Photo Op For UK Magazine Article On Harlem

Posted on March 28, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

Friday we were around the house to talk to contractors and toward the end of the day we had a friend come by to see our place before going out for dinner, etc. We were doing a quick walking tour of the neighborhood and were over on Mount Morris Park West when a guy approached us and asked us if we lived in the area. We explained we just bought a shell nearby but didn’t live there yet. He said he was a photographer doing work for the Observer in the UK and they were doing a piece on the changes in Harlem and asked if he could take our picture. We walked him over to our place, showed him the inside and then he took some pictures of us on our stoop.

Well, the article came out, and thank god our picture wasn’t used… The article is titled “There Goes The Neighborhood…” and then continues to complain about the demographic changes that are going on in Harlem. It makes it sound like white people are taking over Harlem, when we’re actually just 15% of the population (in Central Harlem). The article in the NY Times earlier this year was far more balanced and objective. White people aren’t taking over Harlem, if anyone is taking over Harlem, it’s Latinos and Asians.

Here’s one snippet from the Observer article that gives you an idea of where it’s coming from…

It is no surprise that the changes in Harlem anger some. Tarik Haskins, 61, makes a living by selling CDs from a stall on 125th Street … He is furious at the changes he sees around him. “It is a threat to the indigenous people. We do not have the same salaries as these new people. Our choices are more limited,” he said. What is the answer? “We have to organise,” replied Haskins, who proudly wears a Black Panther badge.

The “indigenous people” comment is laughable. Harlem was built for white people and initially occupied by white people. One of our (white) neighbors found out that her grandmother was born in Mount Morris Hospital which used to be down the street from where we are. When she gets snide comments about her not belonging she loves to bring up her grandmother and tell the person she has as much right to be there as they do.

The other problem with that statement is that if you go over to “SoHa” (centered around Frederick Douglass Boulevard south of 125th Street), where the gentrification is most dramatic, you’ll see the bars and restaurants are filled with “buppies” – hard working, educated, successful BLACK 30-somethings. Sure there are some high-income white people buying places, but the far bigger trend has little to do with race and everything to do with economic class. Harlem is gentrifying and getting more expensive. That’s going to change things, but it’s more likely that a higher-income Black or Latino will be displacing the lower-income Black, than a white person. Most of the white people I’ve met in Harlem bought (and often renovated) long-vacant townhouses and displaced no one in the process.

Personally, Dan and I aren’t displacing any poor black people – our house has been vacant for at least a decade and, by New York standards, we’re hardly rich. While we’re not black, we are an interracial couple, and being gay we’re both minorities. I’m sure some people might resent me moving into Harlem, but I’ve got nothing to apologize for and in time they’ll get used to it.

That said, I do completely understand that systemic and deep poverty are still real problems in Harlem and that the poverty is strongly correlated with race. You’d be hard pressed to find many New Yorkers who don’t understand that. But leaving Harlem a run down ghetto is hardly the way to fix the poverty problem.

One of the things I learned early on about New York is to never complain too much about change. Change is a constant in NY and the City would stagnate and die if it didn’t change. Change is usually good. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing, to see Harlem get cleaned up, vacant, burned out buildings get rebuilt, and fancy new condos go in.

We still need to take care of those who are less fortunate and to that end our back yard abuts the back yard of some brownstones that are being turned into affordable housing, and catty corner across Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd is an 11 story housing project. The Harlem of the future can and should accommodate the needs of a diverse group of people – black, white, Latino and Asian; rich, middle class, and poor. People shouldn’t be scared of diversity – hell, that’s what makes New York a special place.

Differences Between 1, 2, 3, 4+ Family Townhouses

Posted on March 23, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

In our process of immersing ourselves in every thing townhouses we’ve discovered there are some big differences in the way NYC law treats similar townhouses that differ only in the number of units they have.

Big Differences In Taxes Between 1-3 Family and 4+ Family

The first thing we noticed as we got to know Harlem townhouses was that there was a huge difference in how taxes are calculated once you hit 4 or more units. To the point where it can make no sense to have the 4th unit – it’s better to stick to a 3 unit building in many cases.

