1980 Time Capsule House

[Joe (SoCal)]

$1,795,000

2 bd 4 ba 1,780 sqft ( thats a $1,008 price/sqft )

Don't you just love carpeted kitchens and wood panelling ?















https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...mage&3col=true

[bluedog225]

Nice view. 4 bath?

[Joe (SoCal)]

Nice view. 4 bath?

And EVERY one of those bathrooms comes with wall to wall carpet

[Figment]

That carpet is all new, almost certainly done by a flipper as a cheap and easily-reversible way to cover whatever nightmare-fuel lies beneath. Anyone paying $1.8M is going to renovate and won't be put off by the carpet.

[George Jung]

Will it fetch that amount - or more?

Cali real estate is like another planet.

[hawkeye54]

Joe, I purchased a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home in Houston in 1982 - it was a 'spec' house, built by a high-end builder, and it had carpeting in both bathrooms and the dining room ( we had 2 young kids at that time ). We paid additional to get that dining room carpet 'gone' , but had to rip out the bathroom carpet ourselves. ( let's see - young kid, wall-to-wall carpet, tub full of water, hmmm )


Rick

[bluedog225]

I wonder if there is an aerial easement or zoning to preserve that view? Would suck to have a wall built right next door. Happening here all the time.

[LeeG]

Looks like the neighborhood I lived in as a teenager where houses like that cost $50k in the late 60’s. Except four bedrooms 2 1/2 baths.

[Breakaway]

One question: Are all four toilet seats carpeted?

[Joe (SoCal)]

One question: Are all four toilet seats carpeted?

Not from the photos but I'm sure you could get some at Bed Bath & Beyond OH and I would require all guests to pee sitting down regardless of gender

[stromborg]

As part of my job I see a lot of these "time capsule" houses, you would be surprised how many are out there.

The scenario is usually something like this: 90 something year old female (the men of this generation tend to die first) still living in the house the young couple bought to raise their family in. Those kids moved out 50 or so years ago which coincides with the last time the house got remodeled and they owners never felt the need to do it again.

[Keith Wilson]

Dude, that plywood paneling! Eeeeeew. And who the hell would carpet a bathroom floor? I like the ceilings, though.

[Joe (SoCal)]

I honestly think the house could be completely done up in a Mid Century Modern Case Study type of house. Hardwood floors, Herman Miller furniture & Knoll fabrics, SMEG appliances, etc

677A6899-0594-4F78-9F8D-C7025A7ABF20.jpg

[stromborg]

I wonder what that carpet is hiding.

But Joe is right, furnish the place appropriately and it could be pretty sweet if you like Mid Century Modern.

[Bobcat]

The house behind me was bought in 1943 by a young couple for $5,500. When I moved in in 1987, they were an old couple, kids long grown. He died at some point; she stayed in the house until she was quite old. She died in 2010, and the kids inherited the house. It was never updated or remodeled and it was sold as a tear down in 2017 for $750,000. There is now a new big house there, owned by an NFL player, his wife and their four kids. They will not likely be staying there for fifty plus years.

[Henning 4148]

OH and I would require all guests to pee sitting down regardless of gender

Sounds sensible. Smelly carpet syndrome is not funny.

[Figment]

Are those all the cleanest windows on god's green earth, or is there a photo-editing function that makes them look like that?

[hawkeye54]

Looks like the neighborhood I lived in as a teenager where houses like that cost $50k in the late 60’s. Except four bedrooms 2 1/2 baths.

Lee, in the early 1970's, as a broke married sailor, my wife and I used to tour Open Houses - One weekend, we saw a 4 bedroom / 2 bath home in the Bonita Hills in Southern California. The asking price was $50K . We had no hope of affording that, so toured more houses, and, later in the year, visited that same house again . . This time, the asking price was $ 350K - still unaffordable.



Rick

[schlaboatnic]

Wonder where that 4th bathroom is. Garage?

[George Jung]

Yup. Amazing how affordable (or expensive, depending) things look, in hindsight.

[Joe (SoCal)]

Are those all the cleanest windows on god's green earth, or is there a photo-editing function that makes them look like that?

Just look at the fireplace and you will see all the CGI that is now used in Real Estate photography. Some place even digitally state homes now.

[Anthony Zucker]

IIRC, building codes forbid carpeting in bathrooms. I helped develop and rehab schools and old office buildings into apartments and some government Sec 8 housing 40 and 50 years ago and I thought that was a rule. It certainly should be the rule.

