New York March NYC Meet-Up

[Calzone]

Thanks to my fellow geezer friends for looking out for me.

"Maggie" already had a hip replacement.

I kinda am funny looking. Imagine this rather large shaped egghead with an arrogant chin beard and a ponytail. There is grey now in my eyebrows, the eyebrows are thickening like that of an old man, and I have to groom the errant eyebrow hairs that are growing long. I don't want ponytails on my eyebrows.

Then I have this skinny muscular build that resembles perhaps a tenth grader. I bought a kids Kaepernich Jersey in large. On a label is says size 15 meaning sized to fit an average 15 year old, but it fits me so well it is as if a tailor made it for me.

My neck is thick and kinda ugly like a football player from carrying cameras and camera bags, and my right arm somehow is overdeveloped and noticibly thicker in girth from carrying cameras. It is to the point that my right arm is about an inch longer than my left arm, so actually I'm deformed from carrying cameras.

So when you put this all together you have an old man on a kids body. I'm a skinny bitch I say at 5'10" and 142 pounds.

I think I'll be okay with stairs for a few decades, but my crazy woman I need to make me crazy might find the stairs a hassle decades from now before me.

So this new favorite house is only 3 bedroom one bath on a small lot, but there are trees. Maggie wants trees. I can understand why, she is a white gal who has northern European genes. She suffers in the heat, and walking around we always have to try and walk in the shade.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

742K Followers.

So now that we are going to buy a home there could be lots of work and a pivot of course where "Maggie's" blog becomes more about home owning, interior design, gardening, and a healthy lifestyle that is "slow" and sustainable.

I expect a crazy woman decorating and buying furnishings getting totally OCD. Maggie has it in her head to do all this "upcycling" and going high-end. Should be interesting, I'm just going to stand aside.

I have been applying for a Mortgage Pre-Approval with a big bank since last week.

Meanwhile Maggie no longer loves the "Tiny House," and we are would call the "New" house because the Tiny House is a Craftsman 2 bedroom/one bath that was built in 1990, and the "New" house is a 3 bedroom/one bath ranch built in 1926.

Still both are on small lots, but the "New" house is slightly bigger, has an extra bedroom, and perhaps is less "funky" or arts-C.

So the forensics are that the "New" house is a "Flipper bought cheap last year, with new siding, new kitchen new bathroom, new laminent floors, new windows.

Kinda funny is how this home gets little love because it is too small for a family, has no garage, only one bathroom, but is kinda what I would want 2-3 or even 4 decades from now.

The street it is on and the location is better for Metro North, Main steeet is only 5 short sided blocks away.

So now I really want to have my pre-approval which is required to view a home. So I went with Quicken Loans and within 10 minutes I got a pre-approval. EZ-PZ.

Next I sent an E-mail to schedule a viewing. The house is vacant. My hope is I need the unfinished basement to be a dry basement. No inside entrance to the basement, Bilco doors.

If I have 800-900 square feet of basement that I only have to share with a furnace and hot water heater, I be mighty happy. Hows that for bunkering down into social isolation.

Looks like all our rather modern furnishings I might get to recycle into my basement/studio.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Wow, the flipper house flipped in a week. My guess the seller wanted to close the deal before some thing bad happens like a second wave or a Presidential Election. Was only listed for a week, and we decided it was only attractive because it fit basic needs at a great price.

This quick transaction is telling. Does the contractor/seller/flipper who owned a fixed up vacant house know something I don't know, or is he just scared of paying another year's worth of property taxes on a vacant house he can't sell. BTW I was going to match the lowest asking price from last year when the home languished.

I'm not disappointed, but Maggie is a bit. I knew that as a flipper that the builder/contracter likely cheaped out on the windows, siding, flooring, furnace as not to cut into his margins, but he did well to go top shelf on the kitchen appliances. Of course I would never do this. For me buying this house would of been a mistake.

I tried to teach Maggie that cheaping out over the long run costs money.

So now "woman factor" is starting to get a bit crazy, but things are opening up.

The hot house today I will call the "Blue House." It is a bit of a walk from Main Street, and I could compare it to walking from where I live on 101st Street down to 86th Street to go to Fairway, the grocery. The walk to Metro North is about 2.3 miles the same distance I walk to work, and of course back home.

