House of the Day: 318 Westminster Road

This house isn't so wonderful for the area...It's got awful siding, horrible porch reno, and it's subdivided! There are far nicer houses in BSW... including mine. But I wouldn't dream of asking more than $1.2 (intact exterior, curb apppeal, great location, new reno including basement...). How does Kesyn justify this price? And no, my house is not going on the market.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 12:43 PM

Fake siding???
What there is no actual siding on the house and it's all an illusion?

Do you mean Fake wood siding?

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 1:33 PM

It looks nice from the outside i suppose the key is how mucked up the interior might be. But 1.5m seems like getting greedy. The original price was probably better.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 1:43 PM

The house right next store was on the market they started at $1.3M then dropped the price to $1,185,000...
It's now in contract....
That looked like a much nicer house, with brand new kitchens and baths...

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 1:45 PM

Who said "fake siding." I said "awful siding."

And I don't think it has much curb appeal. The shape isn't bad. But the siding is atrocious. I drive by this house every day. It's on the southern end of Westminster, where the original character of the homes has suffered considerably, and this house is no exception. The brick on the porch stairs is horrible. I would not pay top dollar for a house that has been coated in "new" materials that are completely unsympathetic to the original architectural design. If this house had been reshingled, had the original wooden porch rail and steps restored, it might be worth 1.2-1.3... if the interior was up to scratch with brand new kitchens and baths... I don't know what the score is on the interior. But Brownstoner, take a walk by and get a first hand view of the siding, not to mention the completely inappopriate stone ballustrade sitting on a scary dark red brick foundation... Poor house. It has a lovely silhouette. Must have been truly beautiful once. This is exactly the sort of damage that landmarking the nabe will prevent in the future.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 1:59 PM

I agree on the brick attack porch. But if the owners don't have the big bucks to reside the house with cedar siding,
it's it better to have vinyl siding on the house to protect the structure from weather damage (then having siding in bad shape, or worse yet covering the house with brick or stucco).

Vinyl siding can be torn down a mondo expensive cedar siding planks put up in it's place, by a new owner that has the deep pockets to do it. But tearing down brick or stucco is much more difficult, plus it make the building less in character with the neighborhood. Vinyl siding might not fit in with your snobby big bucks aesthetic, but considering the lower priced alternatives (let the building rot, or brick/stucco it) I think that the vinyl siding is the lesser of the evils.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 3:07 PM

3:07 - what you say about vinyl vs. brick or stucco is certainly true. But for the current asking price, I would expect nothing less tha a pricey cedar shingle job. Maybe the current owner thinks that the siding increases the value of his/her home... Truth is, for people with the bucks to buy a home in this price range in this neighborhood, anything other than shingle is a huge turn off. Now if the house was priced at $999K... Maybe a new deep-pocketed purchaser would be willing to lay out the cash to bring this place back up to scratch. These nasty McMansion renos will never command big price tags in a neighborhood that is desirable primarily for the Victorian charm of its homes.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 3:54 PM

whatever

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 4:12 PM

Because there are over 3000 of these frame huts in Brooklyn. The are from Caton Avenue to Avenue H, Coney Island Avenue to Ocean Avenue, plus the continguous Brooklyn College neighborhood (South Midwood), constitute the largest surviving body of freestanding Victorian frame houses in the country... That's a lot of housing stock (not to mention private driveways and garages). And, architecturally speaking, most of them kick ass on your average boring brownstoer.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 8:00 PM

Are you kidding, 7:31? The oldest houses in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan are wood frame houses. Like the ones from the 1700's and early 1800's. You know, um, that are over 200 years old if you can do the math. Obviously frame houses can stand the test of time just fine. I don't own a wood frame house, but I'm really really tiring of hearing over and over again on this site, the dumb belief wood frame houses aren't sturdy enough. I can tell you I've had way way better soundproofing in apartments in historic wood houses I lived in, in other cities, than I have in these old brownstone buildings. It's often possible to hear people talking, not yelling, talking, through the EXTERIOR adjoining walls in a brownstone building. It's crazy.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 10:55 AM

I agree with Bob. There's lots of vinyl siding not because it's as good as wood shingles a protectant, but because it's cheaper to install.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 11:01 AM

Brownstone Brooklyn used to be code for "upscale, Manhattanized Brooklyn." And that's what this site has been about, primarily. I don't see a lot of discussion pertaining specifically to the renovation/upkeep/maintenance of brownstones. I hear a lot of chit chat about quality of life, amentities, schools, dropping a lot of dough on new kitchens and baths. Well, all of that now pertains to the greater Ditmas Park area.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 12:10 PM

there will always be this tension here--and it is a class tension. there are some people who grew up in ny and would love nothing more than to own but cant afford more than 300-400 thousand dollars. this means that professionals with two children (let's say two high school teachers w/ MAs in their early thirties) can only hope for a small apartment--not even a newer one in the absolute worse part of BS. So these people have a tough time hearing about 100-200 thousand dollar renovations of 750-1 mil. dollar homes. Or, of denegrating siding as if it is beyond reason. This is a beautiful home even with its gauche siding.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 1:08 PM