House of the Day: 481 4th Street
Flip-o-rama! The seller of 481 4th Street in Park Slope paid $1,865,000 for the four-story house back in September. He wasted no time doing a top-to-bottom renovation and now would like to get paid a million bucks for his troubles. (Asking price is $2,950,000.) While a lot of care was clearly put into preserving the…
Flip-o-rama! The seller of 481 4th Street in Park Slope paid $1,865,000 for the four-story house back in September. He wasted no time doing a top-to-bottom renovation and now would like to get paid a million bucks for his troubles. (Asking price is $2,950,000.) While a lot of care was clearly put into preserving the wonderful woodwork, we wish that the walls had retained some signs of their age. For some reason, perfectly straight sheetrock is bit too charmless for us; we prefer to see some imperfections and archaeological record of the house’s history: some imperfect plaster, a molding with a few coats of paint on it, that kind of thing. Then again, there are plenty of people who don’t want to deal with that and want everything to be as good as new. Maybe they will be willing to pay $2,950,000 for this place. What do you think?
481 4th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
I don’t know if it’s the sheetrock, but this house has no character. I agree with those calling for a floorplan and pictures of the “custom kitchen”; while we’re at it, how about the garden and more of the renovated 3.5 bathrooms than 1 tub, 1 toilet and 1/2 of a sink. Finally, how does a 4-story house manage an upper duplex and a garden triplex rental?
I don’t know why this bugs me so much. At the top of the market, a year and 1/2 ago to 2 years ago, we saw a gorgeous brownstone on 3rd street asking about this. It was absolutely gorgeous with an enormous cherry tree blooming in the garden.
This is an okay block, but no 3rd street, and right across from a school. The reno feels sort of thrown together in that contractor-y way, (i.e. weird choices on finishes, no wood burning fireplaces, the floor borders) and they provide no floor plan. I’m bugged.
This feels close to 7 hundey over-priced to me. I could be wrong, of course.
I actually like the oddity of the floor but even with the restored and very beautiful woodwork, the reno seems cold and lifeless.
“it’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just really niggly.”
Niggly!
Honey, the design is in the details.
You’re dropping that kind of dough on anything, you better nitpick over the place.
“If I’m shelling out three million clams, the last things I want to see are “some imperfect plaster, a molding with a few coats of paint on it.””
If I’m shelling out 3 million clams, I want to see plaster, not sheetrock. And some original or authentic period molding around that plaster.
The woodwork is nice,though.
I saw this house a-way back when it first was listed. I must say that they did an excellent reno job considering the condition it was in then.
It’s a phenomenal space. Huge, with a central stair.
However, it’s right across from John Jay–and that’s a lot of cabbage to be living across from a pretty noisy school.
I agree with brt; to see the ghosts of walls past make me feel as if I were peeking under the house’s Victorian apron dress.
Apart from that, it’s perfectly serviceable. PS321, check. Deck, check. Triplex over garden rental, check. It’s a time capsule of what is most desirable to that elusive creature, the bobo upper park sloper of 2008.
This is a $2M house. Throw in 100K for the central AC and it gets $2100000 on the appraisal widget.
Apparently a million+ bucks buys you restored woodwork and a rectangular bathtub. And its not the straight sheetrock that makes the interior so ugly. What a joke.