"Maggie" wanted to be right in town and blew off this house on a 1/4 acre. 3 bedroom 2 bath, plus a heated out building with a cathedral ceiling plenty of windows with skylights as a studio workspace that is about garage sized.

The house dates back to 1900, and there is much of the original wide plank heart pine flooring intact.

Moral of the story is that you get a bigger lot and more for your money just away from main street.

So Maggie starts to reconcile the She-Shed and finally is able to visualize that for privacy, quality of life, and just to have space, perhaps a small home on a small lot could be constricting. Now she can see what I envisioned on the half acre near the sanctuary with the small 1890 Colonial's potential to build out a compound with a dtatched out building as a studio/workspace.

If Calzone had his way he would get built a 20x30 foot timer frame barn kit. It would fit in with the Colonial near the road: 10 Kilowatt solar array; Mitsubishi heat pump; and super insulate for green efficientcy.

Anyways the barn with the Colonial would be an ideal compound, but I could settle for a garage sized work studio.

Some of the houses now that Maggie is interested in are fixer uppers, but these are projects that would evolve over years. Maggie's OCD tendancies don't allow for things to be straight forward, and this gets compounded because she tends to complicate things.

Of course she will not be of any help putting on a roof, residing, or installing windows. I look upon these tasks as mine or my reponsability to get done. We both agree it would not be a burden if I was retired.

So it took a while. Women tend to disregard listening to men. My gal with a PhD tends to be a know-it-all, and believes she kinda can do anything because there is the Internet and you-tube-videos. LOL.

Meanwhile we figured out the "Tiny House" we once loved is overpriced. There was a recent price drop, but now Maggie has lost interest. Oh-well.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Moving forward I finally got delivery of the Fender Custom Shop 51 NoCaster pickups.

Last night I installed one of the pickups into "Worm," the 1949 Snakehead replica, and made some noise. Out of the two pickups I ended up using the pickup with a 140 ohm lower resistance which would offer a lower output as well as a more open sound.

The Nocaster bridge pickup is said to be of low output with emphisis on the lower end of the frequency range along with the mids, but the highs are not so pronounced as with more modern pickups that have higher outputs and stronger magnets.

To answer Bob's question the bottom grounding/shielding plate is made of zinc and is not copper.

So Worm is a very different guitar due to its pine body. The attack is kinda soft with a fast decay, so it offers a smoothness that encourages a snappy attack. There seems to be something very acoustic going on that is hard to explain, but the sound pluged or unplugged somehow has an acoustic like decay that is sharp and pronounced initially, but dies off rapidly.

Anyways I'm in love I tell you. "Don't tell Maggie."

Tonight I will shim the neck to lower the saddles a bit more. The truss rod also needs a tiny more tightening after the quartersawn neck settled in.

It seems out of all my Tele's that Worm has a voice I never heard before. I'm so glad that I found this old barn wood body because it is truely novel.

Cal

 

[MrFujicaman]

I tried to teach Maggie that cheaping out over the long run costs money.



Cal[/QUOTE]

Good luck with this...I spent most of my life trying to teach my dad this and he never did learn it.

I build to the standard that things should withstand a near miss from a nuke..

I'd rather over build than have to go back time and time again and fix it. The old man never could figure out that it's cheaper to do it right the first time.

 

[Calzone]

I tried to teach Maggie that cheaping out over the long run costs money.



Cal

Good luck with this...I spent most of my life trying to teach my dad this and he never did learn it.

I build to the standard that things should withstand a near miss from a nuke..

I'd rather over build than have to go back time and time again and fix it. The old man never could figure out that it's cheaper to do it right the first time.

MFM,

I would rather do it once, be done, and not have to do it over.

Best advice you gave me was to buy that Paul Smith Tux. No remorse.

"Maggie" wants me to sell the stuff I call treasure that I bought a long time ago with the intent to keep a long-long time. I mentioned to her how the gold Canadian Mapple Leafs that I bought in Mint State-69 (70 is a rare perfect coin) that is made of .999999 (6-9) gold that they don't mint anymore.

