Their current residence, originally a three-story brick row house, sits on a tiny block in Little Italy, facing a Beaux-Arts former police headquarters. The Novogratzes have since refaced it with stucco, added glass-and-steel balconies, expanded the gutted shell to five levels of 1,100 square feet each, and topped it off with a kid fantasy: a mesh-domed basketball court on the roof. Although the loftlike spaces and contemporary art give the interior a modern feel, the rooms are also sprinkled with antiques the couple love—but are not too worried about getting scuffed up by rambunctious kids. They are less interested in creating a showplace than a family place. "At the end of the day," says Robert, as Breaker shimmies up the post of Bellamy's Indonesian bed, "this is just a home."
Will the Novogratzes sell the place and move on, as they have in the past? Yes, no, maybe. "This block is unique in all of New York," Robert points out. "But," his wife counters, turning properties over "is the way we make our living." And not only have the kids learned to part with their beds when a house buyer takes a liking to them—they also get the fun of helping pick out new ones. But that's not to say everything is easy come, easy go. The family will never part with the Parisian streetlights in the master suite, or a mint-condition 1960s wooden foosball table in the boys' room. The game, which is in constant use, resembles one the couple saw on their honeymoon but didn't have the money to buy. "Some things," says Cortney, "you always hold on to."
