Check out that fire! If you look just to the right of the fire you will see my first Brooklyn apartment, the 3 windows on the 2nd floor. I don't think I ever ate at the Chinese restaurant, but there was a vent in the back that produced a greasy stench of old sesame noodles all the time, so I'm sure I absorbed some of that. Plus the Mr Softee truck would double park outside every day during the summer and play that damn song for 20 minutes while the driver waited for his order. I wonder what it looks like in that apartment now, it was pretty lousy when we lived there, and I wasn't proud of the state in which we left it. The mind reels at what kind of rent it commands now, it was $1300 in 2000. We shoved 3 people (and at times, 4) into this place; it is of note that none of these former roommates are in close contact anymore. But it helped me get my footing here (come to think of it, we rented it sight unseen, guess it coulda been worse).


I'm rather under the weather, but I still expect to finish much more of the basement this weekend. Aside from taping the seams in the ceiling, our biggest challenge will be moving the remaining 12 panels of sheetrock into the cellar. What fun that will be. Sheetrock has to be one of the most frustrating building materials ever devised by man. Most supplies are straightforward; plywood, 2x4's, nails. They are what they are. But drywall has some very odd properties.

It is de rigeur for the interiors of most houses, yet it's pretty delicate and can be damaged easily. It's heavy and unwieldy, but a screw can ravage it if it breaks through the outer paper layer. It's very dense but it can be cut and split using a boxcutter. I got some patching pieces to fit by literally filing down the sides, producing a horrendous amount of dust. When the drywall was delivered, many of the panels sustained damage (before Buzz and I even got our hands on it). There were strap indentations, some corners were crushed, some had paper torn off. Any little thing that happens to it can greatly reduce its structural integrity (Just try smashing a small part of a panel and see how easily the rest of it crumbles). But in theory it can all be made right again with a few dabs of joint compound, which, near as I can figure, is just a pail of liquefied drywall. What an amazing product.

Labels: House, Renovation, Soundproofing

I'm sure the article has already been linked to death, but I just read it for the first time, and like everybody else who's seen it, have been struck with the similarities in real estate issues now and over 20 years ago:

• NYT: The Gentrification of the East Village

You can argue what neighborhood most closely resembles what the East Village was encountering in 1984, but the language used and points made are lifted every day to describe a bunch of Brooklyn neighborhoods. This could be an article in 2007 about Williamsburg, Bushwick, even speculation-heavy Clinton Hill. Here's a list of stuff lifted from this article that parallel what we've been seeing happen lately:

• Local commenting on newcomers: ''I see them walking down the street in identical blue suits with their briefcases and I think, 'There goes the neighborhood.' ''
  
  and
  
  ''Why are all these people coming here, where they're so riotously out of place? I don't want my neighborhood to change.''

• Contrast of old-school and new construction: "The chrome and glass facade of a newly renovated co-op is a block away from a corner known for prostitution."
  
  and
  
  "There is a sushi bar across the street from an abandoned warehouse and a neoned art gallery stands across from a Ukrainian restaurant closed by spiraling rents after 32 years."

• A reminder of how the process tends to work: "The first of these [steps to gentrification] is marked by building deterioration and neighborhood crime, the second by short-term speculators, the third by long-term investors and renovators and the last by full-scale construction."

• Quarrels over the very name of a neighborhood: ''As soon as they said 'East Village,' they tripled the rent. It's the East Village to the real-estate brokers,'' she said of the area that has been her home for 30 years. ''To us it's the Lower East Side.''

• Quotables from those for and against the changes:
  
  "The area used to be a last-choice area - people thought I was crazy when I started buying here in [insert year]."
  
  ''It's finally happened down there. It went through the burnout and the druggies and now there's action.''
  
  ''I think it's hypocritical of the people who live here who rail against it. They benefit from the changes. We all do.''
  

• The East Village had (and still has) a Life Cafe, as does a certain, other so-called up & coming neighborhood. Okay, that's a stretch, but I like the symmetry.

• And my favorite one-sentence description of a new resident: "The neighborhood is now home to people like Miss Kelley, who graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton two years ago with a degree in art history and works for a Wall Street real estate broker."

But at what price, your rent? If you run some of the the numbers mentioned in the article through an inflation calculator, you get this:

1984/Now
Studio: $570/$1112
1-Bedroom: $700/$1366
2-Bedroom: $900/$1756
Store with Adjoining loft: $500/$975
3-Bedroom: $2000/$3,900
3-story Brownstone: $100,000/$195,153

A cursory search of craigslist seems to show that 3-bedroom apartments are still in that range (those there are tons up in the $4500-5000 range). But most 2-bedrooms are nearly twice what they used to be. Studios seem to be as low as $1500. Sadly, brownstones (even in the bad neighborhoods) go for a helluva lot more than $200K. Feel the burn!

