House Hunting Tour :: 1912 American Craftsman Cottage

Okay, so some, most, a few of you know that we are going through our home

room by room de-cluttering, paring down, painting, repairing, updating

a.k.a.

STAGING our home.

We are down-sizing from over 3300 square feet, 

because there used to be 5 of us living here,

but now only 3 of us live here full-time.

God-willing, we would like to move closer to our downtown,

here in Greenville, South Carolina.

What motivates us to ready our home is looking at the fabulous old homes downtown.

By old, I mean 50-75-100+ years old.

We recently toured some more homes, and I think I have like, 5 more to show you,

if you like seeing them.

This lovely home is a Craftsman Cottage, less than a mile from the heart of downtown.
Here is the official website of Greenville:
City of Greenville

This home has been totally redone, but the vintage charm is still intact.

This first white interior door is a coat closet.
And perhaps it's in an odd location, but there it is.

The home retains the original hardwood in walnut. Yum. 

I love the dark floors, 10 foot ceilings and 9" baseboard moulding.

Let's go through the dining room into the kitchen.

My Gram used to have a sink like this in her apartment many years ago.

The sink is my favorite part of this space.

Here is a little known fact for you:

No man was ever shot while doing the dishes.

Though you really can't tell, this kitchen is big enough for a kitchen island work table.

I have always wanted a butcher block to use as an island, like this:

Image Credit: Silver Fox Salvage

These cabinets below, opposite the sink, were not very deep,
but good for pantry and hospitality supplies.

The countertop is long and narrow,
but I thought they'd be great for food and beverages while entertaining.

Or, a place to pile all my junk until I schedule a party which forces the displacement
of said pile of junk.

Laundry room off of kitchen.
So, nice and peaceful and quiet in here.

The countertops were poured and stained concrete, which I also love.

See the very right side of this picture below?

The door is open and it leads to...

...a dark and creepy curious and mysterious basement which Mark hated.

it reminded him of a scary movie he saw once many years ago,

which shall remain nameless, but on the cover of the DVD, a butterfly is on a mouth.

I, however, liked this outside room in the basement.

Why? Because it has two windows, and I saw it as a place to store all my junk a project room.
And there is a door that locks and leaning in the corner, is a hatchet for me
to use on the bad guys.
I'm not scared.

Ah! The living room. So light and bright!!
This is to the right as you come in the front door.

The windows are all original and tenderly time-warped,

and the rooms still had the picture moulding.

The door with the window led to a side porch,

and the door on the fireplace wall leads to...

The master bedroom.

With a wee closet here to the left of the faux fireplace.
I think I would drywall the wee closet and make a wee wall so I could put a wee chair there.

Another bedroom was turned into a walk-in closet and Master bathroom,

where my Mr. is standing.

He hearted the closet.

It was smart to make this space into a closet/bath doncha think?

Down at the end on the right...

...is another wee closet.

To the right of the this wee closet is the Master Bath.

This black and white tile just sends me.

Where it sends me, I dunno, but I really like it.

There may be a fight or two over who cleans the sink.

We are each used to our own sink (poor Americans).

I had to knock on the shower wall to see if the tile was real.

It was. Is.

In the living room, there was a door to the left of the fireplace.

It opens, and stairs lead up to the second floor.

Miss A, who came along with us, claimed this space upstairs for her and her sister.

And guests and bunches of friends.

The wee door at the top of these stairs is the final resting place storage 

for said guests and friends that don't clean up after themselves, nor compliment my cooking.
At the wee door, take a right on the landing...

see the doorway to the left?

It opens to this glorious central room.

'Tis a bit dark, yes. I envisioned the walls, doors and ceilings painted white.

The floors refinished and stained dark walnut.

The left side of this glorious space.

A Sitting Area?

Off one side of this glorious space was Bedroom #1.

Same room, other side.

Delicious.

Not.

Off the other side of the glorious space is Bedroom #2.

Actually, my idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance. 

Off the center of the glorious space there's a bathroom with more tile that sends me somewhere.

Still-real tile.

Sigh.

Adore.

The backyard is rather boring, but the HVACs are new.

The laundry room is at the top of the stairs.

Run away.

Backyard.

A county park up the hill!

I think they paved too much of paradise and put up a parking lot.

That's it.

All done.

Do you like house tours as much as I do?

That was FUN!

And on a scale of 1-10, I gave this house an 8.

It costs $189,000.

We will keep looking.

This house wasn't "it". We couldn't agree on everything about it.

Ever wondered what all the types/styles home were build/designed in 

which decade?

No?

Then skip the rest of this post.

If you have wondered...

I found an awesome site for you if you want to know (and see) all 

the period styles of homes from the 1600's till now:

About.com Architecture

Wanna tour another interesting old home?

Go with us on our last house hunting tour of a

1915 SEARS Kit Home Arts & Crafts Bungalow, click here.

Sharing this tour with:

Amanda and Friends at Serenity NOW

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House Hunting Tour :: 1915 SEARS KIT Home Arts and Crafts Bungalow

Okay, so some, most, a few of you know that we are going through our home

room by room de-cluttering, paring down, painting, repairing, updating

aka

STAGING 

our home.

