Monday, November 26, 2007
179 Monroe St: the reckoning of the asshole
This is what the listing said:
Luxury new home with a private backyard, greenhouse, more than 1500 sq ft. and 25 year tax abatement. With 1500 sq ft. your options are endless! Two-bedroom/three-bedroom live/work space -- you decide.
From the photographs we knew right off the bat that we were looking at a high asshole-rating unit. But we couldn't NOT look at the place during the open house a couple Sundays ago, as it fit what we are looking for. 2 bedroom condo for $525K, maintenance of $495. We biked over through Bed-Stuy. It was not a bad neighborhood, a lot of new developments as I mentioned in earlier posts. When we arrived at 179 Monroe, though.... We almost turned right back around and went to our next listing. Irwin looked like he might throw up.
But. This was all part of our real estate experiment/education so we went on in to see what they offered. We started with the 2 bedroom unit in the back of the first floor. Upon entering there was a brand-new open kitchen looking out over a backyard. Very modern.
The fenced in area in the middle of the backyard looked down into the "greenhouse" which was part of the unit. We went downstairs to look at that space from inside.
I have no idea, still, what exactly one is supposed to do with this greenhouse area... Grow marijuana???
Once downstairs we were led into a very large concrete room, with the only window looking into the greenhouse. No heating source. What great storage/recreation space, we thought.
And then, our tour of the apartment came to an abrupt end. Where were the advertised two bedrooms?! Apparently, what we saw as the basement rec room was it! Now I don't really understand how they can advertise a 2 bedroom when there aren't any bedrooms at all. We were shown a few other units in the building, which consisted of two rooms that kind of looked like this:
And one of these rooms would have a kitchen in them. And these too were advertised as 2 bedrooms. Ok so I guess the deal was, these super-modren units were on sale for cheap so that the buyer could custom contract the place to CREATE a loft/bedroom in them him/herself. Interesting idea... sort of. Or maybe the developer was too lazy or ran out of money to finish off the job??
In case you were wondering, this was in the bathroom.
And you know what that means. (assh*le)
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Houseviewing: 11/18/07
427 Sterling Place #4L
2BR with roofdeck, Washer/dryer. asking: $569K maintenance: $653
Cute brownstone bldg in Prospect Heights, near Grand Army Plaza, and Brooklyn Museum. Great tree-lined street.
Lots of cute things about this place. Original detail in the wood flooring, nice open kitchen, nice living/dining common area. Yes cute roof deck, which felt so wide open I thought I might get sucked out into the sky (i.e. no railings...)
The main problem: Strange layout. The washer/dryer were place in a weird little alcove IN the master bedroom. And there was a little window (or square hole) in the wall between the master and the 2nd bedroom. I guess it was good when the 2nd BR was a nursery, to keep tabs on the baby.
Also the bathroom was not great, the tub was squeezed in between two walls, and generally it was a small space. The bathroom and 2nd BR looked into the airshaft. It was the top flor, so you'd still get a lot of light. The broker said it had been on the market for a while, and that the owners were eager to sell, so make a bid... meh not so much.
442D Clermont Ave #D
2BR condo, open kitchen. Asking price: $529K
I can't count how many times I've walked or biked past these apartment buildings. These were the kind of gated-in, squat, brick buildings that look like the chubbier uglier cousin to the great brownstones. Surprisingly, once inside, they didn't feel so squat.
The best part of the apartment was the open kitchen and dining/living area. It felt homey and spacious at the same time. The windows looked into the courtyard where there is some public green space.
The 2 bedrooms were fine/unremarkable, as was the bathroom.
What made me feel queasy about the place was this:
That's the view out of the kitchen window -- and also the master bed. That is Fulton Street. Granted, it's not the worst stretch of Fulton, in fact, it's probably one of the more clean and quiet stretches, but still... I don't think I would enjoy waking up to Fulton Street every morning.
Irwin caught up with me at a very cute brownstone in the heart of Clinton Hill:
292 Washington Avenue #5
2BR in historic brownstone with wood-burning fireplace & washer/dryer. Asking price $549K Maintenance: $759
Amazing building, the kind you always dream of living in.
