replacing windows in an historic house is very expensive. even so-so quality windows are extremely expensive. Unless you have Harry Potter's magic wand, there is no way on earth you will find cheap, high-quality windows.
And if you happen to be in an historci district, you may want to contemplate moving.

Posted by: Inigo at November 29, 2008 8:11 PM in response to does anybody know where to find good but cheap windows?

My sympathies to the neighbors. How awful.
It is as if the new house is telling the rest of the block to drop dead.

Posted by: Inigo at November 29, 2008 7:29 PM in response to Modern on Lincoln

The Bedford Street house is priced realistically for the current market, it is one of the few houses on this blog that is priced realistically. Forget about the million dollar granny-museums in non-prime blocks or "up and coming" neighborhoods. In fact, even in prime blocks, very few will open their wallets. There is a very real possibility that for the next few years, the NYC middle class will be shrinking. It is a cycle. We are more than due. Where are the good jobs now? Not here any more. How many will be able to carry these huge mortgages?

Posted by: Inigo at November 29, 2008 7:23 PM in response to Open House Picks

muscovy duck? in the US?

Maybe in a rent-control apartment in Brooklyn Heights but not in Prospect Park.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 8:12 PM in response to Closing Bell: Prospect Park's Wild Turkey

an eider is a fancy word for a goose. this is not a duck or a goose, c'mon. it is a gull, don't make me get my "birds of north america" to tell you specifically what type of gull. this guy probably lives in red hook and flies to the park now and then for a little r and r.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 7:41 PM in response to Closing Bell: Prospect Park's Wild Turkey

montrosse, at this point the LPC has designation reports written and delivered to their doorstep. all they have to do is proof and edit. You or I could volunteer to do that one day a month. The Brooklyn Heights designation report is three pages long, the Grand Central Terminal report is six pages long -and it made it at the Supreme Court. The delays and stonewalling are just excuses. The LPC is very badly run -and the most galling thing is that they look at preservationists as the "other". More funding for more "surveys" is not the solution, it is just the same old "look busy but do nothing" approach.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 7:22 PM in response to Languishing at the LPC

i dislike the upper west side, it is beautiful, but it is jammed-packed with upper west siders (blech!) I like carnegie hill. quiet, classy, interesting. a big apartment on a high floor in the east 90's? heaven!

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 7:08 PM in response to Wanna Save Money? Leave Brooklyn For Manhattan

The house has vinyl siding. OK? It is a refugee from Bayone, NJ.

It will not be worth one million dollars for ten more years.
NEXT!

.....honestly, I think the economic downturn has been accepted as reality everywhere except on Brownstoner.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 6:33 PM in response to House of the Day: 271 Stratford Road

there are wild turkeys in brooklyn. i have seen them in greenwood cemetery. this of course is not a turkey. it looks more like a gull. although it is funny to think of a turkey pretending to be a gull the day before thanksgiving.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 6:25 PM in response to Closing Bell: Prospect Park's Wild Turkey

Seems wildly overpriced to me. This money pit with only two bathrooms should be no more than $650,000.
Beverly Square West? Give it a rest, it's Flatbush!

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 1:19 PM in response to House of the Day: 271 Stratford Road

Manhattan a mall? Hon, you need to rent a car and go to Paramus. Those are malls.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 1:15 PM in response to Wanna Save Money? Leave Brooklyn For Manhattan

Bid 225. It's a good deal. And altho the building is boring, it is fireproof and has elevators.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 12:58 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: Another 1BR at 193 Clinton Avenue

I like Brooklyn, sort of, but I moved here when it was cheap. I don't know what people are thinking today. But I am partial to the mutant bubble theory.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 12:52 PM in response to Wanna Save Money? Leave Brooklyn For Manhattan

NEWSFLASH: It's all politics

They could do more with half the staff.

San Francisco only has three people on its landmarks staff
NYC has eighty. How many more people does it take to ignore residents and drag out the process further?

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 12:29 PM in response to Languishing at the LPC

car insurance is less in Manhattan too -and there are garages.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 9:54 AM in response to Wanna Save Money? Leave Brooklyn For Manhattan

workers housing.
Built I think for the Navy Yards workers who were churning out the battleships for the war.
Pretty basic housing.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 5:03 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 193 Clinton Avenue

11217 has something goin' on. Either he is a realtor facing the prospects of an extremely lean rest of his life, or he is trying to sell some dumpy walk-up and can't. The desperation is obvious.
You just have to accept the fact that prices for houses are coming down. I think by a lot. Neither Muffet nor I nor a desperate realtor can stop it.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 4:57 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

no one's a bigger bitch than 11217.
what's the matter with than nut job?