My old guitar amps, the old Leo Fender G&L bass'es, the pre-Earnie-Ball Stingray Bass'es, a lot of my camera gear, and my old retro bikes.

She does not understand enduring value, nor utility.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Looks like Saturday we will view a house, a cape with a garage, 2 baths, on almost a quarter acre in town and close to Metro North.

The basement does not look like a dry one, but oh-well. I see green out every first floor window, so I see trees instead of a neighbor's house, nearly a quarter acre in town is a big deal, and having a garage is also.

Two bedrooms are on the first floor which is great, leaving the upstairs kinda open. The kitchen and dining area are one large space, but the kitchen needs updating, and I'm cool with that. The deck off the kitchen needs to be replaced. Oh-well again.

I forgot to mention that there is a fireplace that looks to have a heaterlator.

The house was built in 1950 and the full bath on the second floor looks to be a time capsule. The hill-billy in me says I kinda like having a retro bathroom, since the second floor will likely be shared with some studio space for me, and as a clothes closet (oversized) for "Maggie" since the basement is not dry.

Anyways I hope we secure this house that is new to the market. I can see me creating a hill-billy darkroom using the dormered out bathroom upstairs. "Don't tell Maggie."

Ideally the garage could be my Powermatic wood working shop with a 12 inch table saw, a jointer, bandsaw, and a disc table sander for mitering joints to build frames. Again, "Don't tell Maggie." Not a bad idea in an artsey town with the DIA nearby. "Just don't tell Maggie."

Seems that dry basements in Beacon might be a bit of a novelty. Where the prisons are, the High School, Memorial park, and the Interstate looks to have been in ancient times a big bog. Likely the water table is not so deep.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Our old rental in south Philly had a very slightly wet basement. Nothing obvious but efflorescence on the walls and the feeling of moisture in the air. When we got a dehumidifier, we found we were removing over 3 liters of water from the air per day. The big issue is that when we left the house, we would feel physically better. There was almost certainly mold all over the structure and it caused Bethanne and I to basically live with a low grade cold all the time. When we moved to our current house, those health issues disappeared. Tread very carefully with the notion of moving into a wet house. It may cause health issues or possibly make you more susceptible to serious symptoms of COVID.
Phil Forrest

 

[Calzone]

Our old rental in south Philly had a very slightly wet basement. Nothing obvious but efflorescence on the walls and the feeling of moisture in the air. When we got a dehumidifier, we found we were removing over 3 liters of water from the air per day. The big issue is that when we left the house, we would feel physically better. There was almost certainly mold all over the structure and it caused Bethanne and I to basically live with a low grade cold all the time. When we moved to our current house, those health issues disappeared. Tread very carefully with the notion of moving into a wet house. It may cause health issues or possibly make you more susceptible to serious symptoms of COVID.
Phil Forrest

Phil,

Thanks Phil. Good advice. I will seriously look into this and the possible or probable mold situation.

The row house in Greenpoint had a sump pump. It flooded once, but that was due to a bad solder joint that was done by the landlord. Some people think they have enough skill to sweat a solder joint. I learned evidently he did not clean the joint properly.

Also in Greenpoint we lived atop of a huge oil spill that was in the groundwater that they say is the size of three Exxon Valdez oil spills. Not far away was Newtown Creek, one of the most polluted waterways in the U.S. On occasion we would get the smell from the sewage treatment plant if the wind was just right where a third of NYC's sewage is treated.

Then after September 11th the following summer we could smell the dead at Ground Zero. We blew out this black grit and had cronic sore/raw throats every morning that entire summer. Pretty much we were breathing in the ashes of the dead and choking on their ashes.

I saw a flyer about a government program for FED Goverment rebates for HEPA air cleaners, HEPA vacuum cleaners and for air conditioners. At this time the crony Christine Todd Whitman who was the head of the EPA stated that the air quality at Ground Zero was safe, meanwhile the DEC offered the rebate program to protect the public.

I bought a new air conditioner and sent in the recept. It took about 6-8 weeks but I got that rebate which also included all the tax I paid.

The row house in Long Island City I would say had a dank basement, it was dry, but I think that house had problems with mold as well as lead paint, and faulty electric. I deemed it a fire hazard.

