Time has flown by! I’ve spent the days busily hunting down listings and trying to find the right space for the family. This move is important because we’ll be putting down roots until middle school. Overall I’ve been excited with Greenpoint because a lot of the listings show gorgeous places. The downside is the lack of 3 bedrooms – every real estate person I’ve talked to has shook their head and pointed to Williamsburg. But while the places like The Jacksonia look beautiful, the zoned schools scores, like PS 132, don’t compare favorably to the Greenpoint elementary schools, PS 31 and PS 34. In addition, the pricing hasn’t dropped off as much as everywhere else, making it seem relatively inflated.
For a bit we considered possibly moving to Park Slope *shudder* and braving the somewhat rabid parents there, but we are going to potentially have to make a 2 bedroom work, which means no office door. I saw the listing for a “2 BR Modern Masterpiece” and I dragged Shane out the same day to view it, even though it had only 1 bathroom. A 2 BR/1 BA duplex for $2,500 seemed like a decent deal, and it was at 240 North Henry – just across the street from 235 North Henry, which we had seen. We had liked the area so off we went.
It was cold and rainy again. Urgh. This is the 2nd time I’ve been up to North Henry and both times it’s been rainy and cold. We were supposed to meet Dana from Dreamspace but he was running late so we went up to the apartment on the 3rd floor ourselves where the tenants let us in. All the pics are from the listing: I really don’t like taking pics of the apartments with all their stuff in it.
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When you walk in you have closets on the right, steps leading upstairs on the left and the kitchen just past the steps again on the left. It’s exactly as pictured: tall, soaring windows on the right and 18 feet ceilings. I love high ceilings. The tenants had an interesting faux Martha Stewart thing going as you can see. The only bad thing: not much of a view with all that glass! There is a working auto-garage across the street, and rising above that the famous Greenpoint treatment plant. This place is on the 3rd floor – I guess higher up you’d have Manhattan views. And the treatment plant. |
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Really liking the windows. This is the view from the dining room. The bedroom was just past the living room on the right. It had really high ceilings and a tiny terrace off of it. And nice closet space. The only bathroom was opposite and that was extremely nice: very long, nice finishes and even a window all done up in brown and white. Really nice looking. The vent in the bedroom apparently doesn’t work properly, leaving that room very cold in the winter, but Dana said the owner was aware of it and would fix it later. |
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View of the kitchen and dining room. I am in LOVE with that chandelier. I want one! The kitchen had nice finishes – you can almost make it out if you squint. Microwave is under the counter but it was not built in. You can see the “catwalk” above. |
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This is the catwalk that leads to…a utility closet. The room mate occupying the upstairs bedroom put a mirror at the end. I do have to admit its a very spacious utility closet but a utility closet none the less. Shane said it was big enough to fit a desk but I can’t have his office in a utility closet. Even if he SAID he would make it work, it just wasn’t a good idea. The nice thing is that for an additional $200 in rent a month, the owner was willing to expand that catwalk into a mezzanine. Now that would work but there would be no office door. |
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View of the windows from the catwalk. The bedroom, on the right side, was pretty small with a small closet and window. |
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View of the dining room from the area just by the stairs. This view would disappear if the mezzanine was expanded. |
I loved the apartment! Clearly the office situation would be resolved and there was laundry in the basement plus a common roof deck. The bad thing: since the upstairs bedroom was small it would have to be Sarah’s and that wouldn’t work. There’s only 1 bathroom and it’s downstairs, and expecting a child to make their way downstairs during the night to use that bathroom could be challenging. Also the view was really not great. Even though the address is 240 North Henry, the entrance is on Norman Avenue and the view is drastically different.
Dana was nice and his daughter goes to PS 132, so it was interesting to hear his views. Of all the schools in Williamsburg it seems to have the best test scores. He was knowledgeable about the school too, saying that he thought the area was zoned for PS 110 and he was right! I had thought for some reason that the area was zoned for PS 34 but he didn’t think it’d be difficult to get into the school if we’re living in the vicinity.
However, due to the bathroom situation, and potential office issues, we crossed 240 North Henry off the short list and went to our next appointment to see 82 Guernsey. Certainly this apartment was going to make someone very happy, but it just didn’t fit our pretty unique needs like we needed.
$2500 / 2br – MODERN MASTERPIECE! 2BR DUPLEX W/ 20 FT CEIL, DISHWASHER,LAUND.STORAGE (Craigslist)
Northern Exposure: North Henry Street New-Build (Brownstoner)
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