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 4:49 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

looks like nobody gives a shit about this park.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 1:39 PM in response to Brooklyn Bridge Park: The Timeline Emerges

I hope the new owner does something about the front garden. The messy garden really detracts from the prim and proper house. It's a sunny garden so one could grow most things.
I would recommend box and holly. Something formal, clipped, classy. The current garden looks like a bag person laid it out.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 12:52 PM in response to 135 Joralemon In Contract. Finally.

These stairs are bad for children and dogs. Cats would not have a problem. But this looks like the kind of home that is suited neither for kids or dogs. It is for an extremely disciplined and attenuated couple. She's a fine arts major, he's a corporate attorney. They both carry their shoes in bags to the car when its raining and they clean the inside of the dishwasher before turning it on.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 12:31 PM in response to Brooklyn Modern #2: Gut Renovated in Boerum Hill

could they have designed this building to look more grim?

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 12:19 PM in response to Fresh Rentals at 639 Fourth Avenue

This is nice, though it is a little magazine-ey. One would have to be very very neat and obsessive about fingerprints and reading matter.
I think these little houses are so much prettier with their plaster rooms and ceiling medallions and multi-pane windows. It is not an ideological thing, I mean you own it you can break it, it is just how I feel. Even if a house is stripped, putting back the details is just so right. At least on the parlor level. I like mixing new and old but this is just new. no old. And what did they do with the front windows? they look blank. is it tinted glass? Yuk if it is.

Posted by: Inigo at November 25, 2008 12:13 PM in response to Brooklyn Modern #2: Gut Renovated in Boerum Hill

These parrots are from Argentina. They are not tropical parrots. They survive the winter the way all birds do, they huddle together in a tight space all night for warmth. Snow is a plus and acts like insulation. The biggest colony is on the gothic entrance gates of Greenwood Cemetery. They are tough birds. Perfectly suited for life in the big city where food is plentiful and predators few.

Posted by: Inigo at November 21, 2008 8:44 PM in response to Yes, Virginia, There Are Parrots in South Slope

7 postings on this story. Why? Because it is about a lost-cause low-class rent-control complex that no one cares about.
Walk-up apartments for the working poor circa 1870. No thanx very much.
The garage would be the first good thing to happen on the site since White's day.

Posted by: Inigo at November 18, 2008 10:15 PM in response to LPC Approves Underground Garage at Riverside Apartments

After this recession we will be lucky if anyone wants to buy anything in NYC. The bad neighborhoods are doomed. The good neighborhoods will need to suck it in and accept the fact that people are not making so much dough any more, they cannot pay crazy prices. I worry about NYC. I really do. It is like this is our apocalypse. The hype and the speculation is falling like a bad souffle. I don't see a lot of pouf any more in our financial sector. This is an old-fashioned crash folks. Some day you will tell your grandchildren you lived through it. If you do.

Posted by: Inigo at November 18, 2008 9:58 PM in response to House of the Day: 318 1st Street

Who does it appeal to? The anal-compulsive chef?

Posted by: Inigo at November 3, 2008 8:49 PM in response to Condo of the Day: One Main Street, #3A

Why is it that people don't like this location? is it too close to Brooklyn Heights? Is it too far from the
schmutz-o-rama of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill?
I like this building. I think it's classy. it isn't juvenile or hipsterish. Even the units facing east have great views of Brooklyn. You think you're breathing Alpine air because you live near Flatbush or Murder Avenue? Honestly, the mean-age on this blog certainly is apparent on certain threads. Listen, if you're 17 waiting to get your first big break on a skateboard competition or your first blow job fron the neighborhood lolita, I understand why you don't like the idea of living with the grown-ups in Brooklyn Heights, but everyone else should check it out, I was impressed, and I'm kind of picky in a non-teen way.

Posted by: Inigo at November 3, 2008 7:07 PM in response to Tough Times at One Brooklyn Bridge Park

My first loft had a kitchen right as you walked in. Everyone thought it was hillarious. We all loved it. Of course I paid $180,000 for the place. For two million dollars I would sooner open an important vein than have a kitchen counter greeting my guests as they walk in the door.

Posted by: Inigo at November 3, 2008 6:49 PM in response to Condo of the Day: One Main Street, #3A

Terrific! Buy this and be FWFB! Thrilling!!
(First White Family on the Block).

Posted by: Inigo at November 3, 2008 6:45 PM in response to House of the Day: 808 Lincoln Place

magnificent example of beaux arts architecture?
man, what are you smoking? It was a bread factory clad in white terra-cotta.
One of the problems with the preservation movement nowadays is that it has lost all concept of comparitive quality. Every old piece of crap is "magnificent" or "unique" or my favorite "nearly unique". There is no connoisseurship, which was the hallmark of the movement. Anyone who can equate this boring, ugly, bakery to say, the US Custom House, or the NY Public Library, or Grand Central Terminal, has no taste, no sense of what is truly distinguished and what is just crappy everyday construction.

