I’m so excited that we can finally share our news! We’re moving to Brooklyn Heights this summer! We found the perfect-for-us brownstone. It has lots of space (even a back yard!) and Michael’s commute will be about 10 minutes, door to door.
The best and worst part of all – the house needs some renovating. For the past decade, four bachelors have been living there and they have not been super… tidy, let’s say. Mostly, the house needs a good scrubbing and some new paint. But also the kitchen and bathrooms need various levels of upgrading. The great news is the owners are willing to subsidize our rent and pay for the renovating. And I get to blog about it! Hooray!
I can’t tell you how thrilled we are. We’ve been having a nagging feeling for the past couple months that we needed to move, though we weren’t sure where. We looked at a couple of apartments in our neighborhood, and I stalked real estate (in other states even!) and then I randomly checked the Craiglist listings for Brooklyn Heights one day about a month ago. There was this tiny little sentence or two about a brownstone available and that they were looking for a family. Not much more info than that, and no photos (normally sort of a deal breaker, right?). I decided to call anyway and I’m SO glad I did. The owners are just the nicest people. The process has taken about a million times longer than most NYC real estate transactions (two years ago we found, toured and signed on our loft in less than 72 hours!), but it’s sort of nice to do things the good old fashioned slow way every once in a while. We feel good, they feel good – it really is the perfect place for our family.
We’re going to finish up the school year here in Manhattan, then we’ll go out of town for a little vacation and come back at the end of July to move just a hop, skip and a jump across the bridge. I still have some projects I’d like to wrap up and photograph here at the loft anyway, so the timing works really well.
I’m so jazzed about this, guys! It’s been sort of a rough year for us in some aspects, and we needed a big win. This was totally in the ‘win’ category. :)
xoxo
That is exciting! Can't wait to see before and after pics, and even the mock ups of what you're going to do to your new place. Yay!
Your new house looks -and sounds- amazing! I hope that turning it into a home will be a joy in all its aspects!
Congratulations!!
Please if you have the spare time can you do upload pictures of your whole apartment? We've always seen different sections as you update them but I'd so love to see the whole thing.
Congratulations!! How exciting! Brooklyn Heights will be a great place for you all
So exciting. Part of me would love to live in a city again. The house looks like an amazing score!
A big congratulations! Of course I can't wait to see what you do to fix it up!
That's so exciting. Can't wait to see all you will do with the new place!
congratulations, nothing like that feeling, look forward to seeing the project unfold. You will love brooklyn heights SUCH a great neighborhood x
How exciting. Can't wait to watch it evolve on your blog. So happy you have a little yard!
so so exciting! congratulations. i cant wait to see what kinds of things you do to the place! and a yard plus short commute- big big win!
fI always think of the cosby's when I see Brooklyn brownstones- and their place was huge(!) inside. i'm so dying to see whats inside those doors :)
Yeah for renovations!! Change is always a good thing. Congrats
Hooray for you! Sad for me. What's happening with your loft? Is the owner going to leave the walls up?? (wink wink)
This sounds wonderful. I'm so happy for you and your family!
Congratulations! I know that the owners will adore you and your charming family. How lucky are they to have you to restore some needed tlc and grace into that lovely brownstone.
pve
go you, for taking the leap and being adventurous enough to contact the folks about that house! can't wait to see what you do with it. best of luck to you and your family in your new home…
Congrats! We are in *still* renovating over five years after moving in, but we are in the home stretch! (We are not that slow, haha, it's just been a complete gut-and-rebuild, aside from the structural stuff.)
Congrats! I am a regular reader who also lives in Brooklyn Heights, and I think you are going to love it! It's a great neighborhood, and I don't think there is any way to get me back to Manhattan now that I have been so spoiled!
so exciting. your place looks amazing. my little family is actually moving to brooklyn heights in August from Chicago. See you there!
Kelli
http://www.truebias.com
Congrats!! That's so exciting. Can't wait to see pics and hear about all the plans to finish it!!
Cheers
~ jillian
http://www.hersplitends.com
That's so exciting! Congratulations! You always have such fun and creative projects. I can't wait to see what you do with your new space.
