Million Dollar Listing NY - General Discussion

[bichonblitz]

18 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

Not to mention that the furnishings that they chose in order to show the home looked like they came from thrift stores. I am not one who believes that you need to spend thousands of dollars in staging, but I think it would have looked better empty than it did with what looked to be a bunch of cast offs. I also thought that for a 4700 plus sq ft apartment, the kitchen was ugly and claustrophobic. 

Were my eyes deceiving me or were the bedroom carpeting gross and filthy? Maybe it was the non-lighting playing tricks on me.

[UsernameFatigue]

5 hours ago, bichonblitz said:

Were my eyes deceiving me or were the bedroom carpeting gross and filthy? Maybe it was the non-lighting playing tricks on me.

I think you might be right. In general I found the shape the apartment was in to be less than desirable. 

[aghst]

That room with the gold ceiling was tacky.

Also nothing special about those $300 light switches.

Then the fat ring and and the bling in his teeth?  Oh well, presumably his clothes don't have the same style.

Must be a Bravo fan to be willing to do this show.

Hmm, gonna probably get sucked into the MDNY Greek Renovation show that they're promoting.

 

[MsTree]

17 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Marc Jacobs’house was ugly and the closet they raved about is smaller than the one I have in my home so I didn’t see anything great about it. I also wouldn’t pay a dime for gold ceilings and door knobs .

And don't forget those ridiculous gold toggle switches. IMO they would be more of a PITA to turn on & off. Just give me a plain ole rocker switch and keep your toggles to yourself.

[Surrealist]

2 hours ago, aghst said:

Then the fat ring and and the bling in his teeth? 

There was something very dated and gross about that guy.

Marc Jacobs isn't a badlooking man, and Char is the best he could do? 😬

[dizzydame]

Steve doesn't need his girlfriend to love him. He loves himself enough for both of them.

[Jess14]

On 5/20/2021 at 7:05 PM, pally said:

Townhouses tend to be family homes and families were heading out to the suburbs where they could have yards.  Many parents no longer had to worry about the commute into the city because they were working from home.

Yeah, I can definitely see that post-covid, but Ryan’s colleague made the comment about townhouses taking a hit in the market pre-covid. 

On 5/20/2021 at 10:22 PM, ChitChat said:

Ryan, your rush, rush, rush showings are making me dizzy!! If I was a buyer and you rushed me through like that, I'd say no thanks to you!  How tacky to not have light fixtures in a multi-million dollar home!  Surely Marc Jacobs could afford to have replaced what he took out.  How bizarre.  

Yeah, the rush-rush showings seemed very tacky. I assume it was for show, but if not, that would’ve completely turned me off. 

And yes, not putting light fixtures in?!? Are you kidding! Also, are these people so above going to Macy’s or Target or Pottery Barn and getting some nice bedspreads and pillows, etc. to make a room look nicer?!? I get that these are very high end homes, but it seems like the main thing is for it to look nice, even if that means that you’re spending $35 rather than $500 on a pillow. That Marc Jacobs townhouse did not look nice (but…they sold it!).

On 5/21/2021 at 5:15 AM, CrazyInAlabama said:

I was very irritated with Tyler making those sexist remarks to the models.   Just because they're the same sex doesn't mean you can make suggestive remarks like that.   Tyler should think how that comes across on TV, and if anyone ever sues him for harassment, that footage will be exhibit #1.    

Agreed with all of the comments about Tyler’s sexist remarks. I generally like him, but his comments to the male models and about Steve last episode are completely inappropriate. 

[Surrealist]

3 hours ago, dizzydame said:

Steve doesn't need his girlfriend to love him. He loves himself enough for both of them.

*Ba dum tss* 😂

[Grrarrggh]

12 hours ago, Surrealist said:

There was something very dated and gross about that guy.

Marc Jacobs isn't a badlooking man, and Char is the best he could do? 😬

Char is a former model. And I'd hope Marc isn't that shallow anyway. 

[Surrealist]

38 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:

Char is a former model. And I'd hope Marc isn't that shallow anyway. 

I think what it is is I prefer the LA version of the show. I like Josh Flagg and Bobby Boyd's relationship. I know some people kind of side eye Bobby, but I've always liked his personality. Char just gives me a different vibe, but maybe Marc is different than I assume him to be.