Labels: Bushwick, Gentrification, Renting, The City

I had an opportunity to ride the AirTrain last night as my mom and her manfriend were at JFK for a 7-hour layover before going to Brazil. The boyfriend's daughter works for a major airline, so they were flying standby which brought them, at the last minute, to the Far Rockaways. The trip out there wasn't too bad, I took the J train out to Sutphin Ave to get to the AirTrain terminal. Do lots of people come through here (there's also an LIRR station there)? It was pretty empty when I came through at 6 o'clock, which gave everything this eerie deserted quality, like a once-great civilization that had been laid waste by unknown, sinister forces. Something like Logan's Run, or Children of the Corn.

I never go to JFK airport, so this was all pretty new to me. When I go to LaGuardia, I always take a car service, which usually runs $20-25 for me. Technically the AirTrain is only $5 each way, so it would seem to be a far better deal. And I suppose if you only had a small rolling suitcase you'd be okay taking this route. But it kind of took forever, plus I was sitting next to this loud couple of foreigners, the woman who kept singing out like she was auditioning for American Idol, the guy barking (why?) like a frat boy and shouting "New Yorrrrrk!!!" every few minutes.

Which reminds me, there are a couple of AirTrain lines, one goes from the E/J/Z station, one goes from the A/C station. The loud couple had meant to take the A-bound AirTrain, but they screwed up and had been riding the Jamaica-bound train several circumnavigations of the airport. Still, they seemed content to ride around barking and singing the evening away.

My whole trip from midtown to JFK took 1.5 hours, I guess it could be worse. It took about 45 minutes for me to get home. I'm still not sure if this was worth it for $10 round-trip compared to just taking a car, but well, if you're just planning on meeting some people in the food court of the airport for a couple of hours, you could do worse. But I'm not sure it wouldn't be just as easy (if not quicker) to take the A train to the bus. Not to mention even cheaper.

And hey, it's the one-year anniversary of me passing out on busy city streets and waking up unawares in a third-rate hospital, only to be sequestered there for several days so some young residents could make sure they didn't know what was wrong with me. It was like being an extra on Scrubs. Except it was actually kind of amusing.

Labels: Health, Mass Transit

Just what you've all been waiting for! More updates on the soundproofing of the basement band room! This was much harder than I thought it would be, but then pretty much every single thing I've done on this house has been harder than I thought it would be, with the exception of getting free furniture from collegiate chum SeanM.

Beyond the sheer weight of the panels, we had lots of pipes of varying importance to contend with. There are two big pipes for the radiator running through the room, as well as some gas lines and electrical conduits. But the real drag for me was just getting the screws to go into the metal hat channel.

Drywall is super easy to drill through, too easy in many cases, but the hat channel we were attaching it to was difficult to get started. Of course, once the screw has pierced the metal, it zipped into it, often too quickly to keep from ramming the screw all the way through the drywall, negating its effectiveness completely. I started predrilling holes to aid in this regard, and I ended up breaking two of them in the ceiling. I've gotta remember to get some higher-quality
drill bits.

Eventually, the screws went in and seem to be holding. There was a major foul-up on my part, as my painstaking calculations were rent asunder because for some reason I kept thinking the drywall panels were 4.5' instead of only 4'. Ugh, I kick myself every time I think of this. I don't know where I went astray but I screwed it up. We had to move one of the tracks in closer, leaving a significant gap on one side of the room. But I think we'll be able to work around this when we put up the walls. In soundproofing, you can't have the ceiling and wall touch, you're supposed to leave 1/4" and fill the gap with acoustical caulk. I am counting on my ability to make that work when we get to the point. But first we have to put another layer of sheetrock on the ceiling.

Yesterday I put joint compound and tape on all the seams. I didn't try to be neat since this layer will be completely covered by another layer of 5/8" drywall. I need to decide how to cut the sheetrock for this layer, I am thinking I should cut it into smaller pieces to make it easier to work with. I wish office drones got spring break like the college kids do, I could use some serious time off to work on this project. And of course, there aren't even any holidays between now and Memorial Day. That sucks!

Labels: Holidays, Renovation, Soundproofing

I hate to talk about the weather instead of something more substantial (like, um, how smart pigs are or fantasy holidays), but this weather sucks. It's like March got really nice for a couple of days only to make us feel the pain of this crap all the more. I was lamenting that South By Southwest is going on, as it drains the city of most of our bands, for better or worse. But I'm not going out in this muck tonight.

What's worse is that as a homeowner, I'm supposed to do something about it on my little plot of sidewalk. I guess I'll throw some salt out (thoughtfully left behind by previous owner), but you can't really shovel this sleety/icy/puddly stuff. You remember the scene in Fargo when the cop talks to the guy while he's sweeping his driveway ("And then he says, 'Geez, I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake'")? Imagine that falling from the sky, that's what it's doing on the streets of New York.

