We were a little surprised that the sellers hadn't made even the most minimal effort to clean out the house. It would quite literally take a crew with a dump truck to get rid of all the detritus that was left behind when the previous owner vacated. That's probably one of the reasons it's been sitting on the market for 170 days.
The verdict: It is a lot cooler than we had expected...and in worse shape than we thought, inside and out. In addition to the mounds of trash and abandoned personal belongings, we found obvious water damage, possible mold, and general dilapidation of wood and stone structures outside.
Still, we haven't ruled it out, if for no other reason than that both bathrooms have vintage Pomona tile designed by George Nelson sometime in the late 50s or early 60s for the Distinguished Designer series (which included tiles by Paul McCobb, Millard Sheets, Dorothy Liebes, Saul Bass, Paul Laszlo, and Dong Kingman). At some point, the top of the vanity in one bathroom was replaced with marble, but I found a lot of 76 of the tiles on Ebay, and failing finding the same tile later, we could always have it tiled with a complementary untextured tile. (Yes, I'm already starting to obsess.)
 |
| ebay.com |
Yikes! That's a lot of damage and a lot of work. But if anyone can do it, Dana, you and your crew can. :)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of taking on such a huge project is daunting, for sure. The thing I worry about most is that my daughter and I would be at each other's throats, because I like to have things done YESTERDAY, and she is very laid back and doesn't get in a hurry. Sometimes she thinks I nag, and I think she procrastinates. :)
DeleteAre you sure you did not take that photo of the home office in my house? Naaa, I guess not. That one still has a bit of room in it.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of work to get the house back into shape, but you never know what you may find when cleaning out all the stuff. You could find a hidden treasure.
If those tiles are any indication, there could be all kinds of treasures we didn't see.
DeleteI, for one, love it!! I'd be buying it!! I have a problem though of seeing the future and ignoring the practicality of the present. But really, I think this is a gem. Get it!!
ReplyDeleteWe're really seriously considering it. The biggest downside is that we'd have to build me a little house, in addition to all the work the house itself needs. On the other hand, yesterday we found another gem, and it already has a separate suite for me...but that's the topic for tomorrow's post. :)
DeleteGo for it! Way more up than down sides -- I'd grab it...
ReplyDeleteI don't know why more people can't envision what this house could be like with some TLC, but apparently it takes true MCM lovers like the readers of this blog to appreciate it, because it's been sitting vacant for a long, long time now.
Delete