Also in LIC the Citi Group skyscrapper, the tallest building on Long Island, was literally my backyard neighbor. Basically I lived next to a terrorist target, and Citi Bank basically would shovel my front sidewalk when it snowed for their 24 hour foot patrols.

Right in front of our row house the 7 train ran, so the noise was like in the film "The Blues Brothers."

I almost forgot about the rat infestation due to the building out of the new Court Square subway station. Our back yard basically became a new home for newly homeless rats. I baited two traps with peanut butter, and every morning I would "harvest" my trophies. On one occasion I somehow killed two rats in one trap.

I think many homes near water don't really have dry basements, and also termites need a source of moisture, so this is a secondary concern.

The loft in Williamsburg had the danger of being in the explosion zone of the then running and working Donino Sugar Refinery. I lived close enough that I could throw a baseball and hit their chain link fence that surrounded the perimeter. At the end of the block was the shifting tower with the glass top floor so that the windows would get blown out instead of taking down the building.

We had to keep the windows closed because of the smell from the refinery. Outside it either smelled like cotton candy or burnt newsprint.

Also we lived in a flood zone...

Then "Maggie" asked me about this strange sound that was as if someone was dragging a huge air conditioner down concrete steps. "What is that strange sound?" she asked, and I responded, "I don't know," but I recognized the sound of someone seeing how fast they could empty a magazine of a hand gun.

Then there was another time I found a shell casing from a 45 on the sidewalk right near my gate.

Where I live now at the top of a hill I call "Butt Hill," that is a block long steep incline, is the first time in NYC where I don't live in a flood zone.

Cal

 

[MrFujicaman]

Cal, Phil's on the money with the issues a damp house can cause. If you do buy the place, I'd look into getting the HVAC system upgraded with a whole-house dehumidifer and a electrostatic air cleaner. My dad's house had a moisture problem for nearly 60 years-when they added on in the late 1920's and added a basement, they hit an underground spring. That along with the high water table around here meant you ran sump pumps year round.

On the darkroom....I'd see if there's a wall that backs on to the wall with either the tub or the sink and site my darkroom there. Running water isn't the problem...getting rid of waste water is the bigger problem.

A darkroom is only limited by $$ and your imagination. Go to Large Format Photography Forum and check the thread "Let's see your darkroom". My crazy darkroom posts start on page 76 of that thread.

 

[MrFujicaman]

Cal, ask an insurance agent in Beacon if the house you're going to look at is in a flood plain. Pretty much they know every flood plain in town because they sell flood insurance.

 

[Calzone]

Cal, ask an insurance agent in Beacon if the house you're going to look at is in a flood plain. Pretty much they know every flood plain in town because they sell flood insurance.

MFM,

Great idea. I dug into this, and it seems that Fishkill Creek does flood and "South Avenue" is a road that floods meaning homes in that area might be prone to flooding.

Beacon is set on rolling hills at the foot of Mount Beacon. Just north and outside of town are non residential areas that have two prisons, an Interstate Highway, and such. Not so unsure if at one time if this was in ancient times part of an old Hudson River flood plane, but these lower elevations have the geological earmarks.

Joe also gave me an example of someone he knew that had an underground creek running through his basement. The water table seems to be rather high in parts of Beacon. I imagine because of the glacial past, drainage, and the force of gravity lots of possibilities abound.

I learned from Bret, the new homeowner I met on my last trip to Beacon, that his home was right on the threshold of having a Radon gas problem. He talked into the purchased price the cost of the fan remediation. This is something I also have to look into.

I don't discount global warming either. This is a bit of a gamble, but I have to do due dill-E-gence.

I say the upstairs second bath makes it easy for me to jump into film again in a serious way. I can see me expanding off that wet wall as you suggest. Just don't tell "Maggie."

I already have baited a hook. One house, the "Blue" house had a heated and insulated shed with skylights and great windows on the property. I seeded the notion by calling it a "She-Shed" and how that would make a great office/workspace/studio for her.

Basically I want to be clever and do the bait and switch for control of the garage which is attached to the house.

 

[Calzone]

I just rounded up some medical office examination furniture that an administrator at work said I could take home. It includes a Doctor's stool, a medical examination room computer wheeled table, and even a chromed and wheeled hospital hamper.

