Author: Catarina Bannier

Fun Fix For The Floor

Catarina Bannier Home Owners , ,
Floor fixes on a budget

It’s getting harder to surprise us. We’re getting to see a lot of houses each week, and much of what we see repeats itself. Design trends, fashionable features, architectural styles. We can date the kitchen cabinets after just a glance, and we can tell you in what decade those kinds of windows were used. It doesn’t help that the DC market and home owners have been incredibly traditional in their choices. (Yes, we do have some eccentric outliers, but let’s leave those out for now.)

So, it’s always fun to discover something that’s whimsical but not weird, that’s economical and not too hard to replicate. Painted floors as a design feature have not been widely used in the past hundred years, but they can be a really great idea. I took these pictures in a couple of houses that were recently for sale. It might not show too well in the photos, but in each of these cases, the paint made a huge difference in cleaning and cheering the place up.

In fact, we’re often asked by our sellers about their floors – brittle old linoleum in the laundry room, cracks and oil stains in the garage floor, stairs covered in un-revivable carpet, or even the bare floor in an attic playroom that was originally only intended for storage. The owners have long gotten used to overlooking the sore spot. When getting the house ready for the market and trying to look at it with the eyes of potential buyers, they suddenly find it embarrassing.

If you want to paint a floor, why not turning it into an opportunity? It’s certainly a way to make the house look pretty on a budget. whether time- or money-wise. Companies such as StencilEase.com or Cutting Edge Stencils

And you don’t even have to wait — you can reap the benefits of your beautification while you’re still in the house. If the fix was inexpensive enough, you can always repeat it later on. You might surprise yourself (and us!) with some great new ideas.

And Yet Another NEW: Bethesda MCM House Designed By Ken Freeman – Sunday 1-4 pm

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What an exciting weekend! Marcie is going to hold our second new listing open. It’s a cool mid-century modern house with tons of space (5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, huge family room and screened porch) in Bradley Park. Come see – we just prepared some pretty cool handouts… If this is your style, you will just love it!  Listed for $799,000.

Fullerland Or Wooderton? A Case Of Hybrid Sears House

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Customized Sears Woodland-IMG_3066
This 1927 Sears “Woodland” Kit House in Silver Spring, MD, was customized to incorporate features and design elements of the smaller but popular “Fullerton”

There’s a lot of discussion in the historic kit house community about custom built kit houses, and the difficulty they pose when it comes to authenticating a mail-order home. “Custom kit” sounds like a misnomer, but it actually isn’t. The customization was done not on site by the builder but before shipment by a Sears (or Lewis or Wardway, etc.) staff architect, and the kit was then cut, sorted and packaged according to those changed specifications.

All the major mail-order house companies, including Sears and Lewis, the  most popular brands in the DC area, offered such options to the consumer. In fact, national kit house expert and historian Rosemary Thornton (“The Houses That Sears Built”) believes that 30 percent all all ordered kit houses came with some kind of customization.

Some of those customizations were upgrades (like brick veneer instead of wood siding), others had to do with lot restrictions or a family’s size requirements (making a house a couple of feet wider or narrower, or working extra additions like sunrooms or pantries into the  floor plan).

Woodland - 1925 Sears Honor Bilt HomesAnd then there were the ones for the more picky kit house buyer, who just couldn’t find the perfect model in the 135 or so page catalog. The ones that wanted a “Martha Washington” portico on their “Rembrandt”  or different windows, or liked one model but preferred the staircase location of another.

In some cases, the result was a hybrid of different models of the same mail-order catalog. One of those just came on the market in close-in Silver Spring, MD. It’s a 1927 Sears “Woodland” (by dimension, structure, footprint and architectural detail), but received the facade, smaller entry area and stairs of the  (overall much smaller) “Fullerton” model. Obviously, someone did not want to waste space on a useless, if stately, reception hall!

It’s a pretty house, and many other modifications have been made since (such as a powder room in the former first-floor closet or the transformation of one bedroom into a master bathroom). Some of the origins can still be traced nicely–as in the sturdy kit house window trim or the original built-in “medicine case”–, other elements–such as all the door hardware–have been obliterated. You can see excellent pictures of the listing here. The 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath house is offered by Re/Max Plus for $699,900.

Fullerton - 1925 Sears Honor Bilt HomesAs always, if you’d like to tour this “Woodland” or any other DC/MD home on the market — kit or contemporary — just let us know!

