Amazing

Tom at Heritage Masonry began the excavating for the foundation repair and landscaping. When I left the church on Sunday night it was prime location for some mud wrestling matches in the front yard but I can already see that it is going to be fantastic. When I seriously began to consider buying the church, I had David come and look at it. We drove up to the property at the same time and both jockeyed for street parking. The first words out of his mouth were "Where's YOUR parking space?" I hadn't really thought about that but over the months I could see it was important to David. He has a better idea of driving and parking in the upstate winters and felt it would definitely improve my quality of life. I had a hard time picturing the parking space or figuring out where it would go exactly. But, thankfully, Tom did not.
Here's the initial grading of the front yard:

This exceeded my expectations. Scoot up the gentle sloping driveway and you're right in front of the stairs. Easy in, easy out. But I had not planned on a retaining wall there; let alone one that needed to have curb appeal. I know what I want and I photoshopped a "sketch" to Tom. Here it is:

I'm probably tripping, but I hope in my heart of hearts this is what Tom is thinking too. Living the dream.

Here's some other changes that Tom and David made this week:

The concrete stairs with the cracked retaining wall on the north side were broken up and carted away.

The stumps and earth were removed from the south side of the church. I had David save the large pieces of slate for the steps in the driveway's retaining wall.

The concrete front steps that were under the rotting wooden steps were busted up and removed. David built this temporary staircase so I could get in and out.

All this in preparation for the old girl, built in 1875, to get her foundation replaced.

 

Meanwhile, not much goes on in the interior. We have to do the foundation work before we can address the plumbing and I can finally get running water. But I feel it is important to stay there, see how the sun comes in, how the temperature varies from lofts to downstairs and to bond with the church in general and think about how I would live there. So I live there. It's a notch above camping. I've made a little lair for myself in the East loft. Here's pictures of my East loft world juxtaposed with living in a construction site:

Deb and I took turns playing with the Caterpillar parked out front but Tom had the good sense to lock the cab because you know we were going to try and have a photo shoot up in there. Here's the best we could do.

Coming up next: Ordering Windows and Doors

 

It's Haaaaaapppppening!

The backhoe has arrived. Stump removal and earth moving have begun.

STUMP REMOVAL AND EARTH MOVING, PEOPLE!!!!

L7 Was Right

Bricks ARE heavy. NOW, when someone says something about a "ton of bricks," I really have a good idea what they are talking about. Because I moved that many up the little slope of the front yard at the Church in Coxsackie on Sunday.
I stayed in the city on Friday night and went with my friend and client Emily Greene to go see Lelia Broussard at Rockwood Music Hall. Here's Lelia at Rockwood that night. I really love how her blurry hand makes her look like she's "shredding" with her acoustic guitar. Maybe she WAS shredding. Look for her record, it's coming out in a couple of months.

I got up to the church on Saturday morning to meet with my carpenter, David and to shake hands, sign contracts and write checks with Thomas Dootz of Heritage Masonry to do the foundation repair and landscaping. I have a good feeling about Tom. When he arrived at the Church for his first site visit, he seemed to love the structure and site right away. Other guys had looked at me like I was a dumb city slicker who bought a money pit, and that bugged me. Tom had a lot of confidence. He said, "There shouldn't be any problem, this is a light house." David said "It has a slate roof." Tom: "It'll lift right up, it's a light house." After he left, I looked at his brochure that he left with me. I guess if this is one of your projects, the little church in Coxsackie IS a light house. Tom lives in a town called Feura Bush which is about 40 minutes away from Coxsackie.  Feura Bush and Coxsackie. Perfect together.

So Tom will start this week. We've been approved for a building permit and are all legit and ready to roll!

Here's some of what happened at the Church this week:

The church at one point, and not unusually, had a steeple. Here is what is there up on the roof now.

It's a tar paper and plywood quick fix. David and I discussed it. It appears that to remove it and patch the slate roof is more labor intensive than finishing it off. So I'm thinking that we'll just clad it like the rest of the church and put either a skylight or solar panel up top. I am just starting to research that. It would be really cool if I could generate some of my own power in the church.

 

David put up two pieces of plywood on the east wall (where we did a little "premature demolition" in our zealousness and enthusiasm) so I could experiment with finishing and staining it. I would like the entire interior east wall, both upstairs and downstairs to be clad with stained plywood.

