Just seven months after Barry Brandon Bordelon and Jordan Noah Slocum met, they put their entire savings together and bought a 19th-century Brooklyn brownstone, Mr. Slocum said. That home, in Bedford Stuyvesant, changed their lives.
“From that purchase, we started our business together,” Mr. Slocum said. That was seven years ago. The two, now known as the Brownstone Boys, have since renovated more than 27 prewar homes together.
The two first connected on April 4, 2017 on Grindr, but it was a week and a half before they met in person. “We talk about how weird it is because that’s not what usually happens on Grindr,” Mr. Slocum said of their virtual correspondence. “We talked nonstop.”
For their first date, they chose the Crown Inn, a bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a favorite within walking distance for both.
“We talked for hours and hours,” Mr. Bordelon said, until 1 or 2 in the morning. “Which is rare for me because I’m in bed by 9 or 10,” Mr. Slocum said. It was worth staying up for. “We ended the night with a passionate kiss,” Mr. Slocum said.
Their second date was the following weekend. “We had a very low-key date at Jordan’s house, just ordering food and watching TV,” Mr. Bordelon said.
But after their second date, Mr. Slocum said, Mr. Bordelon “ghosted” him. They went from “talking all day every day,” he said, to five days of radio silence.
Still, Mr. Slocum said, “I knew in the back of my mind he would come back.”
And Mr. Bordelon did — with a text saying “Hey, what’s up?” He explained the disappearing act. “I was raised in a strict religion, Jehovah’s Witness,” Mr. Bordelon said. He was out to his friends, but not “to my parents or a lot of people.”
Once they were back in touch, they went on a bike ride around Brooklyn. That’s when “Barry told me all of this,” Mr. Slocum said. “He had hidden his true self and I just fell in love with him and wanted to learn everything about him. Things happened really fast after the third date.”
The two realized they shared a strong mutual passion for architecture, specifically brownstones. “We learned of each other’s past journey both professionally and personally,” said Mr. Bordelon, who had already purchased, renovated and sold several homes in Brooklyn. Mr. Slocum had been saving aggressively in hopes of one day buying one. “Things happened really fast after the third date,” Mr. Slocum said.
Several weeks later, both were off on separate trips planned before they met — Mr. Slocum went to Spain and Mr. Bordelon to India.
“We had our last dinner together at St. Anselm in Brooklyn,” Mr. Slocum said. “I remember holding hands under a table in the back and feeling like we were saying goodbye for years even though it was only two weeks.”
When they were back, “we were off to the races,” Mr. Bordelon said. “We just constantly were planning things together.”
In September 2017, the couple went on a six-day trip to Iceland, and when they returned home, the idea to buy a place together took root. They both were ready to buy a brownstone, so Mr. Slocum asked, “If we put our money together, would that help?” Of course, Mr. Bordelon answered. But, he recalled, “I don’t think Jordan realized how serious I was and how quickly it would happen.”
He was right. Mr. Slocum imagined house hunting might take a year or two. But Mr. Bordelon was already making appointments to see properties. It only took a few months to find just the right one. In October 2018, they closed on their brownstone in the Bedford Stuyvesant.
Mr. Bordelon moved in immediately, as he had sold his condo in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Mr. Slocum planned to wait since there were major renovations to be done. But, “after a couple of months, we decided we wanted to live together full time,” Mr. Slocum said. So by early 2019, Mr. Slocum had moved into the new place as well.
The two decided to blog about their journey of buying and renovating, thinking only a handful of family and friends would see it. “We blogged about everything in our renovation and posted on Instagram and YouTube,” Mr. Slocum said.
Their audience grew. “Eventually we developed a community around our renovation project,” Mr. Slocum said. People began reaching out with questions.
Then they began reaching out for more than just answers. “In the fall of 2019, someone reached out with the email subject, ‘Please Help,’” Mr. Slocum said. The couple had just bought a brownstone and were having difficulty hiring an architect and contractors. “We had coffee with the couple and fell in love with them immediately.”
The two decided to take on the couple as clients. “We were hired as their project managers and designers,” Mr. Slocum said.
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More clients quickly followed. And at the start of 2020, the two quit their corporate jobs — Mr. Bordelon worked in sales for a startup software company and Mr. Slocum was on the marketing and design team of an ice cream maker — and became full time at “the Brownstone Boys.”
