Tuesday, July 19, 2011

California Dreamin' :: House Edition

I have been [day]dreaming A LOT lately. Dreaming of owning a home, starting a family, having an established career and the list goes on and on...

Well, it would seem one of those is closer to coming true as we speak. It had been a while but it is part of why I have allowed myself to dream beyond my wildest imagination. Not so wild however is this home that is currently for sale in my city. I took a drive by it today and was happily surprised to see contractors working on it.


It lies in a beautiful street in a well-established neighborhood filled with mature trees.


It was built in 1953. It creates a fantastic dialogue between indoor and outdoor spaces. It has a two-car garage and great curb appeal. (sans the trucks of course)


It gets plenty of natural light. Sure, the kitchen leaves a bit to be desired but wait till you see the rest of it. (hint: look out the kitchen window)


This is outdoor space #1. Wonderful for entertaining, accessible from the dining area and a side door next to the garage. (Please excuse the ladder. Since there were contractors working on it I was able to walk through the entire house without someone trying to sell it to me!)


The small dining area with panoramic views of the city and mountains beyond.


If you look down from those windows you see the terraced yard.


Looking out of the main living space you have another deck. Outdoor space #2!


Look at that mid-century goodness! If it were my house I would paint the fireplace and ALL of the beige walls. I'm not crazy about the carpeting either, but something's gotta give.


A wonderful built-in desk along with windows looking to the front. I'm not crazy about the rail either but you can't be too picky in these here parts...


This is bedroom #1 with many many built-ins. Each bedroom has built-ins providing PLENTY of storage throughout the entire house.


The largest of the three baths... kinda cute.


Downstairs is another space that is considered a third bedroom. I think it's far too small for that. I think it'd be a great study. One thing that was a bit scary though was what was behind the small door on the left wall. It was a cavernous exterior space. Yes I said EXTERIOR! All I could see was a huge boulder. It leads me to believe that this whole site was excavated to make space for a home.


Also downstairs was another great room with you guessed it, outdoor space #3!


Not too crazy about this fireplace...


Now for my favorite parts of the house, the exterior. I love the terraced outdoor space. My heart goes aflutter thinking of all of the possibilities.


I love houses and landscaping with an interesting section (in architectural terms) and this house has it!


The one possibly catastrophic downfall... all of the outdoor space faces a local college's baseball field. Sure there is a small hill separating it but it has the potential of being extremely loud and bright on game nights.

I showed the pics to the boy and he wasn't too impressed. We are going to take another look at it on a game night and see how it goes. It'll probably not be in the market for long but I'm glad I found it in time to take a look around.

What do you guys think of it?

6 comments:

  1. Oh. This is a wonderful house. I hope you can convince the boy. I'll cross my fingers (and toes!) for you.

    We live right across the road from a football oval, so during the footy season it's quite busy on the weekend and when the boys train...but I actually love it...it's really quite cool listening to the crowd etc and the lights look wonderful at night...very atmospheric.

    Anyway, goodluck, keep us posted.

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  2. I like the house too! Great looking storage and outdoor area. That seems like an amazing amount of space, and the midcentury look is nice. I don't even want to know the price =) tho I assume you must be looking in a suburb instead of one of the really expensive SoCal neighborhoods.

    The house we're currently fixing up to move into is fairly close to a park where they have baseball games at night (though not as close as yours). It may not be as bad as you think, the crowd background noise is indeed "atmospheric" in a way. But actually, I'm very used to it because I lived near the same park when I was a kid and heard baseball games at night. Anyhow, very cool to see the photos - and good luck on any future househunts!

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  3. WOW. those fireplaces!!!! i don't mind the stone fireplace at all. it's those darn "nipple" lights that drive me bonkers. regardless, the home has loads of potential! and i'm with a la modern on the background noise...i lived by a train station and i grew to love the sound of the trains. some sounds can be comforting.

    boy, the entertaining you could do!!! good luck!

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  4. I really love the place, and it's nice and clean and liveable so if you need to save up before tackling a kitchen reno, it seems totally fine.

    The only beef I would have is the flood lights from the basketball. That would probably irk me.

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  5. It's a beautiful house - amazing views. Could you stop by on a night that the baseball field is being used, and see what it is like then?

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  6. @Kylie- Thanks for sharing your experience! I probably wouldn't mind the noise but the boy is awfully picky about those sorts of things. Our apartment is fairly close to a freeway and it bothers him immensely whereas I don't even hear it anymore because I am pretty good at tuning things out :)

    @ALaModern- The house is definitely in a 'burb otherwise I would have to sell my first-child (which doesn't exist) along with some limbs!

    @friesinacone- Aren't those lights awful... hehe. This house was definitely made for entertaining but I also imagined putting up some lovely hammocks on the lower deck.

    @SixBalloons- The place is definitely livable in its current state and it would take ages to get it to where I would like but you just can't get that kind of land in many places near here, at least not in my price range. You're right the flood lights are a concern as well.

    @lost property vintage- We are going to swing by on a game night to see how it really looks and sounds on those days. :)

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