One garden you don't want

We looked at this house when it was originally on the market for 1.2 mil, and it was a mess. Structural probs, warped & sagging floors, etc. We thought it would require too much money and labor to rehab, so we walked away (rather sadly). I don't even recognize it from these photos - they did a great job on the reno.

Posted by: mothra at December 29, 2008 4:10 PM in response to House of the Day: 433 Waverly Avenue

Corcoran lists the Red Hook house as a 2-family, but it sure looks like a 1-family to me. There's no kitchen upstairs, and the stairway looks like there's no separate entrance(?)...

Posted by: mothra at November 15, 2008 5:37 PM in response to Open House Picks

Hmm, Rosa Rugosa have more petals, usually (and thorns!). I am going to guess Rose of Sharon?

Posted by: mothra at November 6, 2008 4:37 PM in response to Closing Bell: Late Bloomers

Agreed about McCain, anonymous552. I'm glad he brought up race from the beginning. There are certainly those out there who are seething with racial hatred, and I hope his words will help address and defuse their enmity.

The Obama speech was so moving. It'll be nice to have a president who can speak eloquently once again. The part at the end about the 106-year-old voter was almost cinematic.

Posted by: mothra at November 5, 2008 10:04 AM in response to If There Is Anyone Out There...

David Salle's house & studio at 81 Hanson Place:
http://www.dfratiannearch.com/projects/salle/001/index.htm
http://blog.dcdomain.org/2006/11/81-hanson-place-thumbs-up.php

Posted by: mothra at October 31, 2008 5:51 PM in response to Your Modern Townhouse Suggestions

Sorry, I meant #4. Still weird.

Posted by: mothra at October 31, 2008 9:54 AM in response to Sheepshead Bay: Fifth Most Luxurious Neighborhood

East Williamsburg is #3? Weird.

Posted by: mothra at October 31, 2008 9:54 AM in response to Sheepshead Bay: Fifth Most Luxurious Neighborhood

"Nothing to prevent you from using the space as bedrooms."

True. Those downstairs bedrooms would be great if you are a vampire; there are no windows in the rec space, according to the floor plan.

But it could make a good live/work, if the ceilings aren't too low.

Posted by: mothra at October 22, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Development Watch: 587 Washington Avenue

We happened upon this place while going to open houses in August (ah, August... sigh. different time.) & thought the coffee was great. Liked the logo so much we bought a t-shirt, too.

Posted by: mothra at October 19, 2008 9:25 PM in response to Streetlevel: Coffee Shop for the South Slope

decent amount of windows, though...

Posted by: mothra at October 1, 2008 1:16 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 147 South Oxford Street, #3C

Agreed about the tiny bedrooms, z. I am guessing it feels cramped in there... notice there is no info about sq. footage. And look at the aspect ratio on that fisheye lens! Ceilings also look low. If I'm paying half a million dollars to live in Brooklyn, I want a little more feeling of space.

Posted by: mothra at October 1, 2008 1:13 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 147 South Oxford Street, #3C

Any advice for someone who owns a co-op in Manhattan and wants to sell it and buy another in Brooklyn? (or more likely a condo)? Should we sell now and wait for the bottom to put in an offer? Or just sit tight & wait for the whole thing to blow over?

Posted by: mothra at September 15, 2008 9:58 PM in response to Wall Street Reorg: Impact on Real Estate?

Nice looking place. Also, good job with the FSBO listing -- it seems very thorough.

Although on the floor plan, the appliances look very very tiny.

Posted by: mothra at September 5, 2008 1:42 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 422 State Street, #20

point taken, slick-- I agree with the general consensus that the exterior of this building is nicer than most new developments. Just compare it with Suite 16, another Fischer project. But you live on the inside, not the outside... why can't they ever get it right? Grumble.

Posted by: mothra at September 4, 2008 4:09 PM in response to Nforth Reports Smooth Sale-ing

The outside is better than the inside, IMO. And why always these square sinks??? Those little corners would be hard to clean.

Posted by: mothra at September 4, 2008 2:46 PM in response to Nforth Reports Smooth Sale-ing

I was looking at buying an apartment nearby -- almost did, but it fell through. I wanted to know what the impact is of a nearby Supportive Housing facility, so I went to 551 Warren St. and talked to some of the neighbors who were out on their front stoop.

They said that the residents of the facility weren't as much of a problem as the Fifth Avenue Committee itself. Seems that construction of the Warren St. facility caused damage to the foundation of the building next door, and they had to enter litigation to get compensated for the damage.

They complained bitterly about the committee and said it was impossible to get any response from them when the damage occurred.

They also mentioned that the screening process wasn't "conducted carefully enough," but didn't go into any specifics.

I know this is anecdotal, but the sense that I got was that these residents saw the 5AC as a political entity with its own agenda and some power, and not particularly interested in engaging with the surrounding community.

Posted by: mothra at September 4, 2008 10:44 AM in response to DOB Green-Lights 575 5th Avenue

Hum, a Straight Pride Parade... could anything be more un-fun?

Posted by: mothra at September 3, 2008 4:20 PM in response to Closing Bell: No Straight Pride

Clarification: the window wasn't 1 foot -- the concrete pit it looked out on was 1 foot wide with a grate at the sidewalk level that was intended to let in natural light. Trash and cigarette butts from the sidewalk had clogged the drain, which had caused the window-well to fill with rainwater.

