As Jiminy Glick says: You're very BRAVE!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 19, 2010 1:42 PM in response to Interior Demo Part 3

I was just busting up my cement today to plant a 3x6' raised-bed vegetable garden! If you use a sledgehammer, wear polycarbonate goggles to protect your eyes from flying chips. Want some ibuprofen?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 18, 2010 11:06 PM in response to Building a Front Garden

The Fresh Direct box is so distracting, I nearly bypass the content every time...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 18, 2010 11:23 AM in response to House of the Day: 100 Albany Avenue

Uncanny coincidence, MM--I was just walking the Promenade last Sunday and wondering about those 2 ravishing buildings. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 18, 2010 11:22 AM in response to Building of the Day: 2 and 3 Pierrepont Place

Ah, ya know whatcha oughta do here? Vinyl siding! Low maintenance, you'll never hafta paint again! It comes in wood grain now, you'll neveh know da difference!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 11, 2010 5:41 PM in response to Building of the Day: 284 Clinton Avenue

Sometimes a blazingly brilliant business concept, like a blockbuster movie scenario, can be summed up in two simple words. "Cupcake Truck" may be both. (Can't you just picture Amanda Seyfried as an adorable jilted baker who goes freelance in a romcom called "Cupcake Truck"?)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 11, 2010 5:06 PM in response to Thursday Blogwrap

North of Newkirk, where E15th St. is called (ahem) "Marlborough Road", the train in your backyard sounds much classier, kinda Britrailish and all that!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 11, 2010 2:51 PM in response to House of the Day: 871 East 15th Street

Needed: a guerilla investigative micro-journalism site (skip the dead trees) that would hunt down the rogue owner and "out" him/her with his/her home address if it can be obtained through public records...do the whole "videocam interview ambush" on his doorstep...etc. In a perfect world this would fall to the local newspapers or TV stations, but they're all hopeless now. We have lived for over a decade with a similar rogue shell owner on our block, and it's a misery (wasted building, quality of life horror) waiting to become a tragedy (squatters, fire). And nobody has seemed able to do squat-all through any city agency, because the greedy manipulative loon who owns it has refused to sell it to a succession of eager would-be buyers. (And presumably she just tears up any fines she receives for all its violations.) Incredible, in the most over-regulated city in America, how much you can seemingly get away with.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 10, 2010 9:03 AM in response to 348 Clermont Avenue Getting Demolished

Kale, but no pepperoni. That rules out bringing my husband here.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 10, 2010 8:55 AM in response to Paulie Gee's Opening Today in Greenpoint

I want to know more about the "Soviet Private School" in the Flickr set. Was it for red-diaper babies?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 10, 2010 8:54 AM in response to Walkabout: Millionaire’s Row - St. Marks Ave.

Yes, we have no bananas!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 9, 2010 6:05 PM in response to Streetlevel: Locavore Restaurant to Replace Cafe on Clinton

Wow. Our idea of a "tight budget" was laminate instead of Corian (a choice I still mourn). We are so last century. I don't "get" granite, frankly...

and speaking of quotation marks, "Chinese granite" sounds like a euphemism for something unspeakable, like compacted slurry...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 8, 2010 1:06 PM in response to Battle of the Countertops

THANK you, Buttermilk, my feelings exactly! That stretch of Flatbush is wretched; Metrotech is an office oasis but dead after dark; and the beauties of Ft Green Park, BAM etc. are an awfully long walk away up Flatbush, a treeless desert of traffic fumes in summer and a wind-swept nuthin in winter. I can't fathom buying into a tower, however luxurious inside, that leaves you stranded like an astronaut on the moon for the blocks immediately surrounding your home. Maybe the commercial strip will follow, but it's still a downer to me; Flatbush Ave Extension along there just seems to sit in the gravitational pull of the Manhattan Bridge, sucking.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 5, 2010 2:54 PM in response to Toren, Fully Unveiled

I agree, Fix. Even the old chunk of Bellevue is lovely under the grime of years. Mental-hospital-wise, things probably started going downhill in the Creedmor Era. [realizes with alarm she knows way too much about this...]

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 5, 2010 2:39 PM in response to New Pizza Place Under Scary 4th Ave Building

Except for some scrap metal or marvelous Ye Olde Timbers, it's landfill, baby. Just try finding a taker for your crappy yanked-out plaster and lathe, moldy sheetrock, lead-paint-encrusted woodwork, or even ancient windows. (You can only make so many cold frames.)