If you’d like to learn more about the historic 20th century mail-order homes, or if you think you live in one and would like help authenticating it, check out some of our other kit house blogs and posts.

And if you’re thinking you would like to live in an original Sears catalog home… maybe even a Woodland, please get in touch with us.  We are constantly scouring the marketplace for authentic catalog homes, and would be delighted to help you find one of your own.  Fill out the form below, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call.

A Pretty and (Almost) Pure Sears “Puritan”

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Sears "Puritan" catalog house in Washington DC
Sears "Puritan" catalog house in Washington DC
For Rent in Shepherd Park: 1924 Sears Kit House with open kitchen and fenced-in backyard

Cute rental houses with a little yard, on a sweet block and in walking distance to the Red Line metro are hard to come by in Northwest Washington DC these days, let alone at a reasonable price. Thus, we have no doubt that this charming 3-bedroom, 2-bath Sears “Puritan” will be snatched away quickly. It was built in 1924 and just hit the market for rent in Shepherd Park for $2,500 per month.

Pages from 1925 Sears "Honor Bilt" Modern Homes catalog

It’s a smaller model, though perhaps not as small as it seems, but it seems to have been extremely popular. We’ve come across nearly a dozen of them between Takoma Park and Bethesda.

There are currently no MLS pictures online of the Dutch Colonial-style frame home, but when I saw the house last year, it pretty much still looked like in this 2006 photo tour.

Click on the thumb print of the mail-order catalog pages above to see a larger PDF version.

Sears Kit house garages No. 13043 found in aleey in Shepherd park, Washington DC

While the house has been adapted to a more contemporary life style (the kitchen has been opened up at some point, and sliding doors off the dining room now give access to a deck), many details have been preserved. Most doors still have the original “Strathmore” hardware; the front door and many windows as well as much of the trim are intact as well.

Sears kit house garages
“Star Garage” No. 13043 as seen in the 1922 Sears catalog

A charming touch, at least for those of us in the know, is the garage — accessed from the alley — that comes with the house. It was also ordered from the Sears catalog — check out the characteristic 5-piece Sears eaves brackets and the little window above the door. It was offered in several different sizes and with then-high tech tri-fold doors (which didn’t survive).

Wondering why there are two of those garages? Well, the house right next door is a Sears “Fullerton” built at the same time, but in rather sad shape today. Surely, they either had the same builder, or the owners coordinated their efforts.)

As always, if you’d like to tour the “Puritan” or any other DC/MD home on the market — kit or contemporary — just let us know!

If you’d like to learn more about the historic 20th century mail-order homes, or if you think you live in one and would like help authenticating it, check our some of our other kit house blogs and posts.

And if you’re thinking you would like to live in an original Sears catalog home… maybe even a Puritan, please get in touch with us.  We are constantly scouring the marketplace for authentic catalog homes, and would be delighted to help you find one of your own.  Fill out the form below, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call.

 

 

The Fabulous Tale Of One Family’s Kit Home

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , ,
History of a Sears Kit Home

History of a Sears Kit HomeAs Marcie and I have been chasing (and writing about) kit houses for a while, we’ve always been interested in their history, or better: their connection to history. sometimes, I have found an old ad in the Washington Post that advertised a house we identified, or that promoted the local mail-order offices from Sears and Lewis. Sometimes information about the people who lived there in the early years can be found, about their successes or their death.

Most of the time, however, there’s a blank. We can only speculate (and we often do!). More often than not, current kit house owners have no idea their home was built from a kit, and sometimes they have no idea what that even means. (We’ve been asked whether that meant it was “kind of manufactured” or “prefabricated.”) Other people, however, who have heard of kit homes and are excited about them, frequently have come to believe their house is a kit when in fact it’s not.

Rare House HistoryThat said, it’s always delightful to come across a real kit house history, like the one that’ so lovingly documented on this little website. The Troyers of Kansas are telling the almost 100-year old story of their Sears “Concord,” complete with lots of pictures. Gee, I love this. Really.

