3rd Street Renovation Blog

Welcome to the beginning of what will hopefully be a year-long, pain-free Park Slope Brownstone renovation.  We are so excited to share it with all of you!

It all started about a year ago.  We simply stopped loving Manhattan.  It was too crowded, too noisy, too dirty, and we wanted out.  There was, however, one catch, our jobs that we loved and our families, whom we loved even more, were all in Manhattan.  We are born and bred in the city, we couldn’t take it away from our kids.  Plus, our oldest daughter was already way too far gone to move anywhere else.  One day, out in the country, she saw cows and exclaimed, “Black-and-white cookies!” and she demanded sushi as her lunch of choice.  This kid couldn’t live in the country.  So we started to search and quickly fell in love with Brooklyn.  We loved the community, the space, the air, truly we were smitten with the entire package.  A few trips to Prospect Park (with some side stops at Butter Lane Cupcakes) and our kids were in too.  Now to find the house!

We were very lucky to fall in with an amazing Brooklyn townhouse realtor with Douglas Elliman, who was very patient with us and spent numerous hours with us trying to find us the perfect house and teach us a bit about the various neighborhoods as well.  Our requirements seemed straightforward – a townhouse, outdoor space, fireplaces, a gorgeous kitchen, and ideally located very close to a large park.  In our budget, however, it quickly became apparent that we were going to have to rethink or give up some of our list.  We were convinced that we couldn’t renovate.  Our daughter is starting school in Brooklyn in the fall; how could we?  We looked at a few gut projects but moved on.  After three months of looking, however, one house, ideally located, and requiring a full renovation, had captured our fancy.  We just couldn’t get it out of our heads.  It had such potential.  When we called our amazing architects only to discover that they lived a few houses down, it seemed like the gods were telling us that we needed to get this house.  So we took the leap.

We closed a month ago and so far things are going swimmingly.  We have amazing plans, complete with fireplaces, amazing kitchen, and outdoor space.  So far we have planned all the floor spaces, are completing the elevations of the walls, and have done the lighting plans.  Our plans are submitted to DOB and we are waiting on a response.

The basic plan is to return the house to its former one-family glory.  We are going to put a large kitchen and dining room on the garden level, a library and living room on the parlor floor, a master suite and family room on the third floor and finally the kids lair on top.  We are hoping to keep all of the original details that we can (there are still some although not a huge number) and return the house to a lot of its original proportions.

Check out a bunch of photos of the house in its “before” state after the jump…
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