Times like these I wish my building had its own underground connection to the subway. I think all building within a block of a subway station should have tunnels built so we don't have to walk outside. Better yet, let me stay the hell at home and not bother with any of this crap.

Plans for this weekend include hanging drywall on the ceiling in the basement. This will either go smoothly or the ceiling will collapse upon us and kill us. So if I don't update this blog for, like, a couple of weeks, you'll know I didn't make it.

Labels: House, Job, Mass Transit, The City, Weather

I just realized I'm hitting the stride of the longest holiday drought for the whole year. After a run of holidays that gives me a day off at least once a month for 6 months, the next holiday I get is Memorial Day. That's like 2 months away! And it's at the END of the month too! Of course, some people don't get all these days off (even I feel politically unsure of Columbus Day, but I'll take the day off, sure). These are my holidays:

UNITED STATES 2007 Holidays Date	Holiday
01/01/2007	New Year's Day
01/15/2007	Martin Luther King's Birthday
02/19/2007	Presidents Day
05/28/2007	Memorial Day
07/04/2007	Independence Day
09/03/2007	Labor Day
10/08/2007	Columbus Day
11/12/2007	Veterans Day
11/22/2007	Thanksgiving Day
12/25/2007	Christmas Day

The way I see it, this dearth of holidays reminds me that we have several months for which we should be nominating for new holidays. Here's my suggestions for the months I'm not currently getting long weekends:

• March 21: Jimmy Legs Memorial Day. To commemorate those few days last March when the nation held its breath and I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until they ran me through every expensive piece of machinery in the place (including the machine that goes "Pinnng!")
• April 14: Birthday/Unbirthday Day. It's a real birthday for Buzz, Abby, and Janice, and probably some other people. So let's all pretend it's our birthday too (this will also mean 50 Cent will always be able to find work in the future).
• June 15: June Appreciation Day. I always looked forward to June, but it seems to go by too quickly. Before I know it, it's the 4th of July, it's hot and humid, and I have the sneaking suspicion I've just wasted a whole month. This won't stop that, but at least I won't waste this day redesigning the background image for a PowerPoint presentation.
• August 7: Throw Bottles in Your Neighbor's Yard Day. This holiday, celebrated weekly by my neighbors, gets the solemn, national attention it deserves.

Labels: Funny to Me, Holidays, Office

I was trying to come up with a follow-up post for the animal longevity post to list the relative intelligence of pets, which is my other major issue. You sit there and watch your cat running around and you wonder "Why is he doing that? Does he understand he can't fit under that? Is he a moron?" But alas, there is no helpful list on the web for this that I was able to fine. I have read that cats basically have the intelligence of a 2-year old human. Pigs supposedly are even smarter, at the level of a 3-year old. And of course, cockatiels are on par with 75-year old Mensa members.

I went to the pet store yesterday and saw a cockatiel playing with this rope/wood-block/fuzzy thing, so I thought the birds would like it. I've read that, whatever their intelligence, cockatiels are smart enough to get bored, like teenagers. And what teenager wouldn't be enchanted by a ropy, woody, fuzzy toy? When I showed it to Cheeks, he recoiled in horror, hissing at it like it was a ferret dipped in poison. Giggles flew up onto his perch in the window and threatened to bite if I came near him with it (I did not name these birds). I guess they weren't bored, for those moments. But my dream of getting them to ride a tiny tricycle is probably over.

Labels: Funny to Me, Pets

Finally, some progress! We finished ripping down the paneling and have installed the insulation in the walls and ceilings. This was complicated by the fact that the joists and studs have no particular rhyme or reason, so the fiberglass didn't really stay in place. I whipped out my trusty staple gun, only to find the huge box of staples I bought were the wrong kind. I went to the nearby hardware store but they didn't have the right kind, either. So what did I do? I plunked down $50 for a new staple gun. I felt wasteful and kinda stupid, but it is very nice, as staple guns go.

We tacked up all the fiberglass and started on placement of the metal furring hat channel. This is the narrow u-shaped track (whose profile resembles a hat sort of) that we attach to the joists (via Super Soundproofing Clips), from which drywall will hang. The trick was that we only had 30 sound clips for 5 rows of hat channel, which has to support two layers of 5/8" drywall. Oh, and there are 10 joists that span the room, which is 17' long. You do the math.

I ended using like quantum physics trying to figure out the best placement for each clip. This took hours. Then Buzz suggested that perhaps I was overthinking it a bit, so we took another look and started drilling in the clips. This took like a half hour. Now all that's left is the sheetrock. The 823 pounds of sheetrock ...