The grill is way over-the-top and dated. That definitely gave off bro/Ryan Lochte vibes.

[Marley]

This show sucks this season so far.

Steves gf was basically an escort lol. She probably got knocked up on purpose to secure a good life with Steve.

[dleighg]

So when Kirstin "stole" Tyler's seller-- the seller said "this building has FIVE penthouses."

Now I'm confused. I thought penthouse has a specific meaning, as in, the top floor(s) of a building. 

And that place that Ryan was selling, with the star-chandelier etc. WHY were there two rather tiny sinks right next to each other in the kitchen? In what universe is that a desirable thing? Again, I'm confused.

Ryan saying that pot is legal in NY? Well it is NOW (but no retail yet) and it certainly wasn't more than a year ago when this was filmed!

Edited May 24, 2021 by dleighg

[dleighg]

On 5/21/2021 at 2:41 PM, ChitChat said:

It's a confusing name for others to guess the pronunciation of!!  I've only heard it pronounced as KIRsten,

Then you've completely missed hearing the name of the junior senator from NY (my state), who pronounces it KEERSTIN :)

Edited May 24, 2021 by dleighg

[Sheenieb]

I hope the 11 million dollar apartment looks better in person than it did on TV. Ugly, staged furniture and it looked tiny. 

And what's with all of the gold? I know that decor is personal, but I'm so tired of gilded everything with these listings. It's the NY equivalent of the glass boxes featured on the LA version. Gold ceilings, gold walls, gold fixtures, make it stop!

I admit that I have an affinity towards men with long hair, so I really miss Steve's hair. I thought it looked better in this episode than it did last week. I didn't recognize him when he showed up to Ryan's listing. The Steve Jobs description was apt. 

As a native New Yorker, I don't get the issue with living in Chinatown. Is it because the neighborhood isn't as shiny as Soho? Does it have too much character? 

[Chit Chat]

5 hours ago, dleighg said:

Then you've completely missed hearing the name of the junior senator from NY (my state), who pronounces it KEERSTIN :)

I just thought that everybody was mispronouncing it!!  ;)

2 hours ago, Sheenieb said:

And what's with all of the gold? I know that decor is personal, but I'm so tired of gilded everything with these listings.

It was a little much!   I enjoy seeing the classy homes, not the over-the-top decorated homes. 

[geauxaway]

On 5/22/2021 at 4:51 PM, Marley said:

Steves gf was basically an escort lol. She probably got knocked up on purpose to secure a good life with Steve.

In a way I feel bad for Steve after he made that comment to Ryan about her running up his credit card bills.  I think he wanted to “do the right thing,” and I also feel like he thinks it’s what his parents would want.  I have nothing to base that on other than he always seemed to want to please them and stay in favor in their eyes.  I’m not even wording this to correctly convey my thoughts but I think y’all get the gist.  He was very close with his parents and sister, raised in a traditional and loving family.  BUT....this is what happens when you don’t wrap it up!   He just seems kind of beat down and defeated, like in his heart of hearts he knows this ain’t it.  

[Chit Chat]

34 minutes ago, geauxaway said:

He just seems kind of beat down and defeated, like in his heart of hearts he knows this ain’t it.  

Yeah, something seems a bit off.  You look at Ryan and his wife, and he's head over heels in love with her.  You can see their chemistry whenever they're together.  Same thing with Fredrik and Derek.  I follow him on Instagram - mostly for the pictures of the twins - and they seem so happy and in love.   It's kind like Steve is playing the role of a husband.  His love for his daughter is pretty evident, but I'm not so sure about his relationship with his wife. 

[geauxaway]

10 minutes ago, ChitChat said:

but I'm not so sure about his relationship with his wife. 

Wait did they get married married?  

[Chit Chat]

39 minutes ago, geauxaway said:

Wait did they get married married?  

Oops on my part!!  Maybe they didn't.  I've been having brain farts all day long.  

Either way, he seems like he's going through the motions with her.  I'll give her the benefit of the doubt though.  Maybe she's uncomfortable with all of the cameras around.  

