The Manhattan Times

Moving In: Castle Village couple buy and renovate apartment via Web

by Andrew Keshner

With its artful and particular palate of colors, including candy apple reds, bright yellows and turquoise, it is difficult to believe the Kreitzman’s vibrantly renovated Cabrini Boulevard apartment came to life without them being present for every last, tiny detail. Rather, they were living thousands of miles away in London.

Yet the story of their approximately 1,200-square-foot Castle Village apartment – where they have lived on and off for the past year – is very much of the 21st century, depending on the Internet, many e-mails, photos and videoconferencing for its makeover.

Living in London’s artsy East End, the Kreitzmans decided more than two years ago that they wanted to find a place in America where they could eventually retire. After some thought, the location seemed obvious: Washington Heights. More than 30 years ago, Sue and Stephen were newlyweds living on W. 176th Street. Before that Sue, a former chef and cookbook writer who is now an artist and curator, had grown up in Washington Heights. In fact, when New York City was close to razing the Little Red lighthouse, Kreitzman donated pennies to the local cause of saving the landmark. “I invested in that lighthouse,” she said.

The end result is an apartment, with a full view of the George Washington Bridge and lighthouse, that bursts with a wide range of colors and items. There are statues, masks and quilts from places like Haiti, Peru, Mexico and Panama. Paintings hang from some of the artists she works with, along with some from prisoners in London. In the kitchen is a “voodoo knife set” storing cutlery in the body of a figurine. One room has a small table lined with unused sheet metal that would have been used to make cans of tuna fish.

The walls seem painted straight out of Matisse’s imagination with yellow, turquoise, black and red.

It’s an easy guess that red is Kreitzman’s favorite color. As she shows off the apartment, she wears red glasses, red earrings, red shoes, red rings, red bracelets, and a red watch. Her necklace, a piece of art by Anothai Hansen, contains three Wonder Woman figurines a bright red pair of lips.

The one discordant note in the symphony of colors is the beige interior of the bathroom, a remnant from the previous owner. “Beige is death,” said Kreitzman calling it “the absence of color.” “I don’t want to talk about beige anymore,” she said.

Kreitzman remembers finding the apartment online before working with Iris Perez-Walls, an agent with Stein-Perry Real Estate, who also arranged for them to look at several other apartments for comparison. Yet Perez-Walls remembers showing them the apartment first.

Either way, it was a done deal when they saw the place. Looking past the dark, dour antique furniture interior, Kreitzman saw a fresh canvas she could work on. “It felt meant [to be]. We saw it. We knew, this is what we wanted,” she said.

The decision to move forward kicked off a flurry of emails and Internet-age communication. Perez-Walls remembers getting up at 5 a.m. to look for emails from Kreitzman, given the time difference between New York and London. The international transaction also meant the co-op board interview had to be conducted via teleconference. Around two years ago, the Kreitzmans closed on the apartment, which came with an $895,000 price tag according to Perez-Walls. The real estate agent said the sale was her first done largely over the Internet and, though none have occurred since, she’s still trying to figure out a way to parlay more business through Internet sales.

Following the purchase, the Kreitzmans brought in Shaun McGuire, a project manager with McGuire Project Management, to refurbish the interior, which took about four months.

Writing during a trip to Paris, McGuire remembered having only three weeks after the closing to work with Sue face-to-face to plan out the space and find the right tiles, surfaces, window treatments and other materials. This was also the time when Kreitzman scoured flea markets and other off-the-beaten path furniture outlets. For instance, she found two chairs and a dining room table that appeared in a Saturday Night Live skit with an outlet providing furniture for TV shows. Shopping at retail outlets like Bloomingdale’s was not an option. “I hate it! It’s almost as bad as beige,” Kreitzman said. One day during those three weeks, Kreitzman walked through each room with McGuire, pointing out what color she wanted for every wall, picture moulding, bulkhead and ceiling. When they realized the original paints wouldn’t work, McGuire had to find other versions, mostly in the industrial paints used for stop and yield signs. With Kreitzman back in London, McGuire said they corresponded with emails, chats on Skype and emailed layouts.

The long-distance coordination worked out well. “I knew she liked it when after she first walked into the [apartment] she kneeled down and kissed the red glass tile floor in the kitchen,” he wrote.

These days, the Kreitzmans are scheduled to close on an apartment across the hall that will become a studio for Sue. Kreitzman, 69, said she and her 70-year-old husband plan to eventually spend more time here, but currently stay in their Washington Heights apartment for three to four months with the rest of the time in London. This has meant rediscovering New York City and Washington Heights specifically, which Kreitzman believes still retains the warm neighborly feeling she remembers from back when. “I’ve got my bridge, my lighthouse, my textured neighborhood. I’m a very lucky woman,” she beamed.

The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.