To renovate or not to renovate? That is the question
Seeking advice: Five years ago, my husband and I purchased a three-store brick townhouse with an unfinished basement in the Carroll Gardens area for $675K. It is a legal two family. The top floor is a rental. We live on the parlor and ground floors with our two small children and have exclusive use of…
Seeking advice: Five years ago, my husband and I purchased a three-store brick townhouse with an unfinished basement in the Carroll Gardens area for $675K. It is a legal two family. The top floor is a rental. We live on the parlor and ground floors with our two small children and have exclusive use of the yard. Since it’s structurally sound, we’ve only made cosmetic changes such as paint, refinish the floors and some minor electrical work. Here’s our dilemma. Should we?
1.) Embark on an expensive renovation (ballpark $150-200k) to create a well-appointed owner’s duplex (three bdrms & two full baths) on the parlor and top floors with a deck to the yard and a ground floor rental? 2.) Take over the entire building, make minor fix-ups like paint etc, but lose the monthly rental of $1400? If we opt for the latter, we would not change the C of O. Just curious to hear what the Brownstoner crowd thinks.
Seems to me the question I would ask is–if you do the renovation, will it still work for you if you take over the lower level sometime in the future? For example, you would not want/need to move the kitchen down a floor, which would be a big expense.
One advantage of remodeling is that although you will have less space, you can create a floorplan that takes maximum advantage of the space and builds in storage, etc.
Also, I might consider upgrading the ground floor rental with Ikea kitchen cabinets and a stacked washer/dryer so that you could get a few hundred dollars more in rent, if not more. The upgrade would pay for itself pretty quickly.
And if you decide to give the ground floor tenant access to the backyard, you can also ask for more rent. I’ve found that tenants like to have access but don’t use it much, so it’s something to think about (maybe they will end up having one or two BBQs in the course of the summer, if that!).
Good luck.
Hi,
I actually found myself in a similar situation and decided the following:
1- I renovated the garden floor completely (total gut renovation to the studs) for future use by a tenant. I moved the large kitchen in the back of the house to the middle room and made the back room into a large one bedroom with a door for limited access to the garden. I eliminated the bathroom which was built out into the garden in a shed-like manner (which was freezing cold in the winter even with the heat on) inside the apartment. I also gave the apartment it’s own private foyer entrance near the gate entry below the brownstone stairs.
2- The parlor floor was also a total gut as I eliminated one of the walls between what was my bedroom and a small kitchen. That space is now opened up as a large modern kitchen with a island. I also broke through the middle window and made a doorway to a new deck that has stairs down to the garden. The third floor was not renovated by my contractor as my budget allowed me only to renovate the garden floor and parlor floor.
You can see pics of almost all of the above + the architects before and after layouts at my flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_tico/
I’ve had a couple of Brownstoners come by my place for a tour, If you would like to take a look let me know.
Good Luck,
allan@seveneighteen.net
1:52PM,
Excuse me, but isn’t this entire website predicated upon the concept of soliciting strangers for advice? A confidential sounding board with no strings attached?
no offense, but how would a group of strangers on the internet be able to tell you what to do?
what do YOU want to do? what is your financial situation? can you afford the renovation? do you need the rental income? do you need the space?
I forgot to say that “do nothing” is not an option since we no long wish to live below a rental unit due to noise and privacy issues.