Let’s say you want to buy 1990 Madison. It’s a huge ark of a building – 20′ x 54′ x 5 stories. That’s a whopping 1080 sq. ft. per floor, and 5,400 sq. ft. in total. You probably think it would be great as a 5 family building… Let’s see if that’s right…

The current appraised market value is $673K. That’s going to go up after you do renovations on the place. Let’s say you do $100/sq. ft. in renovations and spend $540,000. Typically people don’t report the entire cost of renovation to the City since the building permits are priced based on the cost of work being done, so let’s say you report 1/3rd of that amount ($180K) to the Department of Buildings. The Department of Finance seems to be in the habit of picking up the renovation amounts and adding them to the market value, so your market value will wind up around $850K.

Next, the City takes 45% of the market value to determine the assessed value which comes out at $382,500 for buildings in tax class 2 (residential with four or more units). However, the City has what it calls a “transitional assessed value” to ensure that if property tax values fluctuate rapidly that actual taxes only go up at a rate that people can deal with. Right now the transitional assessed value is on that building is $243,990. Since that’s lower than $382,500, you’ll pay based on the transitional assessed value rather than the actual assessed value. The owners have some tax exemptions, but we’ll assume you don’t have any since you don’t know whether you’ll get the same exemptions they get. You then apply the tax rate of 0.13241 to the (transitional) assessed value and you come out with taxes of $32,307/year.

Now, let’s see what the taxes would be if it were a 3 family… Start with the market value of $850K but instead of taking 45%, you take 6% to determine the assessed value because you’re in a different tax class – tax class 1 instead of tax class 2. That comes out to an assessed value of $51K. That’s WAY lower than the transitional assessed value of $243,990, so you’ll pay taxes on $51K instead of $244K… However, the tax rate is higher on 1 to 3 family homes – 0.17088 instead of 0.13241, but even at the higher tax rate the taxes come out to $8,715/year instead of $32,307/year! In other words, you’ll save $23,592/year having it as a 3 family instead of a 4 or 5 family.

So, you’ll be losing $2K/month just in taxes and that will get worse as time goes on and the 5 unit scenario loses the benefit of the transitional assessed value and starts paying market rate taxes like the 3 family scenario was paying all along. Imagine taking the top 3 floors and making them into a triplex. If a single floor went for maybe $2,000/mo, the triplex could easily go for $4,000/mo and you’d be ahead because the taxes situation would be on your side as time went on.

In 5+ family buildings it’s often hit or miss in terms of which will do better – a 3 family or a 5 family. But in most cases a 4 story building configured as 3 family will be more profitable for the landlord than the same building configured as 4 family. In other words, you pay more in taxes than you get in additional rent with the 4th unit. However, because many buildings have low transitional assessed values, developers continue to configure them as 4 family. But when the transitional assessed value goes up and gets near the actual assessed value it’s smarter to reconfigure them as 3 family buildings.

I should mention that there are egress issues if you put in duplex or triplex units. The main staircase is usually the egress stairs so all units share it so they have access to the roof in the event of a fire. You can’t block that staircase and give it to the top unit and a second staircase would take up valuable space. The object is to give every unit two means of egress. The garden unit has front door and garden. The top unit has front door and roof. The problem are any units in the middle, so the solution is to put a staircase down from the parlor floor into the garden. Which means all floors above parlor need to be one unit. If you have a 4 story townhouse, that means a duplex. If you have a 5 story townhouse that means you’ll have a triplex. For developers that want to add a 6th floor to maximize their F.A.R. (maximum buildable space) there may be a problem since there may not be a big enough rental market for quadraplexes in Harlem, but by the point you get to 6 units the additional rent may very well easily cover the additional tax.

Significant Differences In Fire Code Between 1-2 Family and 3+ Family

We didn’t realize until recently how big of a difference there was between 2 family and 3 family. One of the big difference is the sprinkler system – generally, 3+ family buildings need them, 1-2 family buildings don’t. It may not sound like much, but among other things sprinkler systems have to be piped with cast iron piping (copper piping will melt in a fire) – they don’t come cheap. That means a sprinkler system will add at least $50K to your budget if you need one – possibly as much as $100K if you need to sprinkler the entire building. That’s a big chunk of change and will be a big part of any renovation budget.

