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Showing posts with the label monroe

The Poetry Of Life

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Let the plant wither if it must, the seed fell days ago; Stuck in a pod, half blind, trapped in a cold puddle, Like some muddied, pock-marked, leftover snowball. Too dismal to throw. I have nothing to do but hibernate. What am I some kind of iced-over, frost bitten hedgehog? I’m shrinking!   How can this be with all these trickles? I’m down to a husk of a thing, rattling around like some blind-sided snail. I’m dying out here! Or  maybe drying; at least things are improving, I mean how can I do anything about it? OUCH! I’ve been crunched by a rabid runner and stuffed into a furrow! I think I’ll cry...yes... Wait a minute, what is that streaming stuff? Is it dirt?   Is it Sun?   Is it Rain? I’m growing!  Help! I’m being resurrected! ckr.com/496/19465894059_7431b11602_c.jpg" width="530" height="800" alt="20150709-DSC_6974">

One Year Ago ~ Brownstone Demolition Underway!

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Well, perhaps it isn't EXACTly a Classic Brownstone.  So maybe it's a BrickStone Brownstone, but regardless, it has the Very Soul of a Brownstone!  And what is a Brownstone anyway?  It is a spirit matter, is it not? James Alleyne (Contractor) & Godfrey Griffith (Architect):  June 2014 Upstairs Beautiful 3-Window room--Before (June 2014) Bathroom Before ...(June 2014)

Brooklyn Saga Sketch: from Elevated to Skylight!

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Along the Williamsberg Bridge to  Bedford Stuyvesant Entering Monroe Street Beautiful Woman Sitting on Staircase Upstairs

Brooklyn Brownstone, Progress (inc: Jane and James on staircase!

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Almost finished! Next: Preliminary walk-through....

To Brooklyn, progress, and back: A short photo essay

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On the J-Train The J Train in Brookly, across the Williamsburg Bridge Arriving at Gates Avenue Beautification of Subway stops: Gates Avenue, Brooklyn One of 4.5 bathrooms (yes, I know!  It doesn't have a soap dish yet.  But one has to get exactly the Correct Soap Dish!  This bathroom is a beautiful grey and white, although it doesn't look like it here.  It also is a fairly large bathroom--I guess I have to spring for a wide-angle lens like all those other people! Oh yes.  Indoor plumbing!  What a gift, even without soap dishes and towel racks! Mission for the day (should you choose to accept it): 1.  Enter into a bathroom; one with tub or shower.  Avoid gas stations, for example. 2.  Revel in the beauty and convenience of Tile!  Think what a mess the average shower might make without it. 3.  Check out the very simplicityof a water repellent floor!  Nothing fancy, just tile, tile, showers, water, toilets with double flush, maybe a mirror!!!!  A mirror. 

Boiler Room...

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Seriously?  This is more than I want to know about mechanicals!

Beautiful Brooklyn Townnouse Shaping Up

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We are all breathing sighs of relief!!! Things are looking like beauty will prevail... Beautiful New Office--Work is Looking Good! Fellow Contractor Sam Admires the Beauty

On Making a Sustainable House

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I’m dizzy and ditzy as a bee can be. Yet to be a bee is not for me, I am simply too busy to be a bee, IN fACT….I would like to know where all those behive engineers and botanists are! Where are the gardeners, the tree surgeons, the cultivators and the rose grafters?  It is time to unite behind the latest and greatest sustainable home design in the history of –well, the World.--  WE ARE GOING TO GROW A HOUSE . Why put up with all those joints and connections and what nots? Why not just manufacture a couple of seeds with a few house chromosomes? You know, a few plumbing stem cells, an electronic segment, a brick and mortar constructor? Sheet rock? What is a house but a few organs and an inner and outer skin? Of course, there’s some insulation for fat, a couple of entrances and egresses to manage maintenance, processing and waste. We just need a nice drainage system and some plumbing for circulation to carry the oxygenated water around. Can you experts not design a speci

Brooklyn Brownstone Renovation: Six cellar graveyards full of Boulders...

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Small Boulder on Way to Final Resting Place Emerging from the Tombs of Darkness (Please tell me the Architect did not just say "Oops! I forgot the drains") Cellar Stairs, Backyard

An Incense Cleanse for a Battered Cellar

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Darkness recedes as we begin the final cellar clearing. Oh what fun to run your fingers through the cool, loose granules! Rich and loamy, untouched for 115 years! Cellar Incense

From Top to Bottom: Brooklyn Brownstone Renovation!

Help!  Help!  There are doors everywhere!!
Yes!  Look at that nice empty space.....but, I mean, What happened to the Shed? Wasn't there a Shed down there? Here, shed, shed, shed Ahhhhhh. Smell that new cut wood! Mmmmmmm

An Epic Saga of Serious Workers Reconstructing a Small Shed: in Four Movements

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Excited and happy workers planning reconstruction of small shed. Workers Looking Forward Busy workers happily begin reconstructing Happy Workers Reconstructing Ladder-sitting reconstructor finishing up Happy Worker Finishing Up Workers contemplating small shed reconstruction results Workers Contemplating

Top Floor Bones

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Wow! Uncovring the bowns of a brownstone is quite a dig! Traces of 1901 architeture mix with the afternoon sun. Top Floor Monroe Street brownstone Renovation

Brooklyn Brownstone Rose

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All of a sudden, it is summer! Early Rose on Monroe Street, Brooklyn