The TV luddite

I abhor setting up electrical devices.
All those wires, cables, connections, and instructions make me apoplectic with confusion.
After a while--and not a few choice verbal curse words--I somehow manage to stumble my way through to making it work. But let me be clear: it's not an easy road getting there.
So I've been putting off turning on my flatscreen TV for the last week because 1) I didn't feel like watching any television, 2) I don't plan on getting cable anyway, so what was the rush?,  and 3) my TV remote control somehow got lost in the move and I couldn't turn on the set anyway.
I stopped at Radio Shack last night and purchased a new universal remote and, lo and behold, they had a sale on AppleTV units. I wanted to get one instead of signing up for cable. A friend of mine told me he was saving over a HUNDRED dollars a month by becoming one of the new "cable cutters". Since I don't have a job right now that sounded like reason enough to try it too.
So I had my new remote, the AppleTV box, and I was ready to tackle the whole set-up. Not so fast. I went to check the wall cable, the one that inserts into the TV, and noticed it wasn't plugged in. I lifted it up and the whole metal end fell off. Great. What is this? It revealed that the end connection was nothing but a bunch of mangled little wires. It didn't look good.

The cable that connects the TV to the DVD player and AppleTV box

Here's the culprit; the end of the cable looks shot

Somehow the electrician bungled this one when he was connecting the flatscreen. He's coming again on Tuesday to work on more of the electrical punch list, so add this to the pile. I'm not sure if this means the whole cable is blown and I need a new one (how will they snake a new cable through the wall I wonder??), but I'm going to just assume it will get figured out. This strategy has done me well with other bigger problems in this renovation so It will have to work again. I just can't watch any DVD's this weekend :(

River view

This old New Yorker cover popped up on my Pinterest page, it reminded me of little Sutton Place Park, the one across the street from my apartment building.

Punching through the punch list, pt. 4

I missed "Jonas" the big blizzard of January '16 because I had to be out of the apartment for THREE DAYS while the floor in the main room was getting redone. It had been refinished once, but there were many problem areas and patches that needed major attention. Rather than just spot finish them, we elected to re-do the ENTIRE floor. This meant moving all the furniture from side to side, while both halves of the room were done. I survived the storm the best way possible: out in Sag Harbor in front of a big warm fire with a good book and a beef stew in the crock pot. It was horrible...NOT.

Suffering through the blizzard.

I got back last night...and the floor looked amazing. Even though it was a pain in the tushie, it was definitely the right way to go. It looks brand new. Not bad for a floor that's 78 years old!

The re-done floor looks lovely...very happy with the result

The bedside lights also got installed. They were on back order FOREVER but I think they look very sharp. Steve did a good job of picking them out. Here are two pictures, they compliment the upholstered headboard nicely.

Lastly for this round of fixes, the detergent shelf above the washer/dryer in the kitchen got put in. LOVE it. It's a small thing but it will really come in handy as a place to put the soap...and also I can store all the leftover paint and grout up there in case I ever need to do any touch-ups. 

The detergent shelf

Now if only all the other electrical  issues could get seen to...

Punching through the punch list, pt. 3

A little progress this week, but just a little.
The library lights were installed over the built-in bookshelves that surround the mantel. There are three. You can adjust the hood to aim directly at the wall casting light above and below the fixture, or you can aim the hood more downward and it's a more classic library light accenting the shelves. I'm not sure which way I like best, I have to live with a bit. Steve my architect is for casting the light downward. Here it is both ways:

With the hood in this position the light emanates from the top and bottom.

Here it's only cast downward

A closeup of one of the fixtures, they're a Thomas O'Brien design.

The little light in the dining niche was also installed. Note that the plastic is still on the seat's cushion, I'm not removing it til all the work is done and the workers are out. 

New light fixture; it needs a smaller watt bulb.

Another angle.

The under cabinet lights were installed in the kitchen. They still need to be put on a dimmer switch, they're very bright in this shot. 

New lights under kitchen cabinets

There's a small under cabinet light next to the stove/oven. You can see the little electrical box next to it, I don't love seeing that. I discussed removing this one with Steve. The hood light over the stove gives off sufficient light, not to mention the overhead can lights. 

