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Katonah-Lewisboro Parents Not Surprised By Kreutzer’s Departure | Cross River Real Estate
News of Superintendent Paul Kreutzer’s Tuesday resignation came as no shock to several Katonah-Lewisboro parents.
Nat Mundy, owner of Caps Country Market on Spring Street, said he thought Kreutzer would finish out the year, but didn’t expect him to stay long term.
“I always sort of felt like he was brought in to serve a purpose: find budget cuts, find ways to save the system money,” he said. “He did his job and he probably has another job offer somewhere else.”
Kreutzer’s departure comes less than a week after the board voted 5-2 to close the Lewisboro Elementary School in the fall, which is expected to save about $1.7 million annually. The 300-plus Lewisboro Elementary students will move to Increase Miller and Meadow Pond elementary schools, including Mundy’s fourth grade son, Hunter.
“He’ll change schools. Some friendships will be more distant than they were before. The hard part is he’s only been there three years and was just settling in,” Mundy said. “He was finding his clique of buddies and comfortable socially, and now that all changes.”
The Katonah-Lewisboro School Board announced the resignation at a special meeting Tuesday night. Kreutzer, 42, will receive a $90,000 buyout of the existing portion of his five-year contract in order to avoid litigation, the school district said in a message on its website.
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/schools/katonah-lewisboro-parents-not-surprised-kreutzers-departure
Buyers want a photo-driven search experience | Cross River Real Estate
Upwards of 80 percent of buyers want to see property photos first when searching for a home, according to Robyn Woodman, a real estate broker and head of business development at Portland, Ore.-based real estate startup Househappy.
Househappy, a participant in Startup Alley at Real Estate Connect New York City, was founded in 2011 by Kevin McCloskey, a real estate broker with 27 years’ experience in the business.
The startup launched its visually based search site in March 2013. Househappy.org is free for consumers, agents and brokers, and McCloskey has vowed it will remain so. He plans to monetize the site with advertising from home services and other merchants near properties. Listing agents or brokers are posted directly on a listing page with no competing advertising from other agents.
The site obtains its listings from broker data feeds and manual uploads from listing agents or brokers. A deal with a major listing syndicator is also in the works.
Househappy recently raised $1.5 million in a funding round lead by Skechers exec Jeff Greenberg. That funding was on top of $1 million in seed funding previously raised from angel investors.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/01/15/buyers-want-a-photo-driven-search-experience/?utm_source=20140116&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.S2Yc3QBi.dpuf
Upgrade Your House With New Interior Doors | Cross River NY Real Estate
Interior doors play a more important role than you might realize. While they are minor elements in the grand scheme, they add architectural detail and style to a house. As something we use every day, doors create a tactile experience that leaves a significant impression. Closing a solid wood door, for example, feels very different than closing a hollow door made of synthetic materials.
For a house with modest detail, beautiful doors may add enough interest to make the spaces feel more stylistically specific. Even if your house has significant architecture, upgraded doors can complement and complete your design. For example, gilt, intricate details and the best stained wood finish make this Italian door remarkable. (We’ll get into looks for modern and other home styles soon.)
Who to hire: Replacing an interior door can be a good DIY project for someone who has at least a moderate level of skill in home improvement — but it doesn’t cost much to have interior doors installed by a reliable handyperson or licensed contractor. As for the design and which doors to choose, you will never regret the assistance of a competent design professional.
Permit: Rarely will you need a permit to replace an interior door. While there are minimum widths required for certain circumstances, it is unlikely that you would want less than the minimum anyway. One door that many consider an interior door is the one between the house and the garage. This technically is considered an exterior door, and it is wise to understand that these doors must have self-closing hardware and be fire rated. Consult a professional if you are changing this door.
Who to hire: Replacing an interior door can be a good DIY project for someone who has at least a moderate level of skill in home improvement — but it doesn’t cost much to have interior doors installed by a reliable handyperson or licensed contractor. As for the design and which doors to choose, you will never regret the assistance of a competent design professional.
Permit: Rarely will you need a permit to replace an interior door. While there are minimum widths required for certain circumstances, it is unlikely that you would want less than the minimum anyway. One door that many consider an interior door is the one between the house and the garage. This technically is considered an exterior door, and it is wise to understand that these doors must have self-closing hardware and be fire rated. Consult a professional if you are changing this door.
First step: Get a quick lesson from this ideabook for some basic knowledge of door parts. Then determine if all you need to do is replace the door alone, or if you will want to replace the door and its jamb along with the casing (or molding) around the door. It is likely that you will want to replace the jamb.
