649 6th

dark skys

when we had the electrician in to wire the first floor I also had him install the front door fixture that had been lying around for a couple of months. I figured if I was paying him a fat flat rate for two days work I might as well thrown in a few odd jobs to round a otherwise short day.

we had a dark sky's compliant light installed. quoting from the State Environmental Resource Center dark skies goes a little something like this: "Outdoor lighting can be bright enough to degrade the visibility of the night sky, create glare that threatens boating and driving safety, and consume large amounts of energy. This excessive illumination is termed light pollution. States are working on “dark sky” initiatives to reduce light pollution by better analyzing lighting needs and encouraging use of shields to control glare and trespass." more information can be found here at the International Dark-Sky Association .

obviously one exterior light on one residential house in Brooklyn is not likely to rock total output of light pollution in the greater New York city tri-state megalopolis by any great percentage point but, one step at a time. Esthetically, I'm happy to say I am equally as pleased

chim chiminey

fortunately the chimney work we're doing is on the outside. plan is to wrap old tin ceiling material that was salvaged from 1st floor around the outside of 2nd floor chimney. to do so we need to find a way to mount the tin panels without overly disturbing the chimney itself, eg don't poke holes into it and rest forever in the gentle arms of carbon monoxide.

initially thought to stick a sheet of plywood to the face of chimney but after initial attempt we went back to drawing board. now in the middle of assembling a frame out of unused 1x3 floor boards. this should give us more than enough structure to attach tin panels as well as leaving chimney itself relatively undisturbed.

so far only one of three panels have been assembled. soon as the frame's up we'll post pictures of the tin wrap.