I don't like looking at that electrical box

A huge snowstorm is supposed to hit the East coast this weekend. I would've stayed in the city and  hunker down and ride it out but I couldn't stay there the last two days. The wood floors are being re-finished through Monday. So I came out to the house in Sag Harbor. I have plenty of food, firewood, and a good book. But I'm worried about power outages. Fingers crossed things don't get too bad. 

Showing someone the door

The workers finally returned today.
They got to several of the punch list items, I'll detail these in my next post.
But the most important thing of all got done: the damn front door got painted. Hallelujah.
Perhaps now the neighbor that ratted on me to the building's Super for how unkempt my unpainted door looked will be mollified.
I did have to laugh when I got home tonight though. I'm not sure the picky neighbor would like the handmade sign the painter left taped to the wall outside my apartment. It's a little, ahem, 'handmade'.

Yes, that's marker on PAPER TOWEL. LOL.

And here's the freshly painted door. I think they did a good job of matching the paint color.

Good as new! My mom hates my hallway wallpaper, I sort of like it myself, it's cozy.

Let's hope this crazy chapter of The Beautiful Wreck is OVER.

"Black Bramford"

I mentioned in my last posting that "one of the shareholders", as my Super phrased it, had complained about the unsightly appearance of my front door. Well, there are only three tenants who it could have been as there are only four apartments on my floor. The vestibule when you get off the elevator is quite small, 20 feet at most, but only those on my floor would be the ones to see my door in it's current state. Three 'suspects' in the mystery. I've met two of them, and both seemed quite nice, although one did take me to task a little bit for the noise that occurred when my apartment was being renovated. Really? It was a gut renovation, there's going to be a little noise involved! The only other person I've encountered was a friend of the last tenant I haven't met yet. She was his cat sitter. She too was lovely and quite friendly and welcoming...but she doesn't live here. I will say though, that as I meet more and more people I'm feeling like I've moved into a very kooky building. It's not as bad as the building Mia Farrow and John Cassevettes move into in the classic movie "Rosemary's Baby", The Bramford, or as one of the characters in the movie calls it "black Bramford" because of all the nefarious goings on in the building's history, but the more I become acquainted with my neighbors I'm beginning to wonder. Let's just say that if I start wearing an amulet filled with tannis root around my neck, get me outta there.

"The Bramford", the apartment building in "Rosemary's Baby" which in real life is the famous Dakota on West 72nd St.

"Are you aware that The Bramford had rather an unpleasant reputation around the turn of the century?"

"This house has a high incidence of unpleasant happenings."

Here's a good clip from the movie featuring Maurice Evans telling the happy couple about The Bramford's spooky lore, you can watch it here.

"Tannis anyone?"

Portal to hell

One of the things on the punch list that I'm fairly itching to get done is repainting the front door.
It's a complete mess.

How bad does this look??

During the construction, the workers had to keep a zippered plastic seal over the door in order to keep in the construction dust that--God forbid--might exacerbate the COPD of the old man who lives next door, the one who enlisted his attorney to petition me to not go thru with the project. Yeah right, like that was ever gonna happen. Anyway, the tape pulled off a great deal of the trim paint around the door and now it looks like hell. It is going to get painted, probably next week, but it's so ratty right now it's downright embarrassing to come home to. I feel like it's the doorway to Hades, lol.

P.S...as i was writing this there was a knock at my door...one of the doormen came up to tell me the Super needed to speak to me. I called him right away, apparently "one of the shareholders" called him to complain about how my door looks! Can you believe? There are only three other apartments on my floor, and I'll bet I know who it was, hmmm...more on my neighbors in a future blog post, it's a whole 'nother story!