Posted by: Inigo at October 24, 2008 9:37 PM in response to Ward's Bakery, Not 2 Columbus Circle, the Real Loss

The New York public is so over-burdened and pissed-off by taxes, fines and tolls that if there were a referendum calling for all politicians to be beaten and hung on poles in City Hall Park, it would probably pass.
The council members are by and large hacks and rent-a-pols.
For instance, Yassky can't decide whether to sell or lease himself to the Orthodox community in Williamsburg. Why should we want these idiots to run for second terms, much less third terms? Bloomberg is a different story. A billionaire blow-hard who is accountable to no one and not truly of this world. Listen, NY is a city of hustle, of working it out in the margins, of getting by by getting along. In the final analysis these bozos mean very little to the life of the city. I say throw them out every year. who would notice?

Posted by: Inigo at October 24, 2008 9:22 PM in response to Tish and BdB Suing Over Term Limits

This looks like a cute, unpretentious house for a normal family. But it has been cut up into apartments for three millionaires. Honestly, man, that is why NY is fucked up. Why would someone with plenty of cash want to share this little middle-class house with two other rich, obnoxious families? Hello?
Is there intelligent life in the Brooklyn real estate universe? Unbelievable. How young, and stupid, and rich would one have to be to lay down a million bucks for part of an old, rather dumpy, bourgeoise house in a not very nice part of brooklyn NY?
I give up.
It is too inane.

Posted by: Inigo at October 23, 2008 10:05 PM in response to Condos of the Day: 473 Clinton Avenue

The shit does seem to be hitting the fan guys, how much longer will squeeky-clean preppy types put down heavy cash on houses in very, very un-preppy environments? How long will their wives and children let them? Listen, I love the fact that South Africa-style apartheid is breaking down in Brooklyn, I love that white families are moving to Bed Stuy and Black families are moving to Brooklyn Heights, but the houses in the more dangerous and less genteel areas should not be commesurate in price with houses in Darien, Connecticut or Rye, New York. That is nuts.
It is wackadoodle-insane. Much of brownstone Brooklin has more in common with Newark, NJ or Detroit MI. than Rye NY, Why are people paying Rye prices for Newark blocks? My feeling is that it is because they are nuts.

Posted by: Inigo at October 15, 2008 9:44 PM in response to House of the Day: 18 St. Marks Place

window-fix
718-854-3475

Posted by: Inigo at October 15, 2008 4:19 PM in response to Window repair

Sam. you forget that the mean intellectual age on this blog is thirteen. And I do mean "mean".
These kids have barely worked a full calendar year. They have no clue what a million dollars is let alone $60,000. Your refernece to the show Entourage was right on. Clueless adolescents, in arrested development, without any reality-based notion of what money is or how it is earned or what it buys.

Posted by: Inigo at October 14, 2008 10:48 PM in response to House of the Day: 156 Hicks Street

bamboo cabinets $60,000?
Damn, boy, what you smokin'?

Posted by: Inigo at October 14, 2008 7:56 PM in response to House of the Day: 156 Hicks Street

I have heard from very credible sources that the DOT intends to use most of the former PA piers to house interplanetary aliens whose flying saucers crashed last year near Wasilla, Alaska. Though some of the aliens escaped and assumed human form, most were detained and will be transferred to an inter-gallactic Guantanamo on the old Brooklyn Heights piers. The work will be passed off on the unsuspecting public as related to "necessary repairs" on the BQE, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Wallentas carousel.
We understand the Republican vice presidnetial candidate is keeping close tabs on the progress of the works as it will affect "friends" who wish to have a "bridge to nowhere and beyond" built at Federal expense.

Posted by: Inigo at October 14, 2008 7:53 PM in response to New Concerns about Brooklyn Bridge Park

One really has to get quite far from the BQE not to hear it. I would say one needs to live in Clinton Hill or Crown Heights.
They have loud noises too but gunshots are quick. You hear them and they're gone five or ten minutes later. Not like a highway (besides closing your window because of bullet fire is REALLY useless).

Posted by: Inigo at October 14, 2008 7:36 PM in response to House of the Day: 156 Hicks Street

OK, this is the bottom line: NEVER BUY AN APARTMENT IN A COOP THAT IS LESS THAN 75% OWNER OCCUPIED.
Everything else is cool.

Posted by: Inigo at October 11, 2008 11:35 PM in response to One Sunset Park Hits the Market

"You're all very silly..."

-silly to say this is the ugliest addition in the neighborhood?

I think sane and not blind would be better adjectives.

If you don't care about preserving the beauty of historic architecture in our neighborhoods, then you don't get it.
This isn't Las Vegas or Miami. People don't move here to buy "unused" homes.

