Tasteful Friends, See This

Nice. Not fussed on the period interiors (or the dreadful backsplash in the kitchen... dated old and dated new.) It doesn't look like eight bedrooms to me. There's a ton to work with and really all it needs is to eliminate the Miss Lindsay touches.

It’s creepy and it’s kooky,

Mysterious and spooky,

Its all together ooky,

The stark contrast of the contemporary kitchen with the rest of the house is unnerving. Victorian is not my style, but if you're going to do it you have to go all in. The front facade is butt ugly

Wood flooring surrounding the indoor pool?

As much as a preservationist that I am - and a big fan of the Second Empire architectural period, I find myself itching for an additional floor? It has me wanting the Mansarded second story to be 1/3 of the façade rather than half. Still lovely though~

I agree with r5. The proportions of the elevation are off. The kitchen is tragic.

Hideous kitchen. What were they thinking. That pool? What the hell?

OP - You are ALWAYS saying Tasteful Friends

If you were showcasing a house in Levittown would begin the thread with TACKY Friends

Not jealous.

My Darling Albert wanted to an indoor swimming pool at Balmoral, but I vetoed the idea. But, he said to me (in German, of course), "But Dearest Victoria, in the future Victorian Architecture will include indoor swimming facilities." As usual, Albert was correct.

Thank god they showed the yard prominently! Scary they wouldn’t show any of the bathrooms.

Also, it doesn’t look like it’s on the market. Are you gathering snark on a friend?

R6-Your sex life is tragic too.

I love the house.

I like the bedrooms.

I'd have to redecorate the first floor in a major way.

The kitchen is hideous.

The swimming pool is quite jarring (although it might be fun to have).

Just for you, r8, dare to dream

Love it all around, except for the pool. Since there's an access ramp in the back, I assume the pool was therapeutic for an invalid confined to a wheelchair.

Kitchen is fine.

@r12, "[R6]-Your sex life is tragic too. "

Who peed on your Wheaties?

R14- I just put that price of $8500 into the CPI inflation calculator and in today’s money 💰 one of those 1951 Levittown houses would be a bargain basement price of just over $85,000 .

For 3.1mm, shouldn’t the realtor blur out the art?

One age-in-place selling point is that ramp out back. In fact, this house belonged to a cutting board manufacturer/maple syrup czar who was crippled tragically in a raccoon accident.

The pool was used as therapy and it’s heated. Unfortunately, the raccoon’s family still roams the property.

And the bathrooms are all beadboard with custom wood toilet seats and vinyl floors.

R16- Remember the datalounge tag line - POINTLESS BITCHERY should nice 1995.

SINCE 1995

@r17,Those houses were originally what amounted to a garage with a bathroom, $85K as it was, un-updated, is generous. Notice the add said "Includes a TV"? Nothing about a stove, refrigerator, washer or dryer

R21- I’m fairly certain that those early Levittown houses included a refrigerator, stove and even a washing machine.

They WERE a bargain.

Looks like 1313 Mockingbird Lane!

What sort of people live in Levittown today?

Completely average people, R24 - luge lessons, summers in Rangoon.

Victorian but in a scaled back, tasteful way.

I was going through the pictures R4, thinking, "well I'd repaint, but otherwise nice". Then I hit the pool and I actually leaned back and said, "what the fuck is that?"

I love it, even its awkward proportions. It reminds me of the house from The Four Story Mistake.

Needs some work, but I could take my time getting it fixed up after I move in.

Lose the spa/pool inside, de-frau the interior, redo the kitchen, and it's perfect.

Brookline is a city/suburb surrounded by Boston and very convenient to downtown. The location makes it so expensive, not the house. Like someone else mentioned, I would redo the exterior so the second floor continues the color and texture of the first floor and have the mansard roof only on the third level.

With the exception of the kitchen, most of the changes I would do would be cosmetic, updated wallpaper, new flooring in the hall, new colors for the bubblegum pink, orange and teal-colored rooms, probably redo the kitchen to something more traditional, and without the lollipop red cabinets and unusually large clock.

