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Restoration To Renovation ToRehabilitation: A Long Road To TravelBY KAY HOLMESFour years ago home improvements meant a bright idea on a rainy weekend. Conjured up to fill an empty afternoon, they were short-term projects with a definite beginning, middle and end. Complete within a couple of hours, never more than 24, they were seldom preplanned and always lavishly admired. That sort of low investment, high yield endeavor suited me, so it was a shock to discover that in buying a Brooklyn brownstone, I had entered home improvements as a way of life.Home improvements are really a life process in Brooklyn brownstone communities, as cyclical as the seasons and just as certain. Improving one%u2019s home has become the advocation of thousands of urbanites whose dedication sometimes verges on insanity.As with any other mass passion of the '70s, different philosophies developed to explain what was happening. To wit, there are three schools of home improvement visible (and vocal) in Brooklyn today: restoration, renovation and rehabilitation. If that sounds like three separate ways to paint window-frames black, read on.Restorers are bent on bringing back their homes to an earlier period and usually live in big brownstones with lots of hardwood to get compulsive about. Renovators look more to the 20th century and expose brick and beams and take care to create old-fashioned, country kitchens with dishwashers and microwave ovens. Rehabilitators buy tenements or lofts, and since there%u2019s nothing there to lose, go about the happy business of constructing open spaces.Which type of home improver one becomes depends largely on the sort of house purchased%u2014and that depends on taste and pocketbook. As real estate alls reveal, there%u2019s a higher price tag attached to original detail. There are, of course, a number of electic souls who pick and choose what suits them from the three mainstreams. But for the sake of argument we'll start with the purists.A refugee from Queens, Clem Labine edits the Old House Journal from his brownstone on Berkeley Place. Some 30,000 folks throughout the country read his how-to-journal and exchange tips on working with old glass or repairing decorative plaster. %u201c We are,%u201d he said, %u201c solely with the restoration viewpoint. Our basic guideline%u2014for people whose homes have original detail%u2014is not to make any irreversible changes. Painting is one thing, ripping out wainscotting is quite another.%u201cThere was once an architect on St. John%u2019s Place who moved in 10 years ago and tore every foot of walnut woodwork in his house to replace it with sheetrock. He wanted a total renovation. What he did was a horrible cultural desecration. He destroyed the house and left it two years later.%u201dEvelyn and Everett Ortner are known as Mr. and Mrs. Brownstone by their Park Slope friends. They founded Back to the City, Inc., a national urban neighborhood preservation organization, and are adamantly opposed to %u201cre-muddling%u201d an oldhouse. Although they have changed the usage of some of the rooms in their four-story brownstone%u2014rebuilding a kitchen in the pantry of their parlor floor%u2014they believe that typical departures from the original design of the homes are unhappy.%u201cI think one must hold one%u2019s own taste in abeyance and look to the ideas of the original designer of the house,%u201d said Everett Ortner. %u201c It%u2019s fashionable to strip walls down to the brick today but in ripping out old moldings in the arrogance of our own opinions, we are robbing future generations. Although I own my house, I feel like a tenant in it. I must preserve it as something superior for future generations.%u201dWhen John and Barbara Muir bought a cheaply converted rooming house on St. John%u2019s Place four and a half years ago, they got the worst house on the block but a bargain. They removed four sinks, five refrigerators and a bushel of roaches, before getting down to the business of restoring acres of American walnut wainsStaircase at 199 Berkeley PlaceRestoration is really not that expensive, they noted, if you do the work yourself. Although they sub-contracted the plumbing and wiring jobs, they realized no paid workman would lavish the kind of attention necessary to go after a painted newel post with toothbrush and nut-picker. The cost of restoration is not in materials, for you%u2019re working with what%u2019s already there, but in time. And an enthusiasm for such timeconsuming projects often wanes with the years of residence.%u201c We%u2019re not about to live in a museum,%u201d said John Muir. %u201c Some people are so fanatical that I expect them to tear out the wiring and return to gaslights.%u201dRene and Steve Murray, on Sixth Street, spent $15,000 on renovating their brick rowhouse and did a lot of the work themselves. They spent five frenetic months ripping out fake-wood panelling, knocking down dividing walls, exposing brick, installing a modern kitchen and bathroom, and converting a concrete backyard into a sunken garden. Although they restored some of the original details%u2014like slate mantels, oak and maple floors, etched glass doors and pine shutters %u2014they rejected others.%u201c I find some of the larger houses dark and depressing,%u201d said Rene Murray. %u201c When woodwork and plaster dominates a room, it becomes the main decorative feature of it. We have paintings and pottery to display and wanted simple wall space. I loved the excitement of changing the house, of creating new space, and for that reason I'd never buy a house with a lot of ornamental moldings or woodwork.