Thanks, Dave, I called around and it turns out the estimate is spot on- the filing fee is just a lot higher than I imagined. I can`t help resenting the DOB in some instances....

Posted by: sally at November 20, 2009 12:06 PM in response to Plumbing Estimate High?

Yes, there is more to the story, a complicatedly annoying one, but it needs to be done prior to a scheduled DOB inspection for a change of Cof O. Dave, Pete, do you know a liscenced plumber who could file and remove for a decent price? I`ve got to have a legiimate job number for this, even though I could do most of it myself....Thanks for any recs!!!!!!!

Posted by: sally at November 20, 2009 10:52 AM in response to Plumbing Estimate High?

I think you are confusing "zoning" with "certificate of occupancy".

Posted by: sally at September 3, 2009 8:08 PM in response to Changing Commercial Zoned Floor

I bought a 2 family with an illegal basement apartment. I easily turned the kitchen into a laundry room, removed the illegal shower and it became a duplex with the groundfloor apartment, enabling me to get as much rent or almost.

Posted by: sally at September 3, 2009 11:28 AM in response to Mortgage Contingencies

Thank you, Redoxalis!

Posted by: sally at August 15, 2009 12:15 PM in response to "Brownstone" Paint

rob, don`t be such a weedy snatch-brute. who do you think is going to be paying for your s.s. in the future, and holding the door for you with your walker/iron lung?

Posted by: sally at June 18, 2009 1:17 PM in response to Williamsburg Northside Schools

I have a herb garden.

Posted by: sally at June 15, 2009 5:35 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Had the same thing happened to me last spring. It was a honeysuckle. I think it`s got to be a van pulls up, to block the view from the neighbors.Everybody on my block has plants in their front yard but me. I am going to just plant ivy and things I can propagate from my back garden so I don`t feel like I`m throwing money in the garbage. I still fantasize about implanting tracking chips into plants, and then the police raiding the nursery they end up in.

Posted by: sally at June 7, 2009 2:47 PM in response to Stolen Plants

Muffin, I had to do this once too. You need a handyman/contractor to pull out the tub first.
Or, do it yourself with a strong person to help. Turn off the water line, then you cave in the old tub with a sledge so that you can remove it. Have you tried googling "japanese soaking tub"? They are small and deep.

Posted by: sally at June 5, 2009 12:42 PM in response to Where to find small bathtub?

Muffin, I have a tub that is 48" long and 28" wide and 17" deep. It is free standing and I would sell it for $100. It`s a very good looking tub.I just tried to upload a photo on the Forum but so far it`s not working.
I could email you a nice photo if you are interested. salross@verizon.net

Posted by: sally at June 5, 2009 12:22 PM in response to Where to find small bathtub?

Bobjohn, my tenants left a brand new, barely-been-used Magic Chef 30 bottle wine cooler. It is in my garage and sells for between $220-$300. I would like to sell it for $100 or another suggested price. If you would like to take it please email me at : salross@verizon.net

Posted by: sally at June 2, 2009 10:32 AM in response to Storing Wine in Brownstone

OP`s email: salross@verizon.net

Posted by: sally at May 26, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Getting Rid of Stuff

I had a similar situation. I bought a house and there was just all this dirt in various places that was full of rocks, glass, bits of brick, etc. I felt like it was just too much to toss it out, so I stacked up some cinderblocks in a u shape and spread some wire mesh over that and started shoveling all the dirt on top. Then I scraped the dirt through the holes with a garden spade. Then whatever was left on top, I pushed into contractor buckets. For some reason this was highly enjoyable. In the end, I had several buckets of gravely material and a huge pile of sifted, "dead" dirt. With a shovel I mixed in composted manure, peat moss, pearlite and sand, creating really good garden soil. The gravel stuff I used to make drainage layers in the bottoms of all my plant containers. I`m sure there was some waste, but I really can`t remember any big deal, like maybe one bag. It was just a lot of work but I really liked it.

Posted by: sally at April 14, 2009 4:43 PM in response to Backyard Soil Clean-up

I love this stuff too and wanted to install it at one point and ran into the same problem. I know that the corrugated metal is now square as opposed to the really great vintage wavey
style. I think it really works in a residential context especially with 19th century architecture. A great example of this is on Crosby St. between Grand and Spring on the west side of the street. Its painted black and has Ivy growing on it. I think it`s just called corrugated steel and it is simply screwed onto steel fenceposts in 4 X 8 sheets. This with blond pea gravel would be a great setting for outdoor sculpture in my opinion.