[Grrarrggh]

1 hour ago, ChitChat said:

Yeah, something seems a bit off.  You look at Ryan and his wife, and he's head over heels in love with her.  You can see their chemistry whenever they're together.  Same thing with Fredrik and Derek.  I follow him on Instagram - mostly for the pictures of the twins - and they seem so happy and in love.   It's kind like Steve is playing the role of a husband.  His love for his daughter is pretty evident, but I'm not so sure about his relationship with his wife. 

I don't think anyway just watching them on Instagram or television can make a real judgement. Both of those forums are built for lies and fakeness. 

[Marley]

True. Fredrik’s whole ig and his over the top perfect family is fake. Those kids better not ever be nothing but perfect who knows how he would react.

[dleighg]

Can someone elaborate on the whole "in NYC you can only have a second kitchen if it's a kosher kitchen" thing? I mean, do you just have to call it a kosher kitchen, and imply that you keep the meat in one and the dairy in the other? Or is the "kosher" kitchen actually designed differently than the "regular" kitchen? It seemed like Mark Jacobs and Char were using that as a loophole to get a second kitchen, which they "just wanted." Was I misunderstanding?

[CrazyInAlabama]

Kosher kitchen requires separate appliances, and work stations, one for dairy, one for meat, and I think separate dishes.      I know a lot of places that don't allow a second kitchen, because of plumbing limitations, but usually so you don't build a separate apartment and start renting it out.     I don't think the city can refuse to let you build the Kosher, second kitchen, because of religious reasons.   It's either a legitimate Kosher kitchen, or a way to get around the rules.     

 I think the upstairs, galley, underwhelming kitchen is only for reheating takeout/delivery, and for the professional chef that cooks for them, and probably brings everything either done, or close to it.      The downstairs kitchen will be where the family uses it, and uses the family room down there, with the patio.   

A friend was in NYC for a year or two, and he said that he places he looked at didn't have in unit washer dryer hookups, but maybe would have a basement laundry room, or some had a laundry facility on each floor, or you had to send your laundry out.   This was supposedly to limit the strain on the plumbing for the building.   (If any of that's wrong, please correct me). 

Edited May 25, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[dleighg]

5 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

A friend was in NYC for a year or two, and he said that he places he looked at didn't have in unit washer dryer hookups, but maybe would have a basement laundry room, or some had a laundry facility on each floor, or you had to send your laundry out.   This was supposedly to limit the strain on the plumbing for the building. 

I do know that for ages, NYC residents weren't allowed to have garbage disposals, for the "strain on the plumbing" reason. I think that may have changed in more recent years. (And I looked it up: Garbage disposals have been legal in New York for more than a decade now, but our BrickTank experts confirm that many if not most New York City apartment buildings—particularly prewars—still don't allow them)

[Chit Chat]

16 hours ago, Marley said:

True. Fredrik’s whole ig and his over the top perfect family is fake. Those kids better not ever be nothing but perfect who knows how he would react.

We all know that everybody has struggles in life.  I don't think Fredrik would say that his life is perfect, but from all of his interviews, he seems very grateful for what he has - especially his kids and Derek.  There's nothing fake about the love he has for them.   

[Grrarrggh]

42 minutes ago, ChitChat said:

We all know that everybody has struggles in life.  I don't think Fredrik would say that his life is perfect, but from all of his interviews, he seems very grateful for what he has - especially his kids and Derek.  There's nothing fake about the love he has for them.   

He may love his children, but if he truly cared about his children he wouldn't be stealing their privacy. No good parent would.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Grrarrggh

[Chit Chat]

On 5/25/2021 at 5:43 PM, Grrarrggh said:

He may love his children, but if he truly cared about his children he wouldn't be stealing their privacy. No good parent would.

I don't see it as anything different than what millions of other parents post on their FB & IG accounts.  They're usually just nice family pictures, or the kids running around being kids.  It's really sweet since we know how desperately Fredrik wanted children.  I don't think he's exploiting them at this point, and hopefully it won't turn into that. 

[buttersister]

Quote

I wonder how pissed Ryan was when he learned he could have got more for the townhouse.  She really out negotiated him.  

Easily. Interesting to see how that maneuver, which made him look like an excitable idiot, affects future deals. He’d be a hard pass for me. He and his costumes. WTAF? (Late to the party.)