Sukkot in DC — Celebrating Shelter And Comfort

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Private Sukkah in Rosemary Hills, Silver Spring MD

In a way, it’s a celebration of the home. This week, Jewish families all over the world celebrate Sukkot, the “Feast of Booths.” The observance requires life — meals, gatherings and perhaps even sleep — in a fragile and temporary structure that is neither heated nor rainproof. It’s a joyous and at the same time humbling experience. Even if you’re not Jewish, you might have seen the big tent-like structures set up in many places downtown that office workers take their lunches to, or you might have noticed the little hut your neighbor built on their balcony or in their backyard. Sukkot is a way to connect not only to our suffering biblical ancestors but to those today who are without proper homes and shelter, who are refugees or otherwise lacking the basic comfort we take for granted.

We have asked friends and clients to share cell phone pictures of Sukkot (booths) this week, either their own or of any they might spot somewhere this week.  You can find the beautiful collection in the slideshow below, and we will keep adding to it. So, if you happen to have a Sukkah or see one, make sure to email or text us a picture!

[Update 10/7: Thanks to all of you who contributed! One picture was even sent in from Denver, Colorado!]

Sears From The Palisades To Silver Spring — A Couple Of Neat New Kit House Listings

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Authentic Sears “Colchester” (a 1930s brick version of the popular “Lewiston”) kit house in Silver Spring, Maryland

No matter how busy we are, we always seem to make time to feed our kit house addiction. This week, the scouting produced  two fun early 20th century Sears mail-order houses that hit the market for sale. One of them is a 1925 “Rodessa” in the Kent neighborhood of upper Washington DC  priced at $759,000 which Marcie visited. The other — a listing from our own Evers & Co. office — is a fabulous, updated 1936s “Colchester”/”Lewiston” (pictured left) with 6 bedrooms and 3 full baths in Washington’s Silver Spring suburb, priced at $489,000.  We’ll post more pictures and some exciting details later. For now, you can get some info from the linked MLS fact sheets.

The “Rodessa,” located at 5414 Hawthorne Pl NW, has an Open House from 2 – 5 pm today — you might still make it! And if you’d like to see the “Lewiston,” just let us know!

For those of you who are celebrating the Jewish New Year tonight —  Shana Tovah!

Update on 9/21/2012: You can find the post on the Colchester/Lewiston here.

The Sears “Colchester” as seen in the company’s 1930 mail-order catalog

 

What’s New In Rock Creek Forest Real Estate?

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View of Rock Creek Park from the first-floor deck of the townhouse.
Idyllic RCF setting: Derby Ridge Lane — view of Rock Creek Park (in DC) from the row house

Nothing, really. The one house that came on the market last week pretty much sold immediately — reportedly with four or five offers. That was not a surprise — the place It was not only pretty, bright and move-in ready, it was also very well priced. In short: it was the kind of house we’re lacking in our slim inventory.

Every agent we talk to in this area has the same complaint: there’s not a whole lot we can offer. We all seem to have plenty of eager buyers and little we can pull out of the hat for them — at least that’s the case in the neighborhoods many of them are hoping to move to: Chevy Chase, close-in Silver Spring, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Takoma Park, Bethesda, Northwest DC.

Rock Creek Forest makes no exception. To the contrary, it seems to be worse here because in many ways, we have the best of all worlds: Chevy Chase schools, Silver Spring prices, DC commute. If you have had any thoughts of selling, now might be the time. There will be little competition out there, and a lot of demand.

So, no new listings for this weekend! 2635 Colston Drive and the Derby Ridge Lane townhouse are the only two houses for sale right now. The situation with rental houses is similar: A new rental on East West Highway earlier this week was gone within a few days. A total of four houses are under contract.

To see the homes for sale in Rock Creek Forest, click here. If you are generally interested in buying a home in RCF or another neighborhood, click here.

Happy Labor Weekend to all of you — see you at the pool!

 

Mysterious Lights Of The North

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push buttons on old light switch in washington DC

push buttons on old light switch in washington DCToday’s Photo Of The Week is a bit of a mystery, and we’re looking for help. Can you explain what this switch was designed to operate? Just the ceiling light (which would be, kind of, north of the person operating the switch)? Or does “N” stand for “no,” i.e., “off?” But if so, what’s with the NE?

Or was it part of the “heating plant?” Or perhaps it connected phone calls to different parts of the house? Or was it connected to a buzzer that summoned the maid?

We found the plate in the upper hall of a 1920s colonial in North Cleveland Park, and it appears to be original to the house that was built from plans by the DC-based Standard Homes Company. The writing that circles the “N” on the buttons on the left spells, “HART & HEGEMAN MFG CO.”

Any ideas?