Posted by: sally at April 1, 2009 10:31 AM in response to question about fencing

When having our loft appraised, our "Kosher" household slid by with two kitchens.

Posted by: sally at March 24, 2009 12:26 PM in response to Two kitchens

I thought there was only one guy who ever did this in NYC, in Tribeca, on Reade St. off Greenwich, north side of the street in the only super modernist building on that block. Although he died, there is still his architectural firm in that building. Try researching the archive of the Tribeca Trib, the local neighborhood paper.I think he also did the neighbor`s house nextdoor. I remember reading that in order to drill so deep into the bedrock he needed to obtain an oil drilling permit. Hope this helps. -Sally

Posted by: sally at March 17, 2009 9:31 AM in response to going green with geothermal

What is this set of books? I just finished reading "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" an edible wild plant classic. It really challenged my concept of food and the consumer capitalist relationship to food. The book also gets into the history of these edibles that goes back to the middle ages in documentation.

Posted by: sally at February 26, 2009 8:56 AM in response to Forest Gardening

Perhaps you and some other tenants can buy the building from the bank.

Posted by: sally at February 26, 2009 8:47 AM in response to Rocket Factory foreclosure.

I`ll have what The What`s having.

Posted by: sally at February 25, 2009 10:29 AM in response to Open Thread

I think that it would be cheaper, labor-wise, to sheetrock than to clean this stuff off and attempt to smooth it out.

Posted by: sally at February 11, 2009 10:13 AM in response to What to do about basement walls

It all depends on what`s under there. Is it a stone wall or are those cinderblocks?

Posted by: sally at February 11, 2009 9:11 AM in response to What to do about basement walls

I can`t believe this. Get hold of yourself, Man! You`ve got kids. Give four, five months tops notice that the rent is going to one hundred bucks below market rate (one has to stay competitive) take it or leave it. That money you`ve been leaving on the table should be going to your kids education fund. Have some balls and pick up the phone.

Posted by: sally at January 8, 2009 1:13 PM in response to Raising Rent, Followup

I had this problem a few years ago. Except that I had the annoying benefit of having a good reason to get rid of the tenant. So I gave four months notice that the rent was increasing $500 take it or leave it. This increase still made it $500 below market rate. The timing was such that if the tenant decided to leave it would be May which is a good month to find new people. The tenant moved to BK and is probably reading this right now. A new tenant was found in one month at market rate.

Posted by: sally at January 8, 2009 12:03 PM in response to Raising the Rent

I did this last year, near to where this house is but on the Bushwick side of the border. Our house is similar, 2 fam. all original details including kitchen and bath (these however were probably added after the turn of the cen. since they didn`t have that kind of plumbing in 1870), and I say go for it. It is so much more valuble, if you are into antique stuff, to go through this process than to just get something else to save a little money. But it is not only stressful, it can be traumatic. The more realistic you are the less it will overwhelm you, so for starters, it`s going to take longer than one month. Concentrate on the rental apartment first. Work from the top of the house down if you can. What about the roof?Also, I can`t imagine that the amps in this place have been upgraded so there`s another couple of thousand right there. This house sounds rare, and if you feel that you really should save it and you feel a personal connection to it than you probably will make good decisions and have the satisfaction of enjoying it every day. If I can do anything to help, or if you want to see what I did to renovate my house, let me know.

Posted by: sally at December 19, 2008 9:02 AM in response to Crazy talk?

I`m a landlord and I don`t just approve of these machines, I bought and installed them in two apartments prior to renting. If the tenent understands the way to use the machine, I think they are great: very energy efficient, cheap to run, low water usage. In order for the machine to be useful, you have to wash only small amounts of like items, i.e. two pairs of jeans, a bunch of t-shirts, or some underwear and socks, at a time. You put them in before leaving for work in the morning -when you return in the evening, the load is washed and dried. It`s not meant to be something you use if you want clean dry clothes fast. In another apartment I installed regular fast high energy American style machines. They waste energy and water and unless you have a family with kids- they seem overkill, like an SUV or something.

Posted by: sally at October 30, 2008 7:41 AM in response to Tenant Wants to Install Own W/D

insideschools.org (which may fold from lack of funding) is the place for all public school info

Posted by: eman1234 at June 18, 2009 9:49 PM in response to Williamsburg Northside Schools

PS34 ranks well in test scores, and most parents are very happy there, but a lot of people (myself included) think that facilities and resources matter too. I think 34 is a very good neighborhood school, and would be happy to send my kid there if I lived there. People move to some neighborhoods just for the schools, but Greenpoint is not one of those neighborhoods - that's what I meant by not comparing with the best in Brooklyn.

