"Before" Pix & Story

This is the condition in which we first saw the apartment almost a year ago. Steve saw this tiny ad in the NYT real estate section:

Prospect Heights

Sprawling 3 bedroom coop in premier pre-war full service building on Eastern Parkway. High floor provides spectacular views and lots of light. Apartment features 3 generous sized bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, formal dining room, large eat in kitchen, great closet space and a laundry room.

We called and the broker wasn't ready to show it (?). But we persisted and were the first people to see it that Sunday night. It was getting dark and the place was a mess. And what's up with that column?! But we saw that square footage, knew the building well, and made an offer the next day. It was accepted before the listing even hit the web.

Vote for your fave

Okay, all you lurkers out there. Tell us what you think of these three candidates for DR lighting. Use the "add a comment" option below.

Another boo-boo

First two pix are of the drop ceiling in the room behind the kitchen a couple of weeks ago. Its purpose was to house the electricals and the duct for the range hood (which exhausts out the laundry room). But when it got built, yuck. Totally killed the feeling of spaciousness near the windows. And far too many planes colliding in the second photo. So we tore it out & moved it to the other side of the room, above what used to be a hallway (third photo). Much less conspicuous and a shorter run for the electricals. Now we have our unobstructed windows back. We'll run the duct without a casing straight back to the laundry & paint it to match the ceiling.

The Funk Chart

Ok, here's how to understand where we are in the reno process. They're doing all the rough-ins now (plumbing, elec, mech) and we've gotten a few "Bills for Extras" (big plunge). I would add a downturn for "shopping for finishes" (tile, light fixtures, dimmers, etc.). So many decisions to make! So much surfing for products...

Click on the chart to see the details -- pretty funny & accurate.