My story starts when my wife Frances and I were looking to buy a home in Brooklyn. Before we were married and during our engagement, we purchased a new Ford Galaxy Convertible. Frances was seventeen and I just turned nineteen. Just so you know we were going steady for almost six years at that point. After we were married we sold our new car and managed to save five thousand dollars as a down payment to buy a house. We would stroll, the Shore Road neighborhood and dream that just maybe we could find a small house in one of the very expense areas in Brooklyn overlooking the water, Staten Island and the Verrazano Bridge. But the prices were way out of our financial affordability. A few years went by and now we have two children to take care of. That as when I convinced my wife that we should buy a three family house as an investment on 658 Henry Street in Carroll Gardens. We were young and we didn't have much experience so we made some mistakes along the way due to our lack of experience. I also had an alternative motive. I thought I could convince my wife that we were "Rich" if we moved into this three family house so
I told her, look honey, "this is a good start for us because one floor will pay all our overhead expenses, the second floor is income and if we move into the five room apartment on the third floor we live there rent free. Wow, all of our work earnings can be socked away in our savings account." But she could see right through me, and said "I have no plans to raise my children in this neighborhood, got that?" Well , my plan didn't work out. So now I'll have to go to plan "B". Okay, now we're, Landlords you see, this old three family investment house was in pretty good condition except for the ground floor which needed to be completely renovated. I made a deal with Angie, who lived on the ground floor that the new rent would now be seventy five dollars per month and she agreed. So I made arrangements with my (Dish water cousin) Johnny Roca, to build a new bathroom and refurbish the kitchen area. After completion the ground floor apartment was beautiful. Everything was fine for months. But except for the fact that Angie's German Shepherd roamed the halls of the apartment building.
Meanwhile, the young couple who lived on the top floor complained that the dog would pee on their landing. But Angie convinced them that the skylight maybe leaking and they asked me to check the skylight, so I did, and I found no leaks. Months go by without any problem. One day when I went to collect the rent on the top floor, Anthony told me that there continued to be a dog problem and when he told Angie, she insisted that the skylight was the problem. At that point Anthony said, "Listen Angie, the skylight may pee but it doesn't shit." Problem solved.
I Then received a letter from the NYC rent control board telling me that our tenant at 658 Henry Street in Brooklyn New York, complained that I'm over charging them for the rent on the ground floor apartment, which was listed as a cold water flat with a rent of thirty five dollars per month. So I contacted the NYC rent control board immediately and sent them all my expenses for the renovation work we did several months ago. They called me and said, would it be okay if they inspected the ground floor apartment? I agreed and weeks later, I received another letter from the NYC rent board telling me that the changed the listed rent for the apartment from Thirty Five Dollars a month to One Hundred and ten Dollars per month. So I gave Angie the bad news and raised the rent accordingly. Yes, we continued to look for a house in a better neighborhood in Brooklyn where my wife felt was best place to raise our family.
A couple of years went by and we weren't any closer to finding a home in Brooklyn. So we decided to take a trip of a lifetime to Italy. My wife mother would take care of our son Frank and my sister, Isabella would take care of her Godson Patrick in New Jersey. We were all excited about our new adventure to touring Italy, but it wasn't meant to be because Frances's Mom had emergency surgery, and therefore we had no choice and canceled our trip to Italy. We went to the hospital to visit Fran's Mom who was recovering nicely. We happed to meet Aunt Sara and Uncle Nick there. Aunt Sara asked me about my work in the packaging business and mention that her brother, Tony, was the President of Gibson Associates, which is a large plastic molding company in New Jersey. Wow, this may turn out to be a great family connection
Meanwhile, Uncle Nick suggested that since we had to cancel our trip to Italy and we had scheduled vacation time, perhaps we could take trip to Long Island with our children and stay with Aunt Bee and Uncle Nick. This way we will babysit your children while you vacation on Long Island. We agreed to accept Uncle Nick Suggestion. We got there the following week and toured Montauk, the Hamptons, Port Jefferson and many interesting sights which included Bellport, New York. Aunt Bee happed to mention that there were building new homes in Bellport and we should look at the three different home model's that they were building. We went there a checked the Ranch, Colonial and High Ranch which had five bedrooms. They were all on a half acre of land on a new street called Country Greens Drive. These homes were so beautiful I never thought they would be in our price range. We I asked the builder the price range they were asking and he said nineteen thousand dollars I nearly fell over. Holy crap, I turned to Frances and asked her to make out a check for a down payment for the five bedroom High Ranch. We never thought we would ever own a beautiful home like this. This trip turned out to be the beginning of one of our greatest adventures.
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