Mrs. Gabbani built the two properties for a total of around $60,000; now she plans to build a second floor on top of each building for her two children.
But they refuse to allow Palestinian families to build a third floor on their house.
"You can only expand one of two ways: expropriate land for more streets, ripping up trees and waterways, or build a second floor for the highways".
For instance, a homeowner planning a master-bedroom addition in a one-level house might build a second floor with a separately controlled heating and cooling system rather than expand the one on the first floor.
They bought a three-bedroom house in Bronxville for $98,000 and, in 2005, took out a $350,000 mortgage to build a second floor for their son, Charles, 40, who has developmental disabilities on the autism spectrum.
It's listening to young women in coastal factories talking about sending half their salaries home to some village in Guangxi where perhaps it goes to build a second floor on a parental house.
Davies convinced planners to let him build a third floor by setting it back from the street to minimise its visual impact – gaining a master bedroom, en suite and roof terrace in the process.
"Hell, if they legalized prostitution, I'd build a third floor up top and have ladies working out of there faster than anybody's business".
"Hell, if they legalized prostitution, I'd build a third floor up top and have ladies working out of there faster than anybody's business". Southwick claims he's found a veritable pot smoker's paradise.
We called on two friends who had already helped us build a first-floor bedroom and bath for Ansel: Robert Mehmel, a Manhattan architect who regularly designs spaces for the disabled, and Frank Herbert, a contractor in Armonk, N.Y., who also teaches theater set design.
