best little house in brooklyn: August 2009

You may have guessed (or hoped...) from these early pictures of our little dream castle that no one had been living in it for some time, and that the previous occupant had been somewhat impaired or infirm. That is the case – we bought the house from an estate.

From the very beginning, there was a question about the straggling odds and ends of this estate. Between the first time we saw the place and when we closed on it, the executors had managed to remove some of the larger items. There were no longer beds and dressers in the rooms for instance. But the property was not exactly, as they say, broom clean...

Some items were small and had a kind of thrift store novelty, like the tie collection

Others were a bit bulkier

In all fairness, I should disclose that we (possibly only I – though I swear Mary Beth and I talked it through at one point...) waived the broom clean clause in the contract in exchange for a $400 credit. We had gone on New York City's department of sanitation website and it turned out they would take almost anything away provided you could get it to the curb. I figured some sweat on my part – even with an appliance handtruck – would effectively pay for a whole dumpster's worth of construction waste, which the city would not take. Plus – and this is the part I feel some shame about – Mary Beth and I, inveterate yard/tag/estate sale hunters, would get a chance to sift through what was left: a chance at gold.

There were some choice pieces, if you're into that kind of thing – though, if you're not, I can't say I recommend it.

c'mon people – a life preserver? You can't make this stuff up...

Power this baby on, they're landing on the moon!

When there was stuff we really didn't know what to do with (car door?!?) – well, that's when we turned to (one of several) neighborhood Bubs.

So, um, handy to have junkies in the hood... yeee.

Actually, Mary Beth and I worked hard to comply with the d.o.s. rules for disposing of this handsome harvest gold frigidaire

– we diligently scheduled our appointment so the CFC's could be controlled and collected. We labored in hot sweaty darkness to crowbar the doors off so no neighborhood kiddies would play inside and asphyxiate. Needless to say the fridge never made it that appointment. It was gone before the night was out.

Wish I could say that about everything else, but I can't.

A few weeks before we closed, mama Kennedy and niece Quinn came to visit. Everyone liked the little park in front of the new place.

Luckily, we had no keys yet and so were, um, unable to show them what some might fairly call the appalling interior of our little dream house. However, as the ladies were taking in the handsome exterior from the sidewalk, their scrutiny and admiration did not pass unnoticed. Even a slightly dazed next door neighbor, Dave, thought they might have more than passing interest in the place and introduced himself. The daze, he explained, was because his second baby had arrived only the day before. Whew!

Even delirious, Dave was extremely friendly and offered up his business card with the name of his documentary film company. His day job, though, he explained, is as an electrician.

An electrician! What could be luckier for a couple whose new fuse box – yes, actual glass fuse box – looked, well, like this...

eek!

Well, it turned out that what could be even luckier was that Dave and his family moved into their place about three years ago and did the exact kind of renovations that Mary Beth and I are doing now! He invited me over to see some of the improvements.

For instance, where we have a concrete slab with weeds in the cracks...