We had an excellent time at Monika's place and would recommend it to people visiting NYC that are not necessarily tied to staying in Manhattan.
The lead-up and check-in processes went by without a glitch. Monika was a very responsive host and answered all our questions. At the same time she was also hands-off and stuck to the essentials, which we appreciated.
The house is very well located. It's one and half blocks to the R subway line that runs between Coney Island, through Manhattan, and on to Queens. It also has two great size grocery shops (not bodegas, full service one of them organic) for people that want to do some in-house cooking. Monica's kitchen is also very well appointed.
The house is a duplex, exactly as described, with the kitchen, living and dining rooms on the top floor and the bedrooms and bathrooms down below. The vibe is artist/loft, not artist/dumpy: the rooms are comfortable and simply appointed and the bathrooms adequate. We were seven in our party (two kids) and the place felt comfortable and adequately-sized.
In all we had a great experience and would definitely do it again.