Correction: We’ve found, by submitting plans and having them rejected, that most townhouses require full sprinkler systems – even 1 and 2 family homes.

The bigger issue is that 3+ family buildings are “Group R-2” where 1 and 2 family units are “Group R-3” (which are the same as the older “J-2” and “J-3” classifications). Things are just more lenient all around if you’re R-3 which means it’s less expensive to build a 2 family than it is to build a 3 family (not even taking into consideration the extra kitchen and bathrooms).

Of course, if you’re a landlord you may eventually recoup the cost of the sprinkler system with the extra rent from the 3rd unit. Plus your building may come with a usable sprinkler system. However, you just have to realize that you’ll be judged by a more demanding standard when you file for building permits and when you revise your C of O.

Smaller Differences In Building Code Between 1 and 2 Family

So far it seems the differences between 1 and 2 family aren’t all that big. In two family you need things like fire protection between the units, but that can be achieved by using two layers of drywall instead of one which is a pretty minor detail.

In my mind 2 family is a bit of a sweet spot – you get some extra income but don’t get slammed with major expenses upfront for construction or down the road in taxes…

The Least Expensive HVAC Solution For A NYC Townhouse

Posted on March 21, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

One of the major items in our budget it the HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. Every contractor seems to want to talk about it. After talking to quite a few of them it seems there’s a general consensus as to what system is best on a tight budget.

The Expensive Options

There are a lot of options. One of the more popular ones is forced air. With a forced air system you get heating and central air conditioning pumped through duct work. It seems forced air systems start at about $60K and can get much more expensive as you add things like zoning, air exchange handlers, humidifiers, air filters, etc. Plus they tend to blow dust around the house and NYC air is dirty enough as it is…

Another option is to have smaller zoned forced air systems throughout the house, typically in a dedicated closet. This basically takes the forced air idea and puts several smaller units throughout the house that handle only a floor or two. We went into some houses that had them and they’re quite noisy, and also pretty expensive.

One person suggested PTAC units which are hotel style thru-wall, combined heating and cooling units. But those generally use electricity for heating which is absurdly expensive in NYC or they require plumbing gas lines into every room (also expensive). And they’re noisy and not as energy efficient as other solutions.

Then there are decentralized heating and cooling units which are supplied with heated or cooled water and blow water over fins attached to the pipes to heat and cool the room. But their cost is pretty high.

The Consensus Solution For People On A Tight Budget

However, what everyone seems to agree is pretty effective and inexpensive (and what we’re going with) is having a boiler that powers radiant heating and combining that with a “mini split system” for cooling.

Radiant Heating

On the heating side, it turns out that hot water is more efficient than old style steam – but the concept is pretty much the same… You pump something hot through a radiator and it warms up the room – just as they’ve been doing in New York for over a hundred years. These days the plumbing is done with high quality plastic (“PEX”) tubing and it’s quite popular to make the floor the radiator and have “radiant floor” heating, but that costs substantially more than simple radiators. If we had the budget, we would do radiant floor heating since it’s the most pleasant form of heating to live with. But our budget is tight, so we’ll stick to normal rads.

Mini Split System For Cooling

On the cooling side we’ll have 2 or 3 condenser units on the roof that will pump refrigerant to small units in each room. That means every room is a zone which is great for keeping cooling costs down since we’ll only be cooling a few rooms in the house at any given time. Also, much of the noise is relegated to condensers on the roof and the units in the room are pretty quiet. The units can also act as heat pumps. However, since we’ll be positioning them near the ceiling they probably won’t be as effective at heating as the hot water rads will be. Still, if we want to take the chill out of a room we can do it without turning on the whole boiler.