[Surrealist]

While I'll finish out this season, I had a difficult time focusing on tonight's episode.

I can't pinpoint the exact reason why.

Maybe it's tied to nearing the end of the pandemic, or there are too many featured brokers now, the properties aren't wowing me so far, or I'm generally bored with the show anymore.

[aghst]

So this episode, Kirsten makes her deal and Ryan does another corny open house stunt.

Yeah a lot of these properties would have gone for almost double what they're listing for now.  That Tribeca place, Ryan said 2 years ago, it would be almost 2x as much per square foot.  They were raving about the loggia, the half-outdoor space with a big window.  But it looked like it was looking out over some dingy alley?  Did they like the gritty look because Tribeca has been so gentrified?

It will be interesting to see what he gets.

Did Steve sell that Chinatown place or just got the listing last time and held the open house?

That old property with the rotunda is interesting.  Single While Female was filmed there, interesting movie but not a huge hit.  

[CrazyInAlabama]

I'm wondering how much of the townhouse negotiations from last week were real, and how much was for the storyline?     

I did enjoy seeing the double condos in Tribeca, that was amazing.    I liked Ryan's strategy, and the way he explained it.    I felt sorry for the builder though, too bad that the prices of in town upper level properties have dropped so much.   

The Single White Female apartment was amazing, but the kitchen was awful.    Bet the owners always had a cook / housekeeper, so never set foot in the kitchen, or had everything delivered. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[sugarbaker design]

7 hours ago, Surrealist said:

Maybe it's tied to nearing the end of the pandemic, or there are too many featured brokers now, the properties aren't wowing me so far, or I'm generally bored with the show anymore.

All four are good reasons.

7 hours ago, aghst said:

That old property with the rotunda is interesting.  Single While Female was filmed there, interesting movie but not a huge hit.  

It wasn't a huge hit, but it was a cultural touchstone for my generation.  Single White Female became a verb.  (She's trying to Single White Female me!)    I'm so glad they showed the floor plan, it looked wonderful.  To hell with open floor plans, give me rooms with a specific use any day!

Two nitpicks:

John Lennon was shot outside The Dakota, not inside. (And Rosemary's Baby was filmed there!)

Ryan, in lion drag, opens the armoire and says "Follow me", but doesn't go in, he just pushes the first lady through.

Next week the covid hits the fan!

Edited May 28, 2021 by sugarbaker design

[Grrarrggh]

Once brokers have kids they need to either stop filming altogether or at least never show/tell about their kids.

[Chit Chat]

7 hours ago, aghst said:

They were raving about the loggia, the half-outdoor space with a big window.  But it looked like it was looking out over some dingy alley?  Did they like the gritty look because Tribeca has been so gentrified?

I went back and watched that scene, and it sounded like one lady said that it looks like "old school NY."  I could be wrong on that, but that's what I heard!  It's not much of an outdoor space if you're looking out on A/C units and the like.   The inside was beautiful.  I loved the textured tile that was the backsplash for the tub.  A kitchen with 2 islands!  That was really nice.  I could do without Ryan's silly costumes though.  And $6000 for balloons?  It looked good as it distracted from the unfinished apartment, but $6000?  Holy cow!  

32 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

I'm so glad they showed the floor plan, it looked wonderful.  To hell with open floor plans, give me rooms with a specific use any day!

Amen to that!  I loved that apartment.  I'm so disappointed that we'll probably never get to see it finished.  The kitchen was a WTH for me though.  It looked like they just stuck it in a hallway.  It is barely functional like it is.  It might be okay for one or two people living there, but not for a family.  I looked at the floor plan they showed and it had a long pantry behind the kitchen. The apartment was a good size, so somebody might need to rework the kitchen to make it bigger.   Despite that, everything else was really nice. 

 

[NYCFree]

On 5/25/2021 at 4:35 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Kosher kitchen requires separate appliances, and work stations, one for dairy, one for meat, and I think separate dishes.      I know a lot of places that don't allow a second kitchen, because of plumbing limitations, but usually so you don't build a separate apartment and start renting it out.     I don't think the city can refuse to let you build the Kosher, second kitchen, because of religious reasons.   It's either a legitimate Kosher kitchen, or a way to get around the rules.     

