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
It’s a perfectly nice house. I’m sure it will sell at a handsome price in spite of the tidy-bowl blue interiors (what possessed them?).
There is a part of me that thinks that it is a little immoral to pay three million dollars for a house in an area where the median income is probably around $19,000 a year per family. Think of the income disparity between whoever buys this place and most of the rest of the neighborhood.
It is amazing that people can be comfortable with this type of income gap right outside their stoop. But I guess they deal with it.
Ikea cabinets get a bad rap. They are really wobbly if you don’t put them together exactly right, but we put one in a rental unit (and used it for 8 months) and it seemed fine. A little gorilla glue helps stabilize it, too. I would get it again over the offerings at HD and Lowe’s, and is a fraction of the price and you don’t have to wait months while HD or Lowe’s keeps screwing up your order. We put the whole thing in the back of a van and our contractor had it up in a day. Yes, I know it is not plywood construction, but in Europe you can go much higher end and it’s still not plywood. Of course, for $2.6 million I might want something better, but I wouldn’t feel the need to run out and replace right away, either. (Assuming I could ever afford a $2.6 million house.)
“architect in Brooklyn – why don’t you like the white window casings? We are in the process of renovating our place (looks similar period italianate) in a vaguely similar way – preserving the original moldings, doors & where possible ceiling detail but otherwise going for a modern finish.”
To clarify — I don’t like white exterior jambs, headers and sills. Inside I like it fine, did it in my own renovation.
“We are debating paint finishes now and are leaning towards repainting the orignal (eastern white pine) woodwork in white(except staircase balustrade/rail which is mahogony?).”
In my case, I needed all new casings, which were painted, but the original cherry staircase and some wainscotting also intrude where appropriate.
“Our bias for the walls is to use a white or offwhite mostly, with possibly some rooms in stronger colors.”
I used offwhites and stronger colors so that the white casings and trim would “pop.”
“Further on the woodwork, we have the option of using varnish possibly as we are having it stripped but these were originally painted & the wood isn’t always in the best condition. One area of debate is treatment of the window shutters which we are very ambivalent about on whether to paint white to match moldings / doors or varnish/stain-varnish which would probably look better from outside when closed given exteriof black window paint.”
I’ve done shutters both ways — I like them painted, but opted for a palette of natural shutters/doors and painting casings/trim. Looks great from the outside, too — painted the windows and jambs glossy black in front and a dark blue at back.
“architect –
i believe cajones are drawers. cojones is the word for you.”
Egad. Yes, you’re right.
–an architect in Brooklyn
The kitchen cabs are Ikea; if the counters are Italian limestone like the broker claims, those certainly aren’t Ikea. I’ve seen an Ikea kitchen in a multimillion-dollar loft in Manhattan, so I’m not hating on Ikea at all. Their kitchen cabs are much better quality than many semi-custom lines out there (and a HUGE step up from a lot of Ikea furniture), plus they come with excellent hardware. Check out the Finished Kitchens Blog at GardenWeb for some more great kitchens with Ikea cabinets.
Yes the posters who think this is expensive are out of touch with prices in the neighborhood. No way you can buy a similar house for more than a million dollars less than this in this neighborhood. This is not the top of the market by any means.
Anon 12:51, you’re wrong on the paint issue, here. As annoying as it is to spend money on a house you’re unloading, experience has taught me that you cannot expect buyers to have the slightest bit of vision, or to understand that a paint job is a rounding error at this price point. People will reject a house for the stupidest of reasons–the dishwasher ($200-$500), or needing a $5K new roof, or not having an alarm system ($1500-$2000). As pretty as this blue is, it will stop people from buying the house. It would have been worth every penny to repaint the joint (or at least part of the joint) in neutrals. I also agree that for this price, an Ikea kitchen is sub-par. Is it really Ikea? You mean the cabinets and counters?
Anon at 2:44 p.m.: it boggles my mind that you’re making 400-600k per year but choose to rent. Surely at that income level, you could find something to your liking in Brooklyn?
There are also buyers out there who do not care about school districts.
One important question as to this home’s value is the school it is zoned for. If it is zoned for ps 38 or 32, the value goes down. However, if it is zoned for 29 or 58 (which has become nearly as coveted as 29), then it may go for near the asking price. Yes, buyers can do private, but unless they have older kids already enrolled, private schools are near impossible to get into these days, so no guarantee.
Ironically, a brown harris broker recently appraised our 4-story on a CG place block (between Clinton and Henry) as only 1.6 or 1.7 million. Granted, it would take some money to get it into the shape of this one, but not close to $800,000 worth, and the location is better. But I thought it was fairly accurate appraisal of the what the market was, so perhaps this is over priced, or buyers will pay a big premium for “move in” condition (which does make sense).