House of the Day: 566 1st Street
If the sellers of 566 1st Street, a new listing in Park Slope, can get their asking price of $3,995,000 it would be a huge vote of confidence for the market there. The 21.5-foot-wide limestone house is a real beauty (though it almost looks a little too polished for our taste, but we nitpick…) and…
If the sellers of 566 1st Street, a new listing in Park Slope, can get their asking price of $3,995,000 it would be a huge vote of confidence for the market there. The 21.5-foot-wide limestone house is a real beauty (though it almost looks a little too polished for our taste, but we nitpick…) and weighs in at almost 5,000 square feet (and it’s a one-family!). If you’re looking for an old house without having to forego any modern comforts, this could be the pad for you. Do you think the price is realistic? It feels a little 2007 to us.
566 1st Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
I agree with you gkw…I think the layout is one of the things I like MOST about this house.
Some people on this site have such rigid ideas of the perfect layout that they don’t seem to be open minded to something a little different.
If I had a need (large family) for a big house like this, the layout would be exactly what I’d look for with a bit of privacy for each member of the household.
Seems much more civilized and classy than some of the more “open” layouts I see.
Wah Wah Wah laundry is out of the way…. HIRE someone to do it then, geez you just bought a 4 million dollar house. DUH.
full disclosure – I went to school with one of the architects and think her work is absolutely wonderful. I dream of having her come up with some clever ideas for my house.
sachi – 1) when you have three additional bay windows that get beautiful light, why would you care about the street level bay windows. 2) Not everyone is obsessed with having a huge room in which to sleep in – this floor is obviously laid out as a private master suite with a nice study that is basically for the heads of house, not public use. I personally would much prefer this lay out than one giant bedroom – permits you to work while spouse is sleeping. 3) The point of the small bedrooms off study is that one child sleeps in each little room and has the study as their own play area/place to do homework. 4) The media room is perfectly located right on the garden with big doors out to it. 5) Bay Ridge Girl – the laundry is on ground floor because there is a maid’s room there who presumable will be doing the laundry! This is a WONDERFUL lay out, and far more original, classy and functional than most.
price seems steep however.
Actually went to the open house yesterday. The attention to detail is astonishing – everything is beautifully done and the floorplan works well for a one family with kids (there is a dumb waiter in case you were wondering how to get the dirty laundry to the garden level). I doubt a lower priced property could be easily (or cheaply) brought to this level of perfection. I envy the prospective buyer.
This is a great house. Wonderful combination of original charm and details with modern a updating. There are, however, some major obstacles to achieving anywhere near the asking price.
A Corcoran listed limestone on 4th Street, park block, is priced at $2.6M. It is essentially the same house without the renovation. Even if someone put in $1M of renovations (and I don’t think the 4th Street house requires that amount of updating), it’s still going to be $300 to $400K less than this HOTD.
It has a very personal and idiosyncratic floor plan. I am not sure what to make of the English basement. The laundry room is huge and takes up the bay windows in the front. A real waste of light and space. Next, you’re faced with a warren of closets, a small bedroom and strange small media room in the extension. I am not sure what the architect was thinking, but the ground floor level is very odd and it’s way too expensive to undo given a $4M asking price.
The master bedroom is in the smaller of the two rooms on the second floor. An office and library take up the front room with the bay windows. Very beautiful and ordinarily not a big deal, but the library has enormous built-in shelves which limits flexibility in making this the master. Finally, the upstairs bedrooms are also oddly configured with what is normally a larger bedroom and a smaller bedroom or office in most townhouse floor plans with a smaller room that can only be accessed through the larger room. The current owner uses the smaller rooms as the actual bedroom with the larger rooms as a study and/or seating area.
This reminds me of the renovation on 14th Street in the South Slope originally on the market for over a year at $3.2 and now reduced to $2.8. Nice renovations, but the layout choices are so personal that you need someone with the exact same idiosyncratic taste. I don’t believe the value carries over.
At this price, I would also want a larger yard.
MM, even people with lots of cash on hand are looking for ways to spend less of it.
Sorry Brownstoner, but if this house sells for the asking price it will indicate that one person has enough money not to worry about little things like market value. It will NOT be a vote of confidence in the market.
Now, if this house goes into a big bidding war, with multiple bidders, then you can spin that as a vote of confidence–still only by 3 or 4 people, but whatever.
‘nitpicking, but an internal bedroom is NOT a bedroom.’
If those skylights are operable and they cover the ratios required for glass and air requirements for a habitable room, it is permissible.
Operable skylights act as windows.