Even if you hire someone to do the work, it is always a good idea to have a basic understanding of what needs to be done, so read this tutorial on how to replace one kind of door and jamb.
Project length: Give yourself a few hours per door. A handyperson or contractor can probably replace a door in about an hour. It all depends on how many doors you replace at once, but this is a project that can likely be done in less than a month, even in more complicated cases.
Best time to do this project: Since all of the work takes place inside the house, you can do this project just about any time of year, though it is best not to start projects of this nature in the weeks before significant holidays, since you probably want your house neat if you intend to entertain.
Even if you hire someone to do the work, it is always a good idea to have a basic understanding of what needs to be done, so read this tutorial on how to replace one kind of door and jamb.
Project length: Give yourself a few hours per door. A handyperson or contractor can probably replace a door in about an hour. It all depends on how many doors you replace at once, but this is a project that can likely be done in less than a month, even in more complicated cases.
Best time to do this project: Since all of the work takes place inside the house, you can do this project just about any time of year, though it is best not to start projects of this nature in the weeks before significant holidays, since you probably want your house neat if you intend to entertain.
Types of Door Styles
Let’s take a look at the simplest door first and then progress by the number of panels.
Flush Doors
A flush door can come with a hollow or solid core, primed for painting or finished in a wood veneer, as shown here. Typically it is the least expensive, and is well suited to modern architecture.
Cost: Doors start at under $50 for a hollow core with a primed surface. Prices jump significantly for solid wood doors; expect to pay between $200 and $300 for the more common styles and sizes.
Let’s take a look at the simplest door first and then progress by the number of panels.
Flush Doors
A flush door can come with a hollow or solid core, primed for painting or finished in a wood veneer, as shown here. Typically it is the least expensive, and is well suited to modern architecture.
Cost: Doors start at under $50 for a hollow core with a primed surface. Prices jump significantly for solid wood doors; expect to pay between $200 and $300 for the more common styles and sizes.
Moving on up into specialty woods, such as exotic veneers, the price will balloon to $500 to $1,000 per door, or more for antique and custom doors. Keep in mind that you have to pay for installation labor and finish materials in all circumstances.
This flush door has a more complex veneer finish. Some manufacturers will offer set choices for veneer designs, while others can do custom configurations.
Patterned veneers increase the cost substantially.
This flush door has a more complex veneer finish. Some manufacturers will offer set choices for veneer designs, while others can do custom configurations.
Patterned veneers increase the cost substantially.
Single-Panel Doors
Single-panel doors are suitable for and often found in Craftsman houses as well as other modest houses of the 1920s and 1930s.
You can get a single panel on an arched door like this one. Just one or two of these in key places in your house can add lots of character. You will often find these in Spanish colonial and Spanish eclectic architecture.
Single-panel doors are suitable for and often found in Craftsman houses as well as other modest houses of the 1920s and 1930s.
You can get a single panel on an arched door like this one. Just one or two of these in key places in your house can add lots of character. You will often find these in Spanish colonial and Spanish eclectic architecture.
Two-Panel Doors
As you will see in the following examples, variations on two-panel designs are many. This particular type, with its segmental arched top panel, is great for French country and French eclectic homes.
Very similar to the previous example, this door has a plank detail within the panel. This evokes a farmhouse or country feeling. This embossed design comes from the tongue and groove wood joinery found on old-fashioned stile and rail doors.
As you will see in the following examples, variations on two-panel designs are many. This particular type, with its segmental arched top panel, is great for French country and French eclectic homes.
Very similar to the previous example, this door has a plank detail within the panel. This evokes a farmhouse or country feeling. This embossed design comes from the tongue and groove wood joinery found on old-fashioned stile and rail doors.
Here is an inexpensive example of two flush doors’ being replaced by two-panel doors.
Government thinks it can fix struggling communities | Cross River Real Estate
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development joined the education and agriculture secretaries Thursday in a press conference to elaborate on what will be involved in President Obama’s new “promise zone” initiative.
President Barack Obama announced that he is starting a new government program designed to help economically challenged communities.
The promise zone initiative, Obama said, will focus on attracting private investment to replace distressed housing with what they call “mixed-income” housing, reducing crime, providing tax incentives to stimulate economic growth, and promoting programs to help high schools retain and graduate students.
