Most of my life I’ve been slightly embarrassed by my New Yawk accent. People now tell me it’s not that bad, but I remember traveling as a kid and everyone knew where I was from the minute I opened my mouth.

New Yawk accents are dying out, so I’m kind of proud to have one these days. I love to guess which borough people are from or to try to decipher if they’re from Lung Iyland or New Joisey.

Love or hate the accent? Check out this film “If Knishes Could Talk“. There’s a screening tomorrow night at The Brooklyn Heights Cinema. Tickets here.

“If you don’t like the way I tawk, f*ck you”.

What’s more fun that staying in a theme hotel room? Maybe creating an entire theme hotel. But ok, staying in one is cool enough for now. The Roxbury Motel opened it’s doors in 2004 when two Manhattanites bought the run down structure after it sat on the market for six years.

Located in the heart of the beautiful Catskills (as opposed to the “eh” Catskills….believe me, there’s a difference), The Roxbury is anything but “forgotten Catskills”. It’s hip. It’s now. It’s happening, baby.

There’s a Flintstone room, a Partridge room, a Genie room and a Bewitched room for those of us old enough to appreciate them. Of course, there is a Shagadelic and a Miss Kitty room for the younger-than-middle-aged crowd. As if that’s not enough, The Roxbury has a spa on the premises and a cocktail lounge/restaurant right across the street.

Disclosure: I haven’t been to The Roxbury Motel. I just got a bit carried away looking at the website. Groovy, baby.

I totally forgot that the Frank Sinatra song “New York, New York” came from a 1977 film of the same title. And remember that Liza Minelli did the original version?? Hate to say it, but Liza kind of blows Frank out of the water with this one. Watch it until the end. Goosebumps. Agree?

As we search for a home to restore and exchange (flip) we’ll be passing along the ones we decided against. This Albany Avenue single family is a bank owned property listed at $345k.

The photos speak volumes. The home is loaded with details! The ornate wood molding, 5 fireplaces (I believe some slate and some wood). Medallions. Doors and hardware. Stained glass. Original shutters.

So what’s the catch? Well, obviously it needs work. That’s a given. It’s currently being used as an illegal 3 family and that won’t fly with a mortgage. Two kitchens will have to be ripped out, but you can still mortgage it. And that’s ok, because there’s nothing special about the kitchens or baths anyway.

The biggest drawback for us was location, location, location. It’s right across the street from the projects. Now, that might not be an issue for someone looking to move in or rent it out, but since we’re only concerned with resale value, it’s a big deal for us as an investment.

So, we passed. Would it work for you? Check out the listing here.

Ben Russell has had a camera attached to him since we met some 30 years ago back in high school, but this is his first exhibit. The Brooklyn native has been doing mostly commercial shoots all these years and hasn’t presented his work as art yet.

The images were shot over a period of two weeks. They are little snippets of a bigger picture that the viewer may or may not recognize. Russell lives in Carroll Gardens where quite a few of these shots were taken. Just for fun, try to guess where each of these shots are located. The answers will be in the comments section.

The show is hanging for the month of February at the 505 Gallery Lobby, 505 Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Come see it!

If you’ve been reading this blog everyday since it’s inception, you know all this like the back of your hand. It’s “Reclaimed Renovation 101″. But here’s a list of tips again just in case you’ve missed a few.

1. GC your own job. If you have the time and organizational skills, you can hire sub-contractors and oversee the project yourself.

2. Sweat Equity. Even if you don’t have mad skills, there’s gotta be something you can do to save some bucks. Demolition? Painting? Stripping paint? It’s called “grunt work”.

3. Re-used Materials. Buy second hand cabinets, appliances and building materials at places like Build it Green and Green Demolitions.

4. Architectural Salvage. Need doors? A fireplace mantel? Medallions? Light fixtures? Forget Home Depot! Yuck! Check out the salvage yards in Brooklyn, upstate and Pennsylvania.

