Dyker Heights 'Mansion': Yours for $2 Mil
[nggallery id=”23161″ template=galleryview] Should you be keen on calling Dyker Heights home but are of slightly more modest means than the buyer who paid $2.5 million for the priciest spread to changed hands in Brooklyn last week, take a gander at the listing that landed in our inbox yesterday (subject line: “Brooklyn Mansion”). The 5,800-square-foot…
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Should you be keen on calling Dyker Heights home but are of slightly more modest means than the buyer who paid $2.5 million for the priciest spread to changed hands in Brooklyn last week, take a gander at the listing that landed in our inbox yesterday (subject line: “Brooklyn Mansion”). The 5,800-square-foot house is described as follows: “Architecturally breathtaking, this custom four bedroom, three and a half bathroom, center-hall Colonial in desirable Dyker Heights, perfectly captures the essence of the modern living with an expansive foyer with its impressive wedding staircase, high chandelier and imported Italian marble flooring. The adjacent east-wing has a home office, full bathroom and guest room….the sprawling finished basement boasts a lavish underground pool fitted with skylights and a relaxing veranda. French doors lead to the custom wet-bar and game room that’s perfect for entertaining in this in-door paradise.” All for a mere $1,999,000.
7401 14th Avenue [Fillmore] GMAP
Last Week’s Biggest Sales [Brownstoner]
Well, this is getting super-complicated (in fact — why am I even explaining this? I must be nuts) but I was coming from the standpoint that I thought of many of us as upper-middle-class looking down on people with means but in what we consider a lower class — the petit bourgeoisie, or straight-on middle and lower-middle class. Two-toilet Irish, as we say, where I come from, and an apt description of some of my relatives.
Class has nothing to do with means — that’s the issue. Few would accuse Donald Trump of having either taste or class. Class has traditionally been used as a way to exclude others of like means. My only, rather weather-beaten point. Anyway, who the hell cares? I’m sure the owners are decent folks, and if they aren’t, it’s not a reflection of their taste in home decoration but surely other things.
Taste is permeable, anyway. Have to say I was a tad disconcerted to recognize a chair I own in Carmela Soprano’s living room, several years ago.
Sure, there’s prob some class condescension, let’s call it, going on in the posts.
But, really, the fun-poking is all about overreaching…about pretentiousness—about a failed effort to achieve the desired effect without realizing that gaffe.
Classic targets for satire/mockery.
Luce- we not making fun of people, we’re making fun of the house.You can’t buy taste, as THL and DIBS said, but an ugly house is all it is. Not an indictment of the owners or the builders. Some of the best hearted, warmest people I know have taste all in their mouths (and thank goodness, because they cook really well).
What is good taste?…a discussion for tomorrow.
I’m outta here, kiddies, carry on!
Brownstoner, please post another house like this tomorrow….HHOTD (Hideous House of the Day)
and typically when one tries to “buy” good taste it goes horribly wrong like the present example we are discussing!!!!
Class and Taste are two separate issues. You can be in the lower, middle or upper classes and still exercise good taste.
They obviously had the means but lacked the taste.
Ha…I was raised in Albany, NY. Our first pool was above ground..later we got a real one!!! That said, the LR and DR were pretty tasteful by comparison. No high, fancy-shmancy living like this Dyker Heights abode!!!
Luce, one needn’t be a member of the petite bourgeoisie to have or poke fun at bad taste. I honestly don’t think that, for most posters here anyway, this is about poor or middle class folks poking fun at the rich or, for that matter, rich folks poking fun at rich folks or anything to do with class resentment. Although I will admit that I might be a little less quick to insult a distastefully decorated trailer home as I might assume (narrow-mindedly or not) the decorating options are likely more limited to those living inside one.
My friends and I, regardless of personal wealth, often make light of the homes in which we were raised. It doesn’t mean we loved them any less. Like I said, if my childhood home was up here for all to view, I would expect, and laugh right along with, whatever insults were hurled at it.
But I can’t get too upset with a fellow liberal who is not afraid to toss out a solid French term.
I think the issue some are bringing up is that somehow it’s okay to make fun of people on the basis of class, but not religion or ethnicity. This is a long-standing complaint about liberals (which I consider myself to be). Resentment about this — and that minor issue of integration — are what sundered the New Deal Coalition and impelled Nixon, Reagan, et alia into the White House. Depending on your view, this is either a good or a bad thing.
Those of us on the left have for years scratched our heads and said, why are all these people at a relative disadvantage voting all these rich guys into office? Why are they voting against their own self interest?
Class resentment is your answer.
So — laugh away. It just might be a useful exercise to examine your own class biases, and how they affect other people.
Jes sayin’.
If Biff’s mom was indeed this flavor of, er, petit bourgeois, then I guess he gets a pass. Somehow the name “Biff” doesn’t seem like that, though.