The first five locations will be San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The White House plans to announce 15 more promise zones over the next two years in blighted rural and urban areas.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said the effort will integrate housing, education and crime relief efforts, and bring together local community leaders with businesses through tax credits, coordinated by federal oversight.
“This is a sharp departure from the way the government provided aid in the past,” Donovan said. “Washington would swoop in and impose solutions without working with local leaders to support their visions and strengthen all assets needed for communities to thrive.”
“We want to bring together a wide variety of stake holders to better communities,” Donovan said. “Home is the foundation of all of our lives. Now we are going to connect housing with other efforts to expand opportunity.”
Donovan said that the tax credit component of the promise zone initiative is critical, especially for housing and job creation.
“Yes, these zones will work without tax credits, but no, not to full capacity,” he said. “Those tax credits that will be proposed are critical in accelerating job creation and improving housing.”
He added he believed the promise zones initiatives and tax credits will receive bipartisan support in Congress.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28537-big-promises-the-white-house-is-making-now-about-housing
Nextdoor used by ‘countless’ real estate agents to cultivate leads | Cross River Homes
Elliman’s Oren Alexander to co-list $95M property | Cross River NY Homes
The 18th-floor penthouse unit at the Sherry Netherland on Fifth Avenue, a listing in the hands of superbroker Dolly Lenz before she departed Douglas Elliman in June, is changing brokers again.
Lisa Simonsen, the Elliman broker behind the $48 million sale of a Plaza Hotel condominium in 2011 – the priciest apartment trade in New York City history at the time – no longer holds the 781 Fifth Avenue listing, Elliman broker Oren Alexander confirmed. Alexander, who also holds the $5 million listing for No. 501 at the Sherry Netherland, will now be co-listing the property with Brown Harris Stevens broker Kathy Sloane, who initially shared listing with Lenz and continued to share after it switched to Simonsen.
The Alexander team, which includes Oren Alexander, his brother Tal Alexander and 10 others based in both New York and Miami, hopes to go live with the listing by Monday, Oren Alexander told The Real Deal.
“This is not just a change of broker, but a change in the whole marketing strategy,” Alexander said. “This property is right up our alley, we have been really focusing our team on selling trophy properties.”
The listing, which was reduced to $88 million from $95 million in December, will now ask $95 million, Alexander said. “I was not involved in reducing the price, but my understanding was that it was a mistake,” he said.
Sloane, a senior vice president and managing director at Brown Harris Stevens who sold Courtney Sale Ross’ duplex co-op at 740 Park Avenue for $52.5 million in 2012, did not immediately respond to request for comment. A spokesperson for Brown Harris Stevens confirmed that the listing remains a co-exclusive. Simonsen also did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Liberty Travel founder Gilbert Haroche owns the 18th-floor, prewar co-op, which boasts seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a master bedroom suite overlooking Central Park. Purchased as numerous smaller apartments pieced together over the years, the property now spans 9,000 square feet inside and includes a 2,000 square feet of outdoor terraces, as previously reported. His past neighbor, Judge Judith Sheindlin — better known as television’s “Judge Judy” — sold her 10th and 11th-floor unit in the building in June for $8.5 million.
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/01/02/co-listed-sherry-netherland-penthouse-switches-brokers-at-douglas-elliman/
Leonardo DiCaprio Sells Malibu Home for $17.35 Million | Cross River Real Estate
Glass Home With Dramatic View of the Rockies Asks $4.25M | Cross River Real Estate
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Location: Boulder, Colo. Price: $4,250,000 The Skinny: Overlooking the city of Boulder from its perch at the feet of the Rocky Mountains, this glass-and-steel home is perfectly situated to take in 360 degrees of mountain and city views. Designed by AIA award winner Thomas Phifer (who is perhaps best known for his work on the North Carolina Museum of Art), the Boulder House is another winning iteration of his exciting approach to residential architecture. The front of the house is a 35-foot-high wall of glass addressing the city, the back is partially built into the hill and offers wilderness and mountain views, and the uppermost level combines both vistas in an all-encompassing scenic panorama. The stunning light-filled interior features a ground floor art gallery with open space that soars to the upper reaches of the home, where an operable 15-by-12-foot skylight sits atop the roof, while the rest of the house, including the two bedrooms and three bathrooms, has 11-foot ceilings. The home, which is asking $4.25M, becomes the second Phifer design to hit the market in recent years, with his Taghkanic House currently listed for $6.75M
http://curbed.com/archives/2013/12/23/glass-home-with-dramatic-view-of-the-rockies-asks-425m.php