[John B]

Our ' new' house is a mid 80's eco house, which means greenwashed. They tried but didn't really acheive much green or even efficient as far as heat management etc goes. Really what eco house meant then is , different, a bit strange even.
The original decor was pretty much a hodge podge of wood finish, brown tiles etc. Multiple grains and shades from doug fir to ply to pine etc.The previous owner whited out all the wood finishes , put a nice floor down. Anyway , we love it .
Like ours that place could do with a few things including some paint to reduce the timber impact, but it could be fun.

[AndyG]

I like the ceilings, though.

You me both. But that catenary is too much.

Andy

[John B]

You me both. But that catenary is too much.

Andy

You want plenty of scope in case it blows up.

[Nicholas Carey]

I get that the place was built in 1981, but the place screams more 1970s Brady Bunch than it does 1980s. The big difference being that the avocado and harvest gold appliances have been replaced with stainless steel.

When I lived in Ann Arbor, I rented a house that had a carpeted kitchen. The house was from the 1910s or so. The kitchen carpet was from the 1970s (painfully apparent from the pattern). This was mid-1980s, so it was only 10-12 years old or so. Even so, the carpet was gross and disgusting, so when we moved in, we rented a carpet cleaning machine. Must have gone over that carpet 12 or 15 times. At the end, while the carpet was miles cleaner — no longer sticky and greasy, and a dozen shades lighter in color — but on the last pass of the carpet cleaner, the water/cleaning solution it was sucking up was just as black and disgusting as it was on the very first pass.

Convinced me, once and for all, that carpet has no place in a kitchen or bathroom.

[Jim Bow]

In 1970, we bought a bungalow 10 blocks north of UofW. $13,500. 1 bed 1 bath with an unfinished basement. That house now carries a zillow estimate of 1.1 Million.
That's Seattle for ya!

[Nicholas Carey]

In 1970, we bought a bungalow 10 blocks north of UofW. $13,500. 1 bed 1 bath with an unfinished basement. That house now carries a zillow estimate of 1.1 Million.
That's Seattle for ya!

Our little Ballard shack was [nominally] built in 1909. I say "nominally" because when we ripped out the plaster in the front room, we discovered that it had been build around an old 1-room cabin. We could tell that because the [weathered] clapboard had been left in place.

We paid $375,000 for it in 2005, and it was overpriced then. Zillow's zEstimate is now north of $1,000,000, pretty much as a tear-down. Or, at least, that's how the tax assessor sees it, as the value of the "improvements" (e.g., the house) keeps going down and the value of the land keeps going up. I'm pretty sure that Zillow's algorithms see it in the same light.

[Ted Hoppe]

Ocean views. Hard to pass up those. $15000 in property taxes a year.

[Too Little Time]

...

First rule of real estate is: location, location, location.

The location is not convenient for me, so I am not interested on the house. But a lot of people like the area and it only takes one to like the house. Or at least the location with enough funds to treat the house as a teardown.

[Joe (SoCal)]

First rule of real estate is: location, location, location.

The location is not convenient for me, so I am not interested on the house. But a lot of people like the area and it only takes one to like the house. Or at least the location with enough funds to treat the house as a teardown.

Ummmmmmm I don't know if you know this but I was a fairly successful real estate broker for years so I kinda know the real estate golden rule.
Yet that old saying is deceiving because you have to compare other homes priced similar and in the same location, location, location.

This home is $100K cheeper and its a little larger although one less carpeted bathroom <wink>

$1,695,000 4 bd 3 ba 1,830 sqft and built the year I was born 1964

​

[David G]

Dude, that plywood paneling! Eeeeeew. And who the hell would carpet a bathroom floor? I like the ceilings, though.

Yeah, I'd go with a warm beige for the walls, and lose most/all of the carpet. Do love the ceiling. Not enough fotos to know if it's a Lindal Cedar Home kit.

[John B]

When we bought our 1910 house in 1994 it'd had a 70s refit. Cork tiles over the timber floors, lowered ceilings in several places and hardboard/ skins tacked over the kauri and glass panelled doors. Peeling that back to find the colored glass was fun
Spading off the cork, not so much. But a great result in the end with Rimu/ red pine floors throughout.

[Joe (SoCal)]

When we bought our 1910 house in 1994 it'd had a 70s refit. Cork tiles over the timber floors, lowered ceilings in several places and hardboard/ skins tacked over the kauri and glass panelled doors. Peeling that back to find the colored glass was fun
Spading off the cork, not so much. But a great result in the end with Rimu/ red pine floors throughout.

My 1725 saltbox had hand hewn timbers from the lot it was built on. There were some interesting artifacts in the stone cellar, but the 1600's woodshed was just awesome to look at the dry set stones - God I loved that house, but it was a family house and my family was disintegrating

[AndyG]

You want plenty of scope in case it blows up.

Maybe it's an earthquake warning device?

Andy