Daily Archives: December 17, 2013

Reno’d English Manor in Connecticut Countryside Asks $20M | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Location: Greenwich, Conn. Price: $20,000,000 The Skinny: A complete renovation and expansion of a 1929 home, this English country manor sits on five acres of land in pricey Khakum Woods, an exceedingly exclusive neighborhood that was once part of the extensive estate of famed New York architect I. N. Phelps Stokes. Linden Court, as the home is now known, was stripped to the studs and rebuilt by luxury builders Xhema, with interior work by David Easton. An impressive modern pedigree, to be sure, but the home’s $20M asking price (down $5M from the original ask, yet still nearly $10M over the highest sale price of nearby homes) has stirred debate—not to mention genteel snarking—among those residing in the rarefied air of Greenwich real estate circles. Which, “po-tay-to, po-tah-to”, it’s a huge sum of money either way.

· 218 Clapboard Ridge Rd. [Sotheby’s International Realty via Architectural Digest]

How Much Does it Cost to Install Countertops? | Cross River NY Real Estate

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Whether in the kitchen or bathroom, the countertop can be the star of the room. A countertop should fit both your aesthetic style and your lifestyle. How much you pay for your countertops will depend on the sizes needed, the materials used and the labor involved.
Countertops usually get a lot of use. You don’t want to spend money on something that loses its beauty quickly or chips easily. The more you plan to use your counters, the more durability must be a major concern.
Laminate Countertops

Laminate provides the best selection of colors and patterns at the lowest prices. Laminate can be used to form a seamless cove backsplash to keep spills from seeping behind the cabinets. They’re also cheap and easy to install. The down sides? Laminate scratches or chips easily. It can be tough to clean, and its colors can fade over time.

Ceramic Tile Countertops

No surface offers more choices than tile. The price you pay for tile will largely depend on where you get them. Go for a big box store and you can go as cheap as $10 per square foot. Contact an artist in Florence, and you could pay $5,000 per tile. Tile can adapt as easily to Mexican fiesta as it can to Tokyo contemporary. There are two downsides of tile. One is that it can expensive to install, depending on the square footage of your counters. The other is grout lines, which attract crumbs and stains and require periodic sealing to repel moisture.

Stone Slab Countertops (Granite, Marble, Quartz, etc)

Not much can add dazzle to your kitchen or bathroom like a stone slab countertop. The sheer beauty, amazing selection and durability of stone makes it an excellent choice for your home. The depth and character of natural stone cannot be matched by any man-made surface (though some made-made alternatives have taken great strides.) Natural stone does not depreciate with time and this stone will consistently add value to your home. The costs of the stone depend on how rare its elements, the size and particularly the length of the necessary cuts, which must be finished, buffed and polished. You can sometimes save big money on stone slabs by shopping through remnants.

Acrylic Countertops

The most popular of the acrylics is Corian by DuPont. Corian provides the color versatility of laminates with a rich look (and price) that rivals stone slabs. It’s easy to maintain. Scratches and nicks can easily be buffed out. If you want to create a seamless look, Corian can even be formed into sinks, so there’s no gap between the counter and the sink. Price is determined largely by square footage.

Other Expenses

You may want to also add a new sink or new faucets to your installation. This can be an additional cost, not only in purchasing the hardware, but the installation as well. If you’re going with a stone slab, you have the additional cost of cutting the hole. You also may need to hire a plumber, especially if you want to install something new like an instant hot water dispenser or side spray.

If you are upgrading and replacing your existing counters, you may have to pay for their removal from not only their current location, but from your home as well. Debris removal is normally not a huge expense, but it’s one you should talk with your contractor about nonetheless.

Twitter is reportedly working on an ‘Edit’ feature to let you make “slight changes” to tweets | South Salem NY Realtor

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Is Twitter working on a way to enable users to edit their Tweets once they’re out in the ether? The Desk’s Matthew Keys says it’s true. Sources tell him that this feature has been in the works for months and will allow the author to make “slight changes” to the contents of the Tweet only once.

Here’s how the feature would work: after publishing a Tweet, a user will see an “edit” feature appear for a brief period. How long remains unknown. However, during this time, the content creator can correct typos, add new words, and other small tweaks. While these changes are minor, it’s said that Twitter doesn’t want the overall message of the Tweet to be changed.

Update: A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the news. Of course, let’s not forget that the company experiments with many different features all the time and while it’s been said that this is in development, we may actually never see something like this go live.

 

 

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2013/12/16/twitter-reportedly-working-edit-feature-let-make-slight-changes-tweets/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily

The Best of West Chelsea at the New AVA High Line | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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488_AVAHighLine_SponsoredKitchen_10-30%20%281%29%20copy.pngAVA High Line, located alongside the High Line Park, offers some of West Chelsea’s best new rental apartments, plus a host of unique amenities, all within easy walking distance of the neighborhood’s cutting-edge galleries and restaurants. Opening in December—and now accepting lease applications—the pet-friendly AVA High Line includes studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Residents can hang in the Chill Lounge or the nearby backyard fire pit. And inside the apartments, it gets even better, with features like sliding barn doors, stainless appliances and wood plank flooring. Don’t just take our word for it, check it out for yourself. Now renting for immediate move-ins. Visit AVA High Line at 525 West 28th Street (28th Street and 11th Avenue).>>

Inside the Absurdly Lavish $114M Upper East Side Mansion | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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Onyx-clad bathrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a movie theater with a balcony, a dressing area that doubles as a panic room, a 2,000-square-foot rooftop deck—these are just a few of extravagant features in the 40-foot wide mansion at 12 East 69th Street, currently on the market for a mindboggling $114,077,000. The Times announced the listing on Friday, and it’s now live on Corcoran’s website. Renovated by Vincent and Teresa Viola (the owner of the Florida Panthers NHL team and the president of Maida Vale Designs, respectively), the 19-room house is a case study in grandeur and the mega-rich, and needless to say, if it sells for anything close to the asking price, it will shatter previously held price records— and yet, it’s not even the most expensive thing on the market.

