Small Talk: Elevator Chat

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

@shapeshifter and @EtheltoTillie, with all the talk about real estate in NYC curiosity lead me to look up the apartment I grew up in in NYC from the time I was about 6 until I was 15. You'll remember it's the one that could be seen from the 215th St. smokestacks we discussed a couple of weeks back. I periodically look it up but never found anything on that specific apartment until today. It seems that it was very recently sold for $219,000 and is now listed as "under contract". The building went co-op in the '80s I believe, like so many other buildings in NYC at the time. I thought I'd share the listing with you as it has many photos of the interior. Note that the photos have been virtually staged but you can still see the very real floors, walls and windows, which used to be drafty metal sliding windows that were awful.

It has undergone renovation over the years. The tiny kitchen is not at all like it was when I lived there - Even though it looks like it needs an update it's still more up to date than it was in the 1960s. The only things still the same are those beautiful hardwood floors and believe it or not, the tub, which is the exact same one! That bathroom used to be all-pink, LOL, even the sink (which didn't have any cabinet) and the toilet. One of those 1960s things.

So here it is. It looks so much more "luxurious" than it did when I lived there! 😉

https://www.compass.com/listing/2545-sedgwick-avenue-unit-3b-bronx-ny-10468/1534900922563295721/?origin=listing_page&origin_type=copy_url

Also, those photos make it look bigger than it was. It was only 800 square feet. My bedroom was 10x10 feet.

Nice!!!

[EtheltoTillie]

4 hours ago, Yeah No said:

@shapeshifter and @EtheltoTillie, with all the talk about real estate in NYC curiosity lead me to look up the apartment I grew up in in NYC from the time I was about 6 until I was 15. You'll remember it's the one that could be seen from the 215th St. smokestacks we discussed a couple of weeks back. I periodically look it up but never found anything on that specific apartment until today. It seems that it was very recently sold for $219,000 and is now listed as "under contract". The building went co-op in the '80s I believe, like so many other buildings in NYC at the time. I thought I'd share the listing with you as it has many photos of the interior. Note that the photos have been virtually staged but you can still see the very real floors, walls and windows, which used to be drafty metal sliding windows that were awful.

It has undergone renovation over the years. The tiny kitchen is not at all like it was when I lived there - Even though it looks like it needs an update it's still more up to date than it was in the 1960s. The only things still the same are those beautiful hardwood floors and believe it or not, the tub, which is the exact same one! That bathroom used to be all-pink, LOL, even the sink (which didn't have any cabinet) and the toilet. One of those 1960s things.

So here it is. It looks so much more "luxurious" than it did when I lived there! 😉

https://www.compass.com/listing/2545-sedgwick-avenue-unit-3b-bronx-ny-10468/1534900922563295721/?origin=listing_page&origin_type=copy_url

Also, those photos make it look bigger than it was. It was only 800 square feet. My bedroom was 10x10 feet.

Very interesting that was a particular type of postwar construction. Very common.  That building is certainly in the middle of nowhere. 

When I lived in my tenement apartment we also has a pink bathroom!  The building was probably built in 1915 or so, but the landlord did a crappy renovation in the late sixties. He must have gotten a steal on pink fixtures and tiles because every apartment had them. 

Edited September 21 by EtheltoTillie

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Very interesting that was a particular type of postwar construction. Very common.  That building is certainly in the middle of nowhere. 

When I lived in my tenement apartment we also has a pink bathroom!  The building was probably built in 1915 or so, but the landlord did a crappy renovation in the late sixties. He must have gotten a steal on pink fixtures and tiles because every apartment had them. 

The building was new when we moved there in 1964. I know of a few buildings in the area that look almost the same and I believe they were built around the same time. I never liked the pink bathroom but some of the apartments had light blue tile which I think was even worse, LOL.

My father called it a "one arm block" because there were no buildings on the other side of the street. The entire stretch from the end near Bailey Ave. toward Kingsbridge Road is the Veteran's Administration hospital grounds. If you click on the button on the Compass listing of the street view you can do a 360 turn and see it. It meant that parking was easier. We had a cheap space inside the building but we had two cars (my mother was a rare NYC wife that had her own car in those days), so we always had one on the street until that got too difficult and then they rented another space in a garage down on Bailey Ave. Of course my father's car was elected to park there, LOL.

