Renovate Brooklyn! Day Eight: Snail's Pace.

Things are plugging slowly forward here in Brooklyn. We're starting to tackle the finishing details of the living room/ office area, and began that process on Thursday night by installing this cool long window into the little wall between the two spaces. (See the bottom photo for the finished product.)

I happened to have this long, narrow window already, which was found on the streets of Williamsburg months ago and when we started debating about how to treat the little wall, it became the perfect solution.

Originally, I was sure I wanted to put drywall over the existing beams to create a little 18" wall from floor to ceiling. I liked the idea of something that gave a definition of space in between the living room area and office area, plus Fernando the contractor said those beams really should stay, so that was also a compelling argument.

Before we started the time consuming process of dry-walling the wall, John and I thought we'd do a little compare and contrast.

John came up with the cool idea that we could use one of those awesome (awe-some) italian church doors to close up the beams instead of drywall. This would be considerably easier and would also add a little architectural salvage element to the space.

At our left, he is holding one of the church doors up for our viewing pleasure. He is almost completely purple from the strain of holding it up, but sadly that was not captured in the photograph. But take my word for it-- very purple.

We realized almost as soon as he held up the door that not only did we not want the door there because it darkened the space so much, but it made me rethink the idea of having a solid wall there at all.


The wall blocked off the light from the living room area and obscured the sofa which had the odd effect of making the two spaces seem completely separate again. The absolute opposite of what we wanted to accomplish. Back to the drawing board...

We had actually already considered this window for the wall, but I was concerned that our apartment was starting to feel like a doily or a sieve with some many windows cut into the walls. But once we had seen the effect of the solid wall, I rethought this stance and we took another look at the window. Can you believe how perfectly it fits into that opening? Destiny I tell you! 

Unbelievably, this process took an entire evening, so this week was a bit of a wash. We have decided to stay in the city this weekend to work on the apartment, so that hopefully we can get a little more completed before the work week begins.

       Back in the saddle...

  
*A side note: As an additional incentive, I just received notice that The Mother Figure (yes, my mom) will be descending upon Williamsburg for President's Day weekend, so we've really got to pick up the pace or she will be sleeping in the guest room with a big green loveseat, two dining room chairs, an extra side chair, all of my office bookcases, and no real door of her own. No pressure.