The brokerbabble is nothing impressive, but Friday’s Times article more than makes up for. Click through for the best lines. ·: Listing: 12 East 69th Street [Corcoran via StreetEasy] · East 69th Street Mansion Wants An Eye-Popping $114 Million [Curbed]

For Only $15M, Be a ‘Pearl Within a Life-Size Abalone Shell’ | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Location: Laguna Beach, Calif. Price: $15,000,000 The Skinny: The brokerbabble for The Rockhouse, as it’s called, surreally claims that living in this beachfront home “evokes the feeling of being a pearl within a life-size abalone shell”, but an equally apt analogy might be that it evokes the feeling of being trapped in Ursula’s lair in a scene from The Little Mermaid. The listing wisely avoids drawing that connection, though, instead laying the responsibility for inspiring this “synergistic marriage of architecture and art” at the unwitting feet of Antoni Gaudi and the city of Barcelona. Besides the clamshell décor, the most notable aspect of this Brion Jeanette design is its location inside Aliso Rock, a gigantic stone that sat peacefully on this beach for eons, watching a million gentle tides come and go, before being split asunder to make room for this house. The two-bedroom, three-bathroom home—which does have nice ocean views!—is asking $15M.

· 31107 Coast Highway [Surterre Properties] · 31107 Coast Highway [Zillow]

House marketed as ‘Frankenstein’ fixer-upper sells in 2 days, over list | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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Abandoned for three years, stripped of its kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and missing part of its roof, the two-bedroom fixer-upper was in such rough shape that its listing agent did not hesitate to market the property as “Frankenstein.

”Which made the home all the more attractive to plasterer and carpenter Chris Leczynski, who bought the Melbourne, Australia, property sight unseen two days after it hit the market, paying $11,000 over the asking price of $500,000. Source: news.com.au

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/house-marketed-as-frankenstein-fixer-upper-sells-in-two-days-over-list/?utm_source=20131216&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.R3mr5AHp.dpuf

Canadian home sales remain flat | North Salem NY Homes

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Canadian home sales remained mostly flat in November compared to October, but were up 5.9 percent from a year ago, The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported.

“National sales activity in November stood 3.4 percent below the peak reached in September, providing further evidence that activity in the later summer and early fall was likely boosted by homebuyers with preapproved mortgages at lower-than-current interest rates jumping into the market before their preapprovals expired,” the trade group said in a statement.

The number of newly listed homes also increased 1.8 percent month over month in November, representing a supply of homes that would take six months to sell, the same level as the previous month.

Meanwhile, the MLS Home Price Index (HPI) edged up 0.3 percent month over month in November, and was up 4.1 percent year over year.

Source: CREA

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/canadian-home-sales-remain-flat/?utm_source=20131216&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.tQ6rFuU7.dpuf

Bitcoin now accepted by RentHop | Mt Kisco NY Realtor

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Rental listing site RentHop thinks it can entice landlords and real estate brokers into using Bitcoin by slashing its listing advertisement fee if they pay with the digital currency.

Users must currently pay $2 to post listings on RentHop, which covers New York City, Boston and Chicago, and has plans to expand nationally.

But as of this week, if brokers and landlords use Bitcoin, they’ll have to pay only 0.833 milli-citcoin (1/1000th of a bitcoin), or $0.76 at today’s exchange rates. That represents a 60 percent discount off the rate that RentHop will continue to charge advertisers who pay in dollars. Find more details at https://de.thebitcoinscode.com/.

“RentHop has always catered to early adopters exploring innovations in real estate,” said RentHop CEO Lee Lin in a statement. “Over the years we’ve noticed the most successful landlords are the ones who proactively seek out and embrace new and disruptive platforms. Bitcoin users are exactly the type of participant we welcome to our marketplace.”

RentHop intends to reduce the exchange-rate volatility of owning Bitcoin for customers by maintaing the exact number in bitcoins that it charges unless Bitcoin’s dollar value changes by more than 30 percent.

Lawrence Zhou, co-founder of RentHop, breaks it down for us:

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/12/16/bitcoin-now-accepted-by-renthop/?utm_source=20131216&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.UtWNx7SJ.dpuf

Renovation Do No. 2: Revamp your bathroom | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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A toilet that looks old, cracked or dirty (or doesn’t flush properly) is a turn-off, and the same goes for a vanity, which should be eye-catching and practical. “Install a vanity that recesses into the wall, so it saves space,” advises Alen Moshkovich, a broker for Douglas Elliman in New York City.

Proper lighting can also be a great value booster, such as adding a window in the bathroom, so natural light can illuminate the space.

And homeowners tend to overlook one other simple fix: Reglazing a tub, rather than getting a new one, will save you money and upgrade the look of your bathroom.

http://money.msn.com/home-loans/good-and-bad-renovations-for-your-homes-value