Gut Reno on Gates, Two Years Later

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A couple of years ago the owner of a Clinton Hill house shared photos with us of his brownstone’s gut renovation. Now he’s back with an update…
Now, unintentionally nearing the two year anniversary of last photo update, we’ve filled in hundreds of small details in both the rental duplex, pictured in this post, and in the owner triplex above. It’s been wonderful to watch my tenants add their own details, both small and large, (including creating a lovely rear garden from nothing more than a raked dirt rectangle with scrap stone piled up in the corner) to make the space their own, and just as much to see them use the home well, from wintertime fires to summer drinks in the yard under hanging lights to a well-used and well-loved kitchen, plants throughout the house, and a steady flow of visitors and guests, from babies to grandparents.


Watching them really live in their space, and watching us and our friends and family really live in the upstairs apartment, has been the richest measure of success, and of shortcoming, in the design and construction of the house, the indication of its sensitivity to what puts us at ease, what excites us and inspires us, as well as to what leaves us unresolved and uncomfortable. Maybe what endears so many of us, of such wildly varying taste, to brownstones is that there is something innate in their scale, layout, details, and light that is sensitive to these things already, so that our renovations only need to accentuate and deepen the things that already work or feel right, repair the things that don’t, and create new pieces and patterns where our lives, the building, the site call for them. This building was already so beautiful when it was built, also when it was ruined, and hopefully the quality of the vignettes of life that we’ve all lived within the building for the last two years mean that it is good, and beautiful, still.
Gut Reno on Gates [Brownstoner]