Househunting report.
Jul. 3rd, 2007 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaWe looked at a house today that we really, really like.
It's on a quiet block lined with three- and four-story Federal-style rowhouses and lots of tall, leafy trees. The street ends just past the house, at an intersection with an alley. Across the alley is a little pocket-size park - more of an elaborately landscaped courtyard, really, with a fountain. The park has modern-built condos on both sides of it.
A little entry opens up into a hall with stairs up to the tenants' apartments. The owner's unit opens into an enormous, high-ceilinged, long living room (12x30 feet; unfortunately painted pink) with two narrow floor-to-ceiling windows on the street side. The living room leads into a beautiful, bright dining room (12x16 feet) with a fireplace and big windows. Both the living room and dining room have crown moldings and a chair rail, and hardwood floors.
Behind the dining room is a little area that has a staircase to the owner's part of the second floor, an under-stairs storage pocket, and a tiny powder room. The kitchen is two steps down from there, and is unfortunately painted the color of cheap mint chocolate chip ice cream. It would be unspeakably tiny for a suburban kitchen (12x14 feet) but is quite large for a Baltimore row house - big enough to eat in, if your table is small. Tons and tons of cupboard and counter space (including a... do you call an island that's attached on one side a "peninsula"?), nice-looking, fairly new appliances including (alas) an electric stove, granite countertops. Behind the kitchen is a tiny, closetlike laundry room with a glass sliding door covered by the kind of metal folding grate you might see over the entrance to a closed shop.
The sliding door leads to a mini decklet (really just a stoop with pretensions) with broad steps down to the tiniest little walled courtyard you have ever seen. The brick wall around it ranges from about 5.5-7 feet at various places, and has an alley on two sides of it. On the third side, the neighbors have a higher deck which would allow them to look down in our yard at ease. The decklet would be an incredibly convenient place to put our charcoal grill.
Upstairs: two smallish bedrooms, 13x12 and 11x12. Both have large walk-in closets, and there's a linen closet and another large closet on the landing between them. The closet in the master bedroom is more than large enough to hold a crib, in case at some point we had a Hypothetical Future Baby too old to cosleep but not a sound enough sleeper to share a room with Alex. The master bath is off the master bedroom, and fairly small. The upstairs bedrooms have nice windows, but no fancy architectural features like downstairs. They have white walls and ugly wall-to-wall carpet in a sort of a greenish grey.
That's it for the owner's unit. There are also two one-bedroom apartments, each containing a living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchenette, walk-in closet, and bathroom. All of the rooms in the apartments are quite small, but the apartments themselves seem good-sized because of the high ceilings, big windows, and beautiful proportions. The second-floor apartment is renting for an amount that's ludicrously below market value (the guy's been there 15 years), and the top-floor apartment is empty. Market rent for the apartments is probably around $700-$800 each.
There's a basement, unfinished but full height, that one enters from the entrance hall. It has what I can only describe as stalls, with padlockable doors, meant for tenant storage, plus two biggish empty storage rooms and a boiler room. The boiler is only seven years old. There are separate electric and gas meters for the apartments, but everyone shares the one boiler and the two apartments share a water heater. Currently, the apartments rent with heat and hot water included.
It's a really pretty house, and beautifully maintained. The downstairs is so large that I really don't think we'd be cramped with just two bedrooms - or at least, not for several years. If the time came in the future that we needed more space, we could knock a door through the wall into the second-floor apartment and annex that. I think we could be very happy there.
We're waiting for Laura to talk to her tax advisor and financial planner about the proposed arrangements. We've sent her the pictures and description. I'm not setting all my hopes on it or anything, but I really do like this house - we both do - and I think it would be very workable for us.
More pictures at my Flickr page, in case this doesn't already seem excessive.
It's on a quiet block lined with three- and four-story Federal-style rowhouses and lots of tall, leafy trees. The street ends just past the house, at an intersection with an alley. Across the alley is a little pocket-size park - more of an elaborately landscaped courtyard, really, with a fountain. The park has modern-built condos on both sides of it.
A little entry opens up into a hall with stairs up to the tenants' apartments. The owner's unit opens into an enormous, high-ceilinged, long living room (12x30 feet; unfortunately painted pink) with two narrow floor-to-ceiling windows on the street side. The living room leads into a beautiful, bright dining room (12x16 feet) with a fireplace and big windows. Both the living room and dining room have crown moldings and a chair rail, and hardwood floors.
Behind the dining room is a little area that has a staircase to the owner's part of the second floor, an under-stairs storage pocket, and a tiny powder room. The kitchen is two steps down from there, and is unfortunately painted the color of cheap mint chocolate chip ice cream. It would be unspeakably tiny for a suburban kitchen (12x14 feet) but is quite large for a Baltimore row house - big enough to eat in, if your table is small. Tons and tons of cupboard and counter space (including a... do you call an island that's attached on one side a "peninsula"?), nice-looking, fairly new appliances including (alas) an electric stove, granite countertops. Behind the kitchen is a tiny, closetlike laundry room with a glass sliding door covered by the kind of metal folding grate you might see over the entrance to a closed shop.
The sliding door leads to a mini decklet (really just a stoop with pretensions) with broad steps down to the tiniest little walled courtyard you have ever seen. The brick wall around it ranges from about 5.5-7 feet at various places, and has an alley on two sides of it. On the third side, the neighbors have a higher deck which would allow them to look down in our yard at ease. The decklet would be an incredibly convenient place to put our charcoal grill.
Upstairs: two smallish bedrooms, 13x12 and 11x12. Both have large walk-in closets, and there's a linen closet and another large closet on the landing between them. The closet in the master bedroom is more than large enough to hold a crib, in case at some point we had a Hypothetical Future Baby too old to cosleep but not a sound enough sleeper to share a room with Alex. The master bath is off the master bedroom, and fairly small. The upstairs bedrooms have nice windows, but no fancy architectural features like downstairs. They have white walls and ugly wall-to-wall carpet in a sort of a greenish grey.
That's it for the owner's unit. There are also two one-bedroom apartments, each containing a living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchenette, walk-in closet, and bathroom. All of the rooms in the apartments are quite small, but the apartments themselves seem good-sized because of the high ceilings, big windows, and beautiful proportions. The second-floor apartment is renting for an amount that's ludicrously below market value (the guy's been there 15 years), and the top-floor apartment is empty. Market rent for the apartments is probably around $700-$800 each.
There's a basement, unfinished but full height, that one enters from the entrance hall. It has what I can only describe as stalls, with padlockable doors, meant for tenant storage, plus two biggish empty storage rooms and a boiler room. The boiler is only seven years old. There are separate electric and gas meters for the apartments, but everyone shares the one boiler and the two apartments share a water heater. Currently, the apartments rent with heat and hot water included.
It's a really pretty house, and beautifully maintained. The downstairs is so large that I really don't think we'd be cramped with just two bedrooms - or at least, not for several years. If the time came in the future that we needed more space, we could knock a door through the wall into the second-floor apartment and annex that. I think we could be very happy there.
We're waiting for Laura to talk to her tax advisor and financial planner about the proposed arrangements. We've sent her the pictures and description. I'm not setting all my hopes on it or anything, but I really do like this house - we both do - and I think it would be very workable for us.
More pictures at my Flickr page, in case this doesn't already seem excessive.
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Date: 2007-07-04 12:36 pm (UTC)It's on the far south end of Bolton Hill, about seven blocks from where we now live in Mount Vernon.