Front House, 1st Floor – Apartment 1A
Rented!
Unique to this apartment: Apartment 1A is the only apartment with 2 full bathrooms. The 2nd bedroom is an en-suite, which in the rental world in NY, is almost unheard of!
Utilities. Natural gas heat and electricity is the tenant’s responsibility. Each tenant creates an account with Con Edison and they pay Con Ed directly. You only pay for what you use in your apartment. We think this is fair. There’s no reason for you to have to pay for your neighbor’s heat if you are at work all day (and vise versa).
The Porch.
The beauty of this apartment is that it has direct driveway access. Coming home with groceries is no problem, as you can easily pull your car up to the porch steps and unload your goodies, then go park your car. Not only that, but this apartment has walkway access directly to the sidewalk and street.
I like to sew, especially home decor items. And I couldn’t find a pillow or pillow cover to match the cute rug I found for the porch. The background was always a darker, off-white or beige, but not white. But I did find fabric! So I decided to sew a pretty cushion cover and adorable matching piping. And voila! A super cute matching cushion!
The landscaping is beautifully manicured weekly. So the area outside your door, day or night, always looks great.
People pulling up to your door will be impressed for sure.
The Apartment
Above is the schematic layout for the apartment. This may give you a better visual as to where the bedrooms and bathrooms are. The entry door enters into the living room in the center of the apartment. This apartment is another example of a great roommate layout. In other words, the bedrooms are on opposite ends of the apartment, with the common areas in the center.
This apartment has all new electrical light switches and outlet receptacles throughout. It also has all new fabric cordless blackout cellular window shades throughout the apartment. Every room was also painted with Benjamin Moore paints.
Entry.
The entry door is solid wood, finished in a warm honey colored stain. We also installed a new oil rubbed bronze hefty lockset. And this lockset can only lock from the outside, with the key. No more locking yourself out! How great is that?
The front entry also has a insulated outer storm door (see the large photo at the top of this page) that helps seal out inclement weather. It has a screen and a glass insert that are both stored in the door! You just lower the screen, and raise the glass for winter, then reverse this for summer. The storm door also has a lock. You get to enjoy the fresh air of those warm spring days with no worries.
Living Room.
The front door enters into the living room. The living room has newly refinished red oak hardwood floors.
I had some extra fabric left over from another project and decided to sew a nice little curtain for the front door. It allows for extra privacy while in the living room, but you can still peek out to see who may be at the door. The best part is it can be tossed in the washer to get it clean and then hang it right back up!
We also include a super cute entrance rug. It captures the new gray wall color in the room, the white trim, and the brown wood tones of the floor and ceiling, all in a modern flare. And it’s easy to quickly throw it in the washer and get any mud or outside dirt off.
The ceiling is brand new. I updated the old ceiling to a beautiful pine Shiplap. It is a tongue and groove design that adds a wonderful warm texture and feel to the room. It’s finished in a lovely satin with brand new LED lights (see more information below, regarding the new LED lights).
Above the Shiplap I installed Rock Wool Safe’nSound Insulation. It’s super safe insulation made of rock and wool.
SAFE‘n’SOUND® sound proof insulation is a stone wool insulation product for use in interior wall partitions of residential wood and steel stud construction. It is especially useful when superior fire resistance and acoustical performance are required.
This insulation is wonderful sound insulation which has excellent fire resistance. The best of both worlds, and there are is no harmful fiberglass in the product.
I’ve painted the living room one of my favorite Benjamin Moore paint colors called Sidewalk Gray. It’s a modern, cool, gray that is a wonderful neutral.
There is one window in the room on the wall opposite the front entry door. We’ve also installed a new cordless blackout fabric cellular window shade.
We replaced all of the electrical outlets and light switches, including any television jack receptacles. We now replace all of our light bulbs on the property with super energy efficient LED bulbs (or complete LED fixtures). LED bulbs have become more reliable, brighter and are within a more pleasing color temperature range. These newly installed LED fixtures are not only super bright, but very efficient at 10 watts a light. The whole room at full brightness uses only 40 watts… that’s normally 1 light bulb! And don’t forget, 2 of the lights are on a dimmer, so they actually could use less that 40 watts.
The thermostat is centrally located, so everyone in the apartment can access it and adjust it to make themselves comfortable.
I’ve installed a new Nest Thermostat. It really is the best out there. And it is beyond programmable!
You can adjust it from your smart phone, but it’s also a Learning Thermostat. So if you normally get up in the morning and go turn up the heat because you’re chilly, after a few days, it will learn you like it at that temperature. Then it anticipates you will turn up the temperature in the morning, and the next time it will automatically have it at that temperature for you when you wake up. How smart is that!