I thought maybe they should add "built-in aquarium" to the ad... turn lemons into lemonade?

Posted by: mothra at September 2, 2008 9:26 PM in response to Condos of the Day: 335 Warren Street

I saw the ground floor duplex a couple of months ago, & could not BELIEVE what they were asking $900k+ for! In addition to a cramped studio apt with "garden" (actually the bleak little roof of the adjoining cellar), what they were marketing as the "bedroom" was a cellar-floor space with a 1-foot window onto a grated sewage pit, complete with garbage from the sidewalk above in a soup of foul brown water and mosquitos swarming around. The other cellar room was only accessible from the kitchen via a stairway through the neighbor's patio, and was full of black mold. I felt sorry for the realtor. Wish I'd had my camera; it was a real horror show!

Posted by: mothra at September 2, 2008 8:58 PM in response to Condos of the Day: 335 Warren Street

A hideosity.

Maybe the pointy little polyp is supposed to echo the architecture next door? Or am I giving them too much credit?

Posted by: mothra at August 26, 2008 3:31 PM in response to Development Watch: 168 Meserole Avenue

I don't really get why people get so borderline jingoistic about their preferred city. Everyone has different priorities, why piss all over people who find a little joy in Buffalo? Sheesh.

Posted by: mothra at August 26, 2008 11:23 AM in response to Can't Cut It In Brooklyn? Try Buffalo.

Sorry, meant to say "the Fed would probably NOT cover the cleanup"...

Posted by: mothra at August 26, 2008 9:43 AM in response to EPA Agrees to Evaluate Newtown Creek

I can't believe this isn't a superfund site already?!? Isn't it the biggest oil spill in the US or something?

FYI the Fed would probably cover the cleanup (at least financially); usually a superfund clean-up is still paid for by the original polluters, but the EPA handles the actual remediation.

Posted by: mothra at August 26, 2008 9:43 AM in response to EPA Agrees to Evaluate Newtown Creek

Does anyone know what that big building is across the street from 997 Lorimer?

Posted by: mothra at August 22, 2008 1:34 PM in response to Open House Picks

Hm, then I am retracting my previous statements. It would be cool if this artist was re-semiotizing existing trash into something interesting, but just putting new plastic bags into the consumption system = not so good.

Also, it's gimmicky, like the guy who draws outlines around cast street-shadows. Except this is more eco-hostile.

Posted by: mothra at August 22, 2008 12:55 AM in response to Closing Bell: Plastic Bag Skyline

Art! Or maybe art intervention.

Kind of like put Juan Muñoz and Andy Goldsworthy in a blender...

The skyline is so, so beautiful from that spot.

Posted by: mothra at August 20, 2008 11:11 PM in response to Closing Bell: Plastic Bag Skyline

I wonder if he/she offers a "white glove test" as extra credit...

Posted by: mothra at August 20, 2008 11:25 AM in response to A Different Kind of Neighborhood Watch on E. 7th Street

nutz.

I can still read the addresses, by the way. You might want to set your blur radius a little higher.

Posted by: mothra at August 20, 2008 10:47 AM in response to A Different Kind of Neighborhood Watch on E. 7th Street

Thanks for all your feedback! We'll keep looking & maybe look at other options, too.

Posted by: mothra at August 19, 2008 10:53 AM in response to One garden you don't want

probLEMS. sorry. annoying.

Posted by: mothra at August 19, 2008 12:13 AM in response to One garden you don't want

Thanks! Most of the time it seems like the water is seeping from below, which I'm guessing is hard to remedy. Two of the units we've seen had open holes in the floor where the builder was trying to fix drainage probs.

It's been hard to find exactly the kind of space we're looking for. I'm trying to figure out if that's enough of a reason to walk away, in a case where mildew/mold/drainage probs are the only drawback in a new duplex.

Posted by: mothra at August 19, 2008 12:04 AM in response to One garden you don't want

I think it IS kinda funny...

but prolly not so great to be dumping detergent (phosphates?) unnecessarily into the environment.

Posted by: mothra at August 18, 2008 6:15 PM in response to Closing Bell: Mr. Bubbles Strikes Again

This street is in the fuzzy area that could be called South Slope or WT or Greenwood. StreetEasy calls it Gowanus for some listings, WT for others on the very same block. It's weirdly appropriate that the architecture is so polyglot/pastiche.

Posted by: mothra at August 15, 2008 4:34 PM in response to Delays at 317 16th Street

still, better here than shoe-horned in next to some lovely brownstone.

Posted by: mothra at August 13, 2008 3:50 PM in response to Going Modern on Fifth Avenue

kind of bunkerish from the outside.

Posted by: mothra at August 13, 2008 3:49 PM in response to Going Modern on Fifth Avenue

5th Ave is noisy and ugly at that intersection, so there wasn't much in the way of vernacular charm to preserve. But it's also right across the street from that big Supportive Housing SRO site, so it will be a construction nightmare soon.

Posted by: mothra at August 13, 2008 3:25 PM in response to Going Modern on Fifth Avenue