The apartment itself was very cute too, with a lot of the original details, on the ceiling, the wall arches, the floors. it felt like a really unique, historic place. But historic in kind of an old-lady way (in a similar vein as 230 Park Place from last week).
Also, it was kind of small. Here's the kitchen. It's been taken care of pretty well, but all the appliances are pretty old, and there's not much counter space. There was a dishwasher there too. Not a lot of space to work in.
The master bed was a nice size, and looked out into a beautiful sky and backyard facing other brownstones. The fireplace here is decorative, but the one in the living room was a working wood-burning one.
The 2nd bedroom was very small -- or rather, very narrow. As you can see, with shelving on one side of the wall, and a long desk against the other wall, there would be just enough room for an office chair to roll in and out. Not bad, but not great. For that price, I think we can get more space. And the quaintness of the building/neighborhood is great and all, but also felt a bit stifling.
And I know this is not a fair criticism, but the broker who was showing the apartment had this really catty condescending vibe that I did not dig at all. I just wanted to get out of there ASAP.
83 Halsey St.
newly renovated brownstone 2BR from $445K, $499K, up to $655K
I was really excited about seeing this building. From the outside, it was a great brownstone building -- and on the inside, they'd managed to retain a LOT of the interior details, moldings, etc. while completely renovating it. 4 units in 4 stories, each with its own heating, gas-burning fireplaces and private outdoor spaces. We looked at the 2 cheaper units on the 3rd and 4th floors, at $445 and $499 respectively. They were essentially the same except the 4th floor was slightly roomier, with higher ceilings. Brand-new open kitchen, great common area with terraces big enough for a breakfast table outside, everything was clean, and... kind of perfect. Too perfect.
By too perfect, as Irwin put it, it was so nice you felt like you couldn't change anything because it had already been chosen for you, and everything was NEW NEW NEW. What bugged me the most were the bathrooms. Each unit had 2 (two) bathrooms -- one with a shower and another with a tub. Side by side to each other -- adjacent bathrooms in the hallway.
Now, please tell me, why we need 2 bathrooms?
Also, ironically, though the developer had spent so much time making everything nice, the bathrooms were kind of meh.
Just kind of standard blech. They should have made just one BIG bathroom and made it real nice with a deep tub and nice fixtures.
But for the price, I think this was a very good deal, in a pretty good neighborhood -- 1 block away from the Nostrand Ave. station on the A/C.
We went to another bldg near here, 179 Monroe, but that deserves its own post.
474 Waverly Place
2BR apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a renovated brownstone. Asking price: $500K and $485K respectively
Our final stop of the day was just one block away from our dream home (57 Gates) on a nice block, just a few steps from the Clinton-Washington C train. The owner of the bldg lives in the first floor duplex and he had just renovated the upper floors to sell.
If 83 Halsey was an example of how far one could go in detailed renovations, this was quite the opposite.
The space wasn't bad, especially the top floor unit. Open kitchen and street-facing living/dining. But the kitchen was outfitted with mediocre appliances and standard, cheap cabinets.
You can also see the floorboard heating. Ugly.
The bedrooms, also mediocre. Sometimes I think it's better to leave a place completely unfurnished, rather than throw some icky shit up in there to make it looked like a semblance of a domicile. Case in point. This is the master. The other room was smaller.
I mean, it was weird, there was really nothing horribly wrong with the place. It needed a lot of TLC and new appliances. The bathroom was pretty ugly too. But not unlivable or anything...
I am learning a lot from these open houses though, not just about real estate, but about psychological manipulation, for example, and just how important the spaces we live in are. Because ultimately, it's not just a combination of all the right amenities and characteristics that will make an apartment desirable. We have to be able, in a short amount of time, IMAGINE ourselves living and breathing and eating and shitting in this space. I turned to Irwin at some point and asked him if it was going to be possible for us to find the confluence of everything we were looking for in an apartment in the right price range, and he seemed to think so. I remain optimistic as well.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The Asshole Factor -- 189 Quincy St.: Houseviewing 11/17/07
Biking over there I felt good. That neighborhood has changed so much in the last 7 years, evidenced by the now always-packed cafe/bakery CHOICE on Lafayette and Grand, and a number of other cute establishments. Everywhere we looked a new luxury condo was being built, and brownstones were being renovated. Located between the C and the Gtrains, it was a pretty good area to be in.
