Demolition begins

This morning, David and Gustavo from Dynamic Restoration came to the apartment to protect the common hallways with paper and begin demolition. Here's what's going:

The vanity and the bathroom sink and faucet.

The shower hardware and fake plastic tile.

And this built in granite and wood desk.

And here's what is replacing it:

A new vanity, sink and faucet.

A shower panel.

And new wall tile.

All of these things have already been delivered. I'm waiting for the sliding shower glass door which ought to get interesting as it weighs almost 300 pounds. I also am repurposing 2" x 1" white subway tile for the bathroom floor that I used in the church. I had almost seven boxes left over and since the bathroom is all of 30 square feet at best, it felt good to save a few hundred bucks and use what I had left over. Now I just have to transport it... maybe it wasn't the best of ideas... but we're pretty close to having everything we need for the bathroom already sitting in the space.

While I was waiting for all the forms, certificates of insurance, scope of work, etc. ad nauseum that NYC co-ops require before you start ripping things apart. I tried to do what I could do. The very first thing was to remove the door and cabinet knobs. Here's a sampling:

These knobs are made by a company called MacKenzie-Childs. Clearly if you know me, you know this is not my scene. They cost $22 EACH! I have 28 assorted MacKenzie Childs doorknobs; over $500 worth of knobs. I quickly called my favorite hardware supplier Rustica Hardware, the nice people in Utah who made my barn door hardware upstate and ordered these cabinet pulls:

Total cost for 22 knobs: $75.  I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival from Rustica. I also did a little painting. The trim around the windows was really messy and there was a cool tie-iron kind of bar that was structurally helping the brick. The iron was painted to try and blend into the brick. I love to see industrial details so I stripped that sucker right away!

And now:

I neatened up the trim around the windows and then tackled the steam pipe which, of course, had to be satin black. I walked over to Garber Hardware, a family owned hardware store that has been in the neighborhood for over 100 years. I explained what I wanted to do and they hooked me up with heat resistant paint and new fiberglass insulation tubes. (Note to self: when removing or installing anything fiberglass, use gloves!)
Here's the cleaned up window trim and the steam pipe yesterday. When David and Gustavo showed up this morning with a taller ladder than my little step stool, I was able to complete it up on top.

I have a good idea for a grille for the air conditioner and I'll have upstate David make it eventually. At first, I was just so happy that the A/C wasn't installed in the window that I didn't give it any thought but looking at these pictures it's too glaring for me. I'll add it to the list.