Posted by: Inigo at October 11, 2008 10:50 PM in response to Green on Brownstoner: Salvage on State Street

Those bay-fronted tenements look so awful without their cornices. East New York anyone?

Posted by: Inigo at October 11, 2008 10:39 PM in response to Just Sold in Brooklyn

wine lover:
you should write when you have less vino in you. I can't get through your post. Who are you imitating, Tolstoy? Keep it under 600 pages OK?

Posted by: Inigo at October 10, 2008 10:09 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Jonathan Miller is like that last Japanese soldier on some remote island who is still fighting for the fatherland in 1950 because he does not believe, nor accept, that the war is over and he must surrender.

Posted by: Inigo at October 10, 2008 10:02 PM in response to Just Sold in Brooklyn

Of course these ordinary working-class houses should not be worth millions. I have been saying that for over a year. Very few people have actually paid millions for them. And they are the sorry ones now, let me tell you.
Thank goodness we can return to some sort of sanity in the Brooklyn Real estate market. This is Brooklyn, it is not Monte Carlo. What were you thinking?

Posted by: Inigo at October 10, 2008 9:57 PM in response to Open House Picks: Price Cut Edition

I want to reitirate my quesion, which I think should be the most urgent question put to the two candidates for president: Will the government restore my retirement savings account to what it was last year while they are bailing out the those who bought houses beyond their means? I have saved and gone without to plan for my retirement, as we were told we should do as resposible citizens. Now I see our treasury opening its coffers to protect those who acted without the slightest regard for financial responsibility. This is just preposterous. I do not believe the American public will put up with it once they understand that the responsible are being screwed while the spendthrifts are being given a free pass. it is sickening.

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 9:44 PM in response to Dow Closes Down 679 Points

Our nation was always based on real estate and consumer crap so I don't know what the hell you are talking about. This meltdown is due to banks and other financial institutions forgetting that there is a portion of the population that is credit worthy and a portion that isn't.
Seems pretty basic but I guess with an expensive enough education you can forget that sort of common sense.
The fault is with you my friend. The so-called financial professionals. Don't blame the rest of us, especially those of us who bought a home we could afford, who pay our bills, and who contribute every week to our 401K's. We are the big losers in all this. Will the government restore my retirement savings while they are bailing out some irresponsible dingbat who makes 50 thou a year and bought a million dollar house?

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 9:10 PM in response to Dow Closes Down 679 Points

oops, sorry. I mean win him over with half your paycheck.

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 8:47 PM in response to Closing Bell: Northside Piers Bring Manhattan to Bburg

well you will probably win her over with your tremendous charm and compassionate nature. (HA!)

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 8:45 PM in response to Closing Bell: Northside Piers Bring Manhattan to Bburg

people used to make fun of Blacks and Jews, now they make fun of people who are overweight. Boy, we've really come a long way baby.

This meltdown will bring out the America bashers in droves. they will say that we have brought this on ourselves because we are fat, we are lazy, we like cars, we eat too much barbecue, we speak French badly, we are vulgar.... and on and on.
As if we didn't have enough to deal with.

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 7:58 PM in response to Dow Closes Down 679 Points

I hope obama is more like Abe Lincoln and less like Ronald Reagan. Only time will tell. It could go either way. I don't think Lincoln was seen as being charasmatic and handsome when he was elected. charasmatic and handsome politicians can often lead a country awry. Let us pray there is substance behind the glamor.

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 7:41 PM in response to House of the Day: 1380 Dean Street

This will be a good buy opportunity but nobody will have any money left. Unless you keep your money in a checking account, it has evaporated...and the resale value of your real estate has evaporated...and your job has evaporated.
This is a disaster, I don't think American capitalism will ever be the same again. We will be more like the French. Who would have guessed they were right all along?

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 7:30 PM in response to Dow Closes Down 679 Points

11217, why would someone so attractive agree to go home with you?

Posted by: Inigo at October 9, 2008 7:27 PM in response to Closing Bell: Northside Piers Bring Manhattan to Bburg

"your name was Beaufort when your husband covered you with jewels and your name is Beaufort now that he has covered you in shame"
Spoken by the wealthy Mrs Mignot to her relation, Mrs Beaufort, when the latter visits the old lady under cover of darkness to request a bailout for her husband, who is at the center of a Wall Street panic in 1875.

from "The Age of Innocence"
by Edith Wharton

Posted by: Inigo at October 7, 2008 10:58 PM in response to Quote of the Day

They don't believe a lot in maintenance at the Navy yard do they? The maintenance level is comparable to say, Havana, Cuba. What a dump of a place.

Posted by: Inigo at October 7, 2008 10:48 AM in response to An Inside Look at the Navy Yard

This is interesting because........?

