House of the Day: 329 Adelphi Street Reduced
The beautiful but crumbling wood frame house at 329 Adelphi Street has a new broker and a new price tag. The shingled corner house started out asking $950,000 last May. According to a few people we know who’ve now been inside, though, it needs so much work that that price was unrealistic. The new asking…
The beautiful but crumbling wood frame house at 329 Adelphi Street has a new broker and a new price tag. The shingled corner house started out asking $950,000 last May. According to a few people we know who’ve now been inside, though, it needs so much work that that price was unrealistic. The new asking price of $795,000 is still more than the pricing widget called for last go-round, which normally wouldn’t be an issue given the widget’s track record of underpricing by 15 percent or so. In this case, though, we suspect the masses may have some wisdom: An architect we know said you’re looking at a million bucks of work here.
329 Adelphi Street [Ahrlty.com] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 329 Adelphi Street [Brownstoner]
“I offer a nickel and a cheese sandwich.”
It had better be a buffalo head nickle and a nicely aged imported cheese at the very least.
ML, you will read your contributions tomorrow and wince. You seem to have forgotten some of us have seen the house in question. Crawl space? the original kitchen was in the servants’ quarter in the English basement. You have staked a ridiculous claim, and are now digging yourself in nice and deep.
I’m sure if this house were in New England, it would be impossible to spend more than 400K on exactly the same job that would cost 1M in landmarked Brooklyn. The labor and supplies are much cheaper, there is no need for all the fees and aggravations that are par for the course in an urban, dense and landmarked area.
Just look at the cost of a new slab of concrete in the city vs. anywhere else in the US. It’s an eye-opener.
structural issues on a litle wood house like this are nothing. You sister some joists you jack up the spring beam. its not rocket science. I have done things all my life very frugally. I guess I’m an expert on spending very little and getting the job done. I detect that people are afraid of these old homes in tough shape and think it will cost fortunes to rehab them. The truth is no one has ever spent fortunes on any of these houses until very recently.
The roots of the preservation movement was based on frugality, if not downright cheapness. I’m sorry we lost that ethic somewhere along the way. I can fix up this house for $375,000. You all would bemoan the cheap appliances and “horrid” tiles. But it would be perfectly nice.
Also there is no English basement. It’s a crawl space or a short cellar at best under there. So you have two small floors and a half floor in the attic. It doesn’t matter what the realtor says. you have to use your eyes and see what’s in front of you.
Lecture over,.
I wish everyone a very pleasant evening.
Read you tomorrow God willing.
I haven’t read the above comments yet (am multi-tasking!) but I just have to comment:
HOW in Creation could it cost $1 million to renovate this house???
That is ridiculous. Woody and Dan’s house is very small.
We had a big shingle job (with stripping, some structural work) in, okay, New England…I just can’t imagine a renovation of this little house could approach $1 million…unless every surface is gilt.
…I’ll have one of whatever your architect friend is drinking!
I offer a nickel and a cheese sandwich.
Do you ignore the structural issues, or should the architect use gum to repair the joists and advise harnesses to go upstairs?
The house has currently about 2,400 sq ft of usable floor space. It seems you are saying it doesn’t make any sense to spend more than $xx on this small house (I can agree with the sentiment) so just don’t even think about making it sound and habitable. You can’t refinish and spackle what’s rotten underneath.
Minard, I have a spider-filled closet under the basement stairs that I like to call my “wine cave”, maybe this house could have one of those as well. It also has a plumbing stack running through it for ambiance. Just an idea.
Okay. Never mind. You seem intent on proving some point here (with your jacuzzi, wine cave and stone veneer references being nearly spat out of the corner of your sneering lips)
But I find your estimation that this home simply needs some patching and sprucing up here and there, with spackle and paint, to be equally “insane”.
Next?