Floorplans!

I realized that something we haven't shared are floorplans - one of the most exciting parts of the process!

While you are constrained by certain dimensions and codes, you still have a lot of flexibility when you are doing a gut renovation to decide where you want everything. It's very exciting and empowering to design your home! However, you also have to decide where you want everything, so there is element of stress involved as well. Making decisions isn't always easy!

One thing I'm thankful for is the good taste of my husband. I think the fact that I'm not very picky and generally like his style has made this process a lot easier than it might be for other couples. I generally let him lead the design and offer suggestions where I have a strong opinion.

The first thing we both agreed on was that we wanted an open floor plan. We want everything to have clean lines. We want Modern yet Classic at the same time.

I think the biggest challenges were deciding sizes of bathrooms, bedrooms, and closets.

We were asked by a lot of people why we didn't design a separate apartment downstairs. Remember, this was a two-family property already, but we wanted to convert it into a one-family. "Why not rent out the space?" a lot of people asked.

While there is definitely income potential to at least offset the mortgage payments, this is also our dream home and where we want to raise our family. We do not want to share our backyard or be landlords in our own home. Others probably would have an opposite stance and think about the money involved, and while we are counting every dollar as well, we are happy with our decision to keep this place a one family.

Without further ado, please find our current plans of the house below. Guess which closet is mine? :)

Gut Renovation Inspiration

I can't admit that it was the actual reason for us to take the leap to do a gut renovation, however I will readily admit that we spent (and still spend!) hours and hours, probably years, watching a variety of HGTV and DIY network programs that inspire us to continue with our project in Brooklyn.

While we are inspired, most of these shows also leave us frustrated.

It's no fault of the networks, since we assume they are trying to capture the average audience, but frustration is usually immediate with prices. I understand that NYC is an expensive place to live but there are some issues when we watch the show:

- Home prices are often the amount of our down payment. Yes, this is the why most NYCers don't purchase, but watching someone buy a five thousand square foot luxury home for $300k with no indication of income is frustrating. For us years of working 18+ hours a day allowed us to earn downpayment for a Brooklyn home... $300k though? That would be maybe a two-hour commute from this awesome city and something not in our consideration.

- Permits are at significantly high prices for almost everything in NYC except for cosmetic changes like wall paint color. Want to move your bathroom? Fah-getta-bout-it.

- Unless you are as fortunate as us to buy an entire building (rare) in NYC, then you also have to spend time and money to have the board of the condo/coop building to approve your plans

We are so early on in our construction but remain scared reading other experiences. Please reach out with comments- both if you have questions or went through similar experiences.

Second Opinions: Be Aware of Your Engineering Requests

The irony of this this post is that I come from a family of engineers. I never thought that I would complain about them or their intent, however after recent experience I do have to share the following disclaimers:

Do not automatically trust the opinion of an engineer.

This is probably common sense, or should be, but again, this is a blog written by novices.

Recently we were researching with our contractor whether or not it would be necessary for us to reinforce the existing foundation of our house, considering that it was 100 years old and we would be adding an additional story.

Our initial meeting with the engineer was pre-closure with the bank. As previously mentioned, our house purchase was through a 203k loan, and being such we had to have several inspections of the home, most importantly to prove that the house was capable of withstanding a gut renovation.

At this time, we were told with a signed paper that the house was indeed capable to withstand extensive renovation.

Flash forward four months later when we start to consider whether we will need any structural improvement. We consult the same engineer and suddenly receive a very different opinion. Suddenly we need to consult him for much more detailed plans and decide to dig into our foundation to replace pilings that 'might' be deteriorated to a cost of close to $45k.

Should we?

Shouldn't we?

We are not engineers. We are first-time homeowners. We have barely been responsible for the gas and electric cost at our previous residences so how are we supposed to know what should be paid in a situation like this?

In this type of situation we actually relied heavily upon on our contractor and his experience. We were readily told how manipulative the engineers' requests could be - not of our particular engineer but in general. And again, being from a family of engineers I mean no offense of anyone in particular.

Still I would like to point out that it is a good idea to get an engineer to inspect your home if you plan to do extensive renovation.

In our personal experience, certain signs (for example our floors were slanted left to right, but we had structure issues from front to back) are not imminent proof that you need structural work.

However, to date we have decided not to do any additional exploratory work of the wood pilings in our foundation. I hope that this will not be a regret of ours, but I have to admit, there is much more ahead of us to be concerned with...

Demolition Photos.... Part 1

After closing, the road to demolition was a short one.

Many people don't understand the concept of a gut renovation, even if they think that they do. Even I had to be reminded by my husband several times. Sometimes I would make a comment or ask a question that would make him simply roll his eyes. He somehow understood from the start what it meant. I thought I did; however, it was not until I saw the property after demolition that it really hit me! 

To back up for a minute, I should mention that we did some "demolition" of our own when we first closed. The last "renovation" of this 1910 home had been when drop-down ceilings were all the rage, and we were anxious to gauge the true height of the ceilings in the home. In one evening of inspecting our newly purchased home, we took down a couple rooms' worth of drop-down ceilings and were very pleased to find the pre-war construction high ceilings that we expected. 

In any case, when mentioning the gut renovation to friends and family, and indicating our anxiety concerning the project, we were met with common responses - Couldn't we save some of the wood floors? Couldn't some of the plumbing still be used? Maybe some old materials can be salvaged?

I'll let the following pictures do their own speaking. This was mid-demolition in the middle of January 2013:

To come shortly - the pictures when demolition was recently completed in the first week of February 2013.