House of the Day: 526 Carlton Avenue Reduced
When we featured 526 Carlton Avenue as a House of the Day last September, the Prospect Heights brownstone had just hit the market with an asking price of $2,300,000. The price was knocked down to $2,100,000 a couple of weeks ago, and then to $2,000,000 earlier this week. As we mentioned back then, we think…
When we featured 526 Carlton Avenue as a House of the Day last September, the Prospect Heights brownstone had just hit the market with an asking price of $2,300,000. The price was knocked down to $2,100,000 a couple of weeks ago, and then to $2,000,000 earlier this week. As we mentioned back then, we think the extensive renovation that was recently done looks pretty nice but wondered whether the proximity to Atlantic Yards would hurt its chances. Apparently it has.
526 Carlton Avenue [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 526 Carlton Avenue [Brownstoner]
I might be interested in renting this house. Does anyone here have more info about the phase 2 construction site and when it will be happening. Phase 1 is more than a long block away. Will it still be hell?
Minard and Mopar,
It seems that our understandings of the history of brownstone dining are all basically in agreement.
Again and again, the Elliman Park Slope office is beaten out for a townhouse listing in their own “backyard”. This time, it is not Brown, Harris, Corcoran or one of the smaller Brooklyn Pak Slope brokerage houses, but a Manhattan Douglas Elliman office. What a joke. One has to wonder how the Elliman Park Slope office continuously misses out on obtaining such listings, especially when their agents supposedly work this area. One must think that the other Elliman offices in NYC work and strategize to obtain listings (even outside of their respective boroughs) while the Elliman Park Slope office probably waits for the business to walk in or the phone to ring. Not happening in this tough market. Higher PDE corporate management should really question how the Park Slope office is being operated and how the agents are managed and inspired by the director of sales. The director of sales should be embarrassed by this failure to obtain such listings. The job involves more than collecting a salary.
Bricks and Brownstones says it is ambiguous. It also changes depending on the year. In the old houses in the first half of the 19th century, the front room on the kitchen level was mostly used for dining, but only for the family. Apparently they didn’t give dinner parties.
I’ve seen late-Victorian houses with dumbwaiters and butler’s pantries on the side rear of the parlor floor. So I assume that in those cases, the rear parlor could be used as a formal dining room when entertaining company, don’t you think?
But a dumbwaiter alone does not signal a parlor floor dining room. I believe ours was used to haul ice and coal to the rental on the third level.
Pigeon, I’m not really 200 years old, so its hard to say.
I know that the “dining room” of most Brooklyn rowhouses was in the basement. The rear parlor often had a tea table that could be used for light suppers as well as teas. The food would be brought up on trays by the Irish girls who more often than not worked as house staff in Brooklyn. But real dinners for the family had to be downstairs. The dining table was downstairs. Lugging up and down all those dishes and glassware and food vessels was completely impractical on a daily basis.
Is there a difference between the terms “dining area” and “formal dining area”?
“Formal Dining Area” vs “Daily Dining Area”
Minard, if I remember Bricks and Brownstone correctly (and I’m not sure if I do), the daily dining area, for the typical middle class family, was in the basement, as you say.
But we were talking about the FORMAL dining area. If I remember correctly, Bricks and Brownstone said that the parlor level was most likely used as the dining area for special ocassions, or where the family was particularly wealth.
To me, this means the formal dining areas (for those wealthy enough to have formal dining areas) were on the parlor level, while the daily dining areas were in the basement.
Yes?
No?
grand army: a reception room is different than a parlor.
Metaphase, you are absolutely right. For some reason a lot of people don’t take a step back and tally up the actual costs of buying vs. renting.
In NYC right now, for most people buying is still more expensive than renting on the face of it.
There’s one big issue you didn’t even factor in.
If you buy all that capital is locked up in an asset that as we have seen may go up (if DIBS etal are right) or go down (like BHO sez).
Not knowing who is right, I would allocate some significant cost to the uncertainty.
In other words, if you rent for the same price you can finance a purchase you can always get out of the deal relatively easily.
If you buy, that’s not necessarily going to be the case.