Having filled countless landfills' worth of dumpsters with the toxic, useless crap of our various demolitions, I always relish the irony of the zest for "teardowns" during the recent real-estate bubble. I often wondered how many of these folks who tore down a perfectly serviceable old home to build a stucco monstosity then proceeded to furnish it with a few tchotchkes "recycled" from quaint materials (look, a cute totebag made from old Pepsi bottles!), all in the name of "saving the earth." I comfort myself that there are wretched towns that actually welcome landfills as a revenue stream...and I must get one of those 'green' candleholders made from recycled candy wrappers any day now...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 5, 2010 2:37 PM in response to Recycling Demolition Debris

As I sit here listening to a plumber sawing out foot after foot of rotted-out ancient galvanized drain line (after having to butcher the floor AND wall of my laundry room, after it rained during the rinse cycle on my newly-replastered cove moldings downstairs, after we just re-roofed to fix the leak two feet away from this one)...I am reminded that there are others afflicted with this peculiar form of insanity. Slaves of Old Houses, unite!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 5, 2010 2:30 PM in response to Inside 664 Jefferson Avenue

What I wonder is: In new pseudo-row-house developments, why do they not design them with windows in the end wall to start with?? It seems so natural, yet the last house in the row often has zero windows just as if it were a party wall. Cheaper, I guess, but very counterintuitive.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 1, 2010 11:30 AM in response to Norah Window Watch: Five Down, Two to Go

We live in a dysfunctional, abusive relationship with a five-story weed silver maple that emerges virtually from beneath our front porch. We have decided that it is an Ent (see: Lord of the Rings) named Rootbeard. It has eaten a sewer pipe ($8,000), renders all underplantings impossible (including container gardens, which it cracks open from beneath and invades), clogs the gutters, and rains down pounds of leaves on the entire block. It harbors a family of starlings who seem afflicted with IBS, which attacks whenever we park our car in the driveway underneath them. It offers endless recreation to the squirrels that infest our attic.
But it also shades us in summer in a green canopy, shields us from the hideous architecture of a school across the street, and presents us with the makings of a mountain of rich compost every fall. It is a sort of insane patron saint of the Crazy Stable. We even found a garden designer (Evelyn Tully Costa) who was able to design a slate and Belgian-block hardscaping around its mighty roots. (The job has lasted at least 6 years with only minor heaving.) We have it regularly inspected by a licensed arborist, since its ill health would be potentially catastrophic, and we figure that its eventual demise and removal will consume our life savings, even if we leave the stump intact. Life with an Ent in the close quarters of a 50 x 100 lot is not for the faint-hearted.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at March 1, 2010 11:27 AM in response to MillionTreesNYC to Create Million Headaches?

We've also found it tough to give away old radiators, much less sell them...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 22, 2010 1:07 PM in response to Antique Radiators For Taking

What I love about Kensington, which is down Church Ave. from us, is (in addition to the wonderful barn-big houses along the side streets) the diversity-on-steroids thing: the scruffy Bangladeshi outposts on McDonald and Church, all the little Mexican joints, the Russian presence, even a cute little Albanian (I think) restaurant (the Old Brick Cafe). As crazyquilted with new immigrants as "our" end of Church Avenue (nearer the Q and B), but with more dining options and a less rough vibe, especially at night. (Commercial strip more active at night, for one thing!) Unfortunately, my favorite sign was recently replaced, a variety store that sold "ELECTRONICS/DRIED FISH AND LUGGAGES." These very factors, however, suggest that it won't be the next Park Slope any time soon, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on how much you would rather be in Park Slope.
(Oh, plus: Green-Wood Cemetery is very close, and I love that place.) A good friend recently bought a house on E5th near Caton and is absolutely thrilled with her new digs; I sat on their porch on Halloween as a United Nations-worth of kids came by, (and some adults), all sort of dreamy with joy at this magnificent custom of ringing doorbells and getting free candy. It was essence of America, and yet unlike anything I could imagine anywhere else but Brooklyn, a delirious street party.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 19, 2010 4:24 PM in response to Kensington Status Check?