It wasn't that far from Kingsbridge Rd. (Maybe a 10 minute walk)  but it was definitely not a walk to a subway or train. I had to walk from there all the way to my Jr. HS and then Bronx Science for one year when we moved. When we first moved there my father worked in White Plains and my mother worked part time in Harlem. They both drove separately then. Later both of them worked in Manhattan and drove there together. My mother worked as a legal secretary in the financial district in the Chase bldg. My father would drop her off first then go back up to 16th St. where he parked in an open lot if you remember those! Those were different days!

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Nice!!!

It's amazing what the virtual stuff can do. On second look I even think that paint color is fake and the walls look too perfect.

Here's the same apartment 2 floors up and I feel that this is more realistic and some of that pink tile still remains as do those natural wood sliding closet doors:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2545-Sedgwick-Ave-APT-5B-Bronx-NY-10468/120923229_zpid/?reloadCount=2&subAppName=not-for-sale-page-sub-app

This is apartment 5K but it's a very similar layout and I just LOVE what they did with the Kitchen! My mother would have been fascinated to see these photos!

https://www.compass.com/listing/2545-sedgwick-avenue-unit-5k-bronx-ny-10468/1639320616053432897/?origin=listing_page&origin_type=copy_url

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

When I lived in my tenement apartment we also has a pink bathroom!  The building was probably built in 1915 or so, but the landlord did a crappy renovation in the late sixties. He must have gotten a steal on pink fixtures and tiles because every apartment had them. 

White is best, IMO, but I wish I had pink instead of 70s' avocado green toilet and harvest gold toilet.

[Yeah No]

BTW, I was just talking to my husband and we think that stretch of Sedgwick Ave. was saved by going co-op. My parents and I moved out because in 1974 the neighborhood was getting dicey. It does my heart a lot of good to see that it did not continue to go in that direction and today is a decent and affordable place to live.

[EtheltoTillie]

It makes a huge difference that you had parking inside the building. That’s an advantage of many postwar buildings. 

[Yeah No]

16 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

It makes a huge difference that you had parking inside the building. That’s an advantage of many postwar buildings. 

Yes, it was a big garage too even by building standards and I think there were about 40 or so spaces which wasn't enough for one car per apartment but back then a lot of people (like my grandmother) didn't have a car. My maternal grandma (the Sicilian one) lived in the apartment over that "marquee" that hangs over the front door. When my mother went to work full time she used to keep an eye on me after school. Her brother (my great uncle) also lived in the building. My mother's brother, who was a career seaman, lived down the block in a small apartment in a private house.

[EtheltoTillie]

12 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Yes, it was a big garage too even by building standards and I think there were about 40 or so spaces which wasn't enough for one car per apartment but back then a lot of people (like my grandmother) didn't have a car. My maternal grandma (the Sicilian one) lived in the apartment over that "marquee" that hangs over the front door. When my mother went to work full time she used to keep an eye on me after school. Her brother (my great uncle) also lived in the building. My mother's brother, who was a career seaman, lived down the block in a small apartment in a private house.

That's like my extended family.  My aunts and uncles lived nearby. One also rented in the same apartment development, one set lived in a small house nearby.

Here's a picture of my tenement building. 

Take note of the round turrets.  I had an apartment with one of the round turret rooms. 

https://www.propertyshark.com/mason/Property/32712/300-W-106-St-New-York-NY-10025/

This is the worst building on one of the nicest blocks in the city.  It's a two way street off Riverside Park and has all nice prewar buildings and some nice brownstones.  The large mansion on the Riverside Corner has been owned by the Bronfmans. 

Edited September 21 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

This is a fascinating little search for me. There are a number of listings for this building as if they were selling the apartments, but I'm sure they are not.  They all say "off market," and there is no way those apartments would sell for those prices.  When I moved out in 1985 my rent was $375.

This apartment is in the same line I had.  You can see the exact layout.  I had the living room with the round turret, but in those days we had curved glass windows! (with sash cords).  They have long been replaced by modern windows, so they ruin the line with flat glass.  Sad.  Since I still live nearby I do walk by frequently, so I have seen it from the outside. 

It looks like they reglazed some of the pink bathrooms with white, because that's the same kind of tiny sink we had.  In others they left the pink sink and tub and changed the tiles and toilet to white.

We also had that very small kitchen in the living room.  We did not have that island, so we struggled with no counter space. 

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/300-W-106th-St-APT-47-New-York-NY-10025/2083102002_zpid/

Edited September 21 by EtheltoTillie

[Affogato]

I’m really enjoying this thread, although I don’t have much to add. 

