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Show us your vintage home!

autorifle

New in Town
Messages
2
My home built in 1904
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Messages
16,861
Location
New York City
1928 NYC Co-op Apartment Restoration Update:

The good news is we moved in last week, which is fantastic, but it also means life has been chaos - absolute chaos. The contractor still has about 5% to go, inspections by the city are ongoing (all you fans of heavy government regulation should live through a renovation in NYC and see if your views change at all) and we still need furniture or the place will look half empty. Also, boxes, containers and bags are everywhere and since we still need to do some work in the closets, putting stuff away is, somewhat, on hold.

That said, hey, we're lucky, the place is great and, in time, we'll get there. For now, I thought you would enjoy a few shots of our living room shelves being put to use.

The beginning



And progress (far from finished) after several days of intense work

 

Vera Godfrey

Practically Family
Messages
915
Location
Virginia
Wow, FF! I don't know what I envy more...your extensive book collection of the built in shelves!

Glad you are moved in and hope getting the house set up isn't too stressful!
 
Messages
16,861
Location
New York City
Vera and dh66, thank you both for your kind comments.

Vera, the book collection combines my girlfriend's and my lifelong passion for books. Amongst our nearly 2000 titles, less than 200 have any collector value and less than 30 or os that are really worth anything (and none that are really valuable). That said, we love them and finally - owing to the noted built in book cases, plus some Globe Wernicke bookcases (see below) - for the first time since we met 20 years ago, we have them all out on shelves.



 

Vera Godfrey

Practically Family
Messages
915
Location
Virginia
You're killing me, FF! Those are gorgeous too!

I'm an avid reader, and have/had quite a collection, but due to space had to give quite a few away
 
Messages
16,861
Location
New York City
You're killing me, FF! Those are gorgeous too!

I'm an avid reader, and have/had quite a collection, but due to space had to give quite a few away

Believe it or not, we, too, have thrown a lot of books away (used to give them to libraries, etc. - but now no one seems to want them).

As to the book cases - thank you so much. We spent well over a year accumulating those bookcases from Ebay and a few very reasonably priced dealers - it was quite a project, but saved us at least 70% off going into a fancy antique store and buying complete sets all spit-shined up. We used a lot of elbow grease cleaning and bees waxing them (and doing the odd fix here and there). Also, we did a lot of research as the years and labels tell you a lot and we wanted them to be all solid wood, no veneer.

In the end, well worth it as they are beautiful and, overall, not expensive - but it took a meaningful amount of effort.
 
Last edited:
Messages
16,861
Location
New York City
1928 NYC Co-op Apartment Restoration Update:

One of the rooms I've not updated you guys on is one of our favorites - it is the second bathroom and one of the few (we were told the only one when we bought the apartment) original bathrooms left in the entire building (and, humbly, probably the one in the nicest shape now) - as the contractor and crew used it as their bathroom and water source, etc. so we only worked on it toward the end.

Since it was in 80% original shape, all we wanted to do was lightly restore where we could without hurting any of the original features. Over the years, about 50 tiles had been replaced with generic white tiles. The super had saved original tiles from other units when they were renovated (most people just rip out the old and put in modern bathrooms), so we were able to "re-replace" those fifty with original ones. Now all the tiles are original to the building from 1928.

We also were able to get an original shower head (it was rusted and wouldn't swivel, so we had it re-plated - nickel, as it had been originally - and, with more effort than you would think, had a rubber gasket custom fitted to allow it to swivel again) from another unit that was ripping out their bathroom (we also got an original medicine cabinet for the other bathroom - I've already posted pictures of that - and some original glass towel bars, medicine cabinet shelves and some of the quirky shaped tiles just in case we need them in the future).

We painted the room a period-appropriate white (not stark white as they didn't have that color yet), re-grouted where needed and did the odd touch up here and there (like scraping off nearly 90 years of accumulated paint to bring back a clean tile / wall line). Additionally, we found original to the period lights - an overhead "skyscraper" and a NOS medicine cabinet one that came to us in its original box.

Okay, enough blah, blah, blah - here are the pictures (owing to its small size, it is very hard to get an overall shot):

The best overall shots (love the original radiator - we had it restored)



Some fun original fixtures




The original floor


An original glass towel bar


A close-up of the original tile detail


The period lights (the medicine cabinet was, shockingly, new old stock)



The restored shower head
 
Messages
12,734
Location
Northern California
1928 NYC Co-op Apartment Restoration Update:

One of the rooms I've not updated you guys on is one of our favorites - it is the second bathroom and one of the few (we were told the only one when we bought the apartment) original bathrooms left in the entire building (and, humbly, probably the one in the nicest shape now) - as the contractor and crew used it as their bathroom and water source, etc. so we only worked on it toward the end.

Since it was in 80% original shape, all we wanted to do was lightly restore where we could without hurting any of the original features. Over the years, about 50 tiles had been replaced with generic white tiles. The super had saved original tiles from other units when they were renovated (most people just rip out the old and put in modern bathrooms), so we were able to "re-replace" those fifty with original ones. Now all the tiles are original to the building from 1928.

We also were able to get an original shower head (it was rusted and wouldn't swivel, so we had it re-plated - nickel, as it had been originally - and, with more effort than you would think, had a rubber gasket custom fitted to allow it to swivel again) from another unit that was ripping out their bathroom (we also got an original medicine cabinet for the other bathroom - I've already posted pictures of that - and some original glass towel bars, medicine cabinet shelves and some of the quirky shaped tiles just in case we need them in the future).

We painted the room a period-appropriate white (not stark white as they didn't have that color yet), re-grouted where needed and did the odd touch up here and there (like scraping off nearly 90 years of accumulated paint to bring back a clean tile / wall line). Additionally, we found original to the period lights - an overhead "skyscraper" and a NOS medicine cabinet one that came to us in its original box.

Okay, enough blah, blah, blah - here are the pictures (owing to its small size, it is very hard to get an overall shot):

The best overall shots (love the original radiator - we had it restored)



Some fun original fixtures




The original floor


An original glass towel bar


A close-up of the original tile detail


The period lights (the medicine cabinet was, shockingly, new old stock)



The restored shower head

Wow! You and yours deserve such a beautiful place. It is a work of art and only those who truly appreciate it should possess it.
:D
 

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