 I think the upstairs, galley, underwhelming kitchen is only for reheating takeout/delivery, and for the professional chef that cooks for them, and probably brings everything either done, or close to it.      The downstairs kitchen will be where the family uses it, and uses the family room down there, with the patio.   

A friend was in NYC for a year or two, and he said that he places he looked at didn't have in unit washer dryer hookups, but maybe would have a basement laundry room, or some had a laundry facility on each floor, or you had to send your laundry out.   This was supposedly to limit the strain on the plumbing for the building.   (If any of that's wrong, please correct me). 

The availability of laundry to the rental unit or condo/co-op is usually part of the listing in NYC. If there is no laundry at all in the building, they don’t mention it, if there is, the choices are: laundry in building (most likely in the basement), laundry on some floors, laundry on every floor, laundry in unit permitted (for condo/co-ops it means that paying to have the plumbing/electricity changed is permitted but hasn’t yet been done), laundry hook-ups in unit (no machines, but all the plumbing/electricity has been done) and finally the winner-laundry in unit!

After living in the same place on the Upper West Side for 48 years, we were looking to buy in 2014. After we saw a very bland cookie cutter condo in Harlem, with laundry available down the hallway, sell for the full asking price of $750,000 the day after the open house my husband announced “we need to look outside of Manhattan.” 

I love seeing those old apartments like in the Ansonia and the Apthorp. They showed the Apthorp one last year I think. It was a gorgeous apartment but located on the ground floor. Because the Ansonia was built as a residential hotel, the idea was that families would order all their meals from the giant restaurant in the building, they would have a very small kitchen for coffee and small food items. They mentioned that Babe Ruth lived there, they didn’t say that he lived in one apartment with his wife and had a mistress in another apartment!

[Starlight925]

On 5/25/2021 at 2:47 PM, dleighg said:

Can someone elaborate on the whole "in NYC you can only have a second kitchen if it's a kosher kitchen" thing?

 

On 5/25/2021 at 3:35 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

 I know a lot of places that don't allow a second kitchen, because of plumbing limitations, but usually so you don't build a separate apartment and start renting it out.     I don't think the city can refuse to let you build the Kosher, second kitchen, because of religious reasons.   It's either a legitimate Kosher kitchen, or a way to get around the rules.     

^^^ This.  A way to get around the rules.

I don't for one second, buy that Marc Jacobs is Orthodox, and therefore needs a Kosher kitchen.  But that he wanted a second kitchen, which is not allowed, unless it's a fully Kosher kitchen, which IS allowed.

So they built it out as Kosher (separate appliances, separate milk & meat storage, separate cabinets for separate dishes, etc.), and.....voilà.....2nd kitchen.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Starlight925

[dleighg]

23 minutes ago, Starlight925 said:

So they built it out as Kosher (separate appliances, separate milk & meat storage, separate cabinets for separate dishes, etc.), and.....voilà.....2nd kitchen

So does the "Kosher" kitchen have to have two of everything? If so, why do you need the *first* kitchen? 

[amarante]

Of course Marc Jacobs doesn't observe the laws of Kosher. He wanted a kitchen on the ground floor so it would be accessible for entertaining in the backyard and this was a loophole he could exploit.

I personally loved the fact that he obviously didn't get a flying F in terms of remodeling for a future seller since he spent money to get a place that was exactly to his own needs and when he got tired of it for whatever reason, he sold it and didn't want to make a half assed effort to replace fixtures or whatever. The lack of sconces was the least of the issues for a prospective home buyer since it was going to be an expensive gut job for any prospective buyer - the market for people buying townhouses with tiny galley kitchens and three bedrooms is minuscule. As others have pointed out townhouses tend to be bought by wealthy families.

The Ansonia unit was such a pristine recreation of a certain old Manhattan lifestyle. It was no doubt purchased as a flip from the estate of the alter kocker who had lived there for 40 years or so. That original owner was probably a person of relatively modest means - just a nice middle class family lived there. 

