Real Housewives: Simon and Alex's Renovation Revealed!
[nggallery id=”31343″ template=galleryview] An hour before Simon & Alex’s house renovation was unveiled on last night’s new episode of The Real Housewives on New York, we stopped by their Cobble Hill house for a guided tour. The reality show couple livea in the lower duplex (plus renovated cellar) with their two kids and have two…
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An hour before Simon & Alex’s house renovation was unveiled on last night’s new episode of The Real Housewives on New York, we stopped by their Cobble Hill house for a guided tour. The reality show couple livea in the lower duplex (plus renovated cellar) with their two kids and have two rentals upstairs. Enjoy the pics! Update: As a commenter points out, how funny was that to see Marty in the background of their housewarming party on the show last night!
So now that you have been living in your home for 6 months or so since the reno, what changes have you made? Is it still red on red on red? Is the deck complete? What’s going on with the blow up pool 🙂 Its almost summertime.
So now that you have been living in your home for 6 months or so since the reno, what changes have you made? Is it still red on red on red? Is the deck complete? What’s going on with the blow up pool 🙂 Its almost summertime.
@ Posted by: salvpar at May 4, 2009 3:32 PM
what kind of contingency did you have? – None.
However given a choice of having 2m+ people see your finished work versus having them see your house unfinished because deadlines were missed is a pretty powerful incentive.
Our main contractor, The Pinnacle Group ( see http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2009/04/alex_and_simons.php ) worked wonders.
The risk they took was that they had to rely on all my other contractors to do their work as well as delivery of everything I ordered; kitchen cabinets, appliances, steel doors & windows, furniture, light fittings etc etc.
It truly was a team effort but having a drop dead date when TV cameras were involved made us all concentrate on that date. It was exhausting but we made it.
Mind you I would rather have an exhausting 9 weeks than a drawn out nine months.
Simon van Kempen
I wish i could have finished in 9 weeks. Not a chance. Kudos to you Simon. I have to say, we did a reno which finished Oct ’08 (7 mo.)and we are certainly glad it is over and wish we had an “absolute” deadline. what kind of contingency did you have? did you promise some sort of marketing deal? I am curious. I certainly would have. It dog eat dog in the reno business.
I do have to admire these two people since they knew beforehand that they would get plenty of rude comments about the colors and decorations. What was so bad? I don’t know what was so bad that if I moved in after you, all I would have to do is change the lighting fixtures and repaint the walls and the place will look different. I am not sure I would be comfortable with red walls and AC/w his snake, but I also think I would go crazy in Jills house with all the gaudyness too…so, to each his own`I always say!! I live in my house and you live in yours and we shall meet for drinks at the corner.
Just going through this to answer or respond to specific questions/statements. If I have missed any let me know. 😉
@ cobblehiller at April 29, 2009 10:39 AM
We didn’t have a sit down per se but we did refuse, this season, to do anything that wasn’t real to us, unlike we did, on occasion, last season. Like everything, you live & learn and we certainly did from Season 1.
The comment about the 15th choice school was an exaggeration and at the time it was made our eldest son wasn’t even attending that school. Despite being zoned for it he was wait listed and was attending another neighborhood school. Of course, by the time that scene aired he had changed schools and everyone’s reaction was that it was a slight against his current school. Not sure that makes it any better but it is the truth.
@ Posted by: Architerrorist at April 29, 2009 10:44 AM
It definitely was on the wishlist. When we sold our Co-op in PS (which was zoned for PS321) and moved to Cobble Hill we absolutely were aware of the school zoning of the houses in which we were interested. Due to the current economy there are many NYC parents who wish they’d now paid more attention to school zones when they bought.
@ Posted by: sbuffon at April 29, 2009 11:19 AM
Last I checked our youngest son Johan doesn’t have a French name. Both our sons were named in honor of my Father who died when I was just 5 years old. He was Dutch and his name was Francois Johan Walter van Kempen.
@ Posted by: Carol Gardens at April 29, 2009 12:23 PM
Thanks for your comment about sticking up for Brooklyn. A lot of people outside NYC and let’s face it a lot of Manhattanites too, have this warped view that NYC=Manhattan. We certainly have been able to spread the word across the country about Brooklyn & are not ashamed in the least to live here. We moved from Manhattan in 2001, first to Park Slope & in 2005 to Cobble Hill and can never see us moving back to Manhattan. Those that don’t know these areas have no idea how villagy they really are yet only a very short distance to Manhattan.
Oh & btw this thread didn’t out me as 99LuftBalloons, I did that a month or two ago when Alex & I attended the last B’stoner gathering on Atlantic Ave.
@ Posted by: Ringo at April 29, 2009 12:41 PM
Opening the house up to local blogger scrutiny is nothing compared to the close to 2m people who watched this weeks episode! 😉
Not sure why you’d think we about to sell our house. We’re not and if we were why would we have decorated in such an individual style?
You’re ‘somewhat reliable source’ is very wrong. We own the entire house and have done so since June 2005. NYC finance and property records are there for all to see and I have laughed several times at the misinformation posted by those who have looked at those sites and got it completely wrong and then posted their incorrect reading of those sites as ‘fact’.
And lastly maybe we should host the next Brownstoner gathering at our house for you all to see it in person as there seems to be incredible interest it in and us!
Simon van Kempen
Sushi,
Although we’ve been blamed for appearing on a show that is contributing to the decline of Western civilization, your post is the first I’ve seen conjecturing whether we might be affecting property values too! 😉
As to the timing – it is true that having to have the parlor level complete for the last of day of filming (Nov 1, 2008), concentrated the minds of EVERYONE working on the job to make that deadline, but who wouldn’t want a drop dead finishing date. Having one really made the work drag out less than it would have otherwise and probably knocked three to four weeks of a normal schedule.
Simon van Kempen
Hey, what does anyone think…do have the Van Kempen’s being on the show and in the ‘hood HELP or HURT my property value? Or no affect whatsoever?
The reno’s not THAT bad…I mean, not my taste at all, but not so terrible. And, hey, getting that all done in that time frame is a miracle. (Although, I’m sure if it wasn’t being filmed, it wouldn’t have been 9 weeks. There’s no way it would ever have moved that fast in “real life”. (REAL real life).
Mellie
In the kitchen all you can really see is the fridge, range & hood in stainless steel. Yes we could have put cabinet doors on the fridge but I couldn’t see the point.
Also as I kid I learned the expression to never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Simon van Kempen