Making a Life in Brooklyn: Carroll Gardens Brownstoners in the 1960s
It was a time in Brooklyn when two schoolteachers with adventurous spirits and a willingness to get their hands dirty could cobble together enough money to buy their own slice of the borough.
Bed Stuy Brownstone Gets “Wabi-Sabi” With Reclaimed Wood
A client approached the team at Madera with a wish: He had grown up with a unique herringbone floor, and he wanted to re-create it in his four-story brownstone in Bed Stuy.
Take a First Look at the Sleek Renovation of Gowanus Arts Hub Dancewave
A rendering of new studios in Dancewave’s soon-to-be-revamped space. Rendering via Studio Joseph
Nonprofit dance and youth development center Dancewave is embarking on an extensive renovation that will result in a new community arts and culture center at its current address at 182 4th Avenue in Gowanus, just blocks from Barclays Center.
The Insider: Park Slope Brownstone Has Room for Bold Accents and Quirky Details
This may be the only townhouse in Brooklyn with a room dedicated to a urinal, entered via swinging saloon-style doors. “It’s the kind of thing you can do when you have 6,000 square feet,” said Elizabeth Roberts of Ensemble Architecture.
The busy Gowanus-based firm masterminded the transformation of this five-story, 25-foot-wide corner building, taking it from a three-family plus doctor’s office to a four-story home for a single family, with a rental apartment and a professional office on the garden level.
The Insider: Modest Fort Greene Reno Becomes a Total Gut, With Happy Results
There’s a cautionary tale for prospective homebuyers in the case of this four-story brick house that had lost its neighbor to one side.
“The sellers didn’t allow my clients to do a structural inspection. That signaled something fishy,” said architect Sarah Strauss, AIA, of the Bed Stuy-based design/build company Bigprototype, which was called in after the purchase to do what the new homeowners originally thought would be a relatively modest interior renovation.
7 Fabulous Victorian Bathrooms Keeping It Old School
Gorgeous tile, stained glass, mahogany and deep claw foot tubs — the typical late-Victorian bathroom was luxurious and large. Common features were porcelain hex-tile floors, a wainscot of white subway tile and, of course, the aforementioned iconic tub.
The wainscot would usually be topped by a border of ornate tile with bas-relief garlands, shells or other motifs and puddling pastel glazes. Stained glass windows often featured aquatic themes, such as fish.
Today such bathrooms, if any of their original features survive, are usually in need of new plumbing and electric. Here are seven examples of updated bathrooms whose owners kept the original look or created a vintage feel.
6 Home-Inspection Deal Breakers
A family was five minutes into an inspection of their Crown Heights dream house when it abruptly came to an end. The inspector had discovered a gas leak in the cellar — actually a crawl space — and ordered everyone out of the house.
Deal breaker? You might be surprised.
What Is Quarter Round Molding?
Renovator’s Toolbox explores the materials, techniques and trends you need to know.
Clockwise from top right: Flat molding, 19th century molding, quarter round molding, 19th-century molding. Photos by Cate Corcoran
It’s the little things that count — especially in a home, where the quality of moldings, doors and hardware can make a big difference.
The Insider: Revamping a Sunset Park Row House for a Clean, Modern Look
©2015Francis Dzikowski/OTTO
After a renovation she did appeared on Brownstoner three years ago, local architect Alexandra Barker of Barker Freeman “got a ton of work,” she said. “That was a brick row house in Windsor Terrace where I opened up the rear façade. People began calling and saying, ‘I want to open up the rear wall!'”
Here, for a two-story Sunset Park wood-frame house, built around 1910, she did it again — a little differently this time.
How Much Will My Home Renovation Cost, Anyway?
A gut renovation opened up this now loft-like Williamsburg home. Photo by Ensemble Architecture
Renovating a house can be one of those bank-account-draining experiences that make a designer shoe habit or dining in three-star restaurants look cheap in comparison.
But how much does it cost — or should it cost — to renovate a home? Some believe a top-shelf Brooklyn townhouse renovation costs at least $1 million. But there’s also a vocal subset who hold fast to the idea that almost any house can be renovated for $200,000 — or less.
Who’s right? Read on to find out.