5. Recycle your own Materials. Maybe you can re-use that wide plank sub floor. Those kitchen cabinets might not be so bad if you painted them. Many materials in your home may not need to trashed, only re-worked.

6. Craigs List! Check out the “free” and “materials” categories. You may find some company liquidations or overages on other renovations. Tile, flooring, maybe even sheetrock.

7. “Oops” Paint. If you only have a small room to do, look at the opened paint shelves at Home Depot or other paint stores. You can pick up a gallon for five bucks or so. Colors are already mixed though.

8. Day Laborers. Yeah, I know…illegal and risky. I shouldn’t recommend this, but…

9. Liquidation Stores. There’s one on McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn that sells everything from flooring to toilets. There’s also Lumber Liquidators.

10. Friends. Cheaper and more legal than day laborers. Just get them pizza and beer.

Holiday Cocktail Lounge closed it’s doors for the last time on Saturday night (early Sunday morning). Original owner Stefan Lutak died in 2009 and everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the building was sold. Stefan’s sons George and Roman had differing opinions on the future of the bar, but neither one of them wanted to run the place.

Since Holiday was where I spent much of my time during the mid 80′s to early 90′s and since it was where I met my husband of 23 years, we couldn’t let it disappear without one last drink.

We weren’t the only ones who felt that way. The place was packed as people lined up outside. Multiple generations of Holiday patrons came back to toast the 47 year old bar that spurred numerous relationships. Seven of us from the old days grabbed a booth in the corner. We ran into several other people from back in the day. It was indeed like a reunion.

Roman Lutak was there all night, looking sad and relieved at the same time. The only thing missing was former bouncer Walter.

Holiday was set to remain open until 4am and we intended to stay until they locked the doors, like we had done so many nights before. Unfortunately, a rowdy bunch of folks were getting aggressive with each other and they chased everyone out by 3am.

In our seven years of being there most nights of the week, we had never seen a fight break out. Roman said the same thing as we were leaving.

It should not have ended that way.

A toast to The Holiday in any case. Even though we grew up and moved on, it was always a comfort to know you were there. You will be missed.

1987/2012. Same booth.

Sustainable Flatbush is teaming up with The Cookbook Project to bring us: Healthy Eating on a Budget. The FREE vegetarian meal will be served up along with chats about food composting and environmental issues.

They are looking for donations of reusable soup bowls for the church’s food program, so bring some along if you have any to spare.

Saturday, January 28th, 12-2pm
Flatbush Reformed Church: 890 Flatbush Ave, Bklyn

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The Regal Vegan, the company that makes that fabulous Faux Gras, is holding a cooking class also on Saturday. Recipes include a Roasted Winter Vegetable Salad, Hot Kale Caesar Salad, Russian Root Salad (aka Vinigret) and Celery Root and Apple Remoulade with Dill Caper dressing. Info on registration and stuff here.

AT: Jivamukti Yoga in Union Square

The class starts at 3pm, so guess what? You can make both events!

Since Linn from Christonium sent an email describing her DIY stainless steel countertop, I’m just gonna be lazy and cut and paste the whole thing. Yeah, even though it’s on her own blog (hit link above). But it looks great and her how-to post is more informative than anything I can come up with myself. Because I’m lazy.

Soooo, here’s Linn…

I wanted to share a project of mine which I’m very happy with: my new stainless steel kitchen counters which me and my husband installed ourselves. When we were remodeling our kitchen we were debating about what counters to choose. I loved the idea of stainless steel counters, so industrial, natural and durable, however if you get them professionally installed then they can be pretty pricey.

We worked with a local sheet metal place that gave us a very reasonable quote on shaping a piece of stainless steel if we did some of the work ourselves: so we made a plywood model of our counters, brought it to our local shop and later installed it all on top of our old counters. The result has been great. We got really nice counters which ended up costing us around $400 (roughly $20/square foot.) Now, that’s an excellent price, and our counters are perfect!

