Friday, September 6, 2013
Landslide on Foerster Avenue!
Spotted this the other day- a photo hung on a wall at Miraloma Park Improvement Club. A Sunset-style house with the basement story lopped off due to a landslide on Foerster Avenue in 1942.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
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.
View Larger Map 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:
View Larger Map 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:
Sunday, July 21, 2013
1920s Kitchen
I noticed a neat house recently with a rare feature - almost completely intact 1920s kitchen. The house isn't a Sunset style house (it's actually not even a house; it's a building with two flats, one on each floor with a huge garage as the ground floor) but the floorplan and exterior and interior have similarity with Sunset style houses. It's actually not even built in the 1920s; technically it was built in 1930 but the interior has much more in common with 1920s than 1930s houses.
Here's the listing:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/3691-3693-17th-St-94114/home/709528
Check out the kitchen:
Why this is a rare feature is when house remodels happen, the first room to get remodeled majorly tends to be the kitchen. So it's quite rare to see a kitchen with original tiling, and even rarer to see a kitchen with original cabinets (it also comes with a very old stove):
I'm confident the cabinets are original because the few other 1920s houses I've seen with original kitchens also had similar looking cabinets with latches. When I opened and closed the cabinets, some of them didn't quite close properly, probably because they've been warped over time. Here's another view of the kitchen, from the adjoining breakfast room:
The third floor comes with a second cleaning area next to the kitchen:
The house also comes with a lot of other fascinating "original" features. I'm just afraid whoever will be buying this house will want to gut the interior (indeed, I heard at least two potential buyers at the open house talking about doing exactly that) without preserving most of the original features. Certainly it's possible to make this house modern and beautiful while preserving and fixing timeless features which are now showing wear due to age and lack of maintenance - the wood windows and original kitchen cabinets, for example. And indeed, given the rarity of some of the house's features, preserving them will only increase the house's value in the future.
The rest of the house is pretty neat as well. It's got an old fashioned split bath (toilet in one room, shower / bath / faucet in another) with nice tiling:
Both floors come with typical 1920s living room with sandstone brick fireplace, rounded ceiling with molding, wood windows, and built in cabinets. The second floor has elaborate diamond patterned wood flooring:
A close up of the wood windows overlooking 17th Street and Church Street (an amazing location right next to Dolores Park):
Here's a view from the third floor looking down at the roof of the sunroom on the second floor (only the second floor comes with a sunroom, which is only accessible from one of the bedrooms). It's got a tar and gravel roof, very similar to most houses in San Francisco with flat roofs. The back room also overlooks Mission High School.
In the hallway, there is a little telephone niche. The lighting looks old but not original (only one of the floors has it). It's funny to me that in today's age of portable cell phones, there was a past time period when someone thought it so important to be able to use the phone on a niche at night that they had a light installed.
The house has a huge garage. The entrance is tandem, but inside it you can fit two cars side by side, which makes this house very attractive than most houses in San Francisco which feature a fully tandem garage.
The house looks like it hasn't been updated in awhile. One thing I noticed is even though it is a soft-story building (aka the bottom floor is empty), it didn't look like there were any shear walls installed to help it withstand earthquakes. From my non-civil engineer set of eyes, the frame may not be securely fastened to the foundation (which according to the Association of Bay Area Governments would require certain sized bolts drilled into the frame into the foundation with certain sized square washers on top). More can be found here. What it currently looks like:
Finally, the exterior of the house seems very nice. It's the pink one with brick on the bottom floor:
Here's the listing:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/3691-3693-17th-St-94114/home/709528
Check out the kitchen:
Why this is a rare feature is when house remodels happen, the first room to get remodeled majorly tends to be the kitchen. So it's quite rare to see a kitchen with original tiling, and even rarer to see a kitchen with original cabinets (it also comes with a very old stove):
I'm confident the cabinets are original because the few other 1920s houses I've seen with original kitchens also had similar looking cabinets with latches. When I opened and closed the cabinets, some of them didn't quite close properly, probably because they've been warped over time. Here's another view of the kitchen, from the adjoining breakfast room:
The third floor comes with a second cleaning area next to the kitchen:
The house also comes with a lot of other fascinating "original" features. I'm just afraid whoever will be buying this house will want to gut the interior (indeed, I heard at least two potential buyers at the open house talking about doing exactly that) without preserving most of the original features. Certainly it's possible to make this house modern and beautiful while preserving and fixing timeless features which are now showing wear due to age and lack of maintenance - the wood windows and original kitchen cabinets, for example. And indeed, given the rarity of some of the house's features, preserving them will only increase the house's value in the future.