You can also program the Nest from your phone for any time and any temperature for any day of the week. There’s no reason to heat up the apartment all day while you are out or at work. You can simply program the thermostat, and you’re already conserving energy and saving money!
The hallway to the pantry room area is accessed from a bi-fold door in the living room. See the Hallway section below.
Lastly, the 2nd Bedroom is also accessed from the living room. See the 2nd Bedroom section below.
Kitchen.
The kitchen area is also off of the living room. This can be great in a roommate situation, as all of the common areas are in the middle of the apartment.
I painted the kitchen Benjamin Moore’s Tree Moss. It’s a soft sage color that is soothing like a garden, and harmonizes with cooking and food items. I also installed a new slate style vinyl flooring. It’s dark so crumbs don’t show as much and it’s super easy to clean.
The kitchen has lots of cabinets and plenty of storage. They are finished in a soft honey stain color. There is also a gas stove and huge vent hood, vented to the outside. You can cook up a storm, and in a few minutes, the vent hood can remove all the food odors from the apartment!
The sink is cast iron and can take the abuse of heavy use. The new refrigerator is not an “apartment size” refrigerator. Who can fit anything in those? This apartment has a large full size refrigerator.
This kitchen is an eat-in kitchen as there is lots of room for a table and chairs. We’ve even had a large rectangular table and 6 chairs in the kitchen with plenty of space to walk around it. So there is certainly plenty of room for a small table and chairs.
Green Bathroom.
Off the kitchen is the first bathroom, or the Green Bathroom. It has lovely green tile all the way around the room. There is also a multi-tone beige arabesque tile floor. This makes cleaning messes in here super easy. And the color pallet is easy to adapt to your style.
I redesigned this bathroom in a more current style- the farmhouse/rustic style. I added real solid wood shiplap to the toilet wall (very hot in home design) and the sink/vanity wall.
The shiplap in tones of gray and brown, give the room warmth and dimension. And it really warms up all the tile that is normally in a bathroom.
I can understand why people have fallen in love with this farmhouse style first made popular by Joanna Gaines and her Fixer Upper TV Series!
The new large granite sink in a granite color called Glacier White. It’s beyond beautiful! It has a cool white background with tones of gray, beige and then splashes of dark burgundy. It also has a rectangular ceramic white basin attached to contrast the color of the granite. And don’t worry, it’s granite! So it’s super easy to clean!
I also installed a beautiful Moen Traditional Mediterranean faucet in oil rubbed bronze finish. It’s so pretty on the new granite sink. It makes everything look even more upscale!
I added new rustic touches like the handmade mirror above the sink and matching super thick floating shelves over the toilet. They’re rustic qualities add contrast to the fancy smooth granite and faucet. And the shelves are a great place to display your favorite spa items!
The new farmhouse vanity light fixture above the sink also lends to the rustic farmhouse chic style of this bathroom design. The oil rubbed bronze is also a great contrast to the glass and matches the beautiful faucet.
The designer shower curtain is new and picks up the colors and style in this bathroom. The gentle pleats bring a softer feminine touch to the rustic style. And we always supply a fabric shower curtain and a vinyl shower curtain liner. We feel after the work of moving in, you should be able to take a nice shower. And not have to worry about first running out to buy something, before you can even take a shower to get to get to work.
Finally, there are also 3 large towel bars to display lots of towels. And a blackout shade is a must in the bathroom. It should completely block any possible view into the bathroom when you pull it closed. No one outside will be able to see anything in this room with it closed.
1st Bedroom.
The 1st Bedroom is off of the kitchen area. This is a large bedroom and can easily fit a king size bed with nightstands! And it has it’s own walk in closet.
I’ve painted it Benjamin Moore’s color named Mocha Cream. It looks like coffee ice cream! It’s a lovely neutral that can compliment any colors you choose to decorate with.
This room gets wonderful sunlight through the 4 windows during the midday and afternoon. Because of that, we have installed 4 blackout cordless cellular shades. You can easily pull the shades closed, and be able to sleep late.
This room also has the top of the line dimmer installed. The Lutron Caseta Dimmer and Wireless Remote are awesome! This was actually the first apartment we installed these in and they are great. The tenant loves it. You can program the remote for specific lighting preferences. If you are watching television and like the lights to dim, you can program that setting into the remote and it will remember for next time. You can keep the remote on your nightstand and when you’re ready for bed, click, and the room is dark and you are ready for sleeping!
There is also a large walk in closet through this bedroom. It has plenty of adjustable shelves for just about anything you have. It even has it’s own window!
Hallway & Pantry.
The bi-fold door from the living room leads to the storage hallway. The hallway has a very large closet with hanging rod and upper shelf. The hallway also has rows of hooks on both sides, for hanging coats, bags, umbrellas, etc. It’s great to hang guests’ coats here for close access to the front door.
