We've Got the Blues

Thanks Dr. Martin Luther King for the great speeches and the long weekend.  We used ours well, we met our neighbors during an awesome gathering and painted, painted, painted some more.

Thinking back, before we even considered buying a house on 49th Street, we had heard tales of block parties, experienced Halloween Extravaganzas and longed for the community our friends had, who already lived in the Washington Heights Neighborhood.  Trent and I had the opportunity, thanks to a friend already on the block, to join in a neighborhood outing last Friday.  A bus (well, not just any bus - the block party bus) would pick us up, feed us beer, drop us at a restaurant in the Third Ward and then again to a gallery/bar in Bay View, also owned by neighbors on 49th.  We had fun and lots and lots of drinks.  It was a great way to get to know a good amount of our neighbors while enjoying (watching) salsa dancing classes at BYO Studio.  Their cucumber mojitos were very good too.


Child Labor

Ceiling Detail

From Living Area to Library (formerly Dining Room)

And for the painting: it's is pretty boring to talk about, but here are some photos.  Don't report us for putting the kid to work, she wanted to do it.  This weekend's color was Russian Blue - lots of it.  It seems to change nicely with the light and looks different in each room.  Since the living room, library and office merge into each other, it made sense to have it be a transitional color.  The green splotch was my original choice, but it was way too yellow for me.  Next weekend : a hint of Violet.

Lead Abatement & More!

Sounds pretty riveting right?  After having spent the whole weekend scouring 49th Street in the attempt to make it dust/lead/chemical free, I decided to do a little research myself.  And, while everyone knows lead is dangerous, I thought some of these facts were more interesting.  This is based on info from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report & the CDC.  I had no idea there was a MMWR, it must be fascinating!

Experience suggests that the lead, paint, and other industries may try to use data to argue that lead poisoning is no longer a problem or that further preventive measures are unjustified because “the problem is going away by itself.”  wow, really?

• More than 38 million US homes and apartments are burdened by lead-based paint, and more than 24 million of them contain substantial lead hazards, according to HUD.

And more :

Muscle and joint pain, headaches, memory and concentration problems, nerve and digestive disorders, slowed growth ‹ these are just a few of the potential consequences of lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning is caused by exposure to lead from our environment -- in old water pipes, old painted toys or furniture, or foods/liquids stored in lead crystal or lead-glazed pottery. And if you live in a house built before 1978, the paint on your walls probably contains lead.

Increasing evidence suggests that nutritional deficiencies also affect levels of lead in the human body.  A recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that subjects with high levels of vitamin C intake had less measurable lead in their bloodstream than subjects with low levels of vitamin C intake. Specifically, the data showed that:

• Children with the higher vitamin C intake were 89% less likely to have elevated blood lead levels compared with youths with the lowest intake; and
• Adults with the highest vitamin C intake were 65-68% less likely to have elevated blood lead levels compared with adults with the lowest intake.

 I can now say I feel even better that we are taking a large amount of time cleaning our construction site so that our 6 year old can spend time inside the house while we continue to work for the next year.  I can only hope all Project Managers, Weekend Rehabbers and Your General Contractor will do the same.

2nd Floor Palette, getting closer

The biggest problem I have right now is making a decision.  Lots of ideas but little confidence to make the final decision.  I'm putting it out there as an attempt to finalize what has been months of wasted time thoughtful planning.  Thoughts?

2nd Floor Front & Back Hallways :  Matte










2nd Floor Interior Hallway : Clovis
(this one is completely off on the screen - not pink at all)


                                             
2nd Floor Trim, all Bedrooms & Bath :  Meerschaum










2nd Floor Library & Media Room :  Melon Green

Ceiling : Silver Birch

2nd Floor Bathroom walls : Chanteuse

2nd Floor Master Bedroom : Argent 

Ceiling : Hesperia

2nd Floor Art Room & Laundry : Cornflower (this is so off, I shouldn't even show it)

All The Colors!

As anyone within 10 miles of me can attest, I am currently obsessed with the palette for the 2nd floor.  It's a lot of walls, ceiling and trim and I can't stop arranging and rearranging my plans.  My intention is to create a friendly living area that also holds up to the intensity of the Arts and Crafts woodwork, without appearing too traditional or too modern or too schmaltzy.  Here's a floor plan with some ideas, most subject to change on a whim.

My Awesome Daughter

Yes, she's awesome because...even when I gave her the choice to pick any purple in the hundreds of Pratt and Lambert Purple hues, she picked Violet Hint.  It's time to start picking paint colors, and her room, I assumed, would be the biggest challenge due to her love of all thing purple and pink.  Just like it sounds, Violet Hint is quite subtle and beautiful.  Not at all like the clothes she picked out for the first day back at school, but whatever, she has excellent design sense.  She didn't even argue when I suggested Meerschaum for the trim.  She loved it.  There was a discussion of a lighting bolt thing going down the center, but I think I can work that out.

Violet Hint
http://www.color-swatches.com/images/swatch.png?id=7c40797f665037483513fade9d82fbfc

Holiday Madness

For Christmas this year, Trent and I both got each other 1 solid week of work time at 49th Street.  Add in a few festive days off in Chicago and family engagements and we’re down to 3 solid days of work.  With 2 days down, we’ve logged some quality work.

1. Cleaning out of chimney surround (items found - 3 Miller bottles from 1917 oddly spelled Mueller)
2. Home networking of speaker & CAT 6 wire for entire 2nd floor
3. Carpet, staples & screws (lots and lots of screws), & carpet tack removed
4. Linoleum removed from old kitchen (soon to be art room)
5. Radiators cleaned and painted (items found - army men, curlers and matches, those darn kids)
6. Basement completely cleaned
7. Debris left from previous owner removed from site

So now, what we're left with looks a little like woodwork with some walls.  And shiny radiators!

 Carpet removal, that is a half of a tub too. 

 "Clean" floors, see all the holes?

 Carpet be gone

 Radiators before, this is where the army men lived

 Shiny and new

 Beer bottles, old knob and tubewiring and more!

 After the linoleum, nice water damaged floor in the center

 The Paneling Comes Off, and so does the wall

 Millions of tiny holes

Mystery Door between the universes

The 1st Month

We’ve now been in the 49th Street House for a bit under 1 month.  After losing a week in the beginning (40 years is a long time to accumulate stuff, and Crystal had a lot of it!)  We’ve made up for lost time with giant strides of progress.  Here’s the list:

1. Basement cleaned (we now have a shop, garden closet, storage & toilet room)

2. Shelves installed in basement in both shop area & storage

3. Toilet room in basement both gutted and re-installed

4. Yard waste cleaned out, bushes cut down

5. Wallpaper stripped from 2nd floor kitchen, and partially from 2nd (Sophia’s) bedroom

6. 2nd floor bathroom gutted

The electrical work has been plotted out by Trent, to be worked on in the next few months, as well as the insulation. 

Thanks to family & friends for keeping Sophia busy this month.  The coming months will be messy and busy as we work out the electrical logistics, re-build the 2nd floor bathroom and insulate.  What am I forgetting…?

Stripped the wall paper

Gutted the 2nd fl bath