If I have been silent for a while, it’s because the spring market is crazy-hot in DC this year. We have a lot to do, and we’re having much fun with it. Soon more…
For now, it’s a bunch of new listings – all of them really exciting. The first one is in River Falls, the lovely park-like part of Potomac that’s closest to the District. Click here for more info.
I have a confession to make. For a real estate agent in the year 2013, this is going to be an outrageous confession. So… here we go:
I don’t hate Formica, at least not per se.
And sometimes — now it gets worse — I’d even prefer it to granite. (The latter situation occurs with each encounter one of those cheap-o flip renovations, where the least expensive cabinets available at Home Depot had been paired with random-patterned and -colored left-over slabs. The term “granite kitchen” in a real estate ad is intended to invoke visions of luxury and state-of-the-art-ness.
Well, not in my mind. I happen to think that the next big wave is something other than stone or granite, and I’m looking forward to it. The next craze will probably not be the pretty concrete with the colorful shaved glass pieces (too heavy), not butcher block (not durable enough), nor stainless steel (too clinical) or resin or tile whatever else we’ve had since the 20th century, but something rather different.
In the meantime, let’s just embrace the reality that the majority of homes in America have Formica (or another such brand) counters in their kitchens, not to mention the millions of offices, cafeterias, partition walls and — you name it. If you decide on laminate as a less expensive alternative in a renovation, just go with it. It doesn’t have to be the sunny yellow of the 60s or the granite imitation print of the 90s. There are a lot of cool and funky designs available today.
Admittedly, they have to fit into their environments, but my favorite ones are the red ellipse and the dotted retro patterns that came out recently in celebration of Formica’s 100th anniversary. Neat, huh?
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(Images: formica.com)
A few days ago, I posted on the DCHouseSmarts blog about the two pretty historic kit houses we’d located for the weekend — with the promise to give a little more detail on at least one of them later on. So, here we go, with the 1936 Sears “Colchester”/”Lewiston” that’s currently for sale in Silver Spring, MD. (Click on the image of the catalog page to get a larger version.)
It’s a delightful place, with lots of space (two bedrooms and a full bath on each of the three floors) and a lovely, large backyard. While some modifications have been made (the kitchen for instance was opened up to the dining room for a more airy feel) that you can either love or hate, there is plenty of original detail left.
The original door hardware that shipped with the “Colchester” (including the LION brand front door lock) can be found on almost all of the doors in the house. You can see some samples, paired with original catalog pages from 1932, in the slide show below. We don’t always find such things, but when we do, they surely help to authenticate a house. (More below the break.)
The “Colchester” was the 1930s brick/half-timbered version of the “Lewiston,” a plank-sided model that had been popular in the 1920s. The Colchester offerd a little more of the Tudor-style optic that was a great hit at the time, at least in the DC area.
You can see the listing here, and many more pictures from the MLS here. The house is offered at $489,000, and as always, if you would like to see it, just let me know!
Find more about historic kit houses here, or learn the sad story of another “Lewiston” here.
After some pretty dreadful “Kit House Of The Week” posting last week and a week of sad news in the Sears house community, I have a very exciting historic mail-order home to present today. It’s not so much a Grand Dame but rather a First Lady — the Sears “Martha Washington” model in all its grand beauty.
The house was built in 1925 and just hit the market for sale in my favorite Washington, DC, neighborhood of Shepherd Park. It’s a period piece in the most charming sense of the word — mostly unaltered, very well preserved and enhanced with a few improvements that are more timeless than dated. Yes, there’s vinyl siding on the outside now, and the windows have been replaced, but generally the house has been treated with great respect for the original design and materials. (It also happens to be a perfect study in how to authenticate kit houses, but more about that in a later post.)
The slideshow with some architectural details below will give you an idea what I’m talking about (catalog images taken from 1925 Sears “Honor Bilt Modern Homes” catalog). Nearly everything you see in the photos here once came by mail in thousands of pieces, packed up in a railroad car. Additional pictures of the property from the MLS that will give more of a look at the house and rooms themselves can be found here.