The mini spit systems have three types of units for in the room. The standard is a wall or ceiling mounted unit that’s just under 3 feet long. It’s not the most attractive thing, but it can be very efficient. The the other highly efficient option is a “ceiling cassette” however, they don’t fit between 16″ joists, so you have to plan ahead for them. In our case they’re 10″ deep and our joists are only 8″, so we’re not going to use them since we’d have to create some sort of bump down in the ceiling. The last option is a ducted version which can be put in a nearby closet and then you run a short duct to one or two rooms. However, you lose some efficiency in the duct work. The most efficient mini split systems combine one condenser with one room unit and they can get up around 25 SEER, which is excellent. You can also have one condenser power multiple room units – up to 4 at a time. Though the more room units you power the lower the efficiency and SEER ratings. There are condensers that power two room units that get as high as 18 SEER, but typical SEER values are more like 15 or 16 for the multi-room systems.

A/C Sleeves In The Rental

Of course there are air conditioning solutions that are less expensive than mini split systems… In the rental unit we’ll go even simpler and put air conditioning sleeves in the sidewall. Unlike most townhouses we do have a sidewall that’s all ours (not a “party wall”). The A/C sleeves are less expensive than a mini split system and more than adequate for a rental.

I Feel Like Goldilocks Picking A Contractor In NYC

Posted on March 21, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

Finding the contractor who’s “just right” for our Harlem townhouse renovations makes me think of Goldilocks… There are so many different types of contractors and so many of them just aren’t right for our particular project.

Uptown vs. Downtown

One thing we’re noticing is that a lot of the good contractors usually work on projects downtown that have big budgets. One construction manager two days ago kept throwing out the number $2 million when he was discussing a budget. That’s nearly 4 times our budget and the fact that he kept using that number over and over and over again to us meant he just wasn’t right – he’d probably never understand our budgetary constraints.

Then there was another contractor who seemed to have rich clients that kept changing their minds. To him the design was fluid and he expected it would change substantially while it was being built. In contrast, we know we have to get it nailed down as much as possible before contractors give their final bids so there are as few change orders as possible. I’m sure he’s great with rich clients who really don’t have budgetary limits and want their every whim to be indulged, but we do have budgetary limits and we need the contractor who understands that.

One of contractors who’s made it onto our short list was a guy who came in with his partner who does structural work. One of the first things they asked was how much we paid for the building and how much we thought it would be worth when we were done. They then threw out a number that was close to our budget and understood that we needed to come in near that number.

Large Projects vs. Small Projects vs. Townhouse Guts

The other day we had a contractor in who we had wished we had gone with for our apartment renovations (he was too expensive). He does incredible work. He came into our townhouse and was clearly overwhelmed. He told us he could only bid on the project once we had floors in place so he could get a sense of the scope of work. The structural work completely freaked him out. We explained it was being funded with a rehab loan and it was an all-or-nothing package deal.

Then there are the guys who only work on huge projects. The mechanical engineer our architect had us sit down with just didn’t understand (initially) that you don’t need the same level of heating and cooling systems in a townhouse as you would a commercial space with the same square footage. It took him a while to think small. The same goes for some of the contractors who work on larger buildings and are used to huge HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems. They just think big and big comes with big price tags.

Another guy came in and he seemed like a good guy who would do a great job. But he was used to doing commercial work where everything is spec’d out in incredible detail by the time he gets called in. He said he wanted absolutely everything spec’d before he gave a proposal – the HVAC system, structural, the windows, the doors – everything. In contrast our goal in bringing the contractors in early was to understand the ways they would do things to stay on budget. We didn’t want to spec a system that could be done more cheaply. I felt a little sorry for him ’cause it was clear he was used to working on buildings that were much larger than ours but he said at the moment he’s just doing a few little jobs and that our project was substantial enough that would keep him going for a number of months. I mentioned that other contractors were giving us estimated budgets with allowances for materials that hadn’t yet been spec’d. A light bulb went off in his head and he said “Oh, I could do that”, but then he never did get back to us with a proposal.

