Mortgages-In-Law Rock a Righteous Renovation
We got a kick out of reading the “Mortgage-In-Laws” piece in the House & Home section today. Aside from the creative approach to affording a brownstone, the interior design of this Carroll Street house blew us away. This kitchen may be the best adaptation of an original parlor floor we’ve ever seen. And the rest…
We got a kick out of reading the “Mortgage-In-Laws” piece in the House & Home section today. Aside from the creative approach to affording a brownstone, the interior design of this Carroll Street house blew us away. This kitchen may be the best adaptation of an original parlor floor we’ve ever seen. And the rest of the Park Slope house has a wonderful mix of the traditional and the modern with just the right amount of whimsy thrown into the mix. As the article implies, the $500,000 reno budget probably understates the cost because of all the free input and discounted materials the couples were able to get. Still, what a great job.
Mortgage-In-Laws [NY Times]
You can confirm that last post in any of a number of ways: Lady P poses monthly in tight close-up with her toddler offspring in each month’s editor’s letter (before her probably undocumented immigrant workers take over the real mommy work as P. heads for the hallowed halls of Conde Nast where she maintains her queen bee hive, err , office, that is). children as tax write-off? seems in poor taste. next, the house appears in the times, and no doubt is used as a location for many shoots in her ‘how to raise a brat in $400 footwear” magazine (I live nearby, I’ve witnessed it). So mega-million manse is every bit as smoothly written off! Genius!
She also hosts the office holiday party in her fab digs — more write-offs, for which she no doubt neither lifts a manicured finger nor shells out a quid for supplies. All freebies happily ponied up by the vendors who are lining up to see their products profiled in the vaunted pages of her putid ‘publication,’ which seems far too neutral a word. As to those who inquired what happens when the couple leaves their single floor sub-terranean digs (who could blame them?), i suspect the nannies and other assorthold household help get the space now to subdivide, probably into cubicles of some sort, so that they’re never too far from fulfilling madam’s need 24-7.
Let’s face it, Chris and Pilar are media whores!
Lesson: have a publicist who will get your free stuff. I heard that Cynthia Rowley no only got all her appliances for her kitchen free but cash too!
Am I the only one, or did I completely not understand the whole point of the article?
Other than the transparent publicity for the companies, this seems like a pretty average brownstone in park slope. I can’t fathom what makes this interesting at all? The fact that two couples purchased the property together? That seems like more of a liability than some kind of interesting angle to me. What happens when one couple moves out? They condo the building? They are forced to sell? What’s the point of this article?
I dunno about that!
Some peope are obviously much better at planning and executing renovations than others. These people have very good taste and used excellent carpenters. Custom carpentry of that caliber is extraordinarily expensive unless you have connections like they do.
Bottom line: The difference between an average construction crew and a high end one is not nearly as noticable as quality cabinets, built-ins, and fixtures.
Lesson: Go cheap on labor. Don’t go cheap on materials.
Oh come on guys, agreeing to have your home in the NYT is a total kick. I know; I had my garden featured there recently. And why? I wanted to give a chance for my gardener/friend to get more business after giving us really cutthroat prices (we were his first full garden) and I wanted to glory in it after the hard work and money spent. We don’t really question why people put their houses on the house tour? Thank god they do. It’s helpful, it promotes the nabe and it’s inspiring. So these folks plug the mag and their businesses. God bless.
Love the appearance of the kitchen and that huge island facing two easy chairs so that the cook can chat to two loungers. But where do they eat? Looks like the adjoining room has a sofa and TV.
even the story is tagged “cookie”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/garden/12cookie.html
I love the house, but I thought all the cookie talk (and the furniture talk) was pretty lame