There's an Almondine branch on 9th St. now? Oh no...it was only the inconvenience of getting to their DUMBO locale (opposite Jacques Torres chocolates yet, the Scylla and Charybdis of the hormonal female) that kept me from mainlining their almond croissants...must check out...
...can't stand the absurd high price of Sweet Melissa, I can make most of that stuff myself (and often do); I love Three Little Ladybugs or whatever the one on 8th Ave./10th St. renamed itself, for the sublime artistry of their cake decorating (which I canNOT do); agree that most of the monster trendy cupcakes in Mannahatta are vile and absurd (half frosting, yuck) (but yes, in the Slope, a branch would be a license to print money); apparently they were popularized by Sluts & the City, I even saw a bus tour visiting Magnolia! Funny that a cupcake enterprise should by popularized by actresses with the BMI of stick insects.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 19, 2010 4:07 PM in response to StreetLevel: Flatbush 'Cake Spott' Finally Being Filled

This is an unusually insightful and well-balanced discussion, and Ms. Morris says it best: Repurpose the building, as would be demanded in a "better" neighborhood. It is sad, if you are a big RC wonk as I am, to see the Catholic church downsizing so brutally, and always with a tin ear to PR and the feelings of the remaining community; but in this case, Kieran Harrington hits it brutally on the mark when he points out that the preservation-minded here are EX-parishioners. Unspoken truth: These folks fled the neighborhood years ago, and are outraged that the church built by their urban ancestors could be torn down so that their nostalgic past will become erased. If you want to guarantee that the church with granma's stained-glass window will thrive, dears, then stay in Brooklyn instead of moving to the Island, Jersey, or Florida. And yes, the diocese is in horrendous financial shape; the myth of the Church's deep pockets is just that. It would also be sad to see an Italian baroque community center, condo, or (if you're Catholic) other denomination church move in, but at least it would preserve the community's architectural wealth.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 17, 2010 11:23 AM in response to Fight to Preserve Ocean Hill Church

Montrose, spot-on description of Kevin's mission (in every nabe he visits): bringing the past to life and spotting the fleeting remnants of it. Awesome stuff.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 12, 2010 4:40 PM in response to Forgotten NY goes to New Utrecht

A salon that mastered both black-girl and white-girl hair and got us all to sit down and get Done together might just be the key to changing the world...(said the kinky-crowned white girl, and mother of another such gorgeous anomaly, who has spent her life feeling that she Belonged Nowhere in the racially charged World of Hair...)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 11, 2010 11:31 AM in response to Salon for the Tween and Teen Set Opens on President

Just reading this thread validates our entire dysfunctional-obsessive house relationship for 20 years of penury and torture. Short of going to a Star Trek convention in your Uhuru uniform, there's truly no better way to bond with your fellow geeks...yes, I was also fantasizing about stripping off that kitchen paneling and finding glued-up beadboard underneath...(Shatner to fanboys: 'Get a life!'...)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 11, 2010 11:20 AM in response to House of the Day: 87 Macon Street

Man, do I feel sorry for my neighbors who must endure proximity to this monument to greed and incompetence. The names, faces and home phone numbers of the guilty parties should be plastered across the hulk by an enterprising guerilla street artist...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 11, 2010 11:11 AM in response to Development Watch: Work Resuming at 23 Caton?

Yes, good bones (and I live in one of these, so I obviously love them), but am I alone in thinking that $475K is a helluva lot for a burned-out shell, however pretty, next to an apt. bldg?????

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 11, 2010 11:02 AM in response to Gut Reno Cost in Ditmas

I do pity the many folks who live in the surrounding apartment buildings. On the nights of Marty's Asser Levy concerts, the area is flooded with apocalyptic traffic; sometimes they let you park in the Aquarium lot or the lot of a nearby school, but this is not well-publicized or signed, and there is also of course just the tide of peeing, hollering merrymakers before and after the concert breaks. And the amped music itself, of course. As someone who copes with life on the edge of a major public parkland, I realize you have to be reasonable--you did choose to live there and not in Salinger's New Hampshire--but an enhanced concert venue would mean even more madness...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 11, 2010 10:56 AM in response to The Ongoing Amphitheater Battle

Awesome image of one of my favorite spots. Reminds me, gotta go to Fairway!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 9, 2010 9:04 AM in response to Monday Blogwrap

Kensingtonka, I presume you are kidding that public urination is used as a gang deterrent...although I have heard of using coyote urine to deter deer...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 8, 2010 4:19 PM in response to NYCHA Plans First High-Rise Complex Demolition

What is that fabulous old red-brick bldg?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 8, 2010 11:04 AM in response to Monday Links

Well said, JonB, but the failure of these projects goes one step further: It's Behavior, Stupid. Not architecture, not isolation, not poverty or any of its ethnic or racial correlates. I call it the "Elevator Urination Principle." Every horrible project is described as having graffiti and urine in the elevators. Well, social planners, wake up: If you will pee in an elevator, you are unfit for human habitation, period--and whether you live in a "tower in a park," a "low-rise suburban-style townhouse" or a cottage with twinkling daisies and warbling bluebirds, you will bring your community to ruin unless the social sanctions around you are sufficiently fierce. The "projects" used to be proud working-class enclaves, and for many of those still living there, they still should be. How appallingly insulting to poor people to suggest that they are doomed to answer the siren call of peeing in the elevator (and the entire spectrum of criminal and antisocial behavior one could extrapolate from that) unless they are exposed to low-rise architecture or richer neighbors. IT'S ABOUT BEHAVIOR...and unless badly behaving residents are turned out and barred, they will replicate the pathology of the "projects" in whatever this decade's utopian design solution happens to be.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 8, 2010 11:03 AM in response to NYCHA Plans First High-Rise Complex Demolition

Did the cat turn from a shorthair to a Persian??

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 6, 2010 1:20 AM in response to Troubleshooting a Circuit

On the 'Fallen Women' link, check out the link to a Google book on life among the destitute in Old New York. Fascinating bit of social history a la Jacob Riis, an interesting comparison to the recent debate over saving Haitian orphans in terms of society's presumptions for its "do-gooders." Also some great vintage hatin' on the Irish, still a blood sport in the 1880s...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 3, 2010 6:29 PM in response to Wednesday Blogwrap

Good point about parking; unless they develop an adjacent lot as a garage, there basically is none, and the immediate surrounding area, while "vibrant" (NY Timesspeak) with discount stores and fast food joints, may still scare off a lot of foot and subway traffic from more gentrified areas. Another eXCELLENT point: the Kings as a golden venue to bring Caribbean culture in the area to the next level (although it's true that Whitman Center at Brooklyn College has excellent programming and facilities appealing to all Brooklyn's big ethnic groups every year).

This brings up a very important point: surrounding community as stakeholder. The entire Flatbush Ave. strip there between Church Ave. and Cortelyou--the Dutch Reformed Church, Erasmus High, even the Art Deco Sears--used to be the core of the historic village of Flatbush, and later the upscale hub of Jewish middle-class Brooklyn shopping. E-bay is full of postcards of its marvels from 1900 through the WWII era. But rapid turnover in population, like that experienced by this area in recent decades, tends to erase historical memory; and folks still struggling to establish themselves in a new culture and economy are not prime candidates to put local historic preservation as a high priority, aesthetically or politically. As the Caribbean community moves into its second, third and more generations here, getting them psychically and economically invested in the historic heritage of old Flatbush will be a worthwhile challenge, and essential to keeping these treasures as living resources instead of Walking Tour Destinations for White Folks from the Brownstone Belt.
Example of sad lost opportunity: Years ago, as a Brooklyn Botanic Garden tour guide, I had a group of kids on a tour from Erasmus High, sullen, angry and in a truancy-prevention program. I started our mutual introduction by expressing admiration for their magnificent and historic (if now troubled) school, founded by Alexander Hamilton and other colonial luminaries and attended by celebs including (if memory serves) Barbra Streisand and Bobby Fischer. None had a clue about its great past; they thought the historic gem in the courtyard was a storage shed; and their only comment about their alma mater was, "It sucks." Any school in that building (which is a few blocks from the Loews Kings and the 200-year-old Dutch church!) should have made living history the core of its honor and its mission. Now the historic building at its heart is at risk of ruin, and those kids were denied the opportunity to participate in their community's heritage through effective education. Yet I fear many will tend to write off the "locals" as stakeholders in any Flatbush historic ventures because of cultural unfamiliarity with Flatbush's Dutch and Jewish past. That would be a huge mistake. Time to get creative with partnerships here!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 3, 2010 12:48 PM in response to Loew's King Theatre To Be Restored

Yes, Joe, apology accepted, I was talking about the museum house on Clarendon Rd, which may technically be East Flatbush but feels mysteriously far away from everything. It is worth the trip, however; details at http://www.wyckoffassociation.org/

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 2, 2010 10:55 AM in response to Closing Bell: Inside the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead

I seem to recall reading that this building was the office of Edwin Litchfield, who could look straight down the Slope from his villa in Prospect Park to see it, the Master of his Domain. True?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 2, 2010 10:51 AM in response to 3rd Ave Landmark Still Crumbling

I love Terrace, esp. when the firemen or cops are all in there ragging on each other while we wait on line. Bagels good too, esp. the Everything, and now they have "mini's" (which are smallish normals, if you ask me, not the head-sized ones that now pass for normal).

