well-temperedforum.groupee.net The Well-Tempered Forum Off Key What do you think of this house? (diamond in the rough edition)Page 1 2
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Sweet old bungalow. Get a load of the interior doors. https://www.zillow.com/homes/6...04_rb/3316880_zpid/? Am tempted to reach out to the seller to see if they want to sell that teak sideboard in the dining room. 
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Meant to post this MCM ranch a while ago. I have been walking past it for years when I'm on my daily constitutional. It's got great curb appeal and it's one of those houses I thought I'd love to see the interior of. Talk about disappointment....more rough than diamond...the floor plan is, um, interesting... https://www.zillow.com/homedet...-60004/3324210_zpid/
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
Gyaa, lots to complain about (starting with that green carpet). But, yeah, lots to love!! I love the front of the house (get rid of that shrubbery so we can see it!) I love the living room and the dining room and yes the wood work, the doors, the windows... I would love to see someone who wanted to mostly keep it true to its era, keep all the wood trim as is, and then go in and get rid of all the wallpaper and carpeted bits, re-finish the floors, re-do the kitchen... Throw a big ole grand piano in there.... 
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Wondering what sort of camera lens was used. My guess is a wide angle lens that would have distorted the ceiling beams if any wider.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
That first house is pretty nice but will cost a fortune to set to rights. Those doors, though!  The second house was a mess when it was built and subsequent remodels have made it worse.
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity |
I missed the second house when I first visited this thread... I don't like the carpeting... or some of the paint... or the entry way... or the floor plan... But other than that it's perfect. 
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Beatification Candidate |
Liked the "bungalow", particularly the quantity of light on the first floor. Not nearly so taken with the MCM house. Are basements not a usual feature of houses in your region? Big Al
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Basements are pretty standard in these parts. The two houses I posted both have them. The finished basement in the MCM has the green carpet and the billiard table. There weren't any photos of the basement in the bungalow, but there's a floor plan and this description in the listing:
Nicely finished basements are becoming more and more common. I think people want to live in the area because of the great schools, and they're squeezing out some additional living space for families by using the basements.
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Minor Deity |
I'm feeling so inadequate. Don't get all the nuances youall see (admittedly I'm having trouble visualizing them on account of that VERY wide-angle lens.) But starting with the first, Steve. Just what do you see that so glaringly needs "set to rights" and at such expense? The owner seems to have very odd sense of color (every touch of which seems an odd hue) and what ARE those strange ceiling designs in one room? I noticed how oddly the bedrooms were placed in the #1 - one VERY smallish. I'd have labeled it "random room/office". And (trivial but I'm curious) - WHY isn't the largest one called "main bedroom"? Re #2, I DO appreciate all the built-ins for storage but the very dark cabinets and doors depress me. I HATE those stellate ceiling beams (weird!). ( think I'm getting some of my comments mixed up between 1 and 2).
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
There are a few tipoffs. 5 bedrooms in 2600 square feet with those big public spaces mean that the bedrooms are tiny and the closets smaller yet. Moving walls to make it a 3 or 4 BR would make sense. I’m not seeing any receptacles in the pictures, which tells me wiring is likely original. I don’t know when Chicago started requiring conduit but in any case rewiring won’t be cheap. Neither will repiping or installing air conditioning. With any luck you won’t have to replace the sewer lines, but you probably will. All that work will require demolishing about an acre of plaster - which will kick up the lead paint and likely the asbestos, all of which will have to be abated. The insulation won’t meet current standards and should be upgraded when the plaster is off. Windows, too. The floors are nice but they’re pretty well hammered. Probably $10K whether you refinish them or carpet over. Better allow for rot repair - 100 year old houses nearly always have some. Then there the baths and the kitchen…
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Along the lines of old electrical....ceiling fixtures in bedrooms are on pull chains; I'm assuming there are no wall switches. I didn't look at bedroom sizes but I was sort of surprised at the floor plans on both the first and second floors. The flow is all off and I'd be ripping a lot of stuff out to make it better. Probably clay sewer pipe, or maybe they've already had a problem and replaced with PVC. As important...Sewers in that part of the city aren't overhead and there have been problems with backups during heavy rains flooding basements. Dealing with that, if it hasn't already been done, will be expensive. I also wondered about that mud room area. The exposed brick made me wonder what that space originally was and how cold it gets in there during the winter. There's an optimist in every crowd, and they've already come forward. Three days on the market and it's listed as Contingent. Guess they were wowed by the interior doors....
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
The buyers either think the finished value of the house is some $600K or are in for some real grief.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Recent comps on the same street. So exactly the neighborhood. https://www.realtor.com/reales...M81003-85179#photo20 https://www.realtor.com/reales..._M81629-91963#photo9 They must have really loved those interior doors.... 
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity |
I like the comps better -- by far! Although both seem like the living rooms are oddly small for the overall house...
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Foregoing Vacation to Post |
About the first bungalow style house in the post: Spec sheet says 2 attached garage spaces but I don’t see the garage in the photos. Is the garage attached to the back of the house and accessed through an alley? It’s certainly in a good location, near the downtown area of Arlington Heights and the Metra train station. Spec sheet says it has “Heating (Unspecified type)”. You can see radiators in most of the room photos. You’ll need to have portable humidifiers for the rooms during the heating season. It has no cooling either. This means a costly conversion to a forced air hvac system or spacepac system or use portable window air conditioners in the rooms. I’ve looked at many bungalow style houses. The staircase leading to the second floor is usually the suicide type of staircase in which the vertical portion of the stair is high but the depth portion of the stair is short. One false step and it’s down you go. | |||
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well-temperedforum.groupee.net The Well-Tempered Forum Off Key What do you think of this house? (diamond in the rough edition)