It is over 3300 square feet 

and there are 3 stories (basement + 1st and 2nd stories)

5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths,

2 kitchens, a theater room, living and sitting rooms, etc---

and we KNOW are so blessed!!

But there are only 3 of us living here full-time.

It's too much, and it's okay to say it's too much.

We have made so many fond memories here, and we do hate to leave,

but, it's time. You know?

We have 32 spaces (rooms, closets, halls, outside) to get ready,

so we've given ourselves till January 2012,

which will be here sooner than we think.

God-willing, we would like to move closer to our downtown.

What motivates us to ready our home is looking at the homes downtown.

Which is what we did a few weeks back, and we learned a lot

about what we do and don't like.
We toured several, but I am only going to show you one in this post!

We didn't know we loved bungalows until we walked-through this one.

So, come along, and see what we found!

I did manage to take a few pictures with my camera.

(Some of these pictures I borrowed off the Realtor's site, 

because I was too busy ooohing and ahhhing at the home.)
We cannot buy this home now. It sold a week after we looked at it.
We weren't ready anyway.
But the area in which this home is located has many such styles.

WARNING: there are a lot of pictures!


Click the words below to see the ad from 1915!

This is a 1915 SEARS Craftsman-style home.

All the rooms revolve around each other, and there are no hallways.

The original plan:

104 Briarcliff Drive

Porch, left-side.

Porch, right-side.

Come on in!

This is what you see ahead of you when you come in the parlor or HALL, 

as the original floor plan calls it..

To the right.

To the right some more.

Facing the front door, back to French doors.

From where you are standing now, turn left, into the dining room.

Start counting the fireplaces.

And check out the hardwood floors.

Left again, into the living room.

The main rooms all had the original picture molding!

I point out the doorway molding to you, at the bottom corner of the doorway below, 

to the right of the rocking chair, below the fan.

Sears homes have square blocks on molding joints at complex joints. 

While framing members were pre-cut, 

some of the moldings and baseboard trim were not pre-cut 

(due to variances in plaster thickness). 

To simplify construction, Sears homes often have a block 

at the point where complex joints meet. 

This probably made construction much easier for the novice homebuilder.

A picture from Arts Crafts .com

I love built-ins!

Anyone else?

I think this room was originally the dining room because of the built-in hutch

(The doors were wonky, and didn't latch shut, but we didn't mind- we liked the quirkiness!)

And check out the original chandeliers.

They were not operated by a wall switch, they were turned on 

with a knob near the base of the light.

Through the doorway behind the wingback, is the kitchen.

Obviously not the original cabinetry, but the floors-oh my!

What would you do with these cabinets and countertops?

Change them? To what?

Or leave them?

If you turn around with your back to the fridge, there is another doorway.

The homeowner painted some chalkboard which I would totally leave.

The green cabinet just through the doorway is a closet,

with the original shelving, wish I'd taken a picture of it!

Our ancestors required much less pantry space than we do.

Through the doorway is the laundry room/mud room.

The door to the right leads to the back yard.

See the ceiling in here?

The one and only bath.

Turn around and there's a tiny cute little sink.

To the right of the sink is another doorway, to the Master Bedroom.
This is what you see from the bathroom.
Still counting fireplaces?

Outside this room, is the library, the space we saw behind the French doors,
which are to the left.

The living room/original dining room leads to the library, too.

If I put you back in the parlor/foyer, turn right.

And you will be in this room, the 2nd bedroom.
This is to your left, and the window on the left is the front of the house.

To your right.
Last fireplace. How many did you count?

If we went back to the laundry room.

And went out the door to the right here, this is where we will be.

Further back in the yard, we turn around.
Dizzy yet?

At the end of the mulch path at the bottom right of the picture above is an old storage bldg.
It needs paint, but these are so hard to find, included with the old homes.
The doors slide, instead of lifting.
It has an attic space that is attainable by some very narrow stairs.

Turn around again, and to your right you can enjoy the side yard.

It's actually a second lot, but belongs with the house!

Looking back towards the house with storage building behind you.

The old crepe myrtles line the side yard.

So concludes our tour, ladies and gentlemen!
You may have a seat.




Oh, I see you already did!

This was the actual listing that attracted us:

Minutes from downtown Greenville, this completely renovated 2 bed 1 bath Arts and Crafts bungalow has over 1550 square feet with an office area and large foyer that could be used as a sitting parlor. The home features hardwood floors throughout with the exception of the bathroom, and updated kitchen, 4 decorative fireplaces, French doors, built-ins, 9ft ceilings and a large front porch. Step outside the back door onto a stone patio that is surrounded by a flower garden. The 0.59 acre fenced-in yard includes a bonus lot with established plantings and garden areas. The outbuilding is large enough to be used as a two-car garage. Updates include… fully remodeled kitchen, water heater, furnace, air conditioning, electrical system, plumbing and roof. 

This home cost, in 1915, a whopping $825 for Sears to send you all the pieces, 

and you built it yourself.

For labor, cement, brick and plaster, the home could be built on your site for $1, 615.00.

It sold last week for $189,000.

Still a great price for today's economy!

Hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I did guiding it!

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