Is The Old Worth Saving? ...

Ever since we bought Gunk Haus we have been faced with the question as to what to keep, and what to toss out.

The following picture shows a good example: Door trim, painted plaster, hardwood flooring.


All these things are old, but none of them are original. So are they worth saving? The answer is: It depends.

The three items mentioned above were most likely installed by the Sevillos (their daughter still lives in Clintondale), who acquired the place in the 1930s, and opened an Italian restaurant called The Hollywood Bar & Grill.

The plaster, though intricately painted, has lost its key in many places, and has been patched and painted over in many areas as well.

The door trim isn't in that great a shape either, it would take a lot of paint to turn the brown into yellow, and the style would be different from what the trim looks like throughout the rest of the restaurant.

The hardwood floor is only 3/8 inch thick, is only used in the bar area, where it is covered by some sort of tar paper, which gummed it all up.

They all will make their way into the dumpster.

Here is a picture of a keeper: The future door to the Biergarten. E! spent days refurbishing it, and today I realized that it is not the door that used to fill the frame (which is also not original, but we'll keep it), because it is almost three inches too short, and the hinges don't fit the frame.

So, we'll spend a few more hours to lengthen the door, caulk and paint it, to get rid of the modern door that's in its place right now.


Dirk