House of the Day: 177 MacDonough Street
The ubiquity of the word “luxury” in recent years is probably responsible for a great many renovation mistakes. Instead of doing tasteful, understated renovations of kitchens and bathrooms, many homeowners felt that they needed to go all glossy, which, unless you really spend a lot of money and nail it, tends to backfire in our…
The ubiquity of the word “luxury” in recent years is probably responsible for a great many renovation mistakes. Instead of doing tasteful, understated renovations of kitchens and bathrooms, many homeowners felt that they needed to go all glossy, which, unless you really spend a lot of money and nail it, tends to backfire in our opinion. Such is the case with this house at 177 MacDonough Street in Bed Stuy. The 18-foot-wide brownstone’s got nice bones and architectural details, for sure, but the kitchen and bathroom shown in the listing photos just don’t work (for us, at least). We could be mistaken, but we suspect that most potential buyers of a house like this would much rather pay $100,000 less and skip things like the “2 ultra luxury Master baths, one with a custom double shower and one with imported porcelain tile and built-in Jacuzzi.” Are we wrong? Regardless of our master thesis, we don’t think this place has a chance of fetching (or appraising at) its asking price of $899,000; after all, it sold for $680,000 in 2005.
177 MacDonough Street [Century 21] GMAP P*Shark
“It’s one thing to criticize a developer for ruining the esthetics of a neighborhood with Fedders buildings, but it’s entirely different when you are criticizing the renovation of a private person (who is likely in some financial distress) trying to sell his/her house.”
Curious, I disagree with you a bit here. Homes for sale are fair game for evaluating whether or not they are actually worth their asking price. I think posting and then bitching about neighbors’ taste in exteriors is itself pretty tacky…Publicly ridiculing a private person, and for what? Not conforming to current middle class taste.
Is this really a 4 storey????? brownstoner’s property shark photo looks like a 3 storey and the broker is talking 4 floors.
Hi all. I inspected this place a few weeks ago when it first came on the market. At no offense to the owner, but I was a bit underwhelmed by what had been done to it. The reno, aside from not being my personal taste (which I appreciate is very subjective thing) was more relevantly, I thought, much poorer quality than the photos suggest. They have used reasonably OK quality materials, if you favor a contemporary type style, but I found the workmanship was rather lacking and it was not finished well. It is only my personal view, but if you are aiming for a higher end luxury type style, it has to be very well constructed else falls flat and feels slightly aspirational. Even though I’m more a subway tile and vintage fixtures kinda guy myself, the issue about its fair value is to me less about the style but the execution quality. To be balanced, while for me the house was also bit small for the money, I must say the location is really great…I totally love that block and would love to find something around there, and there are some nice features left in some rooms. Overall, from my perspective it was not a renovation I would want to pay for. I do wish the young owner very well though. He seemed a very nice guy indeed and has obviously put a lot of personal effort into the house and he deserves some reward. I hope someone falls in love with it, although I suspect there may not be sufficent lust to achieve the current asking.
Noki;
I wasn’t referring to your post, though I can see how you would think so. I’m just talking about the situation in Brownstoner country in general, and I DO see some sneering going on (see Brenda’s post, for example).
I love how Brownstoner who renovated his kitchen with Ikea cabinets has become the self-appointed judge of good renovation taste in brooklyn. This renovation looks just fine to me and if I were looking I would definitely pay more for this than for an unrenovated property. This blog is starting to be ridiculous with its critique of renovation tastes. Have you nothing better to do than dig this deeply into other people’s business? If I remember correctly, Mr. and Mrs. Brownstoner stopped blogging about their interior decorating when people started to criticize their choices. Somehow, it’s ok to criticize others choices….
It’s one thing to criticize a developer for ruining the esthetics of a neighborhood with Fedders buildings, but it’s entirely different when you are criticizing the renovation of a private person (who is likely in some financial distress) trying to sell his/her house.
Wish there were pics of the 2nd bath and the bedrooms. What’s that picture of the kitchen supposed to show us, that there’s no counter space for almost $900K?
I don’t associate “luxury” with this renovation. It doesn’t knock my socks off, but its not bad. The bathroom is pretty sterile, actually, but you can’t underestimate the concept of CLEAN in a bathroom. And a kitchen. This is fine. Not exactly my taste and expensive for this environment but I would put the fault with the tacky marketing language more than anything.
Just for the record, I have to agree that I see nothing whatever wrong with the interior remodeling of this house. It is perfectly nice although the pictures may be dark for a reason.
Benson,
I’m missing your “new code” reference. And I have seen no “sneering” going on. I simply referenced them as an example of a particular shiny, nouveau-luxury style to which Mr. B may have been referring, and which I happen to dislike.