SELLERS: Mike Diamond and Tamra Davis
LOCATION: Brooklyn, N.Y.
PRICE: $5.65 million
SIZE: (approx.) 3,200 square feet, 3-5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: We’ve now heard twice — first from a previously unknown snitch we’ll call Bea A. Lamb and later from the property gossips at 6sqft — that Beastie Boys superstar Mike D has hoisted his “aesthetically reimagined” and stylishly photogenic, townhouse in Brooklyn’s leafy and all but entirely gentrified Cobble Hill ‘hood on the open market with a pricetag of $5.65 million.
Property records show Manhattan born and bred Mister D — née Diamond — and his wife, film and music video director-turned-online cooking show host and vegetarian cookbook author Tamra Davis — purchased the circa-1853 Italianate townhouse in May 2011 for $3.1 million. They paid $115,000 over the $2.895 million asking price and, according to current listing details, reconfigured and “aesthetically reimagined” the four-story (plus basement) residence that combines “an artistic mix of 19th-century period details and a modern vernacular interior renovation.” A couple of years ago, after their redo, the couple invited the nosy peeps at the New York Times over for a look-see around what Mister D then described as their “suburban dream in Brooklyn” and revealed that their overall architecture and renovation budget was under half a million clams.
The original red brick façade was retained and restored and inside floral crown moldings and 9-inch wide plank wood floors commingle — we dare say — in an effortless, easy-going fashion with sleekly upgraded kitchen(s) and bathrooms and a bevy of thoroughly contemporary mechanicals that include central heat and air conditioning. The house comes in at about 3,200 square feet, and there are, according to the floor plan included with digital marketing materials and depending on how one counts, three and up to five bedrooms and a total of 3.5 bathrooms.
Floor plans included with digital marketing materials show the classic raised stoop entry leads to the parlor floor foyer and living room that isn’t particularly big — it’s not especially small, either — but retains an original, carved marble mantelpiece and a picture-perfect pair of 8-pane windows that start at the floor and rise regally all the way to the 11-foot ceiling. A discrete wet bar separates the living room from the dining room that opens through a trio of transom-topped glass doors to an elevated deck that overlooks the 60-foot long landscaped backyard. A striking, minimalist-minded marble island that will surely not be to everyone’s liking is surmounted by brass and glass shelving unit for dishware storage and — let’s be honest — dust collecting.
Two guest/family bedrooms on the third floor flank a shared study with built-in desk space and make use of a windowed hall bathroom with separate tub and glass-enclosed shower. A small home office with built-in desk and storage — not to mention pretty damn flawless, black and white Rorschach inkblot pattern wallpaper — completes the floor, while the house’s uppermost level was turned over entirely to a comfortably ample master suite. The spacious bedroom spans the full width of the house with slender wood beams on the ceiling, a custom-fitted walk-in closet is complimented by additional wardrobes, and an oversized and sky-lit bathroom has more narrow wood beams across the ceiling, a blackened double-sink vanity with marble countertop, a free-standing claw-footed tub, and a subway tiled and glass enclosed shower. Frankly, this property gossip prefers a bit of privacy in the pooper, so we’d like to have seen the toilet enclosed in some sort of enclosure, but that’s a minor beef and — in the hands of the right architect or interior designer — an easy fix.
The townhouse is zoned as a two-family residence and, indeed, when the Ds purchased the property, the garden level was configured as an approximately 750-square-foot one-bedroom and one-bathroom apartment. However, the recent reimagining repurposed the garden floor unit into a shared home office that’s convertible to a bedroom and a media room with state-of-the-art projection system and three glass doors that open to the backyard. A compact but convenient and fully equipped galley kitchen off the media room means television watchers and backyard barbecuers need not strain their glutes with a schlep up to the parlor floor kitchen every time they want a beer or candy snack. Of special note is the garden floor stair hall and hall-accessible bathroom that were both wallpapered in finely funky red and white Brooklyn-themed toile wallpaper co-designed by Mister D himself.
Mister and Missus D moved to their Brooklyn townhouse from a loft in TriBeCa, and this property gossip wonders if they plan to jump on the F train and head back in that direction or if, like so many of Your Mama’s New York City-based pals, they’ve permanently traded the island of Manhattan for the borough of Brooklyn.
Listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran