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 8:30 PM in response to The Stroller Wars, Solved

I would rather live in Brooklyn Heights with an ugly kitchen than with chic German appliances on some desolate ice sheet in Williamsburg or Greenpoint.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 8:01 PM in response to Rentals of the Day: The Standish Hits the Market

HA! you don't know old rent regulated tenants in BH do you? They will not move, especially if they think someone will benefit financially from it. They will want to be bought out in order to move to a nicer apartment. They love their 1957 kitchen and they have given their mice names. You are acting as if it is a rational business move to deal with these people....you have a lot to learn.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 7:50 PM in response to Heights Brownstone Portfolio Changes Hands

OK, OK 11217...you have made your point. Brooklyn is unsinkable, it is the best, the Dodgers are bums.... blah blah blah. But the reality is that people will pursue what is in their own best interests. If you were born in 1954 and have lived here all your life then of course you would not leave even if a meteorite hit the Navy Yard and flooded half of Brooklyn. But if you are still young and ambitious and opportunity beckons in Dallas, or Abu Dabi, you go like lightning. There has been an unrealistic spike in prices in Brooklyn over the past four to five years, Now we will see a correction. this is a good thing. although some that have bought recently will suffer. It's about money and business not about "love" or "loyalty". Brooklyn got too expensive. Now it will probaboly be too cheap. That's the way markets work. I have seen it happen before and I am seeing it happen again.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 7:43 PM in response to Quote of the Day

I moved to Brooklyn because even the best neighborhoods were pretty darn cheap. And since I work in Manhattan, I can shop and eat out there whenever I wish. Now that Brooklyn is so expensive, I'm not sure I would have made the same choice. It has its moments but once you are even slightly off the beaten track it is pretty hideous, even scary.
Prices will be coming down but it is possible that many will be opting to leave NYC entirely. It happens. It's a cycle. I would recommend buying when its cheap. It seems pretty darn obvious that trying to save money in the US is completely ridiculous.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 5:18 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Move protected tenants in Brooklyn Heights? They will need a crane and a court order. These are rent-regulated renters you are talking about. They are protected by the full power of the state and the courts and they know it. The only way to get them out is to have the DOB show up and start demolishing the building with no warning -as happened at 100 Clark Street. That building is now half-demolished, but vacant!

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 2:53 PM in response to Heights Brownstone Portfolio Changes Hands

Lenny is correct.
This is the time to buy in the burbs and exurbs. the time to buy in the city will be 12 months from now. I think brownstone Brooklyn will be especially hard hit as the prices here had spiraled up so insanely and many of the newer buyers (and those who re-financed) will find themselves having negative equity.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 2:44 PM in response to Price Cuts at Be@Schermerhorn

These buildings are burdened with the worst of both worlds. They are rent-regulated on the inside and Landmarks- regulated on the outside.
I think they have negative net value.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 1:40 PM in response to Heights Brownstone Portfolio Changes Hands

Listen, if you're getting a divorce and need a place to live asap, this is a lot better than the other residence hotels in the Heights or in Midtown. It looks clean, light, and un-infested.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 1:32 PM in response to Rentals of the Day: The Standish Hits the Market

The location of this building, in the central business district, could actually be a plus after it defaults and is conveyed to government ownership. It could then be used as emergency shelter for some of the many thousands in the Boro who will be jobless and homeless in the opening years of the Obama Administration.

Posted by: Inigo at October 6, 2008 1:15 PM in response to Price Cuts at Be@Schermerhorn

There is a difference between a "split system" (aka Mitsubishi) and real cenral air.
I would actually prefer window units, that can be removed, than the permanently ugly units that say: "we were too cheap to buy real central a.c."
The split units are just fugly.

Posted by: Inigo at October 4, 2008 9:52 PM in response to Open House Picks

isn't a small unit over a door preferably to ducting everywhere and the destruction of either tin ceilings and/or plaster or wood moldings?

No

even historic house museums like Monticello have central a.c. -and one's house shouldn't be a museum but rather a comfortable and beautiful place. ceilings, moldings, etc etc can be removed, replaced, enhanced...don't sweat it (ha!).

Posted by: Inigo at October 4, 2008 11:22 AM in response to Open House Picks

Miss Muffett, nothing is protected in Brooklyn. Whether it is landmarked or dogmarked, the nature of our Borough is more or less unbridled chaos. If you want protection from the atrocities committed by others on their homes, families, and selves, you need to move to less crowded parts of the country. Brooklyn is a huddled, seething, smelly, Cuisinart of a city. Control and delicacy are impossible outside your parlor and foyer. Once one accepts the inevitability of the tacky tectonic plate that Brooklyn is built on, one can begin to accept and be a part of the slapstick Marx Brothers comedy that is our lovely Borough of Kings.

