Floorplans!

I realized that something we haven't shared are floorplans - one of the most exciting parts of the process!

While you are constrained by certain dimensions and codes, you still have a lot of flexibility when you are doing a gut renovation to decide where you want everything. It's very exciting and empowering to design your home! However, you also have to decide where you want everything, so there is element of stress involved as well. Making decisions isn't always easy!

One thing I'm thankful for is the good taste of my husband. I think the fact that I'm not very picky and generally like his style has made this process a lot easier than it might be for other couples. I generally let him lead the design and offer suggestions where I have a strong opinion.

The first thing we both agreed on was that we wanted an open floor plan. We want everything to have clean lines. We want Modern yet Classic at the same time.

I think the biggest challenges were deciding sizes of bathrooms, bedrooms, and closets.

We were asked by a lot of people why we didn't design a separate apartment downstairs. Remember, this was a two-family property already, but we wanted to convert it into a one-family. "Why not rent out the space?" a lot of people asked.

While there is definitely income potential to at least offset the mortgage payments, this is also our dream home and where we want to raise our family. We do not want to share our backyard or be landlords in our own home. Others probably would have an opposite stance and think about the money involved, and while we are counting every dollar as well, we are happy with our decision to keep this place a one family.

Without further ado, please find our current plans of the house below. Guess which closet is mine? :)

Gut Renovation Inspiration

I can't admit that it was the actual reason for us to take the leap to do a gut renovation, however I will readily admit that we spent (and still spend!) hours and hours, probably years, watching a variety of HGTV and DIY network programs that inspire us to continue with our project in Brooklyn.

While we are inspired, most of these shows also leave us frustrated.

It's no fault of the networks, since we assume they are trying to capture the average audience, but frustration is usually immediate with prices. I understand that NYC is an expensive place to live but there are some issues when we watch the show:

- Home prices are often the amount of our down payment. Yes, this is the why most NYCers don't purchase, but watching someone buy a five thousand square foot luxury home for $300k with no indication of income is frustrating. For us years of working 18+ hours a day allowed us to earn downpayment for a Brooklyn home... $300k though? That would be maybe a two-hour commute from this awesome city and something not in our consideration.

- Permits are at significantly high prices for almost everything in NYC except for cosmetic changes like wall paint color. Want to move your bathroom? Fah-getta-bout-it.

- Unless you are as fortunate as us to buy an entire building (rare) in NYC, then you also have to spend time and money to have the board of the condo/coop building to approve your plans

We are so early on in our construction but remain scared reading other experiences. Please reach out with comments- both if you have questions or went through similar experiences.

House Hunting

I have been meaning to start this blog for a while now. Due to time constraints, lack of creativity, and overall just life interference, there was an inevitable delay. However, I'm happy to start posting now. I'll post a few entries at once to catch up to where I was with the blog "offline", but as we go forward, the blog will track our progress with our experience as first-time home-buyers and renovators.

Roughly two years ago, we began a common stage in many people’s lives: we started to look for a home to purchase and call our own. In many parts of the country, this is a rather straightforward ordeal. You visit a handful of homes, you narrow it down, and voila, you move in. For us on the other hand, this was a huge undertaking.

Living in NYC, there was little in our price range that matched exactly what we were looking for. We weren’t even picky: condo, co-op, townhome, brownstone, you name it. All were in our radar. The issue was space. We really wanted space, and maybe even a little bit of green space, and that is a very expensive commodity in this city.

Many outside of the city would be shocked at what people are willing to pay here, but that is a different conversation. For us it was set – we were New Yorkers, and we were going to stay in New York. We had never owned anything (not even a car) and this was an important next step for us.

During the course of two years, possibly one hundred open houses in various neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and many questionable statements made by real estate agents, we realized something: we weren’t going to be happy in new construction, or even someone else’s recent renovations. Not for the price.

We ultimately decided that a “fixer-upper” was the way to go. Why pay the premium for someone else’s new design and detailing when you could design your own? After all, we were in no rush to move in (the perks of a rent-controlled apartment) and could take our time making something truly our own.

However, even finding a fixer-upper was no easy task! Once again, it was amazing what people were willing to pay. Understandably, re-doing many of these properties would reward you with a beautiful home or fine investment, but we simply did not have the cash-flow that many of these places required. Finally the insistent search paid off and we find our house. We did make other offers along the way but this was the one: a two-family configured, 1910-built, modest home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that we envisioned as our single-family, “high-end” home. It even had a backyard!

Finding the house was just the beginning….