[EtheltoTillie]

If anyone can stand one more crazy NY real estate story:  I am suddenly reminded of one bizarre flaw of the cheapo tenement kitchen:  the hot and cold water were reversed in the sink because they were drawing the plumbing from the same lines of the bathroom of the apartment next door, which was right behind my kitchen. So they were mirrored. I lived with that for nine years.  I haven’t thought about it for years. 
 

@shapeshifter we did not have avocado or gold appliances but we did have dark copper stove and refrigerator in that kitchen. 

[Night Cheese]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

White is best, IMO, but I wish I had pink instead of 70s' avocado green toilet and harvest gold toilet.

Same here. My house (in CA) was built in '75 and had a avocado green toilet (and vanity and tiles) in the master ensuite and harvest gold in the second bathroom. I'd have gladly taken 60s pink over the 70s color schemes. We've upgraded to modern toilets but haven't saved up for the full bathroom demos yet. One day....

My kitchen is also harvest gold, but we definitely don't have the money to replace any of that. 

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Here's a picture of my tenement building. 

Take note of the round turrets.  I had an apartment with one of the round turret rooms. 

https://www.propertyshark.com/mason/Property/32712/300-W-106-St-New-York-NY-10025/

This is the worst building on one of the nicest blocks in the city.  It's a two way street off Riverside Park and has all nice prewar buildings and some nice brownstones.  The large mansion on the Riverside Corner has been owned by the Bronfmans. 

That's amazing! My Mom lived .2 of a mile from there at 312 W. 103rd Street in a little brownstone-ish building from 1950 - 1955. When she and my father got married in 1954 he moved in with her because her apartment was nicer. I think he was living somewhere on Columbus Avenue but I forget where now. They made the decision to move to the Bronx because they thought it would be a nicer place to raise children. I think that was the wisdom of the times, although I know that later my mother regretted leaving Manhattan for the Bronx. 

Here's the Google Maps of her building:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/H7pSrH2ZrsxBDJtx8

Interestingly, while looking at photos of your building online I found this article from the NYT in 2020 which features 3 UWS apartments that a woman was looking at, one of which was in that building. It later asks the reader to guess which one she picks. I won't tell you which one, LOL.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/06/realestate/06hunt-alterman.html

I always liked the UWS better than the UES. I guess it ran in the family, LOL.

[Yeah No]

8 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

This is a fascinating little search for me. There are a number of listings for this building as if they were selling the apartments, but I'm sure they are not.  They all say "off market," and there is no way those apartments would sell for those prices.  When I moved out in 1985 my rent was $375.

This apartment is in the same line I had.  You can see the exact layout.  I had the living room with the round turret, but in those days we had curved glass windows! (with sash cords).  They have long been replaced by modern windows, so they ruin the line with flat glass.  Sad.  Since I still live nearby I do walk by frequently, so I have seen it from the outside. 

It looks like they reglazed some of the pink bathrooms with white, because that's the same kind of tiny sink we had.  In others they left the pink sink and tub and changed the tiles and toilet to white.

We also had that very small kitchen in the living room.  We did not have that island, so we struggled with no counter space. 

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/300-W-106th-St-APT-47-New-York-NY-10025/2083102002_zpid/

Thank you for that! That round room would annoy me. I see what you mean about that place. That pink, ugh, as bad as the one I had although maybe worse - that tub looks like a sarcophagus! And all that open space and a tiny little studio kitchen! And the reversed hot and cold - sounds pretty familiar, like something I had somewhere along the line, LOL.

$375 in 1985 - I was probably paying about $100 less per month then for an 850 square foot apartment in this building on Eastchester Rd. right off Pelham Pkwy. in the Bronx and across from Jacobi hospital and the 52nd precinct. Here's the Google Maps:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/UmV8uNjByag9Ador6

I think the building is still owned by the same family that owned it when I lived there. I had a nice corner apartment on the 5th floor with windows on 3 sides of the building. But it was a weird neighborhood and the building was always having its share of drama - an abortion clinic occupied the first floor when I was living there and we had bomb threats and demonstrations outside all the time. Forget it, the protestors would harass me thinking I was going to the clinic! I had my purse snatched right in front of the building across from the precinct and homeless people were living in our alleyway. That was also where that couple upstairs used to beat each other up in a drunken rage and throw furniture across the room at 3:00 a.m.! We couldn't wait to get out of there! It's no wonder we did everything we could to save to move to CT at the time of the "crack is whack" era! We finally escaped in 1991. I remember we had my father watching our moving van because we were afraid of stuff getting stolen from it!

That neighborhood is still having drama - now the city wants to put up homeless shelters right around the corner from there and they're trying to fight it!