The “Martha Washington,” available for $3,489 in 1925, is listed by Realty Pros for $575,000 — a price that seems an amazing deal for the neighborhood, even if you’re not a fan of historic kit homes. It has 4 bedrooms (including a former sleeping porch) and 1 full and 2 half baths, a sun room addition, a large, unfinished walk-up attic, an open unfinished basement with windows all around and a nice garden.
As always, if you’re interested in seeing or buying the house, just let me know!
(Additional photos courtesy of MRIS.) Click on the catalog pages to see a larger version.
Replacement en lieu of restoration: the house now presents with vinyl siding and other, well…, improvements.
Today’s Kit House Of The Week post is more a eulogy than a celebration of survival. In fact, it’s a very sad story, sadder even than the catalog house vampires we frequently get to see.
This former Sears mail-order home that’s currently for sale in Takoma Park — the “Starlight” — was built in 1923 and has seen so many facelifts since then that it is practically no longer recognizable. While the 2-unit*, 6-bedroom, 4-bath house with 2 renovated kitchens (now reduced to $399,000 from the original $449,000) seems a great deal for the right buyer, it certainly isn’t a delightful sight for kit house enthusiasts. What is proudly offered as a “complete renovation” doesn’t seem to feature a single original window, door, built-in, or piece of trim. Click on the link, and you will get the idea. I will not comment on the renovation. Tastes differ. Why someone would “side” over some of the dormer windows (they’re still visible from inside the huge, unfinished attic) is a mystery indeed.
The Takoma Park “Starlight” in 2004, before its renovation. The porch had already been halved at that point.
An investor, on the other hand, might get a handsome return over time: There are hospitals and a college in walking distance, so the house, or one floor of it could likely be rented to a bunch of friendly roommates.
The “Starlight” was one of the most popular (and longest-running) models Sears had to offer. It was relatively modest in size and features (in the early years even a version without a bathroom was offered). Because of its porch spanning just half the width of the house, we originally suspected the house to be a Sears “Hamilton” — it’s upgraded twin that was offered parallel beginning in 1923.
It turned out, however, that the other half of the porch had just been turned into two walk-in closets for the front bedroom! The floorplan turned out to be down to the inch that of the Starlight, with the staircase demolished and the pantry turned into a second hallway leading to two added rooms in the back.
As always, if you’re interested in seeing this or any other house, please let me know!
(UPDATE: if you want to hear more about the history of the Starlight, or see many more pictures, including interior ones, check out Rose Thornton’s really neat post here.)
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*Stairs between the top and bottom floors have been torn out. We do not know whether the two units are legally registered.
Photos courtesy of MRIS.
For Sale in Silver Spring: a 1923 Sears “Hamilton” on Grace Church Rd for $475,000
I just got back from a (too short) vacation in southern California, and I’m fully charged. Cuddling with alpacas in the Ojai Valley, attending a wedding in Anaheim, watching people in Malibu and kite surfers in Long Beach — how much better can it get? Oh, wait–there’s one thing that’s even better after you’ve just survived several nights in a third-world-style power outage and a 90 degree bedroom: the weather. Low 80s, sunny, breezy, cool at night. Ooooh.
In any case, this was supposed to be a post on the Kit House Of The Week! This week’s featured listing is a 1923 Sears “Hamilton” in close-in Silver Spring (and if it weren’t for the vegetation around it, the little bungalow would fit quite well into the LA area where few brick colonials can be found and mid-century modern, Spanish and arts-and-crafts-style houses dominate). It’s cute and charming, oozes warmth, sits on a pretty block, and even has a great fenced-in backyard.
Some of the windows have been replaced (with sensible substitutes) and the back of the house has been expanded to accommodate an extra bedroom. The stair case to the basement — now partly finished and with an extra bathroom — were moved into the house. See lots of pictures here. 1923 actually was the first year the Sears mail-order catalog featured the Hamilton (page scan courtesy of Rachel Shoemaker–thanks!).
It’s listed for $475,000 by Peggy Speaker of L & F. As always, if you are interested in buying or seeing the house, just give me a buzz!
(And for those of you who were wondering what inspired those funny-looking Dr. Seuss animals–it must be the bizarre but cuddly Ojai alpacas!)
