When putting this story together (and it's not done yet) I could hardly believe the fun we have had with dwelling places.....this story starts with our last home in Tucson, AZ and goes backward - if you have the patience, we hope you will enjoy having a look.
In February, 2003, we took a break from Winter and flew to Arizona for a week. After touring south of Tucson for several days, we spent the last few days in Tucson itself, and one of the things we did was go to an open house. Discussing our interests with the broker, we mentioned we might be interested in a place that "needs work but has a lot of potential". Within hours she had us looking at two houses in particular, and as we headed back to the Northeast, we were beginning negotiation on one. We ultimately struck a deal, and in April we closed on a 1947 brick/stucco house near the Arizona Inn that was very much in need of work. The following pictures are of the house in the shape we found it, followed by a roughly corresponding image from after our renovation.
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| Front Elevation - before |
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| Front Elevation - after |
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| Entrance - before |
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| Entrance - after |
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| Entry - before |
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| Entry - after |
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| Original Master Bedroom |
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| New Open Kitchen |
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| Original Master Bath & Bedroom |
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| New Open Dining Area |
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| Rear Elevation - before |
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| Rear Elevation - after |
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Over the course of nearly five years, we first renovated the guest house, then lived in that while completely gutting and renovation the main house. We had an architect who contributed some ideas and did the necessary drawings, and we were the CGs. Here are a few shots of the inside of the house, opened up for major surgery. It got new plumbing (including drains), new HVAC (including in-floor air returns), new wiring, new walls, new ceilings, new doors & windows, new floors, CAT 5 wiring, etc. It was a new house inside the old skin.
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| Cut through house, West |
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| Cut through house, East |
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| Master Bath, before removal of in floor tub |
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| Master Bath area after removal of tub |
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Taking out original exterior wall in NW corner
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When we moved to Tucson we sold 2 properties - one in New York City at 2 Tudor City Place #8GSouth - a great co-op apartment building on a terrific street. Tudor City Place is bordered on the south by 41st St, on the north by 43rd Street, on the east by First Avenue and on the west by Second Avenue - it is mostly park space, quiet and lovely. We renovated that apartment that was really a mess when we bought it... but when it was finished it was great!
We had bought a condo at 10 Fieldstone Terrace in Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts - we thought that it would be the perfect place to retire (but we thought that about a couple of other places as well) - and, guess what? We renovated it. It was about a 3 minute walk to the most wonderful beach - and there was a little pond out our window....it was next to a resort property so there was a restaurant right there.....It was a great place, but just too too far away.....
Prior to buying our place on Cape Cod, we sold a small condo on the Hudson River - our weekend "escape" from the city - we could walk to Grand Central Station, take 1/2 hour train ride and then walk to our place which we had also renovated....new kitchen, 2 new baths and eliminated walls....we had a great little patio and just loved watching the river traffic, but NYCity was just all consuming and we went to the river less and less.....so we sold it.
Sorry, no good pics of the river could be found....it was not a dark apartment, we just had a bad camera...
So, before all of this happened, we lived in Tribeca (the triangle below canal) in a loft, for many years - we lived on the 8th floor and when we moved in there was nothing in the 'hood.....by the time we moved out, it was a very "hot" neighborhood complete with neighbors like Sara Jessica (in our building), John John, Mariah, DeNiro, one of the Forbes boys (Payson babysat for them) and on and on.....
366 Broadway was built on top of Collect Pond (thus its name - Collect Pond House) in the early 1900s as a light manufacturing building - huge windows that opened, original maple floors with mosaic tile hallways and tall ceilings....of course, we reconfigured the space to make 3 bedrooms and an office but left the kitchen and baths alone...
We sold most everything from the Ridgewood, NJ house (see below) but took some things - including Susan's mother and father who were visiting from Florida during the move.
The Clock Tower building (late 1890s NYC landmark) became our house clock - it chimed the hours and on certain days you could go up into the clock - note the World Trade Center in the background - this was our view from most of our 12 windows, all but 2 of which faced South.
