A few years ago, I had to fix a bulging brick wall on our three story rowhouse. It was quite an ordeal: engineer, contractors, permits.

Thankfully, it was only the brick facade separating from interior brick wall, so it was a relatively uncomplicated (albeit expensive) fix.

Information on dealing with this sort of situation is a bit hard to come by. If you want more information, feel free to send me a private message and I'll pass along what I learned.

Yeah, we heard from a few Island neighbors. Low water pressure. No concrete information from United Water, thus far.

At our house in the Island section, near Journal Square, we have very low water pressure. The United Water site says there are reports of low or no water pressure south of Route 139, which is most of the city.

Anyone else having problems out there?

Heads up, peoples.
The Newport Half Marathon kicks off at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. A few of our fair streets -- chiefly Washington and Grand -- will be choked with runners and a few (or more) unlucky stranded motorists. Don't be one of those motorists.
You've been warned.
Here's the course map:
http://www.newporthalfmarathon.com/race-info/course-map/

We are looking into having the chimney on our three-story brick row house relined. The chimney vents two gas furnaces, and two gas hot water heaters. Any contractor suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Finally went to Left Bank last night.
The naysayers are right. Prompt service. Good sides. Decent beer selection. Nice decor. Bland burgers. We had the basic and the lamb burger; both a bit on the flavorless side, unfortunately.
If you are going to call yourself a burger bar, you better step up your game.
I'm curious as to how the other entrees stack up. Anyone?

We really want to like this place: the staff is friendly, the pricing fair and the location convenient. But, the draft beers are often a bit flat and a touch sour (something is up with that tapping system), the music can be annoying and the food is borderline awful.

Having said that, it's not like there's a lot of great bar-type options in downtown JC. The White Star -- loud music, louder customers. Lamp Post -- great food, but dodgy atmosphere and Hot 97 (commercial radio in a bar?). Hamilton Inn -- premium prices, subpar food.

Isn't there any place to get a beer and burger that doesn't make you regret, just a little bit, living in Jersey City?

My wife and I regularly go to the White Star. We're not crazy about the place, but if you want a beer and burger at a decent price, there's not a lot to choose from in JC these days. We keep our expectations low.

However, on Friday, not only was my pulled pork sandwich almost inedible -- really, disgustingly greasy -- but the server added an extra $5 to our bill. We caught it, and the waitress gave us a quick "my mistake" explanation -- but I'm left wondering how can you accidentally just add $5 to a bill?

Maybe it was an honest mistake, but I just wanted to give you folks a heads up to check your tabs a bit more closely.

Just wonering, is there any other place out there to get a burger and beer without dropping over $20? Ninth and Coles is a disaster. Hamilton Park Grill, ditto. Skinner's Loft is good, but a decided step above a burger joint in price. Same with the Lighthorse.

Is The White Star really the best we can hope for?

Hey NewtoHP,

Is this tenant living in your owner-occipied house -- such as a tenant in a two-family house, with you the landlord living in the other apartment -- or is the tenant living at a non-owner occupied building?

If it's your owner-occupied house, you have a lot more leeway in getting this guy out. If not, I believe the process is much more cumbersome.

About eight years ago, my business partner and I started the eviction procedure against a freeloader in a four-unit building in which we did not reside, and it looked like we were facing four months of non-payment before any action could be taken to physically remove the tenant. Our lawyer said we couldn't accept any payment from the tenant during this period, or the four-month process would start over. Also, he said to expect a lot of pressure from any judge to have the lanlord/tenant dispute office settle the problem, which basically means the lanlord accepts any pittance and promises offered from the tenant. No thanks.

Luckily, the freeloader moved out on his own after a month or so.

Call a lawyer or call City Hall and get a copy of the landlord-tenant regulations.

Good luck.

My pleasure, Ex-Brooklynite-type person.

If you have any more question, feel free to ask. If you do end up putting a bid on a Henry Street building, perhaps I can give you more specific information.

Like most of JC, the neighborhood is getting better bit by bit. Just don't expect it to be Hoboken.

Thoughts on living on "The Island"? We live on Henry Street, so technically, we're not in the The Island, pers se (The Island is the small region south of the PATH Train track gulley, no?)

Anyhoo, on the plus side: It's really convenient for transportation to New York or Newark. Not much traffic noise (except from a few idiots with tricked out mufflers, but that's another thread). Crime isn't much of a concern, but there is the occasional break in, car theft, mugging -- like everywhere else in JC. Housing prices are better than Downtown, and the housing stock is fair.

Negatives: within walking distance, it's pretty hard to find a decent cup of coffee, restaurant at night (unless you like Indian) or produce stand (There is a great butcher on Newark, however). We head downtown or to NYC for that sort of thing. Houses are packed in tight, so that one knucklehead with the barking dogs who's in the habit of playing loud salsa (sorry, it's always salsa) music -- UNTIL 2 A.M.!!! -- can make life miserable for many neighbors, and don't expect a lot of help from the police.

Hope this helps.

Howdy Texas,

There's an apartment for rent on the north end of Waldo -- about a block off of Newark, at the end of Henry Street. There's a phone number on the for rent sign.

It's really late, and I'm realy tired, or I would get the info for you. Good luck.

I second Althea on the Summitt Auto recommendation.

They've always come through for me and any friends I steered their way.

Hey Johnnytit,

Yeah, we have two sump pumps with trenches, using perforated PVC sloping toward the drain, both installed by the same general contractor. The basement is roughly 16' by 40'. Because the basment slopes to the front, the darin in the front of the house is deeper into the ground.

The drain by the back of the house works just fine, catching the water that comes in from back wall and expelling it through the sewer pipes; plus keeping the water table below our floor level.

The front drain, however, just had too much water flowing into it after heavy rains for the pump to keep up. I watched it for a while. It was slowly losing the battle, and didn't want the escess water flowing into our basement.

Since we cemented in the french drain around the front pump basin, things have been fine. The trench catches any water coming in from where the wall and floor meet.

Hey Johnnytit,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

The setup is a 1/2 horsepower pump with a 1 1/2 inch pipe, leading to a larger drainage pipe under my driveway.

The basic problem was that we had water coming through where our basement wall and floor met whenever we had a real deluge -- maybe five times a year -- and we wanted to collect and pump that water away. When the contractor put in a french drain, I think we ended up tapping into the groundwater flowing beneath our house. And up here on the island, there's not a lot of space between basements and the bedrock.

A friend of mine who has a housing inspection business says he often sees basements where installing a french drain made the situation worse. You end up pumping you and your neighbors groundwater out through your basement .

Hey folks,

A word of caution before you install that French drain in your basement:

We also have water seeping into our basement during heavy rains -- and we live on top of the hill in the island section -- so our contractor suggested a French drain and sump pump set up.

Big mistake. During the first deluge after the installation, it sounded like a fire hose was open in our basement. Water was gushing into the drain faster than the pump could dispel it. The contractor was back that day cementing in the drain.

Think twice before you head down that road.