1) Today in rent wars: Upper East Side prep school versus old people! The UES's Nightingale-Bamford School (the Gossip Girl author's an alum) has big plans to expand into the adjacent building at 28 East 92nd Street, but two rent-stabilized old ladies living there won't move without a fight. The school is in the middle of eviction proceedings against the women, who pay $1,043/month for a one-bedroom and $574/month for a studio, and the women have responded with, apparently, paperwork. ['Preppies vs. golden girls'/NYP]
2) The Times takes a look at people who bring their homelands, um, home by creating things like Finnish wooden saunas in their houses. Sadly, most of the examples live outside Manhattan. A Finnish sauna in a Manhattan apartment: that's going on our wishlist! ['Their Corner of the World']
3) Ruh-roh: Celeb chef David Bouley is facing foreclosure on his $2.5 million Tribeca condo, a three-bedroom purchased in 2007. He's also $80,436 in debt on his restaurant downstairs. While his neighbors hunt frantically for their takeout menus, Bouley swears he was in the middle of renegotiating his mortgage when the foreclosure filing hit. ['Four-star financial fix for celeb chef David Bouley'/NYP]
4) This week's hunter wanted to upgrade from the $250,000 studio her parents bought her while she was in law school to a one-bedroom in Chelsea with ample closet space. Most of the apartments she saw had sky-high maintenance charges and didn't meet the all-important closet criteria. But she finally settled on a $748,500 one-bedroom at Chelsea Gardens with a monthly maintenance just over $1,000. Completing a charmed hunt, she sold her studio at a profit. [The Hunt/'For This Hunter, Closet Space was Crucial']
5) After falling victim to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, cabaret singer Cynthia Crane and playwright Ted Story have put their Greenwich Village townhouse on the market. It's now asking $7.995 million after a $1 million chop. And it's not the first concession the couple has made to Madoff losses: they can no longer afford the $2 million mortgage they took out to help one daughter build a home in the East Village, and they've sold their apartment in Paris. Sad face. [Big Deal/'Quirky Buyers Wanted']
6) More good news for Soho Mews: it will be home to the chief exec of Travelzoo, who nabbed a $4.8 million apartment. The 2BR, 2.5BA was originally asking $5.965 million, so the sales price was a discount of close to 20 percent. [Big Deal/'Web Travel Tycoon Homes In on SoHo']