Cost for Renovation?

Before you sign the contract, hopefully before you bid, bring someone to the house who has a lot of experience with Brooklyn house renovations. Even if a lot of stuff is hidden there are telltale signs of major problems. Bouncy floors, ceilings with a lot of plaster repairs, bathrooms with many layers of linoleum, cracked ceramic tiles, weird roofing jobs, crooked porches, doors that no longer close properly etc. Almost always on a 100+ year old house the plumbing or the roof has leaked at some point. Did the owners have enough money to take necessary steps to fix, or did they just cover up?
The biggest thing is a sense of how diligent the previous owners were over the past century. This is hard to gauge. It has nothing to do with the amount of original details left in a house.
You should also know if you can afford to do a renovation with permits or if you need a house that has a layout you can keep, plumbing that can be upgraded but stay in place, and therefore don’t need permits on other than electrical.
There are certain things that people think they need which the y really don’t need. “Good finishes” is a way to separate people from their money. Good design has nothing to do with high end anything, and is really about creativity.

chemosphere

in General Discussion 10 years ago

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randolph | 10 years ago

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> @CarmenR
> Look at 165 Gates

at some point did they consider just tearing the whole thing down and building a new house?

CarmenR | 10 years ago

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> @randolph
> at some point did they consider just tearing the whole thing down and building a new house?

Don’t think so. I believe it was one of those things that revealed itself over time as demo progressed. Plus a NB permit is a huge PITA. We don’t know the owners personally, but know a few neighbors who have met them and actually know the original GC on the job. Scary stuff compounded by the fact that it’s detached on three sides, which made the structural work even more important.