advance payment at the ready. Whatever. It all made sense, it just would've been so much more convenient to know about it BEFORE the day we were supposed to start the job.
See, they would not allow the crew to step one foot into the apartment until they had the paperwork in hand. Great!
So I had to run to the bank to get a certified check made out to the tenant's association and then FedEx it to the management company's office for delivery first thing in the morning.
Steve, my architect, assures me that things will proceed according to plan tomorrow.
Gee, wonder why I don't believe him...

Get ready, get set...

I can't believe tomorrow is the start date.
No, REALLY, I can't believe it.
It's been TEN MONTHS since I first saw the apartment and at times it seemed like this renovation would never get off the ground.
Delay upon delay upon delay, compounded by the sloooooow process dragged this on beyond what I thought even my breaking point was.
But all that's over now.
Tomorrow we begin the demolition! At last!

My contractor was at the site today meeting with my building's superintendent, getting the keys to the apartment, scoping out the freight elevator situation, etc...in other words, getting the lay of the land so the crew can start as scheduled.
I'll give it a few days before I go and take a look, that way more will have gotten done...given how slow this has all gone I don't want to be disappointed with the first day's work!

Crossing the rubicon

As we wait for the expeditor to get all the final city permits and paperwork finalized, I needed to sign and approve my contract with the contractor, Guillermo. I did that today and it was the easy part. The not so easy part? I had to transfer the first 25% of the renovation estimate into the contractor's bank account. Gulp.
It was a very large sum of money, but more importantly, there's no turning back now.
I'm in this. It's happening. Full steam ahead.

And normally this would make me extremely happy, especially with all the setbacks and waiting I've had to do the last few months. But I've had gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach all day today. The reason is that I'm so far over my original idea of what I thought this project was going to cost. WAY over. Do I have the money? Yes. (I did really well on the sale of my last apartment.) Am I happy about spending all that extra cash? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's money I was hoping to invest. But I'm stuck in forward now, you can't turn this ship around after it's left the dock.
The more we get into the renovation, the more the sting will lessen I'm sure. Talk to me in three months, let's see if that thought comes through.

Loco in la cabeza

I must be out of mind.
While I'm waiting for the final city permits to be approved in order to start demolition (supposedly just days away), I've started ANOTHER major renovation at the house in Sag Harbor. Crazy, right?
I think there's a psychological need to get SOMETHING underway and finished. So I decided to begin a project I've wanted to do for at least 15 years. I'm going to take one of the upstairs guest bedrooms  and turn it into a home office/craft room. It's got a nice vaulted ceiling and a dormer window so it's gets lots of light, just right for a big desk. I'm going to add a lot of millwork, built-in shelves that will go up to the ceiling peak around the window, and some more inset shelves under the dormer for lots of storage. Books, art supplies, CDs, music speakers...all in their proper place. At the base will be deeper cabinets with doors that can close off any stuff I don't want out in the open.
Here's the sketch I gave to the carpenter:

And here's the room as it looks now before the work begins:

A wall of shelves will run up to the ceiling around the window.

The desk will fit under this ceiling slope.

Inset shelves will go under the dormer window.

I'm going to replace the old window also. It will be '6 over 1' divided light to match all the rest of the windows in the house. There will also be room for a twin daybed (I have just the perfect one left over from the old apartment's guest room). I think it will be ideal for reading and napping. I'm also going to bring a big wardrobe I had in the apartment, it will add some nice needed closet space. It's in storage right now, but I'll have it delivered when the room is finished. I'm going to do all the millwork and window trims in Super White, the walls will be a nice buttery yellow, Benjamin Moore's "Montgomery White". Here's a piece of scrap for the wall color:

Montgomery White walls with Super White trim.

Yellow is a color I haven't used anywhere else in then house. It will make that room a little special, a cozy respite for creativity and lazy days. Happily, I've still got the other bedroom room across the hall for guests.

Going, going...budget GONE!

My architect, Steve,  and I re-examined everything in the contractors' bids to see what items we could trim and/or cut altogether to bring the estimates down without totally compromising our vision. Some things stayed and some things went.