Posted by: Inigo at October 3, 2008 9:43 PM in response to Open House Picks

Mr Joist, what you say is true but I would argue that one really does not want to have by far the most expensive house on the block, or in this case, blocks. Also the gut rehab would probably take twelve months to be substantially complete. Where does one live in the meantime? One must factor in that cost as well.

Posted by: Inigo at October 3, 2008 4:53 PM in response to Open House Picks

Looking again I see that the big Greek Revival house is on Kane Street, not Warren Street, sorry, my error.

Posted by: Inigo at October 3, 2008 4:30 PM in response to Open House Picks

I do not believe one can be happily married and still be loose; can't happen.
I think the Warren Street house is lovely although it needs central air conditioning and a new Greek Revival style partition between the front and back parlors. However, the four million dollar price tag is ridiculous.
The 8th St. house is on a stunning block but the interiors were oddly reconfigured making it seem much narrower than it actually is. That terrible flaw would need to be addressed. The other two are chopped liver.
This coming year will be full of defaulting. Many will need to negotiate with their lender to "short" their mortgages and get out of Dodge. This is true for co-ops, condos and houses. I remember 1991. Many of you, judging by how badly you write, probably do not.

Posted by: Inigo at October 3, 2008 4:23 PM in response to Open House Picks

bubble bubble toil and trouble
bankers fall
and defaults double.

Posted by: Inigo at October 1, 2008 6:53 PM in response to Has the Bubble Finally Burst?

Dave, You are a douchebag. try being a little patriotic.
It may do your new business some good.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 11:44 PM in response to Closing Bell: Energy Crisis to Be Solved by Brooklyn

That's a pretty gross picture to post on a day we are trying to keep our nuts from frying on the fire Mr. Stoner.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 11:37 PM in response to Tuesday Blogwrap

Well of course the economy is strong. Where do you think we live? Argentina? Get off your duffs and buy a beautiful house in NY, NJ, or Conn. Buy a nice car too. Don't let your pants' zipper nip you like the goo-goo's hope.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 11:35 PM in response to Quote of the Day

are you kidding me? If you walk into a home that looks like this, I mean a private, real-life home, your first thought would be: these people are from Vremulac...it is in France.
N'est-ce pas?

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 10:54 PM in response to Interiors: Sleek and Minimal on Sterling

sad

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 10:06 PM in response to Secret to Brooklyn's Job Market: Diversity

They are a sad group of people, suicidal sometimes. it happens quite a bit.
I don't think it would make for a popular TV series. Too many people are in the same situation. It would not be entertainment. It would bomb.
But, people from rich families who overspend and act badly usually land on their feet, unless they are confronted with airport security and have a major meltdown. Middle-class life in America is resilient yet so fragile, no?
Let's hope things will be easier for our kids, and yet the years go by so quickly, who can tell the difference between our childhoods and theirs? and the their children's? Our intellects are on "fast forward" but human evolution and societal norms are on "slo-mo".

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 10:00 PM in response to A Letter From The Inside

Don't overlook Purchase, Harrison, and Rye. They have absolutely gorgeous architecture, speedy trains to GCT, and public schools that make the city's private schools look like poor relations.
For real value look at New Jersey, don't go to the richie-rich towns like Alpine, but check out Westwood and Haworth. I mean these are gorgeous towns with big houses that you can buy for the same price as a rowhouse in Bed Stuy -but without the tenant in the basement!
Why young people are paying these weird prices to live in bad areas of brooklyn astounds me. I moved to brooklyn Heights years ago, and believe me, I often think I should have spent my money in Bergen County or Rockland, some of those towns are so beautiful...and the people are not all stuck up and holier-than-thou.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 9:32 PM in response to Quote of the Day

polemecist, if you truly have all that experience in finance, then I apologise, you are not ignorant.
Instead you are probably just a douchebag. As a businessman who deals with a wide variety of professional, believe me, I truly appreciate the difference between the ignorant and the douchebaggy.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 7:42 PM in response to A Letter From The Inside

Connecticut is a really depressed market right now once you get away from the nearby suburbs. Even there, who knows?
You can buy a fabulous house in that state for a relative song.
Pelham manor is also really nice. If you like the schools there -why not? Think of the r.e. taxes as "tuition" -and your city psyche may be happier.
Of course, once you leave the city and stop paying the city income tax you are already way ahead, and if you leave the state of NY, even for another high-tax state, you will not believe the difference. And car insurance is, I kid you not, maybe a quarter of what it is in Brooklyn (I have lived here and there) so you will have a lot of savings to offset the r.e. taxes -and those taxes go directly to your community and local schools!

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 7:32 PM in response to Quote of the Day

slick, if owning a car is too much of a strain on your finances than I think you cannot afford a house anywhere.
Honestly slick, people on welfare own cars, y'know?

