The port cocheré...99% done!

I've been detailing the progress on the refurbishment of the carport (the highfalutin phrase is "port cocheré") in the front of my building. You can read prior posts here and here.
And I'm happy to say that even though the project went over budget and WAY over schedule (as do many, if not all, construction projects), it's almost done. Oh, happy day! No more unsightly partitions and scaffolding in front of the building. No more entering the building through the side door. And, best of all, the increase in our monthly maintenance fee, the "assessment", to cover the cost of the construction will be done soon enough too.
Vehicles still cannot gain access thru the driveway. It's because the concrete still needs a certain amount of time to harden and 'set' before heavy cars and trucks start driving on it.
The small triangular plantings bed on the far side of the driveway still needs greenery and the decorative urns that flank each side of the entrance (see pictures) need sprucing up. To my eye they look damaged, they're chipped and broken in places. I think the plan is to replace them altogether.
Here's a series of pictures that show where things are now. I think the interior work looks quite good.

Don't go in the basement

I've blogged in the past about how there are some crazy similarities between my building and the fictitious "Bramford", the apartment building in the modern day horror thriller by Ira Levin, "Rosemary's Baby"  which was subsequently made into the movie classic by the same name directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow (you can read that post here).
Well, the latest thing that gives me the Rosemary heebie jeebies is when I go down into the basement of the building to the laundry room. Yes, I have a small washer/dryer in my apartment, but when I need to wash my sheets and comforters I like to use the big machines downstairs. There's a scene in the movie where Rosemary meets another young girl named Teresa when they're both washing their clothes in the basement of the Bramford AND IT LOOKS JUST LIKE MY BUILDING'S LAUNDRY ROOM. Creepy! And it's especially unnerving when you're all alone down there at night.  Here are some stills from the movie, Teresa was played by an actress named Victoria Vetri. The girls discuss how scary their laundry room is and how they should try to coordinate their laundry days so they don't have to be there alone. So of course, Teresa dies a bloody death soon thereafter. Cue the spooky music!









Notice the washing machines, ironing boards, industrial pipes, and storage cages...just like the ones in my building:















Even the corridors down there are kinda eerie:





So tell me I'm not crazy! The day some chick tries to give me an amulet filled with tanis root when I'm doing a load is the last day you'll catch me down there!!

The twin apartment

David, my realtor who helped me find The Beautiful Wreck, texted this morning. A new apartment in my line two floors above me just went on the market. He's knows I'm always interested in the comings and going of the apartment sales in my building, so he always lets me know when he sees any activity. This one is especially intriguing because it's the exact layout of my place (or at least the exact original layout, the way the apartment looked when I first bought it and before the renovation was done). I was also interested to see the asking price. It's more than $100K than what I paid. Obviously this is a good thing, it's always nice to know your property is growing in value.
What's interesting about the online listing is that this apartment is in a little better condition than mine was. Mine was a complete disaster, hence the need for a total gut renovation. Looking at the photos of this place, it does need a lot of work. I love the selling tricks of realtors these days. They take existing pics of an apartment that needs work and do a lot of cosmetic computer illustration over the photo to show a prospective buyer what the place could look like all prettied up (I'm always surprised how limited people's ability to envision what a space could look like can be, I guess that's why I'm an art director!).
Here are the current photos of this 'twin' apartment, followed by the computer enhanced photos and then photos of what my place looked like when I bought it and then how it looks now. It's interesting to compare and contrast.
I'm going to try and see this other apartment as soon as I hear there's an open house, my inner Gladys Kravitz is getting the best of me. Stay tuned, I may have additional pictures and info in future posts.

The twin apartment's living room

Here's what it could look like

Here's the original state of my place

And my place today

The twin apartment's main room, another angle

What it could look like

My place, original condition, can you believe?

My place today

The twin apartment's entry hallway

How it could look

The original condition of my hallway

My hallway today

The twin's bathroom

My original bathroom

My bathroom today

The twin kitchen

My original kitchen

My kitchen today

The white album

One of the things I insisted on in the design of the kitchen was some open shelving. Now, to be clear, it's not a very big kitchen to begin with, but Steve, my architect, was able to create one little nook of shelves above the microwave and next to the fridge. It's a nice break visually from all the rest of the cabinetry.





It was the perfect place to put some of my collection of white bowls, vases, and pitchers, and I think the white works nicely with the white subway tiling. As with most things in the apartment each piece has a mini story to go along with it:

This set of 3 nesting bowls are Dansk. I bought them one weekend on sale in the Hamptons. My friend Ron and his mother were visiting and I spotted them in a kitchenwares store in Southampton. These photos make them look all the same size but they're graduated, a small, medium, and large one.







I find that pouring bowls come in very handy for all types of cooking, especially pouring batters for cakes and pancakes. I got this one from the Williams-Sanoma outlet store in Riverhead, NY.



I was an early fan of the potter Jonathan Adler. I bought this tiny vase from his first very teensy store in Soho, it was the size of a closet. His brand has taken off and he's everywhere now.



This is a vintage floral vase in matte white with a leaf pattern, it's probably McCoy or Roseville. I bought it in an antique store, Sage Street Antiques, in Sag Harbor.



This large matte white bowl was a gift. It's from Heath Ceramics in California.



Last but not least, this is a small enamelware creamer from IKEA.