(This is a new column. In an effort to help apartment owners who are looking to sell without a broker and to show off cool apartments to readers looking for them, we are posting good ones that we stumble upon. Readers are welcome to submit as well to editor@apartmenttherapy.com and put "FSBO" in the subject line.)
Location: Park Slope
Size: Junior 1 Bedroom
Price: $315,000
Contact: Sorry, It's been SOLD.
Pitch:
As featured in ApartmentTherapy.com's House Tours, the stylish design of this apartment will also be featured this spring on HGTV's series, Small Space, Big Style!
Prime center Park Slope location, on President Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
-- PS 321 school district
-- Pets are allowed!
-- OPEN HOUSE: Sunday, January 22, 2005, 1:30 to 3:30 PM.
PRICING INFO
--This junior 1 bedroom coop apartment makes a great first home. Own for much less than the cost of renting!
--$315,000 asking price
--Low common charges of $408.50/month, 50 percent tax-deductible
UNIT FEATURES
-- Extremely sunny, south-facing exposure in an historic circa-1875 brownstone. The unit faces the rear yard, and is very quiet.
-- Nine foot ceilings and original moldings and paneled walls.
Original oak parquet floors.
-- New kitchen has oak cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and black Corian counters.
-- New bathroom has a walk-in tiled shower, pedestal sink, and large linen closet.
-- French doors separate the bedroom from the living room. When they are open, the apartment feels very open and loft-like.
-- The bedroom now features a large floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall custom closet by Elfa (from The Container Store) with adjustable shelves, clothing rods, and drawer units, so you don't even need a dresser.
-- Great Park Slope location, half a block from shops and dining on Seventh Avenue, 5 - 10 minute walk to the 2/3 and B/Q trains
cute, but a floorplan would be helpful here
Once it's sold, turn your Buyer onto this site, so we can see what THEY do with the space. Then put pictures of your next space up on here, too!
Oh. But by the way... the place DOES look great.
Help me, I'm in Connecticut. We 'burbs dwellers don't understand some of these things. What is a "junior" one bedroom? Does it mean the bedroom is really small?
That's a nice kitchen and a really cool door!
Just curious...what's the overall sq footage of the place? The asking price and maintenance seem REALLY reasonable.
Alas, I can't buy it -- but I'm delighted to see evidence that colorblocking those old-fashioned doors works so well. We have that kind, with the glass painted over, and I've been thinking of putting various artsy papers or images in the rectangles.
Second Curtis' suggestion that the buyer has to show what they do with it!
Marianne, "junior one bedroom" is a euphemism for "this isn't legally a one-bedroom, but the bed's in its own separate space."
Out here in the frivolous West, JR-1 usually means the bedroom nook has a window but no door. Since the advertised JR-1 has French doors between the bed area and living area -- and it's a rear-facing unit in a Victorian brownstone -- I'm thinking that the BR nook is one of those middle rowhouse rooms without its own window (or with a window that doesn't meet current code requirements for a bedroom).
Nice place! Wish I lived close-by.
Where is that great little futon from? I think I have a nook just waiting for something like that.
Kathryn
Someone asked Diana that before and I think she said it was from Ikea, but I don't see it on their website.
I've found "junior" one bedrooms where there is BARELY anything resembling a nook...some places will stick up a half-wall thing and call it a junior 1 br. Essentially Marianne, it's a way to try to milk more money from a studio! :) it's kind of funny except when it isn't.
Oh, and I think that futon might be an old Ikea style...but I could be wrong.
While we're on real estate terms, too, another one of my favorites is "Executive one bedroom." And, here in DC, I went to a studio that was called "new york style" by that, they didn't mean cosmopolitan so much as small.
Hi -- I am the owner. Thanks for all your Q's -- The whole apt. is 425 square feet. The bedroom does have its own window, as well as a 7' wide, 9' tall custom Elfa closet. The bedroom is not large but it's the standard bedroom size in these Park Slope brownstones. It's a real room, with real 130-year old paneled walls and two levels of ceiling moldings -- no fake walls here.
Diana,
I'd call it a 1 br then, if you can legitimately do so because there are so many people maligning the junior one bedroom out there! Great place...wish I lived in NY! (hmm, maybe I'll move...) :)
what did you use to color the glass on the french doors? they look amazing.
Okay, I got it. Thanks for all the replies! Since it does have its own closet and a door (it does have a door?), you should be able to call it a one bedroom.
When I was house hunting here in the 'burbs of NYC (still metro area), a bedroom was legitimately a bedroom if it had a closet. If it was a small room with no closet, no dice, no bedroom, we call that a "den".
I thought that a bedroom had to have a window. That's why in my building, they have "studio with home office" or "one bedroom with home office" - some of these home offices are HUGE and have big closets, but they still can't call them bedrooms.
Diana, I noticed in the other thread, you mentioned the apt was 350 sf. Is that 350 "liveable" and 425 w/bldg common area, closets, etc.? (I know these sf #s are much more art than science, and can vary a lot depending on which method is used.) Thanks!
I love those kitchen cabinets. I hope to look into something like yours to replace my old ones someday.
Good luck with your sale, congrats on the upcoming "Small Spaces..." program and thanks for sharing!
Cooking Cajun (enjoying swimming in the bay in January!....in Hawaii)
For what it's worth, here's my understanding of what a junior one bedroom is:
studio = a large rectanglur apartment
alcove studio = an L-shaped apartment (such that it's one open space, but there's a nook for the bed)
junior one bedroom = an alcove studio where someone put up a wall to separate the bedroom from the living room
Also, I suspect that most (if not all) junior one bedrooms have windows in the bedroom -- so, for NYC purposes, it would qualify as a "real" bedroom.
I live in a junior one bedroom that is 589 square feet and the bedroom is 8 feet by 12 feet (excluding a large closet) with a window. It's a small bedroom for sure, but I can fit a queen size bed, nightstand, dresser, chair, bookcase and TV stand.
the french doors are covered with colored vellum from Pearl Paint.
When i first bought the place i measured it within each room & it added up to just 350, and I was perversely proud to have such a small place, so I stuck with that figure. But the realtor had marketed it as 450, and I could never get that high with my own measurements. Finally I measured it the way a realtor would -- by going through walls -- and I came up with 425. The problem with the discrepancy is that EVERY SINGLE apartment marketed by a broker is overstated in terms of size, by about 10 to 20 percent. So people go around with a false idea of what say, 500 s.f. looks like, when in fact what they've been seeing is only 400 sf. So if I list mine with a conservative, small size, based on interior dimensions, everyone will think "oh, how awful," and not want to come see it. When in fact it's no smaller than other smallish one bedrooms. And size is not everything! A well-designed and well-thought out space can make up for a lot of square footage. Come see for yourself this sunday!
As the owner of a jr 1-bed in Manhattan, the way I've come to understand it- access to bathroom is solely through the bedroom- making it a jr-1 or converted alcove.
Creating an access to bathroom from main living area would bring it up from jr to a proper 1.