Angela Tiffin

The inside of your house doesn't have to be Water World.

When it came time to think about landscaping our own backyard, we considered all our options.  There's no question that a finished backyard will add value to your home, but on the flip side, people will tell you that a patch of grass, no matter how small, is expensive and labor-intensive. After a cost-benefit analysis, we quickly came to the decision that the benefits of having a small lawn for our daughter and dog to play on far outweighed the inconvenience and cost—which is really pretty reasonable. 

Longtime New Yorkers Angela Tiffin and Andrew Nichols bought their first brownstone in South Park Slope in May 2012, and have spent two years renovating—first, their own duplex apartment and, in recent months, a third-floor rental unit—much of it with their own hands. You can read more about the project at their blog, Brownstone Cyclone. On a recent Friday night, we were enjoying a glass of wine when there was a knock at the door. Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie right? It turned out to be a representative from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations.

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