It did have a difficult configuration for the way today's family lives. They still have the maid's room which was off the kitchen. While not everyone wants a completely open floor plan, I do think that the kitchen was disproportionately small in relationship to the size of an apartment     since the kitchen was completely isolated from the dining room and I think most people want the ability to not have to take every morsel of food and drinks from the kitchen to the dining room for every meal or snack. I froze the floor plan on the DVR and it was difficult to imagine how to enlarge the kitchen. It was definitely designed originally for a kitchen staff who would operate in isolation in the kitchen with a large storage/pantry area but all that would be actually done in the kitchen would be to cook and the food would be brought out to the family in the dining room. 

There are some fascinating stories on the way the original grand New York City apartment houses were marketed when they were built since apartment living at the time was viewed as being somewhat risqué. Many of them were deliberately built with services so that the middle class and professional class who were the original buyers could have some of the luxurious lifestyle of the wealthy. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by amarante

[CrazyInAlabama]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

So does the "Kosher" kitchen have to have two of everything? If so, why do you need the *first* kitchen? 

Yes, a real Kosher kitchen needs two fridges, two of everything, because milk and meat are never on the same dishes, same fridge, etc.      I suspect as other posters said, the upstairs kitchen was just for reheating, or if they had a private chef who preps, cooks and delivers.   The Kosher kitchen was the only way to get a big kitchen in the house, and down by the patio, family room where entertaining would happen.   I suspect the bottom level is where the family (if a family buys it) will live, and the first floor formal rooms will only be for formal occasions.      If the townhouse didn't have a "Kosher" kitchen, then the only kitchen would be the first floor galley kitchen, which was even smaller, because the current owner added some room from the kitchen into the living room. 

[NYCFree]

15 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Yes, a real Kosher kitchen needs two fridges, two of everything, because milk and meat are never on the same dishes, same fridge, etc.      I suspect as other posters said, the upstairs kitchen was just for reheating, or if they had a private chef who preps, cooks and delivers.   The Kosher kitchen was the only way to get a big kitchen in the house, and down by the patio, family room where entertaining would happen.   I suspect the bottom level is where the family (if a family buys it) will live, and the first floor formal rooms will only be for formal occasions.      If the townhouse didn't have a "Kosher" kitchen, then the only kitchen would be the first floor galley kitchen, which was even smaller, because the current owner added some room from the kitchen into the living room. 

Two of every appliance aren’t needed. Different shelves in the fridge/freezer can be deemed meat or dairy, you can have a double oven with one stovetop, change out dishwasher racks, etc.

The concept is that one whole kitchen is kosher, while the other isn’t. 

[amarante]

1 hour ago, NYCFree said:

Two of every appliance aren’t needed. Different shelves in the fridge/freezer can be deemed meat or dairy, you can have a double oven with one stovetop, change out dishwasher racks, etc.

The concept is that one whole kitchen is kosher, while the other isn’t. 

Actually among the very Orthodox two of everything is required - two microwaves, two sinks, two ovens, two dishwashers. Even stoves are suspect because theoretically steam from meat or dairy could render it treif.

Obviously you can manage with even just a "regular" kitchen but the ideal set up would in fact duplicate all the appliances and all the workspaces. 

And then of course there is the third kitchen which many people have which is the Pesach kitchen :-).

ETA - Typically the kosher kitchen isn't complete separate the way it is in Marc Jacob's home but is just configured so there are two workplaces/appliances in a kitchen. No home that was actually kosher would have a treif kitchen in one place AND a separate kosher kitchen in a completely different area because it makes no sense for the lifestyle. Marc Jacobs did that configuration because he exploited a loophole so he could have a second kitchen in the area next to the outdoor entertaining area as well as a second kitchen close to the more formal area in the event he had catered affairs and/or his private chef was cooking for him.

Edited May 29, 2021 by amarante

[dleighg]

1 hour ago, amarante said:

No home that was actually kosher would have a treif kitchen in one place AND a separate kosher kitchen in a completely different area because it makes no sense for the lifestyle.

Yeah, that was really what I was trying to get to with my questions. I couldn't understand the point of the "regular" kitchen (not for his lifestyle, but for the religious reasons). I guess the regs allow you to retrofit a second (kosher) kitchen into an existing apartment, presuming that it might be impossible to make a regular kitchen completely kosher. And he made use of that.

Wasn't it a conflict of interest for Kirsten's employee to be negotiating on the buyer's behalf (telling her "this isn't her final offer" for example) ?

