Brooklyn

Reading yesterday’s Habitats column in The Times, it was hard not to feel like a complete whimp, not only because we don’t take bourbon in our Sunday morning tea but also because we didn’t camp out with no heat or running water in our house while it was being renovated. After picking up their three-story wood-frame house on Dikeman Street in Red Hook for $360,000 two years ago, LeNell Smothers and Benjamin Peikes ran in to some unexpected problems. We had planned to live in one of the rooms while the work was going on, but we came home one day, and that room was gone, Ms. Smothers said. After the frequent sewage floodings drove them out of an illegal basement apartment on Pioneer Street, the couple starting camping out amid the construction in their new home, a situation that was only made bearable at first by the fact that they had the use of a shower and toilet at Ms. LeNell’s eponymous liquor store around the corner on Van Brunt Street. And now, with a wood stove and space heaters, things are relatively cushy. We were bummed that there were not more photos with the article. Perhaps LeNell and Benjamin will share some more photos with us?
Nothing a Shot of Bourbon Won’t Cure [NY Times]
Illustration by Douglas B. Jones