House of the Day: 180 Washington Park
If you’re a Wall Street Journal reader, you may already be familiar with this new listing at 180 Washington Park in Fort Greene—the 22-foot brownstone was featured when it hit the market earlier this month with a price tag of $2,750,000, most likely because it was owned by Spike Lee back in the 1990s. We’re…
If you’re a Wall Street Journal reader, you may already be familiar with this new listing at 180 Washington Park in Fort Greene—the 22-foot brownstone was featured when it hit the market earlier this month with a price tag of $2,750,000, most likely because it was owned by Spike Lee back in the 1990s. We’re certainly digging the location, size and type of the house. There’s also tons of original detail that is right up our alley. The renovation, though, feels too over-the-top to us. Call us old-fashioned, but the glitziness and polish of the whole thing feels a little out of place for Fort Greene. And that yard? What were they thinking? We suspect the sellers would have been better served by a more understated approach, especially when it comes to reselling in these non-boom times.
180 Washington Park [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Actually, bxgrl, I did put the refrigerator in a room off the kitchen in Bucks Co. so it wouldn’t spoil the 18th century look. However, if you look below the cabinets you will se a dishwasher and a range. I know, very, very, very tacky.
BTW, I have cooked in the fireplace there and used the beehive oven for warming.
bxgrl,
Converting a bedroom to become an ensuite bathroom is a far cry from installing electricity and running water.
Posted by: shillstoner at August 19, 2009 4:18 PM
This guy is a madman. I really want to see your house.
And we also don’t have servants, which they used to. So what worked for people in the past, doesn’t now. I know several people who put their kitchens in the back parlor. Not my choice, but it works for them. The did the kitchens so they could keep the original detail as much as possible. And for the record, while some finishes may not be “original” to the house, most of these houses also had wood burning stoves and ice boxes (or sheds where they stored the ice). Do you have a gas stove (enameled? Not cast iron? or perhaps you cook in the fireplace?). Have a nice new refrigerator? Have an indoor bathroom with a shower? You take preservation to ridiculous heights.
I bought the house I found with the most original architectural detail.
I have a kitchen on the parlour floor. I guess I’m going to hell.
When you come over though, I still have the pocket doors so I will pull them shut so as not to offend your sensibilities. Also, so you won’t have to look at tacky Bosch stainless steel. I’m sorry, I can’t cook in the fireplace every night.
quote:
An island? Stainless steel appliances? Certainly not. I don’t know tacky people.
LOL he got you there dave!!!
*rob*
bxgrl,
Converting a bedroom to become an ensuite bathroom is a far cry from installing electricity and running water.
“An island? Stainless steel appliances? Certainly not. I don’t know tacky people.”
WOW, HOLIER THAN THOU.
What are the appliances made of then, WHITE METAL????
Gimmie a fuckin break.
I too am a believer that we are only temporary custodians of these buildings. So lets stick to the discussion of brownstones. Do you mean to tell me that you believe it’s necessasry to keep all those small useless chopped up rooms with two or more entrances on the second & third floor for the sake of the authenticity of the buiding???
And not make some more usable modern living space out of them??
I have kept the doors in the hallway yet refigured the rooms behind them. I have original doors from the bedroom to the bathroom and the bathroom is done in period wainscoting.
Don’t tell me you take a bath in a clawfoot tub because a modern shower is an obscene intrusion on the authenticity of the building.
shillstoner- I love historic houses. I worked in the museum field years ago and live in an old limestone now. But these houses are not museums and this is the 21st century. there are good ways to make over an old house to suit your needs or do you live in a house with gas lights, no electricity and an outhouse? Dave did not do a gut reno (something I object to, where they rip out everything including old detail. That’s sick unless the house is so damaged that’s all you can do).
Houses were meant to be lived in- you can’t live in a museum. We are custodians but i would rather a well thought out modernization that preserves as much as possible than gutting a place down to the shell. We don’t live like the Victorians did-