Art Deco Home

I saw an art deco Sunset style house last weekend (built 1940, 44 Nahua Avenue, Outer Mission), which is a bit of a rarity in San Francisco. If you look, they are definitely around, but of the Sunset style homes on the market, I would definitely say that those built in the style would be less than 10%, possibly 5%. Here's the listing:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/44-Nahua-Ave-94112/home/1123714

The exterior has got the nice but simple rounded corners and speed lines, which you might consider less Art Deco and more Moderne:


The living room is unique. It's got the traditional corner Spanish style fireplace that many San Francisco Sunset style houses from the 1930's have, but has a beautiful Art Deco tiered ceiling:



The movie The Shining features a ballroom with just such a ceiling, but more elaborate (of course, it was a 1970s movie set, but meant to evoke Art Deco):


It's got a nice and big center patio in good condition:


The kitchen has been re-done recently, looks tasteful:


The dining room has nice subtle molding:


Original tiled bathroom:


View from one of the two bedrooms out back:

Cute but small backyard:

Finally, Nahua Avenue is steep and is right next to the freeway, but has nice curb appeal:

Vintage 1930s Bathroom and Kitchen in Potrero Hill.

I saw a nice 1933 house with vintage kitchen and bathroom in Potrero Hill last weekend. It was on a street lined with a mish mash of houses from different eras, but mostly from the 1890s. So this house is relatively speaking the new kid on the block.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/601-Connecticut-St-94107/home/732739/sfarmls-428637

It's got a nice front façade:


There is impressive detailing on the fireplace:


Nice views of the bay from both the dining room and the bedrooms:


There's nice 1930s kitchen tile:


This leads to the hot vintage bathroom:

Marina Style Barrel Front House

I saw a wonderful well-preserved Marina style barrel front house this weekend in Silver Terrace:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/167-Harvard-St-94134/home/2014468

It was built in 1933, at a time when traditional Marina style barrel front houses were already out of style (they were more prevalent in the 1920s), though this house does bear some of the hallmarks of such a house built during its "late period", with decorative tiling and "cat's ears" mini-eaves visible from the front. The tiling is a nod to the Spanish style which was very popular in San Francisco housing being built at the time.


Here's the view from the inside, from the living room:


The living room also features another relatively rare feature for a more "working class" home at the time- a very distinguished traditional French style fireplace that was placed along one wall of the living room, rather than along a corner to save space:


What makes this a French style fireplace you may ask? Just search for Chenonceau fireplace on Flickr and you can see - Chenonceau is a French pleasure castle built for the royalty in the Loire Valley that I saw two years ago.

Here's a look at the dining room that resides directly behind the living room- notice the ceiling molding and beautiful diamond pattern with trim wood inlay floors (also exists in the living room); looks like they have been refinished in a darker stain for the sale:


Next, check out the original kitchen, complete with original cabinets and backsplash tiles! The countertop actually looks pretty pretty dirty and rundown, might require some work post-sale to polish up. The flooring is cheaper newer linoleum.


Awesome purple tiled bathroom - not sure if the purple tiles are original, but from the patterning it's clear it's definitely no younger than 1950s vintage:


There's a nice telephone niche right outside the bathroom:


A view of one of the two bedrooms out back:


The views from the bedroom windows are nice; partial bay views:


There's a wide open two-car tandem garage, but does have a nice unwarranted bonus room in the back plus a quarter bathroom (aka a closet with just a toilet):


Finally, check out the backyard, notable for the gigantic trees at the back for complete privacy:

1930s House with Wild Wood Inlay Floors, Plus Fireplaces in San Francisco

I recently spotted a pretty cool Sunset style house in Glen Park on Redfin, built in 1931:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/46-Wilder-St-94131/home/898542

it's a corner house with a beautiful turret with a delicately flowery crenellation:


The wood floor patterns are pretty amazing. Some might say it's ostentatious, but since it is likely original to the house (1931), I'm going to stick with amazing. It's also got a very aesthetically pleasing rounded shaped fireplace on the corner of the living room that other than exceptions dates the house to 1931 to 1932:


I've noticed that most house fireplaces in San Francisco can be grouped like-for-like into: Victorian, 1910s to 1920s (sandstone brick fireplaces with built-in's on both sides on one side of the living room), 1930 to 1932, and 1932 to 1940. This type of stonework fireplace was popular in 1930 to 1931. But originally they were mostly placed on one entire side of the living room rather than a corner, like here. But in 1931/1932, it seems like the builders figured out that this wasn't necessarily a good use of space, and started moving the fireplaces to a corner of the living room so that furniture could be placed on 3 of the four sides of the living room (except for the side with the bay windows). After 1932, most of the fireplaces were French style, like in this house.

Even wilder wood inlay floors await in the dining room:


The kitchen is not original but not new either, kind of blah:


But the bathroom looks original with beautiful bright green tile:


Finally, since the house is built on a slope, because the bedrooms are on the same level as the backyard. You can see there is some inlay even in the bedrooms:


All in all, beautiful house, great location in quaint neighborhood-feely Glen Park, right on the BART line and conveniently near the freeway exit as well!