When we arrived, though, and saw the horrid mint-green ultra-modern monstrosity that was the building's facade, we almost turned right back around. It just screamed ASSHOLE.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Irwin and I are figuring out as we house hunt, what the important criteria are. The obvious ones are how big the place is, how convenient the location is, how much the place costs. We are thinking of rating each place we see (with five star systems) according to the different criteria. There is a category of rating that we have been calling the "ASSHOLE" rating. Essentially, there are places we would not want to live in -- not because of unfavorable the price or the layout or location -- but because of how ashamed we would be to live there. You have to understand, Brooklyn is and has been a changing neighborhood. Gentrification has changed places like Williamsburg and Harlem and DUMBO. Fort Greene is wonderful but on its way to being the next Park Slope (babyland). The Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy border is definitely the new frontier. You'll find tons of new luxury (read: ugly metal & concrete) high-rises popping up everywhere, their unabashedly tacky exteriors practically glowing against the brownstone landscape. Like have you seen that new lux-condo at the base of the Manhattan Bridge (on the Brooklyn side)? It's called ORO and it is hands down the ugliest thing you will see. Planted in the middle of the wasteland between housing projects and downtown Brooklyn, it's difficult to imagine what kind of person would want to live there.
Anyway, the place we saw, was in many ways a wonderful apartment. Great newly renovated everything, open kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and exclusive access to a BACKYARD.
The cons? OK, well I wasn't crazy about the layout (front door opening right into the middle of the living room. And... well, the off-the-chart ASSHOLE factor. I am kicking myself for not taking a photo of the outside, but seriously, as Irwin says, we would need to wear a paper bag over our heads whenever we left or came back to the apartment. AND, because of the huge street-facing windows, we'd also have to wear paper bags over our heads when we were inside the house. Yes the backyard is pretty freaking amazing, but the dog we would be able to have because of the backyard would also have to wear a paper bag over its head to leave the apartment, AND wear one inside the house. People would come and egg the windows to our living room. And I don't want to live like that, no way.
The other two units in the building were 3BR, and they each had private access to the roof, where we found something truly amazing. The roof next door had a pigeon coop!!!!
That was pretty awesome and weird.
Needless to say we aren't moving into that place. I'm not a fancy gal but paperbags have no place in my wardrobe.
If you have any question as to whether a place rates highly on the ASSHOLE scale, one good place to check (asides from the obvious outer facade & entryway) is the bathroom. Especially the faucet. A common ASSHOLE high faucet will look like this:
It's that high-end fancy design that's just nice enough to make you feel like you're in a hotel, but actually pretty generic and sterile.
We're about to go see open houses today -- more on that later.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Listings to check out
Pacific Street Park Slope, Boerum Hill, NY Boerum Place / Smith Street Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/44-1087558 |
48 WHIPPLE ST. 1C Williamsburg, NY Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/851-3635 |
559 Warren St, Brooklyn NEW LISTING!! Park Slope, Boerum Hill, NY Between 3rd and 4th Avenues Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/727-559-3 |
360 CLINTON AVENUE Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, NY LAFAYETTE & GREENE Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/56-745041 |
442D Clermont Avenue, #D Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, NY Fulton Street / Greene Avenue Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/44-1111834 |
179 Monroe St, #1A Bedford Stuyvesant / Crown Heights, NY Bedford & Nostrand Avenues Date Posted: 11/06/07 | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/46-842640 |
71 Lexington Ave Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, NY Classon & Franklin Avenues Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/46-881735 |
189 QUINCY ST. 1 Bedford Stuyvesant / Crown Heights, NY BEDFORD AVE. Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/851-3706 |
48 WHIPPLE ST. 1C Williamsburg, NY Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/851-3635 |
241 TROUTMAN ST. 3L Bushwick, NY Wilson Date Posted: 11/01/07 | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/851-2856 |
721 FLUSHING AVE. 3C Williamsburg, NY Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/851-3531 |
Clinton Hill Coops, 210 CLINTON AVE Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, NY Willoughby Date Posted: > 14 days | |||
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URL for this Listing: http://realestate.nytimes.com/detail/253-NS7101061 |