Househunting report: Day 1.

[rivka]

Six houses in four hours. Two strong possibilities. My brain is full.

First of all: Just because South Baltimore is contiguous with Federal Hill, that doesn't mean you can get away with calling South Baltimore houses "Federal Hill Area." I'm just saying.

1635 Clarkson: Up-and-coming neighborhood: half the houses on the block have rehab permits in the windows. Currently a street in transition from working class to middle/professional class. Quiet one-way street. People leave strollers and lawn chairs in front of their houses without chaining them down. Industrial blight a couple of blocks away. Two-story townhouse with finished basement. First floor medium-sized living room, large beautiful kitchen clearly separated from living room. Half bath right off living room. Kitchen amply big enough to eat in. Lots and lots of reddish wood cabinets. French doors in kitchen lead out to parking space in alley. Second floor: one small and one good-sized bedroom. Full bath with jacuzzi tub. Big deck off the good-sized bedroom. High ceilings throughout. Finished basement room has full-sized washer and dryer in it. Unfinished basement crawl space for storage. Brand new rehab with all new appliances. House on one side also for rent; house next door about to be mostly demolished and rebuilt.

1633 Clarkson: Almost entirely a twin of the house next door, with the following differences: Exposed medium red brick in the living room and upstairs. Kitchen cabinets are blond wood. Doesn't have a jacuzzi tub. Front bedroom upstairs is inexplicably smaller.

1702 S. Hanover: Damn, what a difference a block makes. Very busy two-way street, lots of boarded-up houses, ratty convenience store next door to house with a liquor store across the street. Block is much more dodgy in terms of atmosphere and people on the street. Noisy dogs next door, but friendly neighbor. Much more original character preserved in the house: original moldings (unfortunately, painted babyshit brown), original floors (uneven but gorgeous), exposed beams in living room and kitchen, lots of exposed brick. Lovely. Working marble fireplace in the smallish living room. Large dining room. Galley kitchen, but quite spacious. Small study behind kitchen, with door leading out to a parking pad. Two good-sized bedrooms on the second floor, with a deck. One and a half baths. Washer and dryer in semi-finished basement (uneven whitewashed brick walls, low ceiling, carpet, some house guts exposed.) I would love the house if it were transplanted to another block and if we could do something about the babyshit brown paint everywhere, but I don't want to live on the block where it is. And curiousangel was not impressed with it.

1748 Clarkson: Back on the quiet working-class street, but on a block that's firmly established blue-collar households, not particularly in transition. Pretty much right next to an industrial blight area - the house backs up onto an abandoned chemical warehouse and is close to the railroad tracks. The front door opens on to the kitchen, which I'd never seen before - good-sized galley kitchen without much counter space. Big living room with exposed brick in a darkish red, but because it's not at the front or back of the house, it's windowless. Laundry room in back, opening out onto an enclosed patio/courtyard that's kind of bare and junky and has a view of the chemical warehouse. Two decent-sized bedrooms and a nice bath upstairs. Unfinished basement with lots of storage. This house essentially had no advantages to counter its disadvantages, except that there was plenty of on-street parking.

6 W. Fort: I wanted to like this house the best. I really did. Its location wins the gold star: five blocks from the Cross Street Market, and only three blocks or so to the beginning of the cool-shops-and-restaurants part of Federal Hill. Recommended sushi bar within easy walking distance. Quiet street. Good-sized carpeted living room with an archway leading into a large eat-in kitchen. Kitchen cabinets weren't particularly attractive, but there were a lot of them. Some appliances new. Inexplicably tiny dishwasher, maybe half the size of a normal one. Laundry room behind the kitchen, with a half bath. Really nice little courtyard, landscaped, fenced in, with a view over the fence that was actually scenic (church tower, ivied wall of townhouse next door) as opposed to urban-blightful. No basement at all. Second floor: stairs led up into a very wide landing with some built-in shelves, suitable for someone's desk or for a nursery. Nice little bathroom, good-sized bedroom with big closet. Unbelievably steep and narrow steps up to the third floor, which has a large bedroom and a strangely large bathroom. (I say "strangely" because part of it is partitioned off for what looks like a closet but doesn't have closet rails.) On-street parking. Nubbly sort of carpet throughout the upstairs. This house would be ideal if I could picture myself running up and down that incredibly steep staircase all the time, but I just can't. The treads were so narrow I felt as though I had to put my feet sideways. I can't imagine doing it carrying, say, a laundry basket. But the location rocks. Alas.

1428 Richardson: In a completely different neighborhood: Locust Point, a quiet working-class residential neighborhood that they're always saying will be the next to gentrify. Right now many of the houses are being renovated, but the shops and restaurants don't seem to have changed yet - it still tends mostly to corner bars. The house is half a block from a big, nice park and less than half a mile from Fort McHenry, on another quiet residential street where people leave their bikes out. It's also, hands down, the nicest interior, remodeled by a young woman who intended to live there herself. Beautiful details - ribbon molding around the doors and windows, striking light fixtures, fancy hardware everywhere. FANTASTIC kitchen, including an island workstation between the kitchen and living room, new appliances, a lovely glass-front cupboard with display lights, lots of storage, and a butcher-block counter. Laundry room and half-bath behind the kitchen, and a big concrete courtyard in back. Storage basement. Two large-ish bedrooms upstairs, one with hardwood floors and one which will have carpet when they finish the remodel. (It's a work in progress.) Some neat architectural details. Nice bath with skylight. I don't know why we looked at this place, because it's only two bedrooms and we're pretty sure we want two+den or three. But the interior is so lovely, really exquisite. Also in favor of this place: no rental application. The first person to give her a check gets the house. Major drawback: not the kind of urban neighborhood we were looking for - it's a lot more residential, and the only amenities within close walking distance are corner bars.

Of the places we saw today, I think there are two real possibilities: 1635 Clarkson, the first house we saw, and 1428 Richardson, the last one. They both have their advantages and drawbacks: the Richardson house is more gorgeous inside and has open spaces nearby, but the Clarkson house has more nearby neighborhood amenities and has more space. We'd have to come up with a compelling reason why we don't think we need a third bedroom. (The logic is that we want a bedroom for us and a guest room/study, plus a nursery in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.) They both cost the same. Three people have already applied for the Clarkson house, so we might not get it, whereas we could probably have the Richardson house for certain tomorrow.

We need to research whether either one of them is near a toxic waste site. We've also scheduled a couple more viewings tomorrow.

Wow, am I tired.

Comments

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Oo! A fine idea. I have one [you] could borrow. USB cord for download.