Replacing a Kitchen Sink Strainer Basket and Drain

Delta Trisinic Faucet

Ever have a simple 2-hour DIY job snowball and take up your whole weekend? That's what happened to me when I set out to replace our old sink basket and faucet with new chrome fixtures.

Painting the Old Kitchen Cabinets to Match Kraftmaid Canvas Color

Don't you love our newly painted cream cabinets? They didn't always look this good. We inherited a kitchen that was recently renovated but it was... meh. Just enough had been done to it to allow a seller to list a home as "renovated with granite countertops", but very little design sense went into the choice of fixtures and colors.

Ikea Hack: Built-In Bookcases

Who would think you could jump-start your built-ins using inexpensive Ikea bookcases and and some decorative trim and get this? 

A beautiful home library! 

About 7 years ago in a previous home, I commissioned a contractor to build floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases along the hallway to house my library. It cost me about $5k in materials and labor. Here's what that looked like:

I opted to paint them myself to save money – and the task was a beast! All those shelves and trim pieces.

This time around, encouraged by the work of AM Dolce Vita and Centsational Girl, I hacked Ikea bookcases for about $800.  Here's the schematic that I drew up for my contractor.

How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets: Step by Step

The most important thing about painting cabinets is to take your time and go through every step. You will not get a good result by hurrying. Here's how you do it, step by step.

Bathroom Lighting & Storage

We are down to the wire! Literally.

It is time for me to firm up lighting specs and measure where the recesses for the medicine cabinet, tall side cabinet, and shower alcove will go.

It's always jarring in that stage of a renovation when you move from dream phase to purchase phase. It means the dreaming (and paging through Houzz and Pinterest) that I have been doing since I made the offer on this apartment in July is about to come to an end. But also that the end product is near.

So, these are my choices.

Pet Stains on Hardwood Floors: Before and After Photos

I am in love with the floors in our new home! But this wasn't always the case. When we bought the place the floors were so damaged that the seller reduced the price significantly when I showed them the estimate from a floor restoration specialist. The extent of the pet damage was so great that it required not just refinishing but removal and replacement of certain damaged slats.

Measuring Your Bathroom for Subway Tile

If you are like me, you may have been poring over Pinterest and Houzz for months in preparation for your next home renovation project, but when the time comes to actually place the orders for all the fixtures and supplies, you find yourself scrambling.

When it came time for me to order our bathroom tile, I had some measuring to do.  

Repairing Pet Damage to Hardwood Floors

What can you do about hardwood floors that have been destroyed by "pet damage" — in this case, dog urine? You can steel yourself for a sharp blow to the budget, my friend. This is no easy DIY.

Final Bathroom Design

My Inspiration Board!

After many hours spent poring over Houzz and Pinterest, shopping tile stores in Chelsea, and comparing samples, I've decided that the bathroom in our 1940s mid-century apartment is going to be a modern take on the classic subway tile bathrooms of the era. 

Here's the plan.

The Timeless Appeal of the Black and White Bathroom

DecorPad

There is something classic, classy and timelessly appealing about a black and white bathroom. 

I have a few decisions to make. Help me, if you will, by sharing your opinion in comments.

Linden Court Fixer Upper

I received a Zillow alert this week on a 2-BR fixer upper in Jackson Heights for an unbelievable $219k.

 3759 84th St APT 32, Jackson Heights NY 11372

Photo: Zillow

Unbelievable, because when I track the address in Streeteasy, it turns out this apartment is located in the lovely Linden Court. Linden Court is one of my favorite prewar co-ops in all of Jackson Heights for it's gorgeous oversize windows. It's credited with being the first co-op built in the neighborhood in 1921, when both light and air flow were considered essential to good health and architects paid attention to such things.

Photo: Zillow

The unit does need a substantial amount of work, judging by the photos (the tile laid over the hard wood floors is in my opinion, criminal). But at $219 per sq ft and with that amazing wall of windows in the livingroom, this apartment has big Renov8or appeal.

1940s Bathroom: In Praise of Subway Tile

We are closing in on our purchase of our new home in Jackson Heights! On Friday I received the mortgage commitment, so the next step will be our interview with the co-op board.

Today I am sitting at the computer assembling all the financial information that the co-op board has requested. Well, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. What I am really doing is flipping through bathroom photos on Pinterest and Houzz.

What Can Go Wrong at a Real Estate Closing on a Co-op

We're closed!

But we almost weren't. New York real estate closings are highly charged events. Just getting all the lawyers in one room is a challenge. You've got the lawyer for the seller (me) and the lawyer for the buyer and the lawyer for the buyer's lender and a closer for the seller's lender as well as the co-op board's managing agent.

Each person sitting at the table has a checklist. So, there's always a chance that something will turn up missing from someone's checklist. Guess what was missing from mine?