For both, their community in Brooklyn remains paramount. “Our first clients were a young Black couple, both of whom grew up in New York City,” Mr. Slocum said. “We went on to help generational families, members of the L.G.B.T.Q. family, and many first-time home buyers.”
For Mr. Bordelon and Mr. Slocum, buying a brownstone came in the first year. Starting a business together happened in the first three. But it was a whole lot longer before they began talking about marriage.
“I didn’t even think during the first five years of our relationship that marriage would be a thing for us,” Mr. Bordelon said. Mr. Slocum said, “I have very liberal, Jewish parents and they were like, ‘When are you going to get married?’”
The decision was made on a last-minute trip they took to Puerto Rico in 2023. “We decided in a little restaurant called El Jibarito that we would do it,” Mr. Slocum said. They would each propose to one another when they felt the time was right.
For Mr. Bordelon, that was on April 4, 2023, the five-year anniversary of their first message on Grindr, on the front stoop of their brownstone. “Our stoop had become a really special place to us,” Mr. Bordelon said. “Coffee in the morning. Wine in the evenings. Getting to know our neighbors and community.”
Mr. Slocum’s proposal came on June 1, 2023, and was much more public. “House Beautiful had asked us to be part of their video series, ‘My Better Half,’ where they ask home renovation couples questions,” Mr. Slocum said. “I messaged the producers of the series to see if they would let me ask Barry to marry him as the last question.”
They said yes. And so did Mr. Bordelon.
Mr. Bordelon, 44, has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Louisiana State University. He is originally from New Orleans.
Mr. Slocum, 42, who grew up in Las Vegas, has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Hartford. A previous marriage ended in divorce.
Since becoming the Brownstone Boys, the two have written a book, appeared on the Magnolia Network and HGTV, and grown their social media following to roughly half a million followers across social platforms in addition to their renovation business.
The two were wed on Oct. 5 by Lauren Hill on the stoop of their brownstone followed by a block party reception. Ms. Hill was ordained by American Marriage Ministries.
“When we started talking about where to get married, nothing felt right except to have something grounded in our community,” Mr. Slocum said.
Already, their block had become “my ‘Sesame Street’ dream, which I grew up watching,” Mr. Slocum said. “I saw the neighborhood and the people on the street talking. We were having these block activities and talking to neighbors every night. So, we came up with the idea to have a block party and invite all of our neighbors.”
Roughly 250 guests attended — and they “followed our mood board,” Mr. Slocum said. “Met Gala comes to the Brooklyn Block.”
“It was imperative for Barry and I for our wedding to feel like a love party,” Mr. Slocum said. “Barry’s parents weren’t there and that was hard. But we opened the party to strangers and neighbors. We wanted all of the brave love.”
On This Day
When Oct. 5, 2024
Where Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Blocking Off the Block “Since Covid, our block is an official green street and we have been blessed to be able to renew it,” Mr. Slocum said, explaining that the street is closed off from vehicle traffic periodically. “The city approved our official block party so we could have music.”
Tale of Two Johns “We found our hot dog cart guy, John Rodriguez, after we were visiting a wood shop in East New York,” Mr. Slocum said. “We were driving down the street and saw a guy serving hot dogs with a cowboy hat on.” They pulled over and hired him. And then there was John McGovern, a neighbor who told the couple he wanted to grill for the party. “He made an entire buffet for all,” Mr. Slocum said.
Guest of Honor “I surprised Barry with our dog Zuko,” said Mr. Slocum, who shares custody of Zuko, a 10-year-old, silver Labrador, with his ex-husband. Mr. Slocum made sure “he was there to celebrate.”
All the World’s a Stage Their wedding began with an acoustic rendition of David Bowie’s “Changes” performed by a Broadway actress, Trista Doll, with a neighbor, Steve Mayone, on guitar. Their favorite local drag queens, Essa Noche, Lana Jarae and Venus Mystique performed “a true drag show for the block,” Mr. Slocum said.
And, in honor of Mr. Bordelon’s birthplace, New Orleans, the brass band from Big Apple Leadership Academy for the Arts, a youth-centered, nonprofit organization located in New York City performed.
Flowers to Go The couple’s abundant florals were done by a local husband-and-wife team called Kinda Formal. “We met them at a previous stoop sale we hosted,” Mr. Slocum said. “Our friends made bouquets after the wedding to take home.”
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