First, I gently sanded the whole surface, then I conditioned it, and then I applied the stain, very proud of myself for consciously thinking about going light to dark/top to bottom so I could stain over any of my mistakes. The plywood on the right is maple; on the left is birch. I happen to like the birch better than the maple and the bonus there is that the birch is cheaper. What I can't decide on is the color of the stain. I'm leaning towards the lightest "natural" but like the warmth of red except it's too red. I can't decide about the darkest stain. It's a little too dramatic for me but I can't rule it out. But floor and wall should be stained the same so it's a big surface area. If anyone reads this blog, I am interested in your opinion.

And here's where the L7 Bricks are Heavy opener comes in. Tom and his excavation equipment are showing up at the church this week so if there was anything that I thought I might want to save and repurpose, I had to dig it up and get it out of the way. So I did that with the brick path in the front yard. 

I took up the bricks and at first put them in the wheelbarrow. But then, I couldn't push the wheelbarrow with bricks up the slope (this renovation is testing my logic and physics knowledge as well as the realistic knowledge of my own strength!). So I started to make "cribbing" (I learned this term from foundation repair parlance) with the bricks. Then,  I could build the cribbing fairly tall so I didn't have to bend over and break my back lifting bricks. Exactly six at time, and I carried them up the slope and placed them by the cut maple logs. But mission accomplished... the path is clear for the equipment to come up on to the property and smash up all the concrete, haul it away and pour new concrete foundation and make a retaining wall on the south side of the church.

Here's a photo of the South wall of the Church. David started to do some excavation and found a nice slate walkway that has been completely overgrown. It will be nice to have the path excavated and curtain drains installed. After we do that, I should have a clean and dry basement.

City Mouse, Country Mouse

I stayed in the city this weekend. I had some design work to do, friends in town from L.A.,  and I was really missing my usual visits with Jo and Olivia. So I had dinner with said LA friends on Friday at Cookshop, which never disappoints and has the tastiest purslane salad I have ever had. (I am going to try and do some landscaping at the church with it). This is Olivia, she is almost three and half years old now and doesn't like to wear pants, only dresses. I had a nice dinner at Pylos with Olivia and her mom. Such good company, Greek Salad and salmon.

Here's the cover I designed for Lelia Broussard. Another member of the Dan Romer gang, Lelia reached out to me to design her CD package. I listened to the three MP3s she sent me and I loved her voice and thought her lyrics showed a lot of maturity for someone so young. Let's just say, we have similar feelings. The budget was tight but Lelia fortunately already had photos taken by Shervin Lainez so I was able to put together something fairly quickly that was clean and modern.
I sent Lelia the layout for the entire package last night which always has a moment of anticipation laced with dread for me. But Lelia responded that she loved it. My favorite kind of client :)I did get a formal bid on the foundation work that I have a good feeling about. I think I will have that sewn up by the end of this week with work hopefully beginning at the end of August. My poison ivy is finally clearing up. I was explaining to one of my young co-workers that I had a bit of the Oliver Wendell Douglas about me up in the Church in Coxsackie. He had no idea what I was talking about.I head back up next weekend and will not go near the poison ivy again. Lesson learned.

Sweet dreams

I made temporary sleeping space in the eastern loft so I can start "living" in the church albeit without running water or a kitchen at the moment. I loved waking up there for the first time on Sunday morning. I really can't wait till we get a building permit to start replacing the doors and windows on the east wall. 

A Great Week at the Church

Sometimes it's the small victories that are the sweetest. Here's what happened at the Church this week. I was lucky enough to get a quick response from LB Tree Service. Lloyd and Greg came over on Sunday morning to take out the large spruce tree on the front lawn. A lot of my neighbors on Ely Street came out to enjoy the process. Here it is in pictures. Lloyd is the climber and Greg stays below placing the tree limbs in the chipper.

So now we've done everything we can do in preparation for the foundation work. The large machinery will enter up on the south side of the property to do the necessary digging and gentle grading that will allow me to have an edible front yard on the south side. With the spruce gone, that corner gets a lot of sun. 

The other thing that happened which really made my day was David took the covering off the tie rods and I think they are beautiful. You can scroll back a few posts and see them with their pine box. Here they are now. 

And here's the said bad case of poison ivy captured in all its glory by the glorious Deb Parker.

And speaking of Deb, I have the distinct pleasure of running around with her to various flea markets and yard sales to start stockpiling stuff for the church. It's early days for that but it's too much fun to pass up looking for treasure with Deb.

There were two of these wrought iron pieces. Deb stands next to it for scale. Could these be of use somewhere? I do love the iron work.

There was a crate of 80-90 various glass bricks and tile. Could that find a home in the church?

Here are 4 stools for under $100 that could suffice for the breakfast bar until I make bank for the good stuff.

And here's Deb with what every girl wants: A Mink Poncho!

And here's the plans. For now and maybe one day in the future.