Oh Ricky You're So Fine?

I liked the intro to this NY Times article about the founder of the Ricky's chain of stores (where I regularly buy my favorite hair product, and the occasional wig or mask):

An Airy Refuge From a Jam-Packed Store

Two years ago, Ricky Kenig, a divorced father of three, found himself paying $7,200 a month for an apartment in TriBeCa. The rent made him uncomfortable. “I’m not as rich as people think,” said Mr. Kenig, the co-owner of 22 Ricky’s stores in Manhattan, Miami and East Hampton.

So Mr. Kenig, 45, decided to look for a home in Brooklyn, where he now occupies a renovated town house on a leafy block in Park Slope. After an 18-month renovation, the house is gloriously light and airy. But the move was less successful financially than architecturally. “My expenses are double what they were before,” he said.

Mr. Kenig, whose first name is on a New York institution — beauty products stores beloved by high school girls and movie stars alike, along with thousands more costume-seeking New Yorkers every Halloween — is not hurting for money. He drives his twin daughters, Max and Dylan, 13, to school in a Mercedes G55, and his house has enough flat-screen TVs for a small hotel. But, he said, he also has a lot of debt.

Mr. Kenig said he spent $1.3 million for the 19-foot-wide town house, built in 1899, and about $1 million to transform what had been three apartments into a minimalist crib, designed by James and Hayes Slade, the husband-and-wife owners of Slade Architecture in Manhattan. As a result, Mr. Kenig said, he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to his younger brother, Todd, a partner in Ricky’s. He also owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to his contractor, who he said has agreed to accept payments over four or five years....

The article goes on to describe the cool decor of his townhouse, but it was the financial stuff that interested me! Just another millionaire living on the edge...