Stuck in neutral

Not going forward, not going backward

I haven't posted anything for a week because, well, nothing happened last week.
There's quite a list of things left to do on the punch list but it's all being held up by one thing: the light fixtures that will be placed beside the bed and in the dining niche are on back order. The contractor doesn't want to send the electrician to do the other electrical fixes until the lights are delivered so that it isn't a waste of a day. I get it, but it's a bummer. As for the other non-electrical things on the list, I complained a little to Steve, my architect, over the weekend. He was going to speak to them about it. Things like the medicine chest mirror, wiring the TV, the handles and knobs on the kitchen cabinets...all need to be done and it's getting annoying not having them in place.
But the biggest bummer of all is the floor in the main room. There are places where it's in shabby shape and has to be touched up. This will require them to move all the furniture to one side of the room, do the touch-ups one day, and then move everything to the other side and do the other touch-ups the next day. What a pain! But it is what it is and it has to be done.
The end of this renovation feels so close...and yet I know it's still a bit before it's finally done.

Message to readers

Punching through the punch list, pt. 2

Here's where the entryway is currently. The mirror I got from my friend Jan, it's very heavy. I need to decide if I'm committing to it in this spot as I'll have to use a picture hanging nail, not my usual "MO". I'm a huge fan of Command Hooks by 3M, they're a genius product that don't mar the walls, but for super heavy things it's best to go the old fashioned route of hammer and nails.
The shelf I brought from the old apartment that used to be a built-in unit on the wall above my desk nook.

Entryway shelf...should it be gray?

I liked it enough to add the legs when it came down. My architect Steve doesn't care for it but it's hiding all the internet cables and router/modem units (those are the little lights in the middle cubby and underneath), so it stays. He suggested I paint it AND the mirror above the dark gray of the walls...I'm pondering that...what do you think?
In the corner is where the Verizon technician ran the little internet cable. If you you can't see it, that's the point, I wanted it as unobtrusive as possible.

See the cable? No? GOOD.

On the opposite wall are two eyesores that will be disappearing as soon as possible. There was no other place in the whole apartment to put the electrical switcher box but in the entry, it just made sense to put it there. So I need to find a picture or painting of some sort to hang over it. And the house intercom phone looks like it's from 1972 (and probably is). The building is going to install a newer one so out it goes ASAP.

The two eyesores that gotta go

The kitchen hasn't changed a lot since I posted the last pics of it. All the knobs and handles are yet to come, that's why there's blue painting tape subbing for them in these pics. But everything is functioning and all utensils and dishes are put away. I can cook finally in the space. As Manhattan studio kitchens go, it's pretty sizable.

Stove and exhaust hood

The other angle

No knobs yet!

Under cabinet lights still to be installed (hence the hanging wire)

I'm thinking of putting another small shelve in that corner to the left of the window to house more dishes/pots/pans. I have the perfect one out at the house but without a car right now I don't know how I'm going to get it back to the city.

Wide shot of kitchen

Punching through the punch list

Every day last week more little things got done on the punch list, minor things like paint touch-ups but if left unchecked they'd really bug me and I'd obsess over them (my OCD would kick in).
I did finally get all the boxes unpacked and thrown out and I've been organizing all the cabinets and closets, adding needed hooks and re-adjusting shelf heights.
So here are some photos of where things stand now.

The BIG CAVEATS are:
--the workers have been storing their working materials in the fireplace, it's the easiest place to keep things out of the way, so it's a little unattractive right now.
--Also, all the wall mounted light fixtures are still NOT in place, the library lights above the built-in book shelves and the bedside lights. I've held off taking the plastic covering off the tufted headboard and the dining niche window seat because I want to leave that til the end, I don't want any dust or stray paint to hit them while the workers are still on property. The floors still need their touching up and it's just too risky.
--The TV hasn't been hooked up via all the cables, so that cable handing down from it will disappear soon.
--Shelf cabinets still need knobs.
--And of course the full sized mattress is too small for the queen sized bed frame, but that's an expense I just can't afford right now, so I'll just have to live with it for the time being.

A pan of the main room

The mantel wall; no light fixtures above shelves yet!

Mantel wall; TV has not been plugged in yet, hence the dangling cord

Mantel wall

Sofa seating area

End table

I bought new black lampshades for these lamps I got on Ebay years ago for a steal

A gallery wall of miscellaneous pictures

The captain's bed

The desk area

The bed; plastic still on headboard

Pan of room from another angle (sitting in the Eames chair)

View looking into hallway

"The Beast", the big picture window; the two ends with latches can open

View of courtyard  below from desk area window