House of the Day: 380 Degraw Street
Okay, let’s get the paint job out of the way upfront. You gotta wonder why the sellers of this brownstone at 380 Degraw Street didn’t spring for a more neutral coat of paint before putting the house on the market. If it were only one room, we could roll with it, but every room in…
Okay, let’s get the paint job out of the way upfront. You gotta wonder why the sellers of this brownstone at 380 Degraw Street didn’t spring for a more neutral coat of paint before putting the house on the market. If it were only one room, we could roll with it, but every room in sky blue? It’s a little much. With an asking price of $2,645,000, spending $10,000 to repaint a few rooms would have been well worth it, we think. While this is a great house in a great location overall, other aspects of the recent “modern” renovation were only partially successful as well: The shiny blond floors (which, to be fair, could be worse on camera than in person) and the choice of white paint for the exterior of the windows both aren’t working for us. The kitchen reno looks very good, though, and there’s lots of nice original detail still in place, like the crown moldings, door frames and bannister. There’s an open house on Sunday from 1 to 3. It’ll be interesting to see hear how this place shows in person.
380 Degraw Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
Relying on Property Shark is just uninformed. For instance, it lists my house with the incorrect number of floors, thus the square footage they list is off by a very large number.
Do you people honestly think the sales agent for a house would severly undersell the square footage on a house?
Anon 7:22 am is right in that PS 32 has a good Pre-K and K, and certainly may get better. But right now, it’s still going to be an issue for parents looking for a house in a good zone. There really is a reason that realtors advertise PS 29 and PS 321 in their copy — it helps sell the house. With the growing number of families staying in Brooklyn, saying you can apply for a variance to 58 or 261 isn’t really an option as it’s very unlikely you will get one. Gifted programs in District 15 aren’t what they are in Manhattan — they are for middle class parents in “bad” school zones, and housed in the schools that have trouble attracting middle class people (of all races). I don’t know anyone who is zoned for a good local school who has chosen a gifted program at another school — 29 and 321 are full of kids who are as “gifted” as the ones in those gifted programs. You can hope for good luck in a lottery school like the Children’s School, but for most parents, it’s much better to know you have a good zoned school to fall back on.
Also, I agree with poster above — who paints the entire interior of a house the same color?
I think the house looks great BUT just because they are having a sale on blue paint doesn’t mean you should use the same color throughout the entire house..yikes
PS 29 no longer accepts out of zone children unless if you have a sibling in the school. They eliminated the “gifted program” several years ago.
The school issue is really a non issue. I live on a block zoned for 32 and it hasn’t hurt property values. Most children on my block go to public school but not 32. Your child can test into the gifted program and attend 29 (or other District 15 schools that have a gifted program)and you could apply for a variance to PS 261 or 58 and there is also the Children’s School.
I also wouldn’t necessarily knock PS 32 as they do have an excellent Pre-K and Kindergarten program and know some parents who have opted for that but then moved their kids after Kindergarten.
The somewhat sad fact is that anyone who buys that house won’t be “forced” to send their child to 32 if they want to send their child to public school.
I also think that this house is far enough removed from the Gowanus Houses for that not to be an issue.
I wouldn’t buy it since I have kids and I need a better school system than the area provides and private schools in brooklyn are harder to get into than college.
Also I have friends who bought brownstones near projects and regret their decision (guns shots, all night music, hanging out on corners). I’d pass for that reason as well.
Although I think the blue looks nice in the living room, as I was scrolling through rest of the house I thought, “did they really need to paint the entire house that color!”. You get this sense that the house was fixed on a budget with little real passion.
I’ve found that the realtor floor plans are useful in telling you the basic parameters of the house. Nearly all of the houses are built to some basic specs: For widths, there is the standard 20 footers, the 18 or 19 footers (3 window across but narrower), 25 foot homes, and the very narrow ones that are only 2 windows across (15 or 16 feet). Most lengths are 40, 45, occasionally 50 (although in Park Slope longer homes are more common), and sometimes only 36 feet, which I’ve noticed in houses on Sackett and DeGraw. Some of them have extensions, but they are usually noted. (I know there are many exceptions, but still…)
I’m assuming this is a shorter house because it’s noted as such in the floor plan. While they aren’t 100% accurate, I’ve usually found them to give me a decent idea of what the home’s exterior dimensions are.
Also, when home is 20foot wide or more, or 3600 square feet, the realtor often notes it in the listing copy, and this one doesn’t list dimensions at all.
Neither property shark nor a realtor may be relied on for accurate square feet. Want to know how many square feet you have? Measure it yourself, or hire an architect.
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Noticed also the plan lacks a half bath on the parlor floor — not a deal breaker, of course, as the large unbroken front parlor really is nice.
Poster at 9:15pm — are you saying that Brown Harris Stevens would post a floorplan on their website that shows the house as being far SMALLER than it actually is? I find that hard to believe — perhaps for some small brokerage, but come on, could they really be so inept? I think it’s more likely that is the true dimensions of the house.