Last Friday I had to race out of work at 4:00pm and rush from Manhattan to Brooklyn to pick up the stock certificate for my apartment.  Over the weekend I had to make the rounds and collect the signatures of two of my co-op board members - the board president and the board secretary.  Luckily I have served on my board and I am friendly with these two people, so I was able to catch them over the weekend and complete my mission.

Is this the job of the seller? No.

Is this the responsibility of the seller? No.

But is there anyone who cares more than the seller that the closing happen forthwith? No.

So I stepped up. Sometimes you just have to break through to get things moving.

At today's closing, the stock certificate was all in order. However, the show stopper became the Aztec Agreement, also referred to as the Recognition Agreement. It is the document that the bank draws up to give its lien the first priority over the co-op's lien in case the shareholder defaults and it must be signed by the buyer, the buyer's lender, and members of the co-op board. It's a document that the mortgage bank sends to the buyer very early in the process, and it is subsequently one that often gets lost.

Note to self: Hang on to the recognition agreements for your purchase. When you have to turn them over to the board, know who has them, and track them.

Mad for Midcentury

Our new home was built in the 1940s, so I am getting inspired by this midcentury decor. I want the walls to be a warm oaky yellow. With red and coral accents. 

I fall asleep at night not reading books for my book club but searching Pinterest for mid-century inspiration.

Yes, You Can Sell Your Own Home FSBO!

I am closing on my sale in a week!

We've met all the major milestones for me to be able to say with confidence that my FSBO has been a complete success. Here is what I did to get the best price for my home. You can do it too.

Real Estate Closings Are Taking Longer Than Ever!

It's been a while since my last post. For once I had a summer without projects. That's right, we spent the summer biking, BBQing, and beach sitting. And it was lovely!

Truth be told, our little cottage could use a new roof, and come next spring it will get one. But what's really keeping me in thrall these days are my Carroll Gardens sale and my Jackson Heights purchase.

The sale is in the home stretch. (Ba-dump-bump.)

The buyer has been approved by the board. The bank has all they need. The subletters are moving out when their lease ends at the end of the month. I wish I could tell you that we have a closing date locked in, but we do not.

The buyer has been trying his best to wrangle all the lawyers since his board approval August 28th. Yes - almost a full month of lawyers comparing calendars and shrugging.

What gives?

And my purchase is going even slower. It took two months from my offer date to get all the due diligence documents in. I still don't know what the hold up was. Was it possible it was all due to August vacations?

Then I went into my lawyers office to sign the contract, check in hand, only to find that the seller's lawyer had never sent it!

So I'm heading back tomorrow a second time on my lunch hour -- hoping this is it.

At this rate I am estimating we won't be in the new place until December -- make that January if we run into holidays.

Bah humbug!

Another Steal in Jackson Heights - 2BR+2BA Asks $259k!

If I hadn't just found our new home, I'd have to go have a look at this one that just listed a 10% reduction off what was already an astonishingly low price for an 1100 sq ft corner apartment with three exposures!

If you can look past the terrible listing photos (seller, clean up that clutter; agent, get a decent camera!), this apartment has great potential.

This price-reduced apartment certainly needs some work. Rip up those carpets to expose hardwood floors. Paint and plaster. Update the kitchen (not pictured, so it must need work).

But with a list price of $259k now, you've earned your renovation budget.

The only negatives: Some might balk at the first floor or at the rather high maintenance at $1100.

Moving From "Hip" Carroll Gardens to Jackson Heights

Credit: Streeteasy.com

Our offer on an apartment today was accepted! It's a 2 BR in Jackson Heights, where I think Ross and I will be very happy. For half the price, no, one-third the price of a Carroll Gardens 2 BR we're getting 1100 square feet in a full-service building, with a live-in super and porters and a doorman and — yes! — a parking garage!

It's a fixer upper, of course. This photo above is actually the same apartment two floors down, already renovated. But it gives you an idea of how lovely ours will be when I'm through with it. The one we're buying sadly looks like this right now:

My Carroll Gardens FSBO Got Multiple Bids

When I decided to sell my home, I did a FSBO. Unemployed at the time, I had been subletting since I'd moved in with Mr. Renov8or. My experience as a landlord was mostly positive. My tenants paid the rent on time and in exchange, when something was wrong I jumped to fix it. That's the social contract, right?

Paint Tip: Freeze Brushes Between Coats

I painted quite a bit when I was a kid. My dad always had a home renovation project going on, and we kids were his assistants. One of the jobs I really disliked was cleaning paint brushes. No matter how much water I ran through the brushes, there was always paint coming through and it seemed like hours before the water ran clear. And don't even get me started on the oil-based paints! (Turpentine, yuk!)

I used to say that when I became a grownup I would throw away my used brushes and start with a fresh one when I resumed painting. For years as a young adult, I actually did do that. And I'm not talking cheapo paint brushes. These were Purdy's at $10 a pop. That's how much I dislike cleaning brushes.

Now that I'm a homeowner - and a better money manager - I can't bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars on brushes every time I get the urge to change a room's color (which is often). So here's what I do.