The rest of the house is pretty neat as well. It's got an old fashioned split bath (toilet in one room, shower / bath / faucet in another) with nice tiling:
Both floors come with typical 1920s living room with sandstone brick fireplace, rounded ceiling with molding, wood windows, and built in cabinets. The second floor has elaborate diamond patterned wood flooring:
A close up of the wood windows overlooking 17th Street and Church Street (an amazing location right next to Dolores Park):
Here's a view from the third floor looking down at the roof of the sunroom on the second floor (only the second floor comes with a sunroom, which is only accessible from one of the bedrooms). It's got a tar and gravel roof, very similar to most houses in San Francisco with flat roofs. The back room also overlooks Mission High School.
In the hallway, there is a little telephone niche. The lighting looks old but not original (only one of the floors has it). It's funny to me that in today's age of portable cell phones, there was a past time period when someone thought it so important to be able to use the phone on a niche at night that they had a light installed.
The house has a huge garage. The entrance is tandem, but inside it you can fit two cars side by side, which makes this house very attractive than most houses in San Francisco which feature a fully tandem garage.
The house looks like it hasn't been updated in awhile. One thing I noticed is even though it is a soft-story building (aka the bottom floor is empty), it didn't look like there were any shear walls installed to help it withstand earthquakes. From my non-civil engineer set of eyes, the frame may not be securely fastened to the foundation (which according to the Association of Bay Area Governments would require certain sized bolts drilled into the frame into the foundation with certain sized square washers on top). More can be found here. What it currently looks like:
Finally, the exterior of the house seems very nice. It's the pink one with brick on the bottom floor:
Monday, July 1, 2013
Removing Architectural Features Reduces Your Home's Value
It's remarkable to me that sometimes people will do something to their house that they thought would make it look good or seem more valuable, but as a matter of fact will reduce the value of a home.
When my wife and I were looking for a house to buy over a year ago, we made an offer on this house in Merced Heights:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/223-Vernon-St-94132/home/828698
Even though Merced Heights is basically considered being in the middle of nowhere in San Francisco, the main reasons I liked it was
a) it was cheap relative to most houses in San Francisco - listing price was under $500,000 - and
b) because it's on top of a hill, it has incredible views of the surrounding neighborhoods in San Francisco and of the Pacific Ocean.
This was a house built in 1956, but definitely needed a lot of work done on it. But given it seems like anything from the 1950s is all the rage now and becoming known as historic, this house had some interesting exterior architectural features of that era: thin angular decorative supports/slats, decorative wood window shutters, original windows. The theme of vertical lines is supposed to accentuate the geometry of the house.
At the time, we lost the bid on the house (in fact to a all-cash bid that was tens of thousands of dollars lower than our bid), but my wife was really disappointed because she thought whoever bought the house might not appreciate the house's historic features and would probably rip everything up. I thought this was a bit of a cynical thought, but turns out she was right... Before and after:
They took out all the cute features that I just described, and now it's just another boring boxed house! Unbelievable what these new owners did to reduce the value of their new home.
Knowing this, they probably messed up the other cool features inside the home. Original fireplace:
Original bathroom wall tiling:
The house also had original 1950s metal kitchen cabinets, though not in great shape.
When my wife and I were looking for a house to buy over a year ago, we made an offer on this house in Merced Heights:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/223-Vernon-St-94132/home/828698
Even though Merced Heights is basically considered being in the middle of nowhere in San Francisco, the main reasons I liked it was
a) it was cheap relative to most houses in San Francisco - listing price was under $500,000 - and
b) because it's on top of a hill, it has incredible views of the surrounding neighborhoods in San Francisco and of the Pacific Ocean.
This was a house built in 1956, but definitely needed a lot of work done on it. But given it seems like anything from the 1950s is all the rage now and becoming known as historic, this house had some interesting exterior architectural features of that era: thin angular decorative supports/slats, decorative wood window shutters, original windows. The theme of vertical lines is supposed to accentuate the geometry of the house.
At the time, we lost the bid on the house (in fact to a all-cash bid that was tens of thousands of dollars lower than our bid), but my wife was really disappointed because she thought whoever bought the house might not appreciate the house's historic features and would probably rip everything up. I thought this was a bit of a cynical thought, but turns out she was right... Before and after:
They took out all the cute features that I just described, and now it's just another boring boxed house! Unbelievable what these new owners did to reduce the value of their new home.
Knowing this, they probably messed up the other cool features inside the home. Original fireplace:
Original bathroom wall tiling:
The house also had original 1950s metal kitchen cabinets, though not in great shape.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Old 1920s Ingleside House with Shaped Parapet
The shaped parapet is the decorative part of the front façade above the roof shingles. I just like it because I think it gives the house a special look of classical dignity, and also because this feature was particularly popular from about 1910 to about the mid 1920's (this house was built in 1926, probably one of the last years houses in San Francisco would be built with this feature). Shaped parapets became less popular after that, and it may possibly be a safety hazard (see http://www.sf-planning.org/modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1105, search for "parapet").