NYC vs non-NYC, Harlem vs. Other Neighborhoods

Then we’ve had some contractors who’ve come in from places like Long Island who seemed freaked out by the City. One was shocked that he got a ticket one time when he left his car for 5 minutes while he was giving out pay checks. Experienced NYC contractors have guys watching or sitting in their cars while they’re at the job. The ones outside New York also don’t seem to know how to deal with NYC Department of Buildings. They complain about how long it takes to get approvals and inspections. The experienced NYC contractors talk about their expediters, and how they’ve done enough work in particular neighborhoods (Harlem) to get to know the inspectors and the types of things they look for.

Then there are others who just won’t work in Harlem because there tend to be theft problems in Harlem (e.g. tens of thousands of dollars worth of copper piping getting stolen). Compare that to a contractor who does a lot in Harlem who said “Yeah – I just put in a temporary alarm system – when there’s a break in, the police are called and my partner and I are called.” He knew how to deal with the neighborhood – it was no big deal to him.

Developer vs. Homeowner vs. Flippers

Yesterday we had a contractor come by. He and his partner were great guys who were extremely nice to deal with. They flat out asked our budget, we told them and they said “Wow – that’s exactly the number we were thinking when we did rough cost per square foot numbers yesterday”. HOWEVER, when I looked into the projects he’s worked on there were a lot of large apartment buildings (50+ units), and the townhouses were all chopped up into floor-through rentals. Property Shark had interior photos for some of the brownstones he’d worked on and they all showed low-end “builder’s grade” materials.

When we did the renovations of our bathrooms and kitchens in our old apartment we went with a guy who mostly worked for people who were flipping apartments. We learned that was a bad idea. People who flip come out with places that look great, but they don’t care about long term quality. The foreman he assigned blew up at me when I told him green board couldn’t be used in showers. I pulled the product spec sheet and showed him that it specifically said it couldn’t be used there and his response was “I’ve used it in million dollar homes” as if that mattered.

Simply put, homeowners want different things than people who are developing for renters or to flip. A developer/landlord wants something that’s cheap and functional. A flipper wants something that looks good and doesn’t care how long it holds up. A homeowner wants something that looks good and will stay looking good for a long time. Each of those types of customers need a different type of construction and hence a different type of contractor.

Contractors Who Finish vs. Those Who Don’t

Another criteria we’re starting to look at is whether the projects the contractor works on ever get their Certificates of Occupancy. A remarkable number of townhouse projects never actually get a new C of O. They may get a couple temporary ones, but then just never finish off the final details to get the final C of O. Since you need a C of O to legally rent an apartment it’s something we’re looking at pretty closely.

General Contractors (GCs) vs. Construction Managers (CMs)

Going into this we knew what a GC (General Contractor) was, but had never heard of a CM (Construction Manager). One CM came by to do a pitch and in the process they explained how they’re different than a GC. What it boils down to is that a GC hires all of the sub-contractors and is responsible for them. You pay a GC and he pays the subs. If you have a problem you have it with the GC. A construction manager is a consultant who takes a percentage as a fee. They’re not responsible for the sub-contractors instead they try to help the owner choose and manage the subs.

While I think a construction manager is a perfect solution for a busy executive who has more money than time, in our situation we want one person who’s responsible for the project. If the plumber is interfering with the work of the electrician we don’t really care – we want one and only one person who is ultimately responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly.

“Just Right”

So, after quite a few contractor interviews we’ve finally decided we want someone…

Who has worked on a lot of townhouses
Who has worked a number townhouses in Harlem
Who can deliver significantly better than “builder’s grade” finishes
Whose projects get C of Os when they’re done
Who is comfortable with structural work without overdoing it
Who knows how to do work on a tight budget

Luckily we do have a few options who seem to meet many of those criteria. We’re still vetting them – calling references, looking at previous projects, etc. The short list is taking shape and should be in place by the time we’ve got all the specs ready.

Our Townhouse Architectural Plans Taking Shape

Posted on March 16, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

There’s still a lot of work to be done on all the details, but we’ve pretty much got the layout of our townhouse determined. (Click on any image to see it bigger).

Our place is a 5 story townhouse that’s a narrow(ish) 15′ in width. It’s attached to sibling townhouse to the east (to the left as you look at the front of the building), but there’s an alleyway to the west between it and the apartment building next to it. The windows look off center because one sidewall is shared (and hence our portion of that wall is narrower which throws off the symmetry).

We’re still working on the window situation. What’s drawn is a casement window over a fixed pane transom. We need to do some measurements this weekend, but it may turn out that only double hung windows fit the current window openings since they’re wider than 3 feet. If we’re going to do casements in the front we have to make sure they’re in before the block is landmarked – apparently there are people who want to do it and there’s even a meeting about it tonight. Landmarking will help the value, but restrict what we can do in terms of development including what windows we can put on the front façade. Just for reference, the window next to the front door is huge – 4 1/2′ wide by 7 1/2′ tall! The window next to the door in the back (parlor floor) is 3 1/2′ wide by 8′ tall. We’ll may have to narrow the back windows to 3′ since that’s the maximum width for casement windows before you get into expensive custom “architectural” windows. We could also do double hung windows back there, but I’d really rather have casements.

The back side is south facing, so tons of light. The front faces north.

One thing that we loved as we were looking at townhouses was the quality of the light as you went up in the building and got light from the skylight. We’re not actually doing a skylight, instead we’re doing a bulkhead with south facing windows – just as you see in a lot of European factories. This should improve the quality of the light since it will reduce the light at noon in the summer when the sun is high in the sky, and increase the light in the winter when the sun is lower on the horizon. We’re devoting an bigger area than normal to the stairs and wrapping them around a “light well” which will bring the wonderful light down deeper into the building.

As you can see in the section view the house is basically a 6 bedroom owner’s unit over a 1 bedroom rental unit that has “accessory space” in the cellar. It may seem odd to have a 6 bedroom place in Manhattan, but if you think about a family with three kids – that’s three bedrooms for the kids + a master bedroom for the parents + a home office + a playroom/lounge for the kids. Even at 2 kids it makes sense – then they’d have a spare bedroom for guests.

Most townhouses are 4 floor buildings. We’re lucky to have a 5th floor. Dan’s a sculptor who’s never had enough space to do his work. One of our objectives in getting a townhouse was to give him space to do his art in a place where he could make as much noise as he wanted to (apartment buildings have lots of rules about noise). Initially he thought he’d take the cellar for art, but when this building had a 5th floor we decided to give it all to him for his art. In the back he’ll have a “dirty studio” which can get as messy as he wants. In the front will be his “clean studio”, and gallery space (if he can get people to walk up all those flights to look at the art). The dirty studio faces south so it will have tons of light and the gallery will get flooded with light from the bulkhead windows. However, FDNY may make us put a wall up between the stairs and the studio since it’s a bit of a fire hazard to have an open room at the top of a stairwell since fire spreads vertically. If that happens we’ll put a big window in the wall. In the middle will be a “utility room” that can easily be converted to another bathroom. It will have a slop sink, a small kitchenette, and some storage. The ceiling height on this floor will go gradually up and taper with the slope of the roof. In the back it will probably be about 8′, and in the front more like 9′.

One floor down will be my office. The fact that I’ve been self-employed for 9 years now (and for 3 years in the early 90s) is another reason why we needed more space. I need a proper office and that’s what will be in the front of the 3rd floor. Any street noise there might be won’t bother the office, unlike the guest bedroom which we’ve put in the back of the building. In the middle is a bathroom with an attached laundry room with a stacked washer/dryer. There will be exposed brick along the wall with the hallway. The other three walls will be insulated and sheetrocked since they’re exposed exterior walls. The ceilings are a nice 9′ high on this floor.

The next floor down is the floor just over the parlor and is traditionally called the “master/mistress floor” because the husband would have a bedroom in the front, and the wife a bedroom in rear and in the middle would be connecting dressing rooms. That let each spouse have a separate bedroom, but let them discretely go between the rooms as they desired.