[Yeah No]

6 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

If anyone can stand one more crazy NY real estate story:  I am suddenly reminded of one bizarre flaw of the cheapo tenement kitchen:  the hot and cold water were reversed in the sink because they were drawing the plumbing from the same lines of the bathroom of the apartment next door, which was right behind my kitchen. So they were mirrored. I lived with that for nine years.  I haven’t thought about it for years. 
 

@shapeshifter we did not have avocado or gold appliances but we did have dark copper stove and refrigerator in that kitchen. 

I had a harvest gold fridge on Eastchester Rd. My husband bartered a set of speakers with a friend for it. It actually replaced another harvest gold fridge that was already there, but this one was bigger with side-by-side doors. And it matched our harvest gold wall oven! 😉

Speaking of one more story, when we moved into that apartment in 1982 we didn't realize how infested with roaches it was. We were just so thrilled to find a nice apartment in a half-way decent neighborhood (by Bronx standards) that we didn't even think about that. We were soon very disgusted, so we went out and bought one of those fogging "roach bombs" that you had to set up and leave the apartment. We first boxed up everything in the cabinets and drawers, then taped a plastic tarp to the kitchen doorway to concentrate it to that room.

We were not prepared for what we found when we got back. I never saw so many dead (or live) roaches in one place in my life. You almost couldn't see the floor and that's no exaggeration! I was never more disgusted. The superintendent was so apologetic that he and his wife spent DAYS personally cleaning and sanitizing it for us. We stayed at my husband's parents' apartment in Washington Hts. while they did it. 

Then they came out with roach baits and I don't think I ever saw another roach in that apartment ever again!

Then there's the story (also in that apartment) about the huge waterbug that somehow found its way onto my night stand in my bedroom and of course it happened when my husband was away for work for a few days, so I had to call my Dad up to trap it for me, LOL.

Ah, the stories I could tell.....😉 

Edited September 22 by Yeah No

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

That's amazing! My Mom lived .2 of a mile from there at 312 W. 103rd Street in a little brownstone-ish building from 1950 - 1955. When she and my father got married in 1954 he moved in with her because her apartment was nicer. I think he was living somewhere on Columbus Avenue but I forget where now. They made the decision to move to the Bronx because they thought it would be a nicer place to raise children. I think that was the wisdom of the times, although I know that later my mother regretted leaving Manhattan for the Bronx. 

Here's the Google Maps of her building:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/H7pSrH2ZrsxBDJtx8

Interestingly, while looking at photos of your building online I found this article from the NYT in 2020 which features 3 UWS apartments that a woman was looking at, one of which was in that building. It later asks the reader to guess which one she picks. I won't tell you which one, LOL.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/06/realestate/06hunt-alterman.html

I always liked the UWS better than the UES. I guess it ran in the family, LOL.

Wow, how did I miss that article? I don’t always read those apartment choice articles, TBH. The apartment they are describing is on the other side of the building. I know the layout of the one with the long hallway. 

[chediavolo]

On 9/11/2024 at 10:12 AM, Aryanna said:

You do realize that 1980 inflation compared to 2023-24 inflation is not an apples to apples comparison, right? The methodology has changed considerably since 1980. I've seen some reports that say if the inflation of the last few years were calculated on the same methodology as in 1980, current inflation would be worse.

And finding a job is super difficult too. Most times a real human never sees your resume. And a lot of companies post jobs that don't really exist. This skews the stats. And if you do make it to the interview process, it's not uncommon to go through 7 to 10 rounds of interviews.

Then on the housing side...I don't know if you've looked lately (I have) but a sub 1000sf home in a low cost of living flyover state costs around $200K.

Couple that with less homes for sale and home ownership goes from delayed gratification to nearly impossible for many. The banks that got burned in 2008 have vowed to not make thst mistake again. So they buy up the homes but they don't sell them. They rent them. Then you also have property owners whose business is short term rentals like vrbo and Air BnB. This decreases the homes for sale and drives up housing prices. 

I don't wanna start a boomer vs millennial argument but I think we should at least be honest about what is being compared. 