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 7:13 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Boy there are some major snobs on this blog, I must confess, when I say "nicer suburbs" I don't mean just Greenwich, Connecticut. Honestly, that's like saying "nice art" and assuming I am talking about a Rembrandt. I don't even think about Greenwich. that's la-la rich-peopleville. I wouldn't want to live there. But there are other places around, you know. The choice is not between Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and Greenwich, Connecticut. Go to Long island, go to Jersey, non-gold coast Westchester, there are plenty of lovely affordable leafy towns with excellent schools, honestly.....
Greenwich!
puleese!

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 6:46 PM in response to Quote of the Day

polemicist, stick to polemics and lay off economics, you know not what you write. Buying distressed real estate is a way to make money not a way to lose money.
This is why the bailout will not only work to calm down the securities markets and unfreeze credit but will also end up making money for the Treasury. The current problem revolves around real estate or, to use econo-speak: "currently undervalued assets". But real estate will come back. It always does, and the governemnt has the luxury of being able to wait.
you get it?

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 4:36 PM in response to A Letter From The Inside

Everyone with a messy disaster of a home or apartment looks at these pictures and thinks ...."ahhhhh".
But those of us with beautiful, comfortable homes are not as thrilled at the anonymous, almost sterile look of something like this. Corporate lounge is exactly right. And would you really want to eat lunch on those stools? I mean, look at them! And can you just imagine what a seven-year old with a normal imagination could figure out to do with a coffee table with giant tonka wheels?

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 4:14 PM in response to Interiors: Sleek and Minimal on Sterling

This is so untrue. House prices in the nice burbs have not shot up in value overnight like they have in many formerly sketchy precincts of Brooklyn. Suburban houses in the nicer towns may end up retainng more of their valuation because their values were not hyper-inflated to begin with. I think the suburbs are, unfortunately for us, in a better position to weather the storm. And the high-up executives are never the ones to suffer too much from these setbacks anyway, the axe falls on middle mangement and support.

Posted by: Inigo at September 30, 2008 4:07 PM in response to Quote of the Day

To each their own. This looks awful to me. trendy design that will be out in two years. I suppose Williamsburg is hot for the under 35 crowd. I'm not the demographic they are aiming for.

Posted by: Inigo at September 29, 2008 12:24 PM in response to Sales Begin at The Steelworks Loft

Is it walking distance to shul?

Posted by: Inigo at September 29, 2008 10:55 AM in response to Sales Begin at The Steelworks Loft

Pastaman:
you need to take your medication.
I think time has passed you by.

Posted by: Inigo at September 27, 2008 6:24 PM in response to Escaped Parolee a Game-Changer for Saint Ann's Stance

time will tell. sometimes politics and reputation actually trump real estate leases. the office will move, or at least move the interviewing of hardend criminals and sex offenders out. they had already promised the headmaster to move certain functions out during school hours, but surprise, they lied. if they are caught in a lie again, the consequences will escalate and the court could have to deal with a real public relations disaster. the parents should press hard and i believe they will prevail. youth can prevail over the old guard who may insist that this is the status quo, the way it has always been, and the way it shall remain. but nothing in brooklyn is what it was except for a diminishing number of longtime residents who refuse to keep up with the times.

Posted by: Inigo at September 27, 2008 1:30 PM in response to Escaped Parolee a Game-Changer for Saint Ann's Stance

There are those who would put the welfare of criminals over that of chidren and who would like to see young families move to the suburbs. But in reality the suburbs have moved to Brooklyn and the old misanthropic class is being steadily outnumbered by, well, normal people.
A parole office should not be located next to a school, even in the "tough, mean" city (Brooklyn Heights?). the placement of the facility was a mistake. DGS will need to figure out who to move out and what to move in so as to rectify the situation, I'm sure no one in the federal courts system wants a repeat of what happened Thursday or worse. The sane need to prevail over the likes of pastaman and statestreeter.

Posted by: Inigo at September 27, 2008 12:25 PM in response to Escaped Parolee a Game-Changer for Saint Ann's Stance

I agree that it seems like McCain just kind of gummed things up, kind of like my gramps used to when I tried to include him in activities. I truly cannot imagine what possible connection to the American voter someone like McCain could have. He has never had a job, at least barry taught law somewhere. If any of these "fabulous properties dripping with detail" are going to worth more than spit on griddle, they better hammer out a bailout now that grandpa simpson has been shuffled off to Missisippi.

Posted by: Inigo at September 26, 2008 4:08 PM in response to Open House Picks

From the same neighborhood that brought you PS F, now
it's St.Annie-get-your-gun!