Labels: House, Renovation, Soundproofing

Not that anybody cares, but here's a list of how long some animals are supposed to live. One thinks of such things from time to time, thoughts like "If this cat dies, maybe then I can get another, better one." Now that I see the average life span for a cat is 25 years, I guess I must learn to table these thoughts for a while. Also, since this is my first time living with exotic birds, I am fascinated by the fact that they can live for much longer than seem necessary. In cockatiel years, I should already be dead, but if I was a bird I bet I would have packed a lotta living into those years. But since I have another 30-40 years to fool around with, I feel no need to rush.

I excerpted the full list to just some animals that caught my eye. I think it's amazing that a Great Horned Owl can live to be 68. Of course, hamsters and gerbils again prove their merit as children's pets since they only live 4 or 5 years. But any of the larger birds seem to live forever. Even the lobster rates pretty high on the list. Poor little fella, I can picture it living 48 years only to have its last two years snuffed out when it gets thrown in a pot of boiling water.

African Grey Parrot 50
Cat 25
Chinchilla 20
Cockatiel 32
Conure 25
Dog 22
Domestic Pigeon 26
Gerbil 5
Golden Hamster 4
Great Horned Owl 68
Guinea Pig 8
House Mouse 4
Human 70-80
Lobster 15 (they can live into their 50's!)
Macaw 50
Parrot 80
Pigeon 11
Pionus Parrot 15
Rabbit 9
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo 40
Superb Parrot 36

Labels: Funny to Me, Pets

It was Max's first birthday party this weekend at Two Boots in the Slope. I was super late because the J train conspired with the F train to screw me over and make a 30-minute commute take over an hour and a half. I would love to know what they're actually doing in the tunnel that requires the F trian to run on the A line. Anyway, I got there in time for the highlights: Max getting his presents and Max 'eating' birthday cake.

When presented with the fabulous homemade monkey cake, Max started playing it like it was a conga drum. Soon, the monkey was no more. Apparently this cake was the young man's first taste of refined sugar! Soon, he will be a peanut-butter M&M addict like I am.

Here, Sean appears to be more interested in the present than Max. A couple more photos on the Flickr site. Happy birthday, Max!

Labels: Babies, Birthday, Friends, Park Slope

The contractor supply company delivered all the insulation and drywall needed for the soundproofing project on Saturday. They ran late, I'm lucky they got there before Buzz had to leave, as he was going out of town for the weekend. For some reason I thought I would be able to carry the drywall myself. But even if I could lift the panel, I'd never be able to maneuver it into the house, those things are unwieldy!

We moved 22 panels of 5/8" 4'X8' Sheetrock, at around 90 pounds apiece. This means we moved nearly 2,000 pounds of gypsum. No wonder I was exhausted afterwards (not to mention I was hungover and on less than4 hours of sleep). Why are these projects always so much harder (and expensive) than you initially think? Even when you try to compensate in your mind, the reality is always much worse.

I have no idea how we're gonna get the drywall into the basement, I'll probably have to cut it first (oh boy, more dust!). Actually I should cut an 8-foot long slot in the floor and just slide the panels through to the cellar. Hey, it's my house dammit.

Labels: House, Renovation, Soundproofing

It's all coming together. Tomorrow morning we'll receive the bulk of the supplies, but the smaller stuff I'm having shipped to my office. I just received my order from soundproofing.org, which is probably one of the worst-designed websites still in existence. It has no set template from one page to the next, has no understanding of image sizing, relies on Java-based menu elements that only serve to confuse users, and I think they're still using the BLINK tag! I think that's actually punishable by chemical castration now. But at least I have my soundclips!

These metal/rubber things will hold the furring channels away from the ceiling joists so the new ceiling won't physically touch the frame of the house. This should keep things nicely separated, assuming I don't screw something up. The green stuff is padding tape, which I'm gonna put on everything I can until it runs out. This will further separate the new wall/ceiling layers from the existing framing. The stuff in the big tube is acoustical caulk sound sealant (made in my hometown of Mentor, Ohio!), which is just caulk that always stays flexible to absorb vibration. A few more pictures on Flickr. Maybe this will be of some use to somebody else out there, it seems hard to find actual photos of a lot of this stuff (as I said, the soundproof site is incredibly bad, much of the time if they have a picture at all, it's just an artist's rendition of what they think an item looks like).

I'm kind of worried about how we're going to get all the drywall sheets into the basement, some may need to be cut first. But that's pretty easy to do. I just hope the forecast is right (for once) as I don't' relish having to lug 22 4x8' 90-pound sheetrock panels through the rain. I feel very motivated to complete this project, not only so I can start playing the guitar again, but also so I can get back to dealing with the remaining orange parts of the house.

Labels: House, Renovation, Soundproofing