1930 Mediterranean/Spanish Style House

I saw an interesting 1930 Mediterranean/Spanish style house last weekend in the Ingleside. I mainly saw it because it has a very similar floor plan to my house and was built at nearly the same time (mine was built in 1931). The Ingleside neighborhood is an interesting, old working class neighborhood, with a lot of the development done in the 1920s. It borders the more affluent residential park neighborhood of Ingleside Terraces to the west (you can hear more about that neighborhood here; you can also buy an interesting recently published book on Ingleside Terraces here), and the even more affluent residential park neighborhood of Westwood Park to the north. In the other direction, it borders the historically economically challenged Ocean View neighborhood to the south. On the east is the Balboa Park BART station, the 280 freeway, and my neighborhood, the Outer Mission, further east. We being next to the Ingleside, we hope (and see from observation) that this is a neighborhood on the rise. There is the new Avalon Bay apartment complex and the new Whole Foods supermarket on the northern end of the Ingleside which will hopefully revitalize the very cute and historic but under-utilized commercial corridor that is Ocean Avenue.


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The listing: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/259-Faxon-Ave-94112/home/821101

The floor plan is basically the "Outside Center Stair Full 5" described here.

Here's the exterior. The living room faces out via the main windows, while the cute little breakfast nook faces out via the smaller windows.


The living room fireplace is typical of a Spanish style home built in San Francisco around 1930 to 1931:


Here's a better view of the living room. It's got a nice barrel ceiling, and "modernized" with recessed lighting, fresh paint, and dark stained hardwood floors. Actually, I really wish they didn't stain the floors, because they have beautiful diamond patterning that is hard to see now that it's been stained. At least the windows are still wood.


The breakfast nook facing the front:


The dining room and side patio are kind of interesting. Normally, in a semi-attached house in this floor plan configuration, the dining room would not have windows other than facing the side patio to let natural light in. But because the house sits on a pretty steep sloping street, and the house next to it is much lower than this one, they were able to build a big side window facing the roof of the next house (but also with a view of the street) in the dining room to make it even more attractive. The muntins on the windows are also a nice touch.


The bathroom and kitchen have been thoroughly modernized, done in a reasonably classy way:


Because the house also slopes front to back, the two bedrooms in the back actually directly lead into the backyard, which is pleasant:


Finally, I thought it was cute there's still a rotary phone in the garage/basement: