Neil Patrick Harris

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The multitalented entertainer Neil Patrick Harris, most notably recognized for his role in “How I Met Your Mother,” along with his husband, actor and professional chef David Burtka, own multiple properties together. One of their most notable is a brownstone townhouse in the Harlem neighborhood on New York City they purchased for $3.6 million in 2013. The celebrity duo spent 14 months converting the space into. Harris and Burtka worked with Los Angeles based interior designer Trace Lehnhoff and New York architect Jeffery Povero to convert the former bed and breakfast into an expansive single-family residence. However, Harris and his family are now bidding farewell to Harlem after purchasing a $5.5 million home in East Hampton. Their Harlem residence is listed for $7,325,000 and Vickey Barron as well as Pacey Barron of Compass hold the listing for this property.

Built in 1910, the Brownstone townhome spans 8,000 square feet with six stories, four plus bedrooms, and six baths. The 20-foot-wide structure once served as a speakeasy for millworkers, a music school for girls, and a bed-and-breakfast. Entering the lavish home, the interior opens to sweeping 20 foot ceilings and original dark wood wainscoting. The vintage bar is sourced from an old hotel and has been with updated with new fixtures including two built-in taps. Additionally, the spacious butler’s pantry offers the perfect necessities for entertaining. Leading up the restored wooden staircase, the space presents a sunlight living and dining area that overlooks Fifth Avenue. This floor also includes a spectacular kitchen equipped with custom cabinetry, an island with farmhouse sink, two Wolf ranges, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer, a beverage refrigerator, wine refrigerator, and pantry.

On third floor rests the extravagant master suite. The lavish bedroom features a fireplace, custom walk-in-closet, and a bathroom with Nero Marquina marble. This floor also offers an intimate library and den space. Upstairs, on the top floor, presents three additional bedrooms and two bathrooms. Another charming highlight of this level is an office hidden behind a secret door which opens with the press of a magician’s eyeball on a vintage poster. Harris, an acclaimed magic enthusiast, decorated the space with original art from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and various other magical props.

The two remaining stories are semisubterranean with the garden level currently used as a production office and a 10-seat home theater. Underneath, the basement features an indoor gym, wine cellar, and additional storage space. Stepping outside, the exterior offers 2,000 square feet of space with a 500-square-foot terraced garden, a third-floor deck, a roof deck with pergola, an outdoor hot tub, built-in barbecue grill, and a dining table for eight.

The post Beguiling Brownstone: Neil Patrick Harris Lists Harlem Home For $7.3 Million appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

In the world of quick flips and maximizing purchase and construction dollars, renovating and restoring a brownstone for profit is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest for some exercise. Stripping and sanding and staining intricate wainscoting and moldings is a painstaking and costly affair that doesn’t result in a bump in resale value. Rather than restore the houses are denuded of their original charm, replaced by paint, expensive stone, light wood floors, sputnik lighting and gleaming commercial grade appliances. A scan of the NY Times real estate section shows a number of these type of townhouses asking top dollar.

59 Lincoln Place (photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Park Slope’s 59 Lincoln Place ($4,490,00), 151 President St in Carroll Gardens ($3,500,000) and 453 DeGraw Street in Gowanus ($4,200,000) are visually stunning and have a classic brownstone facade but inside are hardly recognizable from the conventional detail dripping Victorian houses we expect

292 16th St, Park Slope Brooklyn (photo courtesy of Zillow)

“There’s a difference between a restoration and renovation,” says Abdel Tarchid, a designer with Scavolini Kitchens in Brooklyn, who has been involved in many such renovations including  292 16th St in Park Slope. “Developers are not in the business of restoring. Certainly many of our clients, come to us for something very modern but tasteful, with clean lines where the electric and plumbing along with heating and cooling systems can be installed in an efficient manner. It would be painstaking to do if you had to navigate around old pipes and woodwork,” he says.

Doug Bowen a broker with Douglas Elliman has sold around 100 Brooklyn townhouses. He sees the kitchen as a driver for large-scale renovations in historic townhouses.

“The most successful townhouse renovations manage to craft open-plan kitchens seamlessly into these antique properties,” he told the Appliances Connection blog. “Townhouse configurations in the prime parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan trend to either a single family or a two family. Most commonly an upper triplex with a garden rental. Both are most successful with kitchens at the rear that bring the outdoors inside and visa versa.”

For those attached to these historic townhomes, who believe stripping them of their Victorian majesty is almost sacrilegious, a replacing battered vintage molding with newly made ones is often a faster, if still expensive, undertaking, resulting in something truly spectacular.

1 Verona Plce courtesy of Zillow.com

In 2017, 1 Verona Place shattered the sales record for a townhouse in Bed-Stuy when it sold for $3.3 million. The entire interior was gut renovated and with all new moldings custom built apart from part of the staircase and painted in black lacquer as was fashionable a century ago. The developers were Christiaan Bunce, a principal at the design firm KGBL, and Adam Dahill, a mortgage broker. 

What their renovation budget was, they didn’t disclose. The lofty sale though, succeeded in raising the comps for the neighborhood of other houses without their meticulous renovation.

“Old houses have layers of visual interest created by the elaborate details, but you don’t have to keep them all,” said Kimberly Neuhaus, founder of the full-service architecture firm Neuhaus Design who recently renovated 167 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 

“When you renovate an old home many of the materials are pre-existing. Your new interventions should be constructed of materials that you love.”

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