Not a good experience here.

I spoke to Nadav (owner) and said I was interested in a kitchen and bath remodel. He sent out a designer to take measurements and tried to charge me a $250 consultation fee for the designer's time. We had a nice screaming match on the phone when I said that I'd had other design/build firms out (My Home, Knockout Renovation) and was never charged, and if he were going to charge me he should have made that clear up front. Heck, I've had ARCHITECTS out who make a lot more per hour than a random kitchen designer, and they have never charged for a consultation. I found the whole thing to be underhanded, dishonest and hard-sell.

I got very good vibes from Knockout Renovation - the owner Keith was prompt about returning calls, knowledgeable, and didn't sneer at the size of the job. If we had gone ahead with the reno, Knockout would have been my choice.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at August 12, 2007 9:29 AM in response to Perfect Renovation?

I used to work for Brownstone Agency. I will preface my comments by stating that I left voluntarily after a number of years with promotions, increased responsibility, etc., so I'm not a disgruntled former employee looking to trash the firm. But I would never, never insure my home with them. What you save in premiums, you will pay back in spades should you be unfortunate enough to have a claim. There's a reason a number of us used to call the claims manager Dr. No.

FWIW, This Old House Journal recommends Chubb, Fireman's Fund and AIG as the three carriers who are best for historic homes. We got Chubb to come down on their renewal premium when our broker contacted FF and got a competitive bid. It's still not cheap but I have insurance to cover me in case of a loss. I know, through personal experience, that Chubb will come through.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at August 16, 2007 11:46 AM in response to Townhouse Insurance: Bending Over for the Soap

Hi Boerum Blogger:

The recommendations from This Old House Journal were for carriers that write house policies with provisions that cover the ins and outs of repairing an old home, with like kind and quality of materials per Guest 1:17's post. My memory of the OHJ article (more like a blurb) was not of pros and cons of the companies' claims records, but a statement that those carriers actively underwrite old and historic homes and aren't going to run away screaming when you say your house was built in 1880.

If you have a claim, you would call Brownstone Agency and deal with their claims department. As agent, they are supposed to filter out excluded claims and pass on legitimate claims to the company for payment. My experience was that legitimate claims which should have been covered were fought tooth and nail at the agency level, not just the amount of payment but whether the claim would be covered at all.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at August 16, 2007 6:35 PM in response to Townhouse Insurance: Bending Over for the Soap

If you have good credit and aren't trying to finance 95%, decent rates are still available. I was talking to our mortgage broker earlier this week and he can still get 7.25 from most of the big banks including Citibank and Chase. Yes, it was more like 6.75 not so long ago, but financing is certainly not 'impossible' to get, and I'd question the accuracy of 8.25. Is that for people with no credit history, putting down 10K on a 200K condo???

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at August 24, 2007 8:56 AM in response to Listings back on the market

Gosh, I don't know any lawyer who would take on a case like that. If your neighbor's mouse problem is due to their house being such a pigsty that it's a health hazard (standing garbage, noticeable smell, etc.), your best 'legal' recourse would be reporting them to the city.

If their mouse problem is because they leave food out, your best approach would be to spend money hiring a good exterminator to pintpoint the mice's access points into your house. Once you close off those access points, you won't have a problem. And a cat is a good, inexpensive, long-term solution to keep any random mousy strays under control.

Good luck.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 4, 2007 2:25 PM in response to Mice Mice Mice!

As a BH resident, Montague Street is purely functional for me - I go to the bank machine, I buy detergent at Key Food, I go home. Housing Works is the only place where I browse, and maybe the used book place, though the aisles there are so cramped it's not a comfortable place to linger. At least Ricky's is an interesting step up from a more standard-issue chain.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 7, 2007 11:27 AM in response to Will Trendy Stores Give Montague a Shot in the Arm?

Hey Guest 12:43 - the rudest shoe repair shop in the country is rivaled only by the rudest hardware shop in the country, also on Montague. I have never dealt with such crabby, irritable, abrupt proprietors in my life. I give Peerless Shoe Repair a pass because they do fantastic work; Variety Hardware or whatever it's called can kiss my behind.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 7, 2007 1:04 PM in response to Will Trendy Stores Give Montague a Shot in the Arm?

I also saw this one on the BH House Tour - I remember loving the huge back garden (total blank slate) and the character of the house. I hated the kitchen and bathrooms. They were so generic, so cheap cabs-pro-style range-SubZero-tumbled marble, so boring and could be transplanted seamlessly to any random new condo development. I thought they did a real disservice to a historic and unique property like this. At House Tour time, the developer/restorer wanted $6 mil and was entertaining offers directly or through any broker you wanted to bring to him.

Will be interesting to track the sale price on this - through Corcoran and BHS alone, there are quite a few $4 mil-plus townhouses that have been sitting idle.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 10, 2007 4:13 PM in response to House of the Day: 135 Joralemon Street

If you're working with a broker, I'd explain the situation to him/her and they can steer you towards buildings with more lenient boards.

If you submit an offer on a place, you could also sweeten the deal by offering to put up one year's maintenance for the board to hold in escrow as a sign of your financial worthiness and ability to pay. We've had two cases in my current building where a financially borderline applicant was asked to escrow maintenance. The board returned the money after two years of on-time maintenance payments by the shareholder.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 17, 2007 10:09 PM in response to Do I have any chance?

1. Yes
2. Big broker (regular postcards from various Corcoran brokers) and one small broker who had one listing in my building
3. No

I found my real-estate broker in 1999 at an open house. Although I didn't buy the property she was showing, I liked her and have used her to look for my new place and to sell my current one.

If I did not know someone, I'd go by friends' recommendations first. I use those glossy postcards from Corcoran as bookmarks.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at September 20, 2007 5:23 PM in response to Real Estate Broker/Agent Solicitations

zeebee - Thanks for responding and for explaining what full spectrum paint actually is. I never would have been able to as well as you did. lol

Posted by: valerieann at July 22, 2008 2:22 PM in response to Ellen Kennon Paint

You're welcome! I hope some DIYers or painters will weigh in with their opinions too.

One of my favorite sites to search for home questions is Garden Web home forums at http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/. There are two forums, Paint and Home Decorating, that have long threads about full spectrum paint and Ellen Kennon in particular, if you do a search once at those forums.

Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at July 22, 2008 3:03 PM in response to Ellen Kennon Paint

Thanks zb...that certainly seems less hype than the lighting thing (which I do know about); at least it's sorta intuitive.

Posted by: cmu at July 22, 2008 4:38 PM in response to Ellen Kennon Paint

If you've ever tried to match a color in a photo...I made myself crazy one time trying to get that perfect shade of orange too. Now I understand why I couldn't. Color is so fascinating- and when the light comes into play it can make or break your room. Having recently repainted my bathroom 5 times until I found the color I was happy with, I think next time I'll look for full spectrum paint.

Posted by: bxgrl at July 22, 2008 7:44 PM in response to Ellen Kennon Paint