Brooklyn is one of the shining examples of New York’s crazy strong real estate market, where prices seem to have no limit. Case in point: this three-family townhouse in Bushwick, a neighborhood typically known for cheap rents and warehouse loft apartments, that is asking $1.25 million. Sure, this pad—located at 1108 Madison Street, off the Gates Avenue J train—is nice, but that’s a lot of money. It’s even more surprising to know that the seller purchased it only two years ago, in May of 2013, for $633,000. From $633K to $1.25M in two years…that’s Brooklyn real estate for you!

See the space

Many people know Bushwick as the Brooklyn neighborhood of artists and lofty warehouse apartments. But Bushwick Avenue is also home to many historic mansions built in the 19th century. This Renaissance Revival property at 716 Bushwick Avenue is one of them. The large mansion is decked out with many historic touches– woodwork, fireplaces, parquet floors–but it also pays tribute to Bushwick’s rebirth as an artist destination. (You won’t believe the graffiti work on display in the basement.) To buy a home that embodies both old world and new world Bushwick, it’s going to cost $1.98 million.

See photos of the surprising interior here

• Artist Camouflages Her Human Canvases In NYC Scenescapes: You’ve never seen body art like this. Daily Mail features Trina Merry making people practically disappear in Central Park, in front of the Gugg, and on bridges.
• Domino Sugars Sign Will Be Relocated: NYDN reports that the iconic sign will be taken down this month, but then reinstalled in a different location with a retail space, residential building and school.
• Jewelry That Converts Kinetic Energy into Electricity: Why dig for renewable energy in some far away place when you’re a walking renewable resource? Dezeen covers industrial designer Naomi Kizhner’s line of jewelry that can store energy from your body and turn it into electricity. If you’re wondering how it works: think of a water wheel, but with your blood – eeek.
• A Spin-The-Bottle Bar In, Wait For It, Bushwick – Games that you usually see at a bar: Jenga, Scattegories, Guess Who?, Connect 4. Leave it up to the up-and-coming nabe of Bushwick to have a bar with a spin-the-bottle table. Gawker assures us they also have food; just don’t forget your mints and floss before you pucker up.

Remember as a kid how much you loved hiding out in a fort made of couch cushions or creating a make-shift house in the backyard? The owners of A Cabin in a Loft recreated that fun feeling by building a cabin and treehouse within their Bushwick loft to serve as private sleeping quarters. Each wooden bedroom cabin has its own semi-private garden, set at both ends of the open loft.

The idea came about in 2009, when artists/designers Terri Chiao and Adam Frezzo wanted to create separate bedroom spaces within their open-plan guest house and artist space, located in a former textile factory building. Instead of cutting off light and making the unit feel half its size by building floor-to-ceiling walls, they decided to construct the simple, geometric volumes. What resulted is a space that feels like an outdoor environment and takes a new approach to loft living.

See more of the artistic loft