House of the Day: Mint But Missing Something
This new listing in Fort Greene from Brooklyn Properties has been nagging at us since we saw it online yesterday. Given how much carping we do about the importance of historic details, you’d think we’d be digging this place. But we’re not. Is it the light fixtures? They’re a bummer but can easily be changed….
This new listing in Fort Greene from Brooklyn Properties has been nagging at us since we saw it online yesterday. Given how much carping we do about the importance of historic details, you’d think we’d be digging this place. But we’re not. Is it the light fixtures? They’re a bummer but can easily be changed. The landscaping? We could do without the amoeba-shaped design but that’s not it either. What’s really bugging us, we realize, are the floors. The combination of what appear to be new floors and what appears to be a very glossy finish clashes, in our opinion, with the true character of the house. We love our creaky old floors that we pieced back together with salvaged wood–they have an effect upon the feel of the house that can’t be gotten with new wood. We’ve spoken to a handful of brownstone owners over the past year who tell us the biggest regret of their renovation was using new flooring. Anyway, all these things are fixable–even the floors–and the details (moldings, plasterwork, fireplaces, etc.) are in great shape so it’s really not that big a big deal, but it just feels like the house lost something in the process of getting its “mint” renovation. And for $1.85 million in Fort Greene, character is one thing we’d be unwilling to do without.
Mint 2-Family [Brooklyn Properties]
The bathrooms and backyard aren’t my taste, but I think the rest of it looks lovely. I don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Only an a hole could think this place is beautiful.
i think you are all a bunch of a holes. the place looks beautiful! floors are beautiful!!! I bet most of you can’t even afford this place. your all dogging the paint? its just a color! guess what? its an easy fix!
Thanks for all the answers from everyone on the floors. Ours had linoleum with a wood pattern on it! Well we sanded them down and we love them, imperfections and all.
As for the subfloors, sometimes they had wood parquet on top, sometimes wall to wall carpet, depends on the house. They were not the original floor that was used in any house. Lockwood’s book talks about this too.
the house is on clermont avenue between willoughby and myrtle. greenhouse is on CARLTON and greene.
Taste is subjective, but to me the only gripe I can see about the place (besides the price) is that it was built as a single family and chopped up into two units.
That ruins the character of a townhouse more than the lack of original moldings. The subdivision of buildings intended to be single family only creates overcrowding in neighborhoods not intended for this density. So brownstoner and others, for all your patting yourself on the back for saving some plasterwork or installing new old floors (that’s not restoration), how about keeping the home as a single family?
Many times the pine planking begins to dry out and become soft, with actual surface wood peeling away. No amount of sanding will return this floor to a usable condition.
Where did you all get your degrees in architectual history? I’d like to see some photos of your historically correct and extremely perfect homes. Come on….post ’em!