PS132 is also a very good neighborhood school, with a very different philosophy (and it also lacks in facilities and resources). Personally, I prefer a more progressive pedagogy, but I also think its much more important that a school work - and both 34 and 132 do.

Regarding Northside Catholic Academy, that is different than Williamsburg Northside Preschool, which is what I was talking about. WNP is very good - don't know Northside Catholic, but I'll take your word on it.

Posted by: WBer at June 18, 2009 10:05 PM in response to Williamsburg Northside Schools

Rob, why does a childless hipster hating homo like yourself even read (nevermind comment) on a thread about Williamsburg elementary schools?

Posted by: Art Salt at June 18, 2009 11:57 PM in response to Williamsburg Northside Schools

After someone graffitied our painted brownstone we went to Pinchik to get a paint match. Although I had selected something from Benjamin Moore, Pinchik had a more perfect color already available. They just grabbed it off a shelf behind the counter. Now you can hardly tell where we had to repaint. If you paint the treads of the stair, make sure to mix some sand in the paint for traction.

Posted by: bessie2 at August 17, 2009 11:00 AM in response to "Brownstone" Paint

We are in the process of buying a 3-family in Brooklyn. We were supposed to close on June 6th and still don't have closing date partly because there was a prior illegal basement conversion that doesn't even exist anymore but is still on record with the DOB. I am a first-time buyer so I don't know what the lending climate used to be back in the good ole days, but our lender will absolutely not let us close if there are any outstanding violations or complaints related to the property.

Problem with the original complaint is that once the DOB gets in to inspect to see that work has been done, there seems to be no limit to the amount of issues they can find that will lead to interminable delays. One inspector (same guy each time!) has been there 4 times now and each time he finds something new. The first time, he discovered the fire-escape was not on center and needed to be moved 6 inches to the left. The second time he noticed there was a safety sign missing from the common hallway. The third time he realized that the new boilers the seller had installed did not have inspection permits on file. This last time he noticed that a vent was the wrong size.

At first I didn't mind the delays, because I figured it was good that they were finding all this stuff now and that the seller was having to fix it and not me later on down the road. But now I am starting to wonder if we will ever close. These inspectors should have some kind of a limit imposed: like if you don't find it on the first two visits and it is not a serious safety issue...too bad!

What a racket.

Posted by: landofenchantment at September 3, 2009 12:24 PM in response to Mortgage Contingencies

I agree with Slopefarm on item #2--find out what the bank means by removing the kitchen. I remember hearing that a kitchen is sometimes defined by the presence of a stove etc. so with out certain appliances you could possibly have a rec room.

Posted by: BHS at September 3, 2009 2:31 PM in response to Mortgage Contingencies

Okay yes then - is this changeable?

Posted by: swade at September 3, 2009 10:22 PM in response to Changing Commercial Zoned Floor

Okay yes then - is this changeable?

Posted by: swade at September 3, 2009 10:22 PM in response to Changing Commercial Zoned Floor

It is unlikely that a DOB inspector would drop by. More problematic would be a visit from the FDNY in the case of an alarm, false or otherwise. The FDNY is required to report any discrepancy in occupancy to the DOB. DOB may choose to act on that or not depending on the severity. You could under extreme conditions be forced to vacate although having the upper floors residential probably precludes that. You could get a violation that says "space is being occupied contrary to allowed zoning or C of O". This would cause all sorts of problems with financing and insurance for everyone in the building.
Furthermore, you couldn't simply bring the part you are living in up to residential code and ignore the rest of the space. The old AIR program simply allowed loft spaces artists occupied to be brought up to residential code over time but never allowed them to retain a lesser commercial status.
To actually answer your question, the entire space would have to be made legally residential.

Posted by: modsquad at September 4, 2009 8:49 AM in response to Changing Commercial Zoned Floor

Depending on the specific type of commercial zoning, residential occupancy on the 2nd floor may or may not be permitted. If zoning prevents ground- or second-floor residential occupancy, you'd have to change the zoning (which is often harder than just changing the C of O). If you have the address of the property, the Department of City Planning should be able to help. You can call their zoning help desk to find out exactly what's permitted.

Posted by: lgs782 at September 4, 2009 11:59 AM in response to Changing Commercial Zoned Floor