There’s also a little alcove with hooks above and floor space. This area is perfect for extra shoes or outdoor gear.
Then if you have smaller items, there’s also a cabinet on the wall where you can store those items. We stocked it with emergency supplies like batteries and a flashlight.
Pantry.
Beyond the hallway is the pantry area. It is a large storage room with a private laundry area. Yes, your own washer and dryer!
There is plenty of room in the pantry for detergents, cleaning supplies, food, paper goods, beverages, extra appliances, sports equipment, etc. Anything you want to save but keep out of the way, can be stored in here! It’s a great storage area!
2nd Bedroom.
The 2nd Bedroom is accessed through the living room. It is an en-suite, in that it has a bathroom that is only accessed through this bedroom. How unique is that ?
I painted this room a beautiful neutral color from Benjamin Moore called Berber White. This color works nicely with the honey tone of the hardwood floor. It is a very gray yellow/beige that can be the background for any colors you want to decorate with!
This bedroom has lovely honey stained hardwood floors that were just refinished a nice satin polyurethane. If you have allergies and cannot have carpeting, this room is perfect for you!
It has 1 large window that receives wonderful sun in the mornings and midday. It has a blackout fabric cellular cordless shade for complete privacy. Here again, if you want to sleep late, you only need to pull the shade closed and no sun will wake you from your needed rest.
I installed 4 new LED dimmable lights in this room controlled by 2 new smart dimmers. These lights are made so that the “bulb” and the fixture are all in one unit. They are used to retrofit old fashion downlight/can light fixtures. Not only are these new LED fixtures super energy efficient, and don’t heat up the room, they are also completely sealed. What am I saying? Older downlight/can light fixtures have so many crevices and are essentially open to expel the heat of the fixture and light bulb. But they also allow drafts from the ceiling or attics in the winter. Sometimes even critters or spiders could sneak through the fixture. Yuck! Not these because they are completely sealed to the ceiling!
We prefer dimmers in bedrooms because you can lower the lights to watch a movie, but can still see if you need to go refill your popcorn. We just installed 2 new smart wifi dimmers. They work really well. They are push button on/off and an easy touch slide controls the intensity of the light. It makes your experience so much more enjoyable when you can tailor it to your preferences. It’s the little things!
It’s a cute bedroom and the attached bathroom makes it like a little oasis. Guests will love having their own bath while visiting (we’ve heard this from visitors before).
Blue Bathroom.
This bathroom has also just been renovated. It’s a private bathroom that can only be accessed via the 2nd Bedroom. It’s super cute and is like having your own private spa. Facing East, it gets lots of wonderful bright sunlight first thing in the morning. This can help if you have trouble getting up and going in the morning.
It has powder blue ceramic tile all around the room and around the shower area. This makes cleaning the bathroom quick and easy.
I was inspired by the pretty blue tiles to give this bathroom a “beachy” look so that you feel transported to the seashore when you step in. I’ve added white washed/sun bleached real wood shiplap to all of the walls. This makes the room feel warm and inviting.
And I’ve installed a new Armstrong floor called Waterfront Sky Blue that really makes everything light and bright. But don’t worry! This floor is also 100% waterproof and can be easily cleaned.
There is a small window in the shower that can be opened. The window has a frost film on the glass for privacy. And over the window is also a vinyl curtain to make sure of maximum privacy. Look at that sunlight coming in. This photo was taken at about 10am in January, when the sun is very weak here in the NorthEast. Can you imagine the sunshine in July? What a way to start the day.
We installed a new granite sink made out of Napoli granite. The sink with white basin is installed on an espresso colored vanity called Haven. This sink is so solid and super easy to clean.
The mirror and wall cabinet are also new and from the same Haven coordinating set in the same espresso finish.
To complete the beautiful look, I installed a high quality Moen Brantford low arc faucet in brushed nickel. Moen has been manufacturing excellent products with durable and beautiful finishes since 1956. Their faucets are like jewelry for the home. We always try to install Moen when possible and we’ve never been disappointed with their products.
I also installed a new large mirror with lovely crown detail from the same coordinating set as the sink vanity. If you look closely at the photos, I’ve even added some beach shells to the top of the mirror for decoration.
The lovely wall cabinet can be used to store all of your favorite spa items.
We also always install a new fabric shower curtain and shower curtain liner in every bathroom. We like to make sure you can take a shower as soon as you move in without having to purchase additional items. Look at those adorable sea shell shower curtain hooks! Have you ever seen anything so cute?
Lastly, we also usually include night lights, liquid hand soaps, a towel and/or some extra touches – just to make moving in a little easier.
That is the end of the Apartment tour!