Happy NY Redux

We welcome the Year of the Ox with a new President & new hopes. Our contracting crew is Chinese so they'll be taking a few days off this week to celebrate & relax with their families. But before they left, they installed this sleek duct for the range hood. Will kinda look like another beam with a coat of paint. It's going to vent a 6-burner Bluestar range that we couldn't resist (great price on a floor sample). It's hands-down the best choice for wok cooking and can generate a shocking 90,000+ BTUs at full capacity.

Made in Brooklyn - part II

The photos below are Icestone, a 100% recycled quartz/concrete material that we may use for our countertops. It's manufactured in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was recently featured in the NYT for its thriving niche manufacturers.

We have a special relationship with Icestone. Steve was an early investor and knows the owners well. In December we attended their fantastic holiday party, toured the facility, and met the whole crew. It's a typically multi-culti company (for Brooklyn) and all meetings are translated into Spanish & Tibetan. I was especially impressed with how family-like the company is, i.e. that it walks the walk on "sustainability" both in terms of the environment and people. If we go with the Icestone, we'll have a lot of absolute black granite to put on Craigslist...

Anyway, we encourage you to check out Icestone for your next reno project.

Raydoors are ready!

Here's the big splurge that will define the public space as you walk in. It's Raydoor's signature "Flo" pattern & the reason we went with this company. When any of the doors overlap, they make a different pattern (see far right photo) because the little box "moves" up or down. Our three doors will be tall & skinny like the sample on the left and they will "garage" out of sight when closed (fortuitous wing wall in LR).

The frames are walnut so the doors will "speak" to the kitchen cabinets on the other side of the room. Best of all, hand-made by Brooklynites in Greenpoint.

Daylight

Wow, the guys were skim coating the K/DR ceiling as I walked in today -- the first finished surface in the place. The reno's been a pile of rubble for so long that I sometimes forget that it will ever END. Sheetrock has been going up steadily in every room and we're ready for the plumbing inspection. After that, they'll start finishing the bathrooms.

Finally, the Welcome sign has come down and you can see what the finished windows will look like -- thoroughly modern with no sash. We're doing something special with the one in the K/DR. It will have a poplar "box" and a stone ledge that will be heated by the radiator below (the ladderlike white thing).

More pix

The master BR's also comin' along. We've got sliding doors now (to bath & closet). Last shot is of transom that will echo the Raydoor with light streaming thru from the study.