The house has what's called an English entrance. This means the front entrance to the house is downstairs (there are indoor stairs that then lead to the main floor upstairs) as opposed to other Sunset style homes where either there are completely outdoor stairs up front, or there is a covered but outdoor tunnel entrance that leads to stairs to the front entrance.
The floor plan is a very common floor plan popular in the 1920's; the flat I lived in for many years in the Inner Sunset had more or less the same plan (and looked similar too). It's got a nice classic 1920's living room with original windows with patterned muntins (decorative wooden strips; I had to ask my wife the proper term for this) in the upper sash, original fireplace, rounded ceiling with moldings, and built-in cabinets (though they have been painted over).
The dining room also has those same rounded ceilings.
There is one bedroom facing the front.
The kitchen is likely not original, but still is very old - judging from the wavy decorations and the wall tiling from the 1930's to the 1950's.
The tiny bathroom also has these wall tiles, but the big tiles are blue instead of white (blue seemed a more popular color in the 1950's, but I still can't date it with any certainty).
Here's a close-up of the bathroom tiles.
There's a cute old telephone niche in the hallway.
Here's a look at the other bedroom (in the back), which leads to the sun room which is only accessible from this bedroom (which I find kind of weird and a bit of a waste of space since it would then be hard to use it as a third bedroom).
The sunroom does have nice views.
Friday, June 7, 2013
1900's Victorian / Edwardian Outer Mission Home
I saw an interesting Victorian / Edwardian transitional house in the Outer Mission last weekend:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/24-Niagara-Ave-94112/home/823171
It's actually already pending after less than two weeks, yet another example of the hot housing market in San Francisco right now - its official square footage sits at 836 square feet, it's got bars on the windows and it's located about a block from the corner of Geneva and Mission which is somewhat of a crime hotspot (on the plus side, it's literally across the street from El Pollo Supremo, where the grilled chicken seems to have a cult following in the City - I have tried the grilled chicken, pretty good, really). Though, that's not really why I find this house interesting.
This is a good example of a house that was built right after the period when highly ornamented Victorian houses were most popular (this was built in 1907 according to records though according to the agent it could have been built before since a lot of records were destroyed after the earthquake). This house has the shape of a Victorian house but has much plainer ornamentation, more in line with Edwardian houses built in the late 1900 and 1910's. I also think the exterior color is pretty hot. Even though I think of Sunset style homes as being houses built in the 1920's to 1930's primarily, this particular house does more or less has the same form as Sunset style homes - narrow row house on a narrow lot, one story living space over basement style garage.
It has a cute fireplace in the living room:
It's got nice detailing on the hardwood floors:
Nice built-in cabinet and wood paneled walls in the dining room:
Nice boxed beam ceiling in the dining room:
I was joking with the agent that this is a great three-bedroom 800 square foot house. This is because while the official statistics show 836 square feet and 1 bedroom, there are two fully finished un-warranted knotty pine bedrooms in the attic that are very cool and which I'm sure would be well loved by children:
Finally, one small funny thing I saw is the dining room has a nice window facing out, except looks like decades after this house was built, another house was built right next to it, blocking the view of that side window and making it somewhat useless:
This is a good example of a house that was built right after the period when highly ornamented Victorian houses were most popular (this was built in 1907 according to records though according to the agent it could have been built before since a lot of records were destroyed after the earthquake). This house has the shape of a Victorian house but has much plainer ornamentation, more in line with Edwardian houses built in the late 1900 and 1910's. I also think the exterior color is pretty hot. Even though I think of Sunset style homes as being houses built in the 1920's to 1930's primarily, this particular house does more or less has the same form as Sunset style homes - narrow row house on a narrow lot, one story living space over basement style garage.
It has a cute fireplace in the living room:
It's got nice detailing on the hardwood floors:
Nice built-in cabinet and wood paneled walls in the dining room:
Nice boxed beam ceiling in the dining room:
I was joking with the agent that this is a great three-bedroom 800 square foot house. This is because while the official statistics show 836 square feet and 1 bedroom, there are two fully finished un-warranted knotty pine bedrooms in the attic that are very cool and which I'm sure would be well loved by children:
Finally, one small funny thing I saw is the dining room has a nice window facing out, except looks like decades after this house was built, another house was built right next to it, blocking the view of that side window and making it somewhat useless:
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Colorful San Francisco Outer Mission Houses
My wife recently took some photos of Sunset style homes in the Outer Mission that are particularly colorful. The buildings look like they date from the 1930's to 1950's. Not all the houses are to my taste but the colors are awesome!
Here's a link to her Instagram, enjoy! http://instagram.com/thesecitystreets/#
Here's a link to her Instagram, enjoy! http://instagram.com/thesecitystreets/#
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