%u201dCollege English teacher turned professional renovator, Glen Smith has been working on his Park Slope rowhouse for the past three and a half years, at the same time renovating a dozen others. %u201c Houses aren%u2019t dead and static,%u201d he said, %u201c they%u2019re constantly evolving. A good design, whether old or new, will stand up. Trouble is there%u2019s a lot of mediocre work being done with people renovating piecemeal. They knock down a wall without considering what happens next and haphazard renovation is really destructive.%u201dSmith, who describes his relationship with his house as a growing experience that led him into professional renovation, prefers smaller brownstones because there are smaller givens in the form of original detail and hence the possibilities for change are infinite.%u201c It%u2019s easy to lose perspective and believe that things are valuable just because they are old. That%u2019s simply not so. And it%u2019s a problem when people try to restore secondrate woodwork and make it into something it%u2019s not. I like to incorporate the old features into a design for new use, but it%u2019s a trade-off. Often you have to give up one thing for another, like old woodwork for a modern kitchen.%u201dArchitect Harry Simmons Jr. had a few givens and a lot of ideas when he bought his four-story, shop-fronted brick home on Sixth Avenue. He stripped the building down to its structural elements and ----------------the space to suit his lifestyle.His combined home and office is a good example of rehabilitation. There%u2019s a garageDoor at 199 Berkeley Placeand office on the ground floor, conference room and gallery on the second, with open family living areas on the top two floors. White is his favorite color and open space his favorite design.%u201c My firm specializes in low-income, multi-family dwellings with a view towards rehabilitating them for today%u2019s needs,%u201d he said. %u201cThere%u2019s a tremendous amount of housing stock in brownstone neighborhoods which people don%u2019t see as worth having. They%u2019re tenement buildings mostly, which can abut on the best streets. Those buildings can be acquired at half the cost of a brownstone and still provide the amenities of a brownstone community. The cost of up-grading a brownstone can be as expensive as a total renovation and when you%u2019re rehabilitating a tenement, you%u2019re not hampered by trying to adapt your 20th century needs to a 19th century lifestyle.%u201dOf course, if none of the above appeals to you, the alternative is to buy a house in the suburbs and turn your attention to the lawn.Helpful Hintsto MakeUrban LivingEasierR u R %u00abtr%u00bbr%u00bb5 I n r a r *%u2014*ry %u00bb %u25a0 *%u00bb %u00bb %u00bb 4 | ^ w i %u00abBrownstone Brooklyn can%u2019t use many of Heloises%u2019 hints. . .so we've come up with a few more pertinent ones to the urban scene, to make living in the city just a little bit easier.1. If you occupy two floors or more, a ringing doorbell can mean total disruption of any activity. Keep a key on a length of string long enough to reach from the window to the door so neighbors, contractors, and kids can let themselves in without carrying a key. Wind, string on a small stick and lower when needed. Also goodi n V.U O W k j i tin, u i u i n v i viricrgcncicsto let police or firemen in.2. Don%u2019t waste wall-space along cellar-way walls. Cover them with 4-5 deep shelves for extra canned goods and tools used everyday.3. Easy large storage units orshelves for books, toys, records, etc. can be found in Chinatown after 11 p.m. when restaurants close. Large, sturdy, clean wooden crates are out on the street. They make great storage units for camping equipment, wood, snow tires, etc.4. For wood that is not perfect, but fine for kid%u2019s playhouses or, overhead trellises, go to the lot of Colonial Mirror and Glass Co., E. 19th Street, Park Slope. Packing crates are disgarded there and are up for grabs.5. Make youself a %u201c DraftT \\ %u201e A ________%u00bb%u00bb x ______ %u25a0r-%u2019 . - x - %u2022 ri - 'v / v a g w \\jk i n s j . v u i a S l i i p U 1fabric (corduroy holds up well) to the length of a doorway by 7 inches. Fold over length wise, sew Vi inch seam across bottom and up one side. Fill with sand, slip stich top and sew a ring onto it. Place at'bottom of door to keep out cold and drafts.Hang bells on strips on each door with access to the outside. You will be more knowledgeable about coming of unwelcome intruders. Also, overnight, pile up empty cans on top of half of window. . .should someone attempt to come in quietly, he will not make it.A small $10-15 burglar alarm, the size of a pocket calculator, is available with string to attach it to roof hatch. Emits scarry screaming siren, enough to frighten the most seasoned intruder.7. Do not use brown grocery bags as garbage bags if you have a roach problem. Roach eggs can be present in the bottom of the bags. Also, bags are made of gluten glue, high in protein on which the babvroaches thrive. For once, plastic is better!8. A hollow core door plus eight painted milk crates makes a terrific sewing table or work table, with plenty of book, equipment, and storage space.9. If your house came with an old tub you don%u2019t want, don't throw it out%u2014keep it for stripping or lye baths in yard or cellar. Make framed screen cover for kids and animals and be sure plug is secure.10. Have a dog? Hate the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. walk? If you have a yard, try a Dog Doolie. A small plastic cylinder with tight fitting lid. Dig 18 inch hole, scoop it in, add enzymes in warm water every two weeks and. . .no flies, no odor, no mess, fewer walks. Stay in your' P.J.%u2019son Sunday mornings.