Congrats! How very exciting! I can't even imagine just how fab you will make this place!!
I know that this will probably be a stupid question, but I live in Texas and always have, so have little to no knowledge about real estate in New York. Is the entire brownstone yours or are there other renters there as well? If the whole place is yours, then it looks HUGE!
So excited for you and your family!! and I can't believe it's been well over 2 years now that I started following your blog everyday. It doesn't seem that long ago you moved into your current home. Can't wait to see what you do with a brownstone!!
Oh, wow, a whole brownstone will get the 'Jenny treatment'? Can't wait to see your projects! What wonderful news and I hope your family enjoys the new digs!
Oh, I am so thrilled for your big win! You and your family deserve it. I hope that y'all will be super happy in your new home:)
Congrats Jenny! I can't wait to see what you do with it.
awwwww congrats Jenny and Family!!! This is so Miranda of you guys – – you deserve it and probably need it. Your own home with space!!
Congrats on the move – I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights two years ago and was really nervous about leaving "the city". I absolutely love the Heights and would never leave. It's an amazing neighborhood for kids, too!
wao!!!! this is so exciting!! congratulations!! I can't wait to see all your posts about the renovation….fantastic news!
Hooray! And how great is that short commute time!
Hooray! And how great is that short commute time!
Congrats to you and your family!
Fantastic! I love the idea of outdoor play space!
I appreciate the MCA reference.
A brownstone sounds very exciting, though moving in the city sounds especially laborious. Good idea with the vacation.
I can't wait to see what you do with the place! Congrats!
Congratulations! That just sounds like the most perfect opportunity! Sounds like someone is really looking out for you guys!! Sorry to hear you've had a hard year- I hope this new home is the perfect fresh start. I can't wait to watch the renoavtions!
Congrats. Can't wait to see it brownstone. I love the layouts of brownstones and all the levels of home to decorate.
Awesome! Congratulations! I'm sure the girls will love it!
Congratulations, Jenny, on your exciting news! Your new house sounds like an amazing, fun challenge and a great place for all of you. Looking forward to seeing what wonderful things you do with it!
How exciting!!! I cannot wait to see all you do with it. I bet you cannot wait to have a backyard! I'm sorry it has been rough. Happy you get a win!! Congratulations!
Congratulations and welcome to the neighborhood!! (you'll love it in the better borough) :)
I was thrilled to see this post. Congratulations to you and your family. It will be so exciting to watch you transform this beauty with your incredible talent.
That's SO exciting! Beware this store:
http://www.hollerandsquall.com/
can get very, very dangerous.
Wow, that facade looks very nice. Congrats on your find!
I was going to ask the same thing as G- is that whole place yours? (I don't know how New York works, ha). In any case, it is completely adorable and sounds perfect for you guys- pretty dreamy for NYC, I'd imagine! :)
Welcome to the neighborhood.
Congratulations! How exciting! I can't wait to see what you will do with the space! :)
You guys are the BEST! We couldn't be more excited about this move. The loft situation would have been perfect for us if I had another job, but the lighting in the space was HORRIBLE, which made it impossible to take decent pictures. And there was no space to do projects, so they just didn't happen that often. I love blogging about decorating my own home, and it's been so tricky to make that happen the last two years. I feel like I'm getting back into my wheelhouse. Jenny's got her groove back, ladies!
The goal is to blog mostly about the house and the projects there. I'll still be doing client work, but more select projects, so I can focus on the brownstone.
The house is pretty big (the listing says almost 3,000 sq feet!) though I don't know if that is true. We've asked for floor plans though and I'll be popping in next month to take all the measurements.
To answer the questions about whether we have the whole house – we have the bottom four of the six floors and the backyard is just ours. I'll probably show some of the photos from our walk through last week so you can get a better sense of the lay out.
Thank you guys. Your support means so much to me.
xoxoxo
Such exciting news! I can't wait to watch the process!
How exciting. You will work wonders on the place, the owners are VERY lucky to have you! Secretly I am jealous too, I rent a suburban home in the suburbs of Vancouver BC, and it is so blah compared to renting a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights!
Glad things are working out for you. Now if only the stars could be aligned for our family….