guest1966's Profile
Author's Posts
October 8, 2007
New cornice and additional floor on a frame house
Has anyone had experience doing the following:
- adding a new floor onto the top of a frame house (we're considering a 16-foot-wide house)
- having a decorative cornice put across the top/front of a frame house (nothing there currently, I assume there was one at one time since neighbors on both sides have them).
It would be great if you could share your experience re cost/feasibility. thanks.
Author's Comments
I wouldn't assume that just because one very nice house went to contract quickly, PS is white hot. We are looking to buy there right now and a lot of stuff that would have been snapped up immediately 9 months ago is hanging around for weeks. I think the jumbo mortgage issue is affecting the market there just as it is anywhere that prices are that high. Also many if not most places are going for under ask.
Posted by: guest1966 at October 13, 2007 12:34 PM in response to Open House Picks
I am noticing a fair number of houses coming on the market in Park Slope/South Slope, which are very small and in the less desirable areas, but which are still priced very high, as if the market has continued to go up at a rate of 20% a year or even more. I think the 5th st house, while it certainly looks cute, is one example of this. Someone paying that kind of money for a house has a lot of choice about what they buy, right now. If you want a good school, you will probably want to buy in 321, and you certainly can for that price. If you want a very nice house but don't care about the school district, you have many options for this kind of $$$s. We are looking to buy, but I wouldn't even look at this at this sort of price level.
Posted by: guest1966 at October 26, 2007 3:22 PM in response to Open House Picks: Houses
Folks, leaving aside the debate about the relative grooviness/snottiness of Park Slope as a neighborhood, it's clear to anyone on the buy side that the market is turning. That's not to say that a great place that's priced right will sit for a long time - it won't - but those are far and few between. As nice as Park Slope is (and I am a fan), there's a limit to the number of wealthy families who want to live there. And at prices like these, you are not going to see middle class families buying. No way, no how. Likewise for Carroll Gardens. If I had more than $2 mill to spend on a house, would I really want to spend it on that house in Carroll Gardens? Hmm. Prices like these are not sustainable at all and I am very confident we're going to see some significant declines come January (and are seeing some already in the more extreme cases).
Posted by: guest1966 at October 27, 2007 3:01 PM in response to Open House Picks: Houses
I would also like to know what counts as 2 floors and what counts as 3. If the house has a lower ground floor which has decent sized windows, and then a parlor floor and one more above that, does that count as 3 floors (and therefore nothing further can be built on top of it)?
Posted by: guest1966 at October 11, 2007 12:12 PM in response to Addition to frame house?