Frankly, I also like LaBagel Delite, esp. the teamwork from the counter guys.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 1, 2010 10:28 PM in response to StreetLevel: New Eatery Coming to Old Bagel Delight Spot

This...is...my...dream house. I had the great pleasure many years ago (maybe on a BCUE tour??) of touring it inside and meeting these nice folks who own (or perhaps more accurately curate) it. Unlike some of the overstuffed tassel-clad monstrosities of high Victoriana on the brownstone house tours, this place is utterly livable and comfortable.

If this sort of thing thrills you, make the trip out to the wilds of East Flatbush to see the Wycoff Farmhouse Museum, which is open to the public and truly seems to date from the Middle Ages (it is, simply, the Oldest House In New York, period!)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 1, 2010 10:24 PM in response to Closing Bell: Inside the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead

Not sure how it can be wrong to hang doors in a doorway. Or have a turtle tank. But I remember now why we wanted so desperately to buy a house...evil, cretinous landlords. May they all be bitten by turtles.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at January 27, 2010 10:51 PM in response to Are These Legal?

I have tipped workguys on jobs, (esp. if they were doing heroics and I suspected they were getting underpaid by the GC), but I confess I have never tipped floor guys; it's usually a quick and straightforward job to sand and poly and I just presumed the price was the price. Hope I didn't goof and stiff the poor guys from an expected tip...do others tip their floor guys under ordinary circs?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at January 27, 2010 10:47 PM in response to Tipping Your Floor Refinishers?

Somehow the words "Chinese construction company" remind me of the phrases "Chinese sheetrock," "Chinese baby formula," "Chinese toys," and "Chinese pharmaceuticals," all bywords for quality. It doesn't help that we bought our house from a Chinese gentleman who ran it as a boarding house for his fellow immigrants, and whose favorite construction techniques involved: 3-inch molly anchors for light joinery apps, duct tape for heavy stuff, and old T-shirts for spackling. Even if this company happens to do fine work and defies my horribly biased expectations, do determine whether or not there will be a language barrier--not just between them and you, but between them and their workmen.
And finally, remember that when you get a dramatically lower bid, you also usually get what you pay for...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at January 27, 2010 10:45 PM in response to GC for Brownstone Renovation

Always wanted to check out the Olde warehouse, thanks for the great report. I get to save the gasoline (but I miss the Thai iced coffee). This whole series reminds me of our younger, perkier renovating days...before the house and we settled into a relationship more akin to that of Basil and Sybil Fawlty.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at January 27, 2010 10:37 PM in response to Here We Go A-Salvaging...

I want to purchase a home. It is really nice in exterior but i want that a home inspector should visit there so that i will be tension free about its interior! can you please tell me how come i hire an home inspector from http://equityinspection.com// site! This site has long list of certified home inspectors!

Posted by: saniyathakur987 at March 19, 2010 2:53 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

Silvermax...do you know where hydrangeas grow best and are their brightest blue??? On Cape Cod, which is all sandy soil. They need to be watered but they also don't like "wet feet."

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at March 19, 2010 8:30 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

jellystew...I started cleanup in my yard yesterday. Let me know when you want to come over and pick up some of those spider plants. I have about 16 of them. I can dig them up when you arrive over the course of a couple days. Bring a big plastic bag.

DJL135e54@yahoo.com

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at March 19, 2010 8:42 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

Don't you love living in Brooklyn? What a lovely string.

Posted by: firstmediation at March 19, 2010 9:28 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

DIBS: Blue is my favorite! I'm wishing I had sandy soil and a lot more sun ... or even better, a house on Cape Cod!

Posted by: Silvermax at March 19, 2010 9:53 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

Silvermax...you can turn them blue...I believe you need to acidify the soil (Miracle grow has something cheap) and add Iron.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at March 19, 2010 11:15 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

jelly...see the thread above on planting season for some perennial/bulb recommendations^^^^

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at March 19, 2010 11:18 AM in response to Building a Front Garden

we are through the concrete, without major incident, and on to the next stages. dibs and hancock, i've sent you emails to take you up on your kind offers of dirt and plants.

anybody want a bunch of broken concrete?

thanks again all.

Posted by: jellystew at March 19, 2010 3:49 PM in response to Building a Front Garden