June 11, 2007

 


This is the photo I saw on a foreclosure site. Hard to believe, but someone WAS living here at the time.

 

Home Details

Specifications

Attribute

Value

Year Built

1915

Style

Craftsman / Spanish Revival

Square Footage

2510 per tax records

Lot Size

6598 Square Feet

Bedrooms

2

Bathrooms

1.75
1 full, 1 half, and 1 ¼ bath

Other Buildings

Garage

Number of Floors

1.5
Square footage is calculated based on a single level; however there is a sub-level utility room at the back of the house that is 5’9” in height.

Amenities

Large vintage home, with large front porch, large side porch, and rear deck.  Two fireplaces, two sunrooms, a conservatory, a number of built-ins that include bookshelves in the library, curios and buffet in the dining room, and storage cupboards in the hallway.

 

 

Floor Plan – As Purchased

Click for larger view.

Click image for larger view

Lot Plan

Location

The new home is located 0.7 miles from our current residence.  It’s in a neighborhood that was built in the 19 teens and early twenties.  Most of the homes in the 4 block radius are either Arts and Crafts / Craftsman bungalows, or American Four-Square homes.  I am trying to find out more about the builder of the home and the many people that have lived there.

Map

Figure 1 This is the location with our current street highlighted in pink.

Home Photos

Front

   
View of home from front (Capitol Street

).  The tree in the foreground is a dead weeping willow.  Currently it helps to give the house an haunted house look.  I’m torn between wanting to keep it there for Halloween and wanting to rip it down.  (Joking Chris.)

That's my good friend Al sitting on the balustrade of the front porch.

Front Porch viewed from the front sunroom.  Directly behind me is a built-in bench.  I think the beam at the opposite end (in view) is screaming for a porch swing.  There’s some funky aluminum awning over that end of the porch, which will have to be removed. Also, the porch ceiling will be painted white. I'm funny like that - ceilings need to be white.

I've also bought a replacement light fixture for the front porch. It's a Arts & Crafts styled fixture in bronze, with milk glass panels.

The Public Rooms

The Living Room
Living room – dreadful fireplace that was a “remodel” – will have to be replaced by a nice Craftsman-inspired surround.  We’re also considering building in some benches with storage to flank the fireplace for just under the windows. The double-hung windows in this place are huge - most are 41 inches wide. The front windows are 10-foot wide solid pane windows. It's been suggested that originally the house had casement windows on the front that would allow you to open them for ventallation. We'll be looking into something like that to replace these.
View from the living room through to the dining room, and kitchen beyond, and you can see one of the French doors leading to the conservatory.  Also note the pocket door – it’s a single door for the arch (about 6 feet)
View of the pocket door ¾ extended.  It’s a massive solidly-built door that still works well on it’s rollers.

The Library / Front Sunroom
View of library and through to the front sunroom. Note the nice fireplace – much nicer.
View of Library – through to the sunroom showing large front picture window that looks out to the porch.  Note the front door in the left of the picture.  There are also pocket doors that come out to close off the library from the living room.  Also, to the left of this arch is a door that leads to the first bedroom (master) with a ½ bath.
View of French door in the front Sunroom with the side porch in view beyond.  The French doors that lead into the sunroom from the library are to the right of this view.

The Dining Room / Conservatory
View of the conservatory off the dining room note the drain in the floor – there’s also a water faucet out there.  It’s about 6-feet x 15-feet. Originally this was a simple open-air balcony, but was closed in early in the home's life. The inspector noted that the beams on the inside were of a similar vintage to the house.
View of the dining room built-ins from the conservatory – to the right is a door way into the hall.  Note all the built-ins. You'll also note that the floor has some issues. Chris and I will be tackling the oak hardwood floors prior to moving in. Hopefully we can bring them back without too much replacement.

Here's a view of the kitchen that my home inspector took.

Here you can see where the stove is currently located, the island with butcher's block (and missing drawer), and a clearer picture of the back-splash accent tiles. The kitchen was probably updated in the late 1980s / early 1990s. The cabinets and counters are all in good shape with the exception of a missing drawer or drawer face - all fixable.

The plan is to replace these after we move in with Arts and Crafts inspired tiles. The island is actually moveable. I plan on putting casters on the bottom to allow us to move it around.
This is a view of the kitchen from the breakfast nook looking towards the dining room.  It’s sort of a country kitchen, a little too cutesy for our tastes – but workable.  You can see the island in the foreground – there’s a butcher’s block in it – however we don’t care for the island – as it cuts off the kitchen too much.
This shows the old stove nook that wasn't being used by the previous owners – but will be.  In the foreground is a prep area that has a marble slab on it – obviously this was where a former owner used to make pastry or something.  There’s also a small prep-sink in this area too.
To the left is the stove I’m purchasing to replace the current stove, and fill the now vacant stove nook.  Currently there’s an older mid-80s stove next to the doorway of the breakfast nook – this location will be the home for a new refrigerator as the house doesn’t come with one – the fridge that was in the house was beyond recovery due to neglect by the former owners.

This picture shows the prep area above in the foreground, through to the mudroom area with a pantry (open door), the back door.  To the right of the opening is the laundry area – room for washer and dryer.

The door in the background is the backdoor to the house.  This leads to the back deck.  Currently the back deck is in a bad state of disrepair and will have to be replaced first thing.

Bedrooms

Bedroom #1
View of the side porch from the what's currently the master bedroom.  The sliding glass doors will be replaced with French doors.
The ½ bath off the master bedroom. You can also see the bedroom and halway flooring in the foreground. It's actually newer unfinished wide oak planking. We may try to finish this.
The closet in the master bedroom next to the bathroom.
This is the door to the hallway from bedroom #1.

Guest Bedroom – from hallway – the doorway at the far corner is to a small dressing room off this room with a closet in it.

The window in this room is the largest double hung window I've every seen. The glass portion is 48" across. -- Draperis in this house are going to be an issue.

The plan is to make this, along with the dressing room, closet, hallway, 1/4 bath, and pantry into a nice size master suite. We'll bump out the room by about 6 feet to give the house an additional 140 square feet of space. This should create a decent sized master bedroom, full bath, and large walk-in closet.

The back hallway – in the distance is the back sunroom.  There’s also a ¼ bath right in front of the door you see – only a toilet.  In the foreground is a door to a hall closet. (There are lots of closets in this house).