We’ll have our master bedroom in the rear and a 2nd guest bedroom / den in the front. Since there wasn’t room for a second bathroom on the floor we’re putting in a pocket door so we can share our master bathroom if we have a lot of guests. The bathroom is smaller than some might want, but it’s plenty big for us. We opted to have a bigger master bedroom and a smaller master bath. I should mention that each of the bedrooms has about 10′ of closets – which we’ll really enjoy. There is a wood burning fireplace shown on the plans. It doesn’t use the existing chimney (which is on the opposite wall). It was just easier to put in a new fireplace and a new chimney. However, chances are the fireplaces will get cut due to a tight budget. But they’re something that can be done almost as easily at a later date. The ceilings are a whopping 10′ on this floor.

The parlor floor is always the most grand floor in a townhouse. Ours has 10 1/2′ ceilings, though we’re considering raising the floor 6″ (which would lower the ceiling height) to give more ceiling height in the apartment on the floor below. Historically the kitchens were a floor below and they had servants that would bring the food up. There would have been a sitting room in the front, a dining room in the middle and a living room in the rear. In most modern layouts the living room is in the front, the kitchen in the rear and the dining room in the middle. We’re changing that around and putting the kitchen in the front because we want the living room in the rear where it’s quieter, more private, and more connected to the living space in the back yard. Ultimately we’re going for an open concept loft-like space on this floor. When you come in the front door we want an unobstructed view to the back.

One of the objectives in buying a townhouse was to have a back yard, so there are stairs going down so we have use of the back yard. We could have put in another rental unit on the parlor floor pretty easily and made it into a 3 family, but then the only outside space we would have had would have been the roof deck. The back yard isn’t huge – just 15′ x 26′ (390 sq. ft.) but it’ll still be really nice to have it.

It was tricky fitting a bathroom on this floor. The thing is you don’t want people using a bathroom next to where you’re making food, and you don’t want to think about someone else using the bathroom when you’re in the living room, and you definitely don’t want it to be an issue when you’re eating. The best solution was to tuck it under the stairs and put a privacy screen between it and what will be the dining area. We’ll just have the rule that if you need to use the bathroom during dinner you need to go and use one of the bathrooms on the upper floors.

The rental unit will help carry the cost of the (rather large) mortgage we have to get on the place. So it’s important that we have a nice rental apartment so it will rent quickly and for a good price. We’re including 1/2 of the cellar in the rental as a “accessory space” (see floor plan below). You’re not legally allowed to have a bedroom that’s fully below grade, but renters can use it as a media room, artist studio or home office. There will be about 725 sq. ft. on the main ground floor and another 225 or so in the cellar – so it will be over 1,050 sq. ft. The tenant will have access to the back yard, but we want the back yard to primarily be ours. So how much they’re allowed to use it will depend on how we get along with the tenant and how much we find ourselves using it. Ceiling height will be at least 8′. We’re thinking about raising the floor above and taking 6″ from the parlor level and lowering the floor in the rental 6″ in the living/kitchen area. Those two things would give 9′ ceilings in much of the rental and over 8′ ceilings elsewhere.

The one odd part about the building is that there are two entrances under the stoop. There’s a 3′ wide staircase down into the cellar, and a 2′ entrance to the ground floor. The 2′ entrance is not up to code and we doubt we can get it grandfathered, so we’re thinking we’ll need to make what was once the window into the legal door. The tenant can use either, but we’ll put french doors on the legal door so it can read visually as either a door or a window.

We have a “C2-4” commercial overlay on the property which means we can use the ground floor (and even the parlor floor) for commercial purposes. In regular economic times a commercial tenant would be better since they’d probably pay as much or more in rent and only be there during the day. We’ve done the layout so if you take out the kitchen it’s a viable office space or small store, hair salon, etc. However, we won’t be trying to get a commercial use specified in the C of O. We’re amending plans for 2 family building the prior owner got approved. If we went the commercial route it would cost us a lot more money. Down the road we can think about changing that – but not now.

Here you see how the tenant gets half of the cellar. There’s a mechanical room in the center and storage for us in the front. The townhouse is unique in having a “vault” under the “front yard”. Usually the utilities are brought in under the stoop, but since there are stairs under the stoop they created a little stone walled room with a rustic arched brick ceiling (that’s having problems). It’ll make a wonderful little wine cellar or dungeon – depending on your proclivities 🙂

So there you have it – top to bottom… Hopefully in a year we’ll be living in it!