Posted by: Inigo at September 26, 2008 3:23 PM in response to Escaped Parolee a Game-Changer for Saint Ann's Stance

oui, c'est frommage mon ami.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 9:08 PM in response to House of the Day: 29 4th Place

I have to say that I think that the quote "yuppies crawling to shitty tenements" hits the nail on the head. Whuh should win the price for real estate poetry. That is EXACTLY true. and every real estate professional knows it is true in their hearts. Here are successful people with good careers living in shitty, walk-up firetraps. It is the ugly truth. I hope that this market corrects itself enough so that slum roach traps are no longer marketed as "deals of a lifetime".

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 8:21 PM in response to House of the Day: 29 4th Place

It is surprising how some people are allergic to the truth, and sage advice. You do not need anyone in your building (much less 100%) to approve the conversion of your dumbwaiter into a closet, unless of course your building actually still uses the dumbwaiter in which case you should be part of the smithsonian. Honestly, it is not bad enough to be so ignorant and naive, but also to be so rude, tsk tsk Lauren.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 8:15 PM in response to Closing Up a Dumbwaiter?

There is a lot of denial on this blog. The banks are full of cash? ha ha ha! That is like my Brooklyn Heights friends telling me that the "F" grade PS 8 received stands for "fabulous". Banks have tons of cash and PS 8 is too successful for the Board of Ed to comprehend. yea, yea, yadda, yadda.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 6:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 29 4th Place

GHB, relax, it's just a blog, you'll blow a gasket, and everybody makes typos in their posts now and then. Are you new to this?

Besides, You have someone saying that you need 100% of the cooperation of a building to turn your dumbwaiter into a closet, and you are calling me a dumbass?

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 4:48 PM in response to Closing Up a Dumbwaiter?

If I owned this house, I would rent it, I would not try to sell it in the current market.
Gold is a terrible investment, it just shot up to 900 an ounce, you should have thought of it last week.
Right now, try spreading your money out in a variety of banks, or convert your dollars to Pound Sterling and open an account in Bermuda or the Caymans. In the end, all security is more or less an illusion. I find it comforting to know that the world will always need town car drivers.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 3:49 PM in response to House of the Day: 29 4th Place

Dumbwaiers have been removed and converted to closets in thousands and thousands of apartments all over Brooklyn. You are the first person to ask "how is it done?". If you have to ask that question, you may never be able to do it.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 3:39 PM in response to Closing Up a Dumbwaiter?

This is a messed-up house that was chopped up into three lousy apartments. What would I pay for it today? Not a lot, that's for sure.
I actually think this house will be unsellable for now. You would need mostly all-cash to buy it, and no one with that much cash on hand would settle for this.
We have to re-adjust our thinking to suit the present financial disaster reality. NYC real estate is teetering badly. The city may lose thousands and thousands of the best jobs. Properties like these, unattractive re-muddle jobs that have to be undone and redone, at great expense to the new owner, will be the first to lose their value. big time.

Posted by: Inigo at September 18, 2008 3:21 PM in response to House of the Day: 29 4th Place

I like this house, but I would have made the keystone bigger and the cornice needs an elk.
that's all

Posted by: Inigo at September 12, 2008 10:19 PM in response to Barbara Goes Long Stuy Heights

I really like the idea of a shake shack in the park. I do not think we need a big re-do. An easier way to get into the park (with kids in tow) and a reason to go there (hot dogs and a chocolate shake) will do the trick for this American family. Don't let the Art Commission near this please!

Posted by: Inigo at September 12, 2008 9:31 PM in response to Grand Army Plaza Designs Unveiled

lol tell me about it.

i live on the 4th floor of a brownstone in henry st which we just purchased.

was hoping to replace the 'poorly insulated' metal casement windows.

had 2 vendors come to inspect with the view to getting quotes.

basically both asked me to get the 'historic tax photos', which i did and paid for but neither got back to me with quotes or prices once we found out it would involve changing the windows from metal casement to timber vertical sash windows.

i cant believe in this day of 'green' living that having poorly insulated single pain windows is even legal let alone all the impediments involved in replacing them.

Cheers,
Dean

Posted by: deanc at November 30, 2008 2:15 PM in response to does anybody know where to find good but cheap windows?

I can take a look at the job as a contractor supplying materials and performing the installations, if you are interested please get back to me, you can email me at acrcontracting@optonlne.net.

Regards,
Al Rosario
ACR GC
(917) 573-3304

Posted by: alrosariojr at December 1, 2008 12:35 PM in response to does anybody know where to find good but cheap windows?

My one bit of advice about windows: you get what you pay for.

Posted by: BrooklynButler at December 1, 2008 1:43 PM in response to does anybody know where to find good but cheap windows?

i have to second BrooklynButler's comment.

Good and Cheap doesn't exist, especially with windows.

eric.

www.handymaneric.com

Posted by: HandymanEric at December 1, 2008 10:57 PM in response to does anybody know where to find good but cheap windows?