ppwgall's Profile
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April 14, 2009
Backyard Soil Clean-up
My husband and I have zero experience with gardening and would love some advice from those of you who know more... This is our first spring with a backyard. The previous owners took the backyard from a neglected pile of rubbish to something kind of decent. They put a nice brick walkway around the outside of the garden and put in a fence. But, in the middle of this walkway, there is a rectangle of dirt filled with rocks and glass shards and cigarette butts and other assorted goodies. We'd ideally like to see grass in this area - something very kid friendly.
We've spent 3 weekends trying top pick through the soil and clean it up, but it there just always seems to be more junk in it. At this point we feel like we need some way to just get rid of all the dirt and bring in fresh soil. Does this sound like the solution? If so, how do we actually go about doing it logistically? What do we use to dig it out, how do dispose of the junky soil, where do we get fresh soil, and how do we get that to the backyard?
July 30, 2008
Ditmas Park Foreclosure revisited
It appears that last week's Foreclosure of the Week in Ditmas Park (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/07/foreclosure_of_13.php) is now up for sale on Corcoran (http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=1338500). Anybody know what the deal was? Did it ever go up for auction? Just curious.
Author's Comments
We starting digging a small section this morning to see how deep we'd have to go to get some clean soil. We discovered a plastic liner/tarp covering the ground after going only about a foot down. Any idea why there might be a liner under our junky soil? It also might explain our poor drainage in the yard.
Posted by: ppwgall at April 16, 2009 5:42 PM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up
Thanks for all the ideas so far. To answer the question about size, the middle area of the yard that we're mostly concerned with is about 30'x60' - a pretty big area. Then the planter area around the outside perimeter also has the problem with junky soil, but I'm less concerned about that right now.
Posted by: ppwgall at April 14, 2009 8:22 PM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up
Perhaps the tenant has a reason for being unhappy? If the temperature in the room is truly 53 degrees and the landlord hasn't resolved the issue in over a year, she has a valid complaint and giving her some tea seems like a slap in the face. I think that sometimes landlords just want to collect their rent check and not deal with issues, but as a tenant if I'm paying you money to live in your apartment every month, you have to live up to your end of the bargain and ensure its livable. A 53 degree bedroom is not acceptable. I agree with others that your first step needs to be to verify the temperature in that room. If it's truly that cold, you need to come up with a solution ASAP.
Posted by: ppwgall at December 30, 2008 8:49 PM in response to heat problem and tenants rights
Yea, it was 1,180,000 up until a couple weeks ago. We were very interested in it back in September but couldn't reach a deal. It's a cute house with lots of space, but not really a high end renovation. The kitchen is new, but wasn't finished when we saw it. The 2nd floor bathroom has a new vanity, but otherwise wasn't renovated. They did add a 2nd bathroom to the house on the third floor. The other big plus was that they have updated the mechanicals. All in all, a nice house that you could move right into, but you'd probably still want to make some updates over time.
Posted by: ppwgall at November 26, 2008 4:04 PM in response to House of the Day: 271 Stratford Road
We have a mid-December closing scheduled with loan in this category. Wells Fargo is the bank, but haven't heard yet directly from them about this change yet.
Posted by: ppwgall at October 10, 2008 11:33 AM in response to Banks Putting the Squeeze on Jumbo Loan Borrowers
I know a lot of people in the building may use this layout as a 2-bedroom, but it's really not. It's just a small room off the living room - there are french doors separating the rooms. Small room, no closet, little privacy. Despite that, it is a nice apartment with lots of storage and could be used as a 2 bedroom for someone with a baby or small child.
Posted by: ppwgall at September 11, 2008 1:29 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 40 Prospect Park West, #6K
Agree on the awkward layouts, but ok prices. It'd be nice to have some outdoor space connected to the apartment for the price though - for the first floor places you can only get your "private" yard by exiting the building and going through a gate from the street- makes it pretty worthless in my opinion. The empty lot next to the building also worried me - who knows what they'll build and how disruptive it would be. But overall, the quality seemed nicer than most of the other new construction I've seen.
Posted by: ppwgall at September 8, 2008 9:44 PM in response to Lincoln Place Condos
I went to an open house at the Rugby Rd house a few months ago. It was just plain weird. There were students living in the house and they didn't leave or clean up a thing for the open house. One of them was sitting on the couch eating a really smelly microwave meal. A dog jumped on me when I walked in the door. All the bedrooms were wrecks. It was very hard to get past all this noise and the see the house beneath it. It really felt like they weren't trying at all. But, my general impression was that it should have been priced closer to 1.1-1.2 range.
Posted by: ppwgall at September 5, 2008 1:48 PM in response to Open House Picks
I was watching this one when it first went up for sale. It was listed on Corcoran for a few days at 1.8 then shot up to 2 million all of a sudden.
Posted by: ppwgall at August 19, 2008 12:13 PM in response to 445 E. 19th Street Dodges Foreclosure Bullet, Lists Large
Not to nitpick, but the original post isn't correct. They don't have 2 offices in Brooklyn already. They have one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan. They are closing their 7th Ave office next to Methodist and moving to this new location.
Posted by: ppwgall at October 27, 2009 2:36 PM in response to StreetLevel: Pediatrics Office Coming to 4th Ave