The Albemarle Renovation Blog Launches!
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of a new renovation blog which will be called the Albemarle Reno blog. As the picture above shows, the house itself is incredible but there’s lots of work to be done; this is also the first non-rowhouse we’ve featured as well as the first house in Victorian Flatbush. So…
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of a new renovation blog which will be called the Albemarle Reno blog. As the picture above shows, the house itself is incredible but there’s lots of work to be done; this is also the first non-rowhouse we’ve featured as well as the first house in Victorian Flatbush. So please give a warm Brownstoner welcome to the Albemarle Reno bloggers and go check out the first post which just went up!
Someone once wrote, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. Something which I hope the keepers of this blog learn the “easy way”.
Congratulations on your new home, and I wish you only the best with it, and your proposed restorations. May the process be a smooth one.
I would ask that my fellow bloggers please refrain from commenting or criticizing the work done by others on unrelated properties. (i.e., Fourteen Twenty Three Albemarle Road). I’m sure they too started out with the best of intentions, and then just got hit by life. May you never have to walk down their difficult path. One never knows what life may bring.
So. before anyone else considers commenting on that house, or any unrelated house – dont. It is really not appropriate within the context of this blog on 1306.
Putting the current owners business out there by discussing a Lis Pendens is simply uncalled for and inappropriate. Afterall I’m sure that given this economy a search on ACRIS.com would reveal more than a handful of current foreclosure & Lis Pendens’ on properties in PPS – Just the times we live in.
So lets just wish the new owners well, pray for their well being and hope by some minor miracle these houses can be restored to their original glory.
Thanks for the great welcome, all. One of the first properties we saw in the nabe was 1423 Albemarle. I found the layout confusing and the work left to be done completely overwhelming. I think because so much had been started and halted, it was hard to see past the clutter to the potential that clearly exists in that house.
We are planning to file all permits and do all inspections. We are changing the C of O back to a single family residence from it’s current residential/commercial status. Yes, mt_molehill, this will add a lot of time and expense, but I can put my pics up for the world to see and still sleep at night.
Because of the added expense of due diligence, we are leaving the exterior renovation for another time, hopefully the not-too-distant future. My husband has it very high on his priority list. Neighborhood doyenne Mary Kay Gallagher, told me how she and the neighborhood association pleaded with the the doctor and his wife (the owers when the siding went up in the late 70’s, just prior to landmarking) not to put it on. When we do take the aluminum off, we want to make sure we’ve saved up lots of cash to address whatever’s uncovered.

Wow Joe from Brooklyn, way to totally misunderstand the tone and intent of a comment. Says more about you than it says about me.
Joe in Brooklyn, speaking from my own experience, those of us buying in Brooklyn on the regular-person salaries you mention make a point of buying places that don’t need extensive renovation in the first place because we can’t afford it.
Hi, Congratulations and welcome to PPS! As many of us have coveted your gorgeous triple parlor, but lacked your bank account and gumption, we wish you all the best in bringing this great house back to life.
Should be fun to watch. Godspeed.
But… no aluminum removal aspirations?
BTW, Minard, there’s more trouble than you noted with the siding – its clad entirely in late sixties vintage aluminum siding – think Danny DeVito in “Tin Man” … oh to return it to its cedar shingled glory! One can only hope.
This is a gorgeous house. Beautiful massing and proportions. But…there is something wrong with the siding.
Something should be going on at the peak of the pediment and something should be going on at the turret above the porch. I would guess the original siding had portions that were done in a fishscale pattern or other decorative embellishment that would help visually break up the plain expanses of wall. An old photo would help a lot. I’m not saying the owners have to restore the original siding. Most people would not notice that something was missing, but should they decide to put it back it as it was…. it would re-double the beauty of the place.
“Before you touch anything, make sure you visit this house.
1423 Albemarle Rd
The owners started and interior renovation without touching the exterior then stopped midway. The house is now in an unfinished state where no bank will touch it. The sellers will need to find an all cash buyer.
http://www.brooklynproperties.com/house183.htm
Posted by: ditmas2br at November 6, 2009 12:11 PM”
The question is how low will the sellers go? I’d be interested but not if the post-reno cost ends up higher than what an already done place is going for.
Isn’t this house sided? I believe so.
agreeance ditmassnark.
*rob*