New advertiser alert! Show Cliq Studios some love and visit their awesome page for tips and how-to’s. Then buy some kitchen cabinets from them.

Seriously, it’s not a simple task to plan out an entire kitchen. As much as I love to use recycled materials, if you want a specific layout and design consistency, it’s best to go with brand new cabinetry.

The Cliq website has a remodeling guide for first timers. It starts out with design principles and covers layout, budget and everything up to installation. There are designers available to chat if you get confused.

Personally, I’m liking the painted cabinets. In particular, that black and the sage are pleasing to my eye.

A black kitchen. Dude, that’s so goth.

When this blog first started in 2007, we featured an affordable neighborhood every week. Then we ran out of neighborhoods.

Well, we may be in search of a distressed property to restore and since our pockets are bare, it looks like this feature may start up again.

There are three neighborhoods that have consistently popped up in our < $300k price range. Bushwick, Ridgewood and Jersey City.

We know nothing of these areas, only that….

Bushwick can be hit or miss. There are some hipster havens, but the homes we’ve been seeing are in areas that don’t have much going on. And by “not much going on” I mean, not even a corner bodega. Been to Bushwick a few times but never fell in love with it. But we’ll be researching Bushwick some more.

Ridgewood. Yes, Queens! What, did you think I’m some Brooklyn snob? Well, Ridgewood is just over the border (of Bushwick) so that makes it ok. Actually, it’s supposedly a “lovely” area with great old home stock.

Jersey City. There are Hobokeny parts and dumpy parts. Guess what we can afford? NJ might not be the best option for us as far as the higher taxes and cost of commuting while renovating. DIY of course. It’s worth a look though.

Oh, there is a fourth neighborhood: East New York, one of the last Brooklyn neighborhoods to find gentrification. Definitely lots of affordable homes to choose from, but since it’s farther out than Bushwick, it makes sense to try to do Bushwick first. Also, it should be said that the crime levels are still fairly high in East New York. Not that it isn’t worth checking out!

Anyone have some input?

Reclaimed Wood Art. Green Upgrader

Borscht Casino Belt? Upstater

Tankless Water Heaters. Bob Vila

Brokelandia. Brokelyn

Trouble Getting Tenants for Tower 3. WNYC

Fusion from Ikea is the perfect design for a small kitchen or dining area. The chairs fit neatly under the table because of the leg placement. Genius! Comfortable? Have you ever eaten at the corner end of the table? $299.

A Murphy bed is a Murphy bed, but how cool is a bed that drops down from the ceiling? That’s like Batman shit. Found this one on Museum of Furniture website. It probably takes a very specialized contractor to install this or you might end up with the upstairs neighbors on top of you.

Expandable antique tables aren’t that difficult to come by. They may not be less expensive than an Ikea table, but you can be sure that they are better quality. The table in the photo is a drop leaf gate table. Library tables are often expandable as well.

Martha Stewart has a “how to” on this armoire made from two bookcases. Need to hide your office or crafts? This is key, baby!

This is a guest post by Jeremy who loves writing about living green, saving money and DIY. He is from EasyApplianceParts, a DIY resource and retailer of appliance replacement parts.

We spend almost one third of our life in the bedroom. The bedroom is our space to relax, unwind and leave the stress of the world behind. Creating a bedroom that is your own sanctuary can be done without having to spend a fortune redecorating. How?  The answer is upcycling. This means taking existing items and repurposing them to build the bedroom of your dreams. The recipe for an upcycling designer is a layer of personal design style, followed by a cup of creativity, two cups of the materials you’ll need and a sprinkle patience, topped off by a do-it-yourself attitude.

Create your own furniture

Buying a brand new bedroom set can be expensive. Most of the bedroom sets currently available from furniture stores are made from particle-board based wood.  Create your own durable and stronger bedroom set by using previously used wood such as boards, planks and wood pallets. Solid wood pieces can be found in antique stores, yard sales, estate auctions or old barns.