Basically they are demo'ing a space, and otherwise this stuff would get thrown out and end up in a landfill. All this stuff is fresh and not really worn.

How crazy is that?

I'm fighting the urge to hoard. There are all these steel cabinets that would be great to have in a studio or workspace... Hmmm. "I know "Maggie" would not approve. LOL.

Don't tell Maggie.

So for now I'm storing this stash at work in my lab. I have mucho space.

Saturday we are going to look at a cape on almost a 1/4 acre with a garage. The home is in town, and is future proofed for the next 3-4 decades for us. Two bedrooms are on the first floor, the upstairs has a second bath, which I could use as a darkroom. "Don't tell Maggie."

Pretty much the second floor will be for my studio, and for storing Maggie's clothes, shoes, and bags.

Also know that when we buy a home that things already are lining up for garden, home improvement, and remodeling work for "Maggie."

Cal

 

[MrFujicaman]

Certain X-ray machines used a stand with a side arm that looks just like an Arkay studio stand-we had one at my camera club that a member salvaged. You'll have to have an adapter made to hold a pan/tilt head.

Keep your eyes open!

 

[Calzone]

Certain X-ray machines used a stand with a side arm that looks just like an Arkay studio stand-we had one at my camera club that a member salvaged. You'll have to have an adapter made to hold a pan/tilt head.

Keep your eyes open!

MFM,

Kinda funny that you mentioned this. I know where one of these are. Seems like two wheeled stands have been abandoned for a while in a hallway.

I took notice that one has a nozzle like an x-ray machine at a dental office. At one time when they were changing the air filters in my building, they cleared the halls, and these got pushed into my utility room where I have the cooling water package for my cyclotron.

These have been abandoned for over a year.

Hmmm...

In an earlier post in this thread I reported finding this articulating arm that seems ideal for mounting my 27 inch EIZO on. This arm is mucho heavy duty and was for some mucho expensive piece of medical equiptment. I have it stored in my office at work.

Cal

 

[MrFujicaman]

BINGO !

The stand for the X-ray machine with the "nozzle" is the one you want! The stand our club president salvaged was from a dental office that closed when the dentist died, It was at the curb, so he took it.

 

[Calzone]

I know I have a confused identity; I say, "I am a white boy trapped in an Asian body;" and to compound all this not only am I a drama queen, but formally I was a NYC Performance Artist.

So here on RFF I present "Calzone," a persona who is a bit over-the-top presented as a Brooklyn tough guy/thug who is kinda scrappy.

So since my identity is so confused perhaps I want to change my name, kinda what Prince did when he created a new identity: "the artist formally known as Prince."

So instead of "Calzone" I'm going to do the hill-billy thing and have two first names, kinda like Billy-Bob, or Peggy-Sue; and now my new identity will be "Calvin-August." How hill-billy is that, but you can also call me "Augie" which is also kinda hill-billy.

For further confusion I will also reveal and explain that "Maggie" is not my gal's real name. I called her "Maggie" to do what I do, which is basically annoy people. Maggie is an invention and is a persona I invented. I explained that "Maggie" is Matha Stewart's older sister who has a problem with being OCD.

So imagine how annoying it would be for someone with obsessive tendencies to be with someone like me. LOL.

I use to call her Maggie all the time, no one else did, and it got to the point where I called her by her real name once and it kinda felt strange she revealed.

So you can imagine how "Maggie" is raging right now.

Also know in a separate thread Joe first mentions building a barn to fill, and then John riifs off that mentioning that what makes Joe feel that I won't fill it.

So know that before that thread I was looking into buying a timber-frame barn kit and then super-insulating it; and then buying a 10 Kilowatt solar array to go off the grid using Mitsubishi heat pumps for HVAC.

So am I that predictable? I was really considering buying this 800 square foot 2 story Colonial on a half acre primarily for the land, building up the barn as a living space, and then the original 1879 Colonial would become my studio.

This would of been in Beacon and within walking distance to town.

So now we learned that Beacon is not a good deal, and the 1 1/2 hour train ride is too long.

