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Begun the demolition has
Tuesday morning the contractors arrived to demolish and rebuild our front steps and front walk.
The house was built in the 19teens on the same pattern as Archie Bunker's house from "All in the Family": stairs up to the front porch, door from front porch into the living room, which segues imperceptibly into the dining room, and then there's a narrow passage from one side of the dining room to the kitchen. A staircase from one side of the living room leads to the second floor, bedrooms, and the only bathroom, and a staircase from one side of the kitchen leads to the basement.
Conveniently, in 1939-1941, New York City sent a horde of photographers around to take pictures of every building in the city, and those photos have now been scanned and keyed to locations on the map, so we know what at least the front of the house looked like at that time. (The site also includes a 1980's photo of many of the buildings.)
Some time between 1910 and 1940, the front porch was enclosed, with windows all around -- the shingles are still visible on the formerly-external wall between the living room and the porch -- and they put a double French door at the entrance to the enclosed porch. The front steps were apparently all brick, with the steps going straight up to the double French door. Some time between 1940 and the 1980's, somebody replaced the double French doors with a single door (opening inward) and a storm-door or screen-door (opening outward), and then decided they needed a landing at the top of the stairs, so they extended the stairs out from the house a foot or so, which entailed adding some bricks to the stairs. Also between 1940 and the 1980's, the brick-edged (probably bluestone) front walk was replaced with concrete, and the wooden shingles on the walls were covered over with aluminum siding.
Around 2010, we planted a pair of quince trees in front of the enclosed porch. We got one or two adequate crops from them, but mostly they were unattractive and annoying, producing fruit that was full of worm poop, and they grew to overhang the enclosed front porch. So in 2020 we cut them down (along with the overgrown arborvitae between our front yard and the next door neighbor's, visible in the 1980's photo). Their roots were still in the ground, and closer to the house foundation than they should have been, so we hired a tree specialist to take out the roots of both quince and arborvitae. That happened in September 2021, and the machinery used to grind out the roots also put some big cracks in our concrete front walk. I asked the contractor to reimburse me for the cost of repairing the front walk, he refused but offered to have "my concrete guys" repair it "at cost", and I accepted that as a mutually face-saving solution that would get the walk fixed without him having to publicly admit that his machinery had broken it. After that, he never returned my phone calls, so it never got fixed.
So a few weeks ago I encountered my architect neighbor while he was talking to the contractor who had just redone his front steps, patio, and retaining walls. It seemed to be good-quality work, and my neighbor recommended the contractor, so I invited him to look at the steps and the front walk. And we reached agreement on what he was going to do, for what price: the steps will be rebuilt and extended another foot out from the front of the house, mostly brick but with a slate landing, and the front walk will be rebuilt, brick-edged with slate in the center. This Tuesday (two days ago) they showed up and started knocking down the brick staircase; Wednesday they did more of that and ripped up the front walk; and today they're starting to rebuild the staircase. Photos when I get a Round Tuit.
The house was built in the 19teens on the same pattern as Archie Bunker's house from "All in the Family": stairs up to the front porch, door from front porch into the living room, which segues imperceptibly into the dining room, and then there's a narrow passage from one side of the dining room to the kitchen. A staircase from one side of the living room leads to the second floor, bedrooms, and the only bathroom, and a staircase from one side of the kitchen leads to the basement.
Conveniently, in 1939-1941, New York City sent a horde of photographers around to take pictures of every building in the city, and those photos have now been scanned and keyed to locations on the map, so we know what at least the front of the house looked like at that time. (The site also includes a 1980's photo of many of the buildings.)
Some time between 1910 and 1940, the front porch was enclosed, with windows all around -- the shingles are still visible on the formerly-external wall between the living room and the porch -- and they put a double French door at the entrance to the enclosed porch. The front steps were apparently all brick, with the steps going straight up to the double French door. Some time between 1940 and the 1980's, somebody replaced the double French doors with a single door (opening inward) and a storm-door or screen-door (opening outward), and then decided they needed a landing at the top of the stairs, so they extended the stairs out from the house a foot or so, which entailed adding some bricks to the stairs. Also between 1940 and the 1980's, the brick-edged (probably bluestone) front walk was replaced with concrete, and the wooden shingles on the walls were covered over with aluminum siding.
Around 2010, we planted a pair of quince trees in front of the enclosed porch. We got one or two adequate crops from them, but mostly they were unattractive and annoying, producing fruit that was full of worm poop, and they grew to overhang the enclosed front porch. So in 2020 we cut them down (along with the overgrown arborvitae between our front yard and the next door neighbor's, visible in the 1980's photo). Their roots were still in the ground, and closer to the house foundation than they should have been, so we hired a tree specialist to take out the roots of both quince and arborvitae. That happened in September 2021, and the machinery used to grind out the roots also put some big cracks in our concrete front walk. I asked the contractor to reimburse me for the cost of repairing the front walk, he refused but offered to have "my concrete guys" repair it "at cost", and I accepted that as a mutually face-saving solution that would get the walk fixed without him having to publicly admit that his machinery had broken it. After that, he never returned my phone calls, so it never got fixed.
So a few weeks ago I encountered my architect neighbor while he was talking to the contractor who had just redone his front steps, patio, and retaining walls. It seemed to be good-quality work, and my neighbor recommended the contractor, so I invited him to look at the steps and the front walk. And we reached agreement on what he was going to do, for what price: the steps will be rebuilt and extended another foot out from the front of the house, mostly brick but with a slate landing, and the front walk will be rebuilt, brick-edged with slate in the center. This Tuesday (two days ago) they showed up and started knocking down the brick staircase; Wednesday they did more of that and ripped up the front walk; and today they're starting to rebuild the staircase. Photos when I get a Round Tuit.