Progress - Week of April 6

Work continues with the plumbing coming along quite nicely. Looks like we'll have the plumbing fully roughed in by the end of this coming week. As of last week, new cast iron mains were run from top to bottom and it now looks like the plumber is putting in the copper.

Tape and spackle is substantially complete on the top 2 floors (floors 4 and 5) and pretty much done on the 3rd floor as well. As of this past Friday, the crew had started scraping and putting up mesh backers on the 2nd floor - the parlor floor. Below photos are of the reading room and library on the 3rd floor which is more or less in "white box" condition. The 4th and 5th floors are also in this condition as well.

The extension of the house no longer exists. Literally. For those who cannot appreciate the former state of the extension - and it is very difficult to get a good sense of what it was like - below are some photos of when the extension was undisturbed from the summer of 2008:

The intrusion of water over the years caused severe damage to the structural supports for the extension such that it was much easier to tear the sucker down and just start from scratch. There was some early debate as to whether or not Landmarks would allow us to recreate the structure but after some quick research during our due diligence, it was discovered that the extension was constructed in the 1940's (plans residing at Brooklyn Department of Buildings as proof). Therefore, the structure, while not "historically signficant", did predate the Landmarks designation for Brooklyn Heights in 1965 (Brooklyn Heights was actually the first landmarked district in New York City for all you history buffs) and would then be technically grandfathered as part of the pre-Landmarked structure.

As of Friday, April 10, the extension and rear of the house now looks like this:

Yes, you can pretty much see into the house from the rear yard and the back of the house on the 2nd floor is exposed to the elements. Fortunately, there is not much there that needs protection.

On tap for this week should be another dumpstep full of extension debris, shoring of the party walls, and maybe even a little excavation of the new foundation. On the inside, rough plumbing should be done and I think the scraping, taping and spackling of the second floor will be completed.

On a final note for this post, we leave you with this...