Peekskill has a home that seems to have a home that we love that because it is a bit funky goes unloved. No bidding wars and even a price drop. Kinda perfect for me. Mucho hill-billy factor, kinda artsey. Kinda confused styling, a bit odd and maybe to some a bit crazy.

Anyways, because I have such a complicated and confused identity, if I were a house I would kinda resemble this kinda odd house that has mucho character. It is a kinda home that when you see it one might think old hippies live there, or don't bother those folks they are a little strange, or it broadcasts "artists live here."

I use to be like a surfer, except I'm a biker/cyclist. Pretty much biking was the center of my life, and I would put on about 300 miles a week on my bike, more than on my car. I lived to ride and it was the high point of my day.

So my new home that we will tour Friday is a few blocks away from Blue Mountain Preserve (1500 acres). Just across Bear Mountain Bridge in Peekskill is of course Bear Mountain State Park, and if that is not big enough there is also Harriman State Park.

Don't tell anyone but Peekskill is heaven to bikers. Perhaps up there with Slick Rock in Utah. Blue Mountain is suppose to have some of the best technical single track in the northeast. The climb to the top of Blue Mountain is called "Ned's Lung" after the legend Ned Overend the skinny bitch climber and cross country champion.

Basically this is my backyard. Well a few blocks away.

So my neighborhood is kinda tucked away and hidden. Many dead ends. and kinda one way in and one way out. I only have one next door neighbor; the rear is a wooded buffer area for Dickey Brook which drains the series of ponds and lakes in Blue Mountain Preserve.

The county maintained dead end is kinda my public/private driveway. The entire dead end is only shared by me and my corner neighbor. My lot size is perhaps only 40 feet wide, but the properties length in the back is over 200 feet until it hits the watershed buffer area woods. It is as if my backyard also contains another building lot. My corner neighbor across the street's back yard does not extend past his garage, mine does.

The dead end's street length is perhaps 150 feet, can't be extended, and no further developments can happen, unless I either sell the contained building lot, or build on it.

If in the future I want to build an off the grid super insulated home I basically could I figure. How cool is that? Perhaps that timber frame barn idea that I mentioned earlier.

"Don't tell Maggie."

"Divine intervention," I say.

Cal

 

[Nokton48]

Cal,

Is that land behind you publicly owned? If so it cannot be developed. That is what we have in our case; A creek with nice wooded ravine behind us for privacy. Kinda like having our own personal zoo recently. Hundreds of deer..........

Been buying 4x5 and 2x3 Graphmatics, I now have four of each. Enough for now.

Today I am systemically lens resolution testing large format lenses in the studio shooting 120 roll film. One 6x6 frame of each with notes in the frame. Having a blast.

 

[Calzone]

Cal,

Is that land behind you publicly owned? If so it cannot be developed. That is what we have in our case; A creek with nice wooded ravine behind us for privacy. Kinda like having our own personal zoo recently. Hundreds of deer..........

Been buying 4x5 and 2x3 Graphmatics, I now have four of each. Enough for now.

Today I am systemically lens resolution testing large format lenses in the studio shooting 120 roll film. One 6x6 frame of each with notes in the frame. Having a blast.

Dan,

The wooded revine is kinda vast. Not sure if it is owned by the state or the county. I too think that it could never-ever be developed. The DEC considers it a watershed, and the brook empties into the mighty Hudson River.

Also know that Peekskill is a Rivertown, and I'm also a short walk to the Hudson River. What a mighty river and so majestic.

Looks like I'll have public sewer, having a public/private my own personal driveway is mighty cool. I likely could park about twenty cars on just my side of the dead end. Don't tell the taxpayers, but I just annexed half of a 150 long dead end that I don't have to share.

So public sewer means I can do a "Crazy Dan." Hopefully the basement is a dry one.

When I have the framing shop set up (two car garage), I'll have a guest room. Bring the misses.

This is a lucky find.

I own ten working 2x3 Graphmatics, and also spare septums. I think I have a few of the boxes, manuals or instruction sheets with IPB diagrams for disassembly. Let me know if you want photo copies.

Cal

 

[MrFujicaman]

Cal, stop by the county tax office-their maps will show if the land behind that house is public lands or not.