Then blame the banks, the filthy rich, the sickening greed of the very wealthy, the lack of businesses and corporations care for their employees. They will never raise wages when they can have a couple of extra dollars in their pocket while you suffer . Tax the rich ..get out and vote. Renting  especially in tourist areas, is eating up all the housing for people who cannot afford thousands of dollars in rent a month, even in areas that are lacking in many amenities .This isn’t because of boomers. Lots of people are having issues finding rentals and homes to buy. I don’t know how it is ever going to be solved. Greed takes over above all
I happen to be a cusp boomer  who is still having to watch every penny, living in an area where houses are  selling For nowhere near the outrageous prices of other places in the country. I’m stuck in a town. I hate because I cannot move. I can’t afford to  and I have owned a home for 25 years, that was a mess when we bought it because it was all we could afford. >It’s insulting and infuriating to put everyone in the same basket. Even within the same family, and I can attest to that, finances vary widely it can be a matter of luck, who you know, life circumstances and so on.

[Aryanna]

On 10/4/2024 at 3:52 PM, chediavolo said:

Then blame the banks, the filthy rich, the sickening greed of the very wealthy, the lack of businesses and corporations care for their employees. They will never raise wages when they can have a couple of extra dollars in their pocket while you suffer . Tax the rich ..get out and vote. Renting  especially in tourist areas, is eating up all the housing for people who cannot afford thousands of dollars in rent a month, even in areas that are lacking in many amenities .This isn’t because of boomers. Lots of people are having issues finding rentals and homes to buy. I don’t know how it is ever going to be solved. Greed takes over above all
I happen to be a cusp boomer  who is still having to watch every penny, living in an area where houses are  selling For nowhere near the outrageous prices of other places in the country. I’m stuck in a town. I hate because I cannot move. I can’t afford to  and I have owned a home for 25 years, that was a mess when we bought it because it was all we could afford. >It’s insulting and infuriating to put everyone in the same basket. Even within the same family, and I can attest to that, finances vary widely it can be a matter of luck, who you know, life circumstances and so on.

I never blamed anyone in that post. Not boomers or anyone else. I was merely pointing out that an apples to apples comparison should be made rather than some unverifiable, anecdotal tale that says that one person has it worse than anyone else.

[Affogato]

I think back to Arlo Guthries’s “last guy”…..no one has it worse than he does. 

[chediavolo]

On 10/14/2024 at 2:40 PM, Aryanna said:

I never blamed anyone in that post. Not boomers or anyone else. I was merely pointing out that an apples to apples comparison should be made rather than some unverifiable, anecdotal tale that says that one person has it worse than anyone else.

Well, you said you don’t wanna start a boomer versus millennial argument so yes, you did blame someone.

[Yeah No]

54 minutes ago, chediavolo said:

Well, you said you don’t wanna start a boomer versus millennial argument so yes, you did blame someone.

Also in a later post I made I brought out how the double digit interest rates we had when I was young made housing even less affordable than it is now even if prices were by comparison lower and even at that it was not by as much to even out the effect of those incredible interest rates we had back then. No one born after 1980 has ever seen interest rates on housing even close to what we had!

PLUS most of us back then were already independent of our parents in every way including health insurance and looking for housing in our 20s, while many Millennials and younger delay that until their 30s and live at home until then, still partially or completely supported. It was true even back then that we didn't make that much in our 20s. And this was in NYC so you can imagine how high our cost of living was! We were supporting ourselves all through our 20s and not having an easy time of it. We didn't have the advantage of starting out later like a lot of younger people do today or we would have been socking money away to afford a house and doing without a lot of the things a lot of younger people today refuse to give up. As it is we had to do it while working full time and supporting ourselves 100% with zero contribution from our families. The fact that we were able to do it at all in 1991 is nothing short of amazing even to me!

Another thing - talk about inaccurate inflation calculations - There is no way we were making what the calculators tell me we were making adjusted for inflation in the 1980s. They are telling me we made the equivalent of $80,000 in 1986. No way could that have been true! We live much better on a little more than that NOW so I'm calling BS on that. We struggled and did without a lot in the '80s. But NYC cost of living is one of the highest in the country (if not THE highest) and was even back then, so that might account for the reason it didn't feel like so much. 

 

[Aryanna]

2 hours ago, chediavolo said:

Well, you said you don’t wanna start a boomer versus millennial argument so yes, you did blame someone.

Include the rest of the quote, not just the part that helps your case. I said I don't wanna start a boomer vs millennial argument but I think we should at least be honest about what is being compared. That is not blaming. That's saying we should compare apples to apples in order to make it a fair comparison that gives some sort of statistical information. 

By the logic that was presented, you could say that Avengers Endgame was more successful than Gone With The Wind because Endgame grossed nearly $3 Billion and GWTW only grossed a hundred million or so. That's not an apples to apples comparison. To get any meaningful data out of that, some math is involved. 

Edited October 16 by Aryanna