The one that didn’t get away.

Our Renovation Diary series follows 6sqft writer Michelle Cohen as she takes on the challenge of transforming her historic Clinton Hill townhouse into a site-sensitive modern home. This week she shares her plans for the storied structure and the first big step she’s taken to make her dream home a reality: assembling the professionals needed to make it happen.

After two years of tireless searching, we finally took the big, scary step of buying an old townhouse on a leafy block in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill. We loved the house at first sight; but to understate matters a bit, it needs some work. It’s a fixer-upper, though far from a wreck.

This renovation diary is an attempt to share what we learn over the next many months as this terrifying adventure unfolds, and let others learn from our mistakes!

Find out more about the huge renovation adventure we have ahead of us and what the first important decisions are.

Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci / Wikimedia Commons

The NY Yankees, Julia the Gorilla, and the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden all call the Bronx home, but as the borough named for Jonas Bronck (and affectionately called the Boogie Down) commemorates a centennial anniversary in 2014, there is much more to celebrate than Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Zoo, and the New York Botanical Garden.

We’ve hunted down seven cool things about the Bronx that we bet you didn’t know. Read them all ahead, then venture northward to see them up close and personal.

Seven cool things about the Bronx