Making your own bed – Wood pallets used to transport goods can be obtained from nurseries or home stores. They can be transformed into just about anything – desks, chairs, end tables, benches and beds.  Homedit has developed a stylish and easy to build platform bed made from wood pallets. The best part of this idea is that it costs next to nothing to build.  The only materials that are needed are wood pallets, hinges and casters. Add your mattress, paint and you’re done. An extra added benefit to a wood pallet platform bed is it can be enlarged or reduced as required.

Extra seating – If your bedroom is large try adding in a bench at the edge of the bed or by the window for a window seat.  Old coffee tables or a small garden bench can be used to make your own bench – just add some paint, cushion and the bench is ready.

Creating texture and depth

Adding fabrics in your rooms design creates visual interest by giving the room texture and depth. Give your room some personality using existing materials you have in the closet, attic or basement. Old sweaters, jeans, dresses, shirts, blouses and towels can all be transformed into pillows, curtains or even bedding.

Quilts – If you’re a seamstress or seamster or have access to one then make a quilt. Quilts are fantastic for having an afternoon nap or in the winter for wrapping yourself up and staying warm. Making your own quilt is also a great way to capture your family’s history.  This can be achieved by having everyone in the family contribute a selection of fabric that has significant a meaning. Coordinate the colors and textures to create a unique piece of art.

Lighting

Lighting adds to the overall atmosphere you are trying to create. When thinking about lighting take into consideration the amount of natural light the room is getting. Also, the color on the walls will also affect the lighting – darker colors absorb the light and light colors reflect it. Everyday objects such as wine bottles, mason jars and even your blender can be transformed into a lighting solution.  Instructables has put together a step-by-step process to transform your blender into a desk lamp.

Adding personal touches 

Use your imagination and create some unique personal touches that reflect your personality and your overall design plan. Candles give the room an extra touch of class by helping to create a warm comforting feeling. Create your own candle and candle holder using an old butter dish. Take used candles lying around and melt them together in a sauce pan. Poor the candle mixture back into a butter dish and add in new wicks or the existing ones and let the wax cool. Take the candle out of the butter dish and use the dish as the candle’s holder viola you have a new stylish unique candle holder.  If the candle doesn’t easily pop out of the dish put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. The wax will freeze which will make it easy to remove.

Eliminate Bare Walls

Tie the look of your room together by selecting and making design pieces for the wall. Mirrors are a simple and easy way to make a smaller room look bigger. Take your existing mirror(s) add some paint to the trim to coordinate with the room’s new look. Another suggestion is to take a group of smaller mirrors and hang them together to form different geometric shapes. Reusing mason jars is becoming more and more popular and can be transformed from empty jars sitting in your cupboards into wall mounted candle holders and/or vases.  You can create unique pieces of wall art using place mats too. They come in a variety of textures, colors and patterns and can be used as decoration in a couple of ways – try cutting out a section of one and putting it in a picture frame or hang a few of the mats together to create a piece of wall decor.

Upcycling adds a lot of value to your bedroom’s design. You’ll have the satisfaction of being able to save money and help the environment while receiving a great sense of achievement from showcasing your design/DIY abilities. Keep your eyes peeled at yard sales, friends and families garages for resources to make something that’s yours and yours alone.

I photograph a range of houses. It’s tough to make some of them look good. But yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting a beautiful home and the tough part was doing it justice.

The farmhouse plus restored barn is located in Beacon within walking distance to town and the train. The 1.7 acre property offers privacy and views of the Hudson.

The restoration is impeccable! Yes, I used that word.

One problem. You would have to have deep pockets for this baby. Ask is $745k which is not crazy for 2 homes on such a large lot. The cray-cray part is the taxes. $16k. Ouch.

But the house is sooooo prettttyy.

Flickr shots