I decided I definitely wanted to keep the high-end appliances, the stove and refrigerator. So the Sub-Zero and Wolf stove are staying, those things can help sell an apartment (I know this firsthand). But I could scale back on the dishwasher and washer/dryer. Okay, this was a start. I also said we could scale back on the kitchen and bathroom sinks and toilet. There are plenty of good brands out there that are quite good. I said 'no' to lesser brands of sink fixtures; I think they are a major feature of both rooms, also in the shower. We decided a good place to trim were the kitchen cabinets. It's a somewhat small and modestly sized kitchen, I don't need to spend exorbitantly on custom made millwork. I will be quite happy with standard factory cabinets. This is a BIG savings. Great hardware will add the right touch and they'll look terrific. The new windows throughout the apartment are expensive, they have to stay though. There's no substitute for the quality and look of the kind we want. We are going to try less expensive subway tiles in the kitchen (ceramic) and in the bath (marble). We'll also pick less expensive flooring in the kitchen, bath, and front hallway. We also found savings in not doing a super high-gloss finish on the living room millwork shelves, simple paint will be sufficient. Another big money saver. The last thing to be trimmed was the captain's bed, I can keep my current bed frame.

So taken altogether, these cutbacks brought down the bid of Steve's favorite contractor a lot, a good 130K! Needless to say I was very happy with that number. We can even bring the cost down more if I buy the appliances myself and not go through the contractor for the purchase. I found a very good appliance outlet in middle Long Island when I renovated the house, they are super nice and their prices are even better. But lest you think I'm getting through all this budget stuff Scott free with no overages, think again. I am still WAY over my original budget for the total renovation. It was all the old apartment features (lead paint, wiring, asbestos) that did me in. Thank heaven the place was so cheap to begin with! If I hadn't found it as a bargain, I'd be screwed. 

What about the other bids you ask? They were all much too high, much higher than the contractor we're going with. Steve assures me that our guy does great work, is super conscientious, clean and honest. Sold! Sounds good to me. 

Sticker shock

Steve the architect let me know today the initial ballpark estimates from the 3 contractors he had enlisted for bids on the renovation.
That sound you heard was my jaw dropping.
Not only were they all over my budget, they were ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OVER MY BUDGET! DOUBLE what I wanted to spend.
But before I climbed out on the ledge to jump he calmed me down (a little) by explaining why this particular job was getting pricey.

It boiled down to 5 major areas:

SUMMER CONSTRUCTION: The summer season is traditionally the most active for any type of construction, so getting the right workers comes at a premium. They're no dummies, they know they're highly sought after in this productive season so their price goes up. It's basic laws of supply and demand.

Summer construction is costly

ASBESTOS: Since no renovations or updates had been done to my apartment in over 50 years, the original tile flooring in the large gallery, the bathroom, and the kitchen was made of asbestos. It is extremely dangerous to remove and dispose of it. All the contractors said the best idea was simply to cover it up with new sub-flooring and top flooring (marble in the bath, tile in the kitchen, hardwood in the gallery). That said, it was still costly to work around it, there are labor precautions that drive up the price. Ugh.

Asbestos: BAD!

LEAD PAINT: Again, the old place revealed more ugly secrets. All the rooms were done in outdated and health hazardous lead paint. It would have to be totally scraped off, patched, and re-plastered before it could be re-painted. Many steps equals more money. And of course, safety precautions in dealing with the lead drives up the labor price as well. Ugh again.

Lead paint: ALSO BAD!

OLD ELECTRICAL: Three strikes you're out. The wiring in the apartment was decrepit and, most upsetting, out of Code. The entire apartment would have to be re-wired and updated electrically with a new main fuse box. You guessed it, this ain't cheap. Triple ugh! 

Old electrical: SCARY!

WINDOWS & HVAC: Replacing exterior windows to New York apartment buildings is not cheap. I knew this. It was a requirement for purchasing the apartment, a dictate from the building so I was mentally prepared for this cost. I wasn't prepared for the fact that I have expensive taste. The kind of beautiful double paned casement windows that I want are sky high. Add to that the super high labor cost of installing them five flights up. You have to work from scaffolding attached to the roof of the building, sort of like a window washer rig. In addition, the AC and heating unit has to be punched through the exterior of the building wall. Sound expensive? You betcha.

Through-the-wall exterior HVAC units: NOT CHEAP!

So net/net, all these things make sense; there's no getting around these costs. Old properties always come with hidden costs you don't forsee. So Steve and I went over all the other costs in the bids and started sharpening our pencils. We had to find some things we could cut back on or trim altogether. We think these edits will bring down the costs a lot. He's going back to the contractors with these new ideas to see how we affect the bids. I'll outline them all in the next posting (that's if I'm not out on the ledge again). Stay tuned...