I thought it was nuts that the Ansonia seller was so unwilling to spend money on upgrades. And I also looked at the layout-- it seems you would need to dump the dining room to get a reasonable kitchen.

[aghst]

I wonder if they're allowed to just replace the first kitchen, make it into something else.

Or just expand that first one?  Maybe no walls which could be knocked down.

[amarante]

25 minutes ago, aghst said:

I wonder if they're allowed to just replace the first kitchen, make it into something else.

Or just expand that first one?  Maybe no walls which could be knocked down.

If course you can do whatever you want to with the “one” kitchen although if you are living in an apartment building, you will probably have issues in terms of configurations because you are dealing with plumbing lines and gas lines that need to remain more or less in the same place. And many condos and coops have very stringent rules governing how much you can to do your apartment thst might impact common stuff like pipes. 
 

Based on what I know about zoning, the one kitchen rule is intended to prevent people from circumventing zoning laws. A house will be designated as single family and so you don’t have the legal right to make it into a two family home. Also it is intended to prevent illegal conversion of your basement into a rental unit. Homes are zoned for single family, two family etc. amd kitchens are a way of enforcing zoning restrictions. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think that the seller told Ryan that the main floor kitchen used to be longer, but was shortened to make the formal living room bigger.    That upstairs kitchen was obviously only used to plate take out/delivery, or for the personal chef to plate the meals, so it was adequate for that.   The Kosher kitchen in the downstairs, patio level would be a caterer's dream, with the double everything, and the easy to clean surfaces with the counter space.   

Edited May 29, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[amarante]

29 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I think that the seller told Ryan that the kitchen used to be longer, but was shortened to make the formal living room bigger.    That upstairs kitchen was obviously only used to plate take out/delivery, or for the personal chef to plate the meals, so it was adequate for that.   The Kosher kitchen in the downstairs, patio level would be a caterer's dream, with the double everything, and the easy to clean surfaces with the counter space.   

Yes you are right which is why I loved that Marc renovated exactly as it suited his wants and needs and didn’t give a nanosecond of thought to whether it would impact resale value. It fit his needs but probably almost no one else in the market for a town house. 🤫😂😂

[aghst]

13 minutes ago, amarante said:

Yes you are right which is why I loved that Marc renovated exactly as it suited his wants and needs and didn’t give a nanosecond of thought to whether it would impact resale value. It fit his needs but probably almost no one else in the market for a town house. 🤫😂😂

I wonder if it was the owner's idea to shorten the existing kitchen and put in the kosher kitchen or the contractor suggested it, since it means more work for him.

[amarante]

46 minutes ago, aghst said:

I wonder if it was the owner's idea to shorten the existing kitchen and put in the kosher kitchen or the contractor suggested it, since it means more work for him.

Given what Marc Jacob's lifestyle was, I would be almost sure that the larger living room and small "non-kitchen" would have been Jacob's want. A large luxurious kitchen is very expensive so a GC would have been more likely to have pushed a large kitchen versus just making the formal living room larger.

The large kitchen in the formal space wouldn't have suited his lifestyle as well as having a kitchen where he probably informally gathered. For the most part any meals or food in the formal section would either have been catered or by the private chef. Not that I think Jacobs or his husband would be cooking up a storm downstairs. 

But even the downstairs kitchen was not particularly large or particularly lavish or decorative. It just existed in order to be able to have food prepared in proximity to the outdoor space

Also, neither kitchen was particularly "beautiful" and it didn't appear that Jacobs cared that much about them versus the meticulous detail on the rest of the finishes in the house.  The downstairs kitchen was not the stuff of dreams for even the standard middle class HH :-).

Edited May 29, 2021 by amarante

[kirklandia]

On 5/25/2021 at 12:47 PM, dleighg said:

Can someone elaborate on the whole "in NYC you can only have a second kitchen if it's a kosher kitchen" 

I'm wondering about spice kitchens. Are they allowed?

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think the downstairs kitchen was the industrial look, because I bet the caterers would use it for parties.   Even if the party was on the main floor, I don't think the small main floor kitchen could support a big event, but the main floor and downstairs kitchen combined would work. 

Good question about the spice kitchen. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama