When my husband, Josh, and I told friends we were moving to Brooklyn Heights from our hometown of 20 years, Mill Valley, CA, they were curious. Why would you move to gray, dreary NYC with its punishing winters and hot, humid summers? But with our two children (actually, young adults) in college on the East Coast, it made sense. And we were ready to experience NYC life after a long spell in CA.
We were lucky enough to find a parlor floor flat in Brooklyn Heights that hadn’t been updated for a couple of decades, so it was a blank slate. (An added plus: it’s four doors down from my Remodelista cofounder and childhood friend Francesca Connolly.) The floor plan was functional, so we didn’t have to move walls or do any structural work. The main challenges: the kitchen and bathrooms were in need of attention, and a tiny room off the living room was going to have to serve as a guest room/study.
