It was certainly not the best weather for the Society for Clinton Hill House Tour today, but I do applaud SCH’s variety of houses on the tour. Two years ago (the tour is biennial), I felt we saw too many institutional spaces and not enough personal homes. This year, almost every stop was a private residence!
Some of the highlights:
298 Washington Ave, a single-family brownstone with a gorgeous kitchen and a screening room in the basement! The owners’ daughters, who did much of the interior decorating, were on hand to answer questions. Also in this house, the world’s coolest bathroom lined with mirrors!
433 Waverly Ave, decorated with “Bali” and “sustainability” themes. The decor was gorgeous! This year’s House Tour program was also great, and included this cool bit on this house: According to feng shui, experts with whom [the owner] consulted, the spaces possessed an exceptional positive energy from all the equine inhabitants who had abided there in its previous incarnation as a stable.
447 Clinton Ave – the Haunted Church revealed! There’s some really cool details inside, and the units will be available for rental this summer (if all goes according to plan). We took guesses on how much the apartments will go for. $3k/month, maybe? And that always confuses me – if you can pay that much to rent, why not buy? Anyone want to weigh in?
Biggest Disappointment: The deletion of 86 Cambridge Place from the tour. When we arrived, a handwritten sign declared: THIS HOUSE IS NOT ON THE TOUR. DO NOT RING DOORBELL. Too bad – I would have loved to see the inside.
What were your favorites?
The rest of my photos here.
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5 Comments
I did the house tour and and agreed with your favorites. However, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. Two properties were simply open houses of buildings in mid rehab whose units where for sale with real estate agents where on hand to give out spec sheets and so forth. Typically one does not need to pay an entrance fee to go to an open house that is part of a sales effort. A couple of the other properties where rather blah lacking anything noteworthy either architecturally or in terms of interior design. I am sure they are pleasant enough to live in but really they had no business being on a house tour. I think those properties where the homes of Clinton Hill Society board members who think too highly of their homes and like showing them off. One house was closed, another I skipped, two where churches (which I skipped as they usually are easy enough to visit at other times) and one was a brewery (which by definition is not a house). So that leaved 6 houses, two or three which are memorable and really had any business being on a house tour. If the properties on this year’s tour are typical of previous years then I will not be participating in the future.
Do they still make you take off your shoes and wear little booties so your proletariat filth doesn’t pollute their immaculate lives of leisure and landed wealth?
re paying 3K in rent instead of buying a place: many people don’t have thousands put aside for a down payment.
I can’t see how these could be rented for 3k a month..I was thinking more like 6500 for the duplexes. These are massive.
re: your question on renting vs. buying. A person my be able to pay 3k a month but are unable to come up with 300k for a down payment….and they may want to live in the nabe now not after 100,000 months of saving 3k.
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