It was big year for MMA so we thought… let’s wrap it up with a blog post! The three Passive Houses in our last update (it was 2 years ago, yikes) are all complete and photographed. They have received a great reception and are a significant part of our banner year. It is super ... Read More
Way back in 2012 we moved into our newly renovated townhouse here in Hoboken. It was built to the Passive House standards and I had planned to do a post about this type of construction… well, better late than never! Here are three Passive house projects we have currently in the works…yes, THREE! We’d like to ... Read More
Staying on the house we’ve been looking at for the last few posts, this week we have what seems like a no brainer but takes some effort and planning. The big ideas is… the less sheetrock the better! Any time we can showcase more interesting building materials, we seize the opportunity. [Mowery Marsh Architects, Photo ... Read More
There are lots of exciting things happening for us here at Mowery Marsh Architects! This weekend the house we have been documenting on the blog will be on the Hoboken House Tour. I’ll be there to answer any questions about the home… and renovation in general. Joanne Laurie the owner and designer for the interior decor will be there ... Read More
Next up on our brownstone renovation… Electrical! Outlets, switching, light fixtures, fire detection, data… it’s a lot to think about. It takes a methodical approach to get everything in just the right spot. It starts with solid initial planning during the construction documents to get it all on paper. Not only will the building ... Read More
Time to start roughing in the systems… first, let’s talk plumbing. After looking through all my site photos I’ve come to realize that I didn’t take many photos at this stage… I guess shots of PVC piping just aren’t that exciting! So I’ll post what I’ve got and see what we can talk about… Here’s the ... Read More
We had the stairs fixed pretty early on in the project. At first I thought we would wait to do them so they didn’t get beaten up during the construction, but the fact is… the workers need to be able to get upstairs! And we didn’t want them to further deteriorate with all the traffic. The existing railing was ... Read More
It’s time for framing! Now with a clean slate, we could start framing the interior walls. But before we could do that, we needed to figure out the floor. Our floor framing was out by less than an 1″ over the 24′ width so we decided to keep the joists as they were, rather than ... Read More
In the last post we talked about pouring the new basement slab… so now they were ready to start the structural work in the basement. Many brownstones in Hoboken have a beam or bearing wall that runs the length of the building to reduce the overall span for all the joists. Typically the bearing walls will ... Read More
On the last post, I talked about digging out the basement. Test holes showed that we could gain an additional 6″ in ceiling height if we aligned the top of the new slab with the top of the existing footing. If we went deeper, we would have to underpin the foundation or create a new ... Read More
This is the second post in the series, Hoboken Brownstone. I plan to document the entire construction process so we’ll start with the not so glamorous stuff… demolition! But first, we needed to do some exploratory work at the basement slab to finalize the drawings for the building department… and in our case zoning approval. ... Read More
I thought I’d start off the New Year with a series of posts recapping a full brownstone renovation project here in Hoboken. I’m excited as it’s coming together in the final months, but before we jump to the final product, I’d like to look back at the progress… maybe along the way we’ll shed some light ... Read More
I can’t believe it’s been a year since my last post…and what a year it has been! Last September we were knee deep in our own renovation, living in my sister-in-laws house… all 4 of us bunked in one room. It was quite the bonding experience and we owe Karen the world! And we said what everyone says… “Let’s ... Read More
We’ve been living with our new kitchen counter for two weeks now… and I have to say, it’s heaven! To give you a sense of our enthusiasm, as it was being installed my daughter said… “This is the best thing that has ever happened!” Okay, so maybe my kid is a little bizarre… or maybe she’s just an ... Read More
Well, are you? No, I’m not talking about all you new moms out there…. I’m talking about your house! Energy efficient homes have been getting more press recently and it’s a good thing. So I thought I should share with you a recent experience I had during a house assessment for energy consumption. Image from Energy ... Read More