December 21, 2005

New Build Odyssey Yields Top Floor Rental

A regular reader contacted us wondering if we'd publicize the top-floor rental in his newly completed modern townhouse in Boerum Hill that should be ready for February 1 residency. Sure, we said, if you share your construction experience with the group. He kept his side of the bargain, so we'll keep ours. Get the details on the $2,750 a month 2-bedroom at the end of the post.

Our Modern Suburban Dream Home....in Brooklyn
We always wanted to build a modern dream home, but we had planned to do it in a suburban plot outside of San Francisco. Plans changed, we got older, and we found ourselves enjoying life in Brooklyn but still pining for our modern dream house. Well, we're finally getting it, if we can only get power! We took the best of the suburbs: a garage, a backyard, a laundry room, room for 2 kids and a dog and found a way to cram it into a modern shell in Boerum Hill. Some things I've learned along the way and a few stories follow. GMAP

Finding a lot
Finding a vacant lot in Brooklyn is nearly impossible. We searched and searched to no avail... then about two years ago, we stumbled upon a listing, from Corcoran no less, for a small house in Boerum Hill that needed tons of work....but it had a side yard that was equal in size to a full brownstone lot (22.5 x 100). We weren't sure if the city would allow us to sub-divide the lot, but we decided we could always build a cool addition to the existing house and still end up with something nice. In the end, we were able to sub-divide the lot and we renovated and sold the existing house in order to help raise the money to build our dream house.

The Architect
We loved our architect Tina Manis, from the get-go and highly recommend her if anyone is thinking about a similar undertaking. Her design sensibility aligned perfectly with ours and we all got along well. Since we had thought about doing this for so long, we were unusually prepared clients. We created our own programmatic outline for the house, which I strongly suggest. Basically this is just a list of all the spaces you want in your house and the associated square footage. Creating your own program really makes you think about what you want in your house and how to prioritize it. If you work backward from your target budget and divide by the expected cost per square foot, you'll know roughly how many square feet you can build. For example: lets say you can afford a mortgage of $600,000 and your hard + soft costs will be around $300/sq. ft., then you can only afford to build a 2000 sq. ft. house. Now that you have your max sq. ft, you can figure out what spaces are really most important to you. I found it helpful to carry a tape measure around and and when I found a room that felt like a good match for one of the rooms in our new house, i would measure it.

The Builder
We took the unusual approach of including our builder, Kudos Construction, in the process early on. They had worked with our architect before and she vouched for their workmanship. They were also very familiar with her uniquely modern construction details. Make a note of this if you decide to build modern. Your typical NY contractor has no idea what a "floating door hinge" is or how to detail a "flush baseboard with a 1/2" reveal". So far we're very happy with the builder and the quality of the construction.

The Problems
Cost overruns- there's no avoiding it... they're just inevitable. Be sure to include a serious contingency budget if you plan to build from scratch. When you open the ground, you just never know what you'll find. In our case, it was our neighbors foundation which caused the biggest problem early on. Apparently 100 years ago, when many of the buildings around Brooklyn were built, they used any old rocks lying around the site to build the foundation from. Sure they stand up fine, but when you dig a hole and expose a 100 year old wall, there's a good chance that i could collapse. We ended up having to revise our structural plans- build a concrete retaining wall 10' deep and we had to find a way to cut about 8" out of the width of the building (i'm still hoping we can open our car door in the garage!).

Our latest glitch is with Con Edison. If things continue on the current course, we'll have a beautiful modern home that is completed, but no electricity...therefore no heat...therefore we can't move in! First Con-Ed wouldn't accept our application because they said they were too busy. Then they lost our paperwork. Now they're telling us we won't have power until late January! We considered sucking juice from one of our neighbors, but figured it wasn't worth the risk of getting caught and causing further delays.

Financing
For anyone considering this, turns out that the financing side of the equation is actually rather straight forward and simple. Yes, you have to have the cash to buy the lot and get the architectural work completed. But, once you have approved plans, you simply go to a bank and get a "construction to perm" loan. Turns out a loan like this is about as easy to get as a regular mortgage except that the bank has to review your plans. Once you close on the loan, the process is very straightforward. Each month, you and your contractor request disbursements from the bank, then at the end it all converts into a mortgage. One thing to keep in mind is that you have to make interest payments on the balance during the construction period, so that year can be a bit of a cash drain.

The Rental
One of the ways we were able to make our project work for us financially was to include a rental on the top floor. The incremental cost to add a second unit was not that great, but the incremental dollars sure help. We're hoping to find someone to rent the apartment who shares our love of modern design and will appreciate the building as much as we do. The apartment has two bedrooms, one bath, an open kitchen, a living dining area, washer/dryer, and a sliding glass door that leads to a private patio. It is of course brand new and features many unique modern details. The apartment is available just as soon as we get power, probably February 1. The rent is $2750/month (heat is included). Contact: rfeifer@greyinteractive.com

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