What's not to like about the flooring in the hall?

Gack.

Nice that Pepto-Bismol is making paint now.

Cool house, love the interiors, but yes that kitchen is al kinds of wrong. Fortunately it wouldnt need structural changes, just change the cabinet doors for something more in period with the house, and change the backsplash tiles in the same way. Te rest of the interior is fine as is, and I see no can lights for once! I particularly like the colours and the wallpaper

I can see why an indoor pool makes sense in that climate, but the way its done is just jarring and weird - its the one room that actually should look modern

I was all in until that Kitchen. Talk about out of place... Not only does the kitchen not appear to relate to the house, but it is ghastly and hideous. The pink is just too strong and some of the other colors are off. The pool? What crackhead put that in there? It’s an invitation to slip and crack your head on the floor. R25 Cara Mia

That's the oddest indoor pool I've ever seen

Strange looking, and ugly, house.

Curious taste. Everything it too much: the wallpaper and flooring, the light fixtures, the odd angles, the jarring contrast of modern and historic design.

They’re throwing up a cream garage and there’s a fresh shitter in the yard.

Love the period lighting! The portraits are nice. Don't like the kitchen—looks like a kitchen in a South End condo. The pool looks therapeutic. The grounds are nice. Love the teal color in that one room. The pink room looks beautiful.

[quote]They’re throwing up a cream garage and there’s a fresh shitter in the yard.[quote]

What does this mean?

It’s in the street view, R41. I was trying to see the layout of the pool and kitchen.

I designed something similar when I was 10. Legos as the first floor and Lincoln logs as the second. I think I made the front porch out of tinker toys.

[quote]I designed something similar when I was 10. Legos as the first floor and Lincoln logs as the second. I think I made the front porch out of tinker toys.

What is this supposed to mean?

[quote] What is this supposed to mean?

That the exterior doesn't really make sense.

Those portraits look like family members. Brookline has a lot of old Yankee money.

I don't understand how Americans can always fuck up a pool?

So for sure, you need the money to fix this indoor pool eyesore.

Then, a shit load of paint.

And god knows what else.

Its not a pool its a large soaking tub of some sort.

A horror. The paint colors, the pattens in the wallpaper and rugs. The stunted proportions of the facade. Pool in a den. All around big pass.

If I didn't know the size of it, I would've thought it was a feature on a mini-golf course.

The hallway would get a nicotine glaze right over the paper and I’d fix the square they omitted because they didn’t have crown molding, the gelato room would get a red glaze and I’d leave green and blue alone.

I would tear out that stupid hood in the kitchen as well as the euro-bullshit cabinet and this is one time where I’d paint those cabinets white. I’d fill in the pool and make that the tap dancing room because there are times when Rocky Horror Picture Show is needed. I could refashion most of the whore drapes.

The threadbare rugs suggest Yankee thrift.

That horrible pool would be second on my agenda after dealing with that eyesore of a kitchen. What kind of crazed Frau goes from the Lincoln bedroom 1860s era wallpaper to THAT offensive modernist kitchen? I am offended and may write a letter!

I love the French blue shutters.

If a Puritan could be a house...this is what it would look like.

[quote]I could refashion most of the whore drapes.

You have no taste.

Heavens, I might FAINT!!!!

That Kitchen....

[quote]If a Puritan could be a house...this is what it would look like.

Oh really.

It might not be practical, but I quite like the pool. The kitchen is jarringly modern, but that might actually be nice in a house which is otherwise seemingly from a period drama.

Overall, the place is lovely. The only drawback is the bubblegum-pink drawing room. It needs a new colour, which is easy to fix. A bigger problem is the weird protruding wall which cuts the room in half.

I could live in this house pretty happily.

It is a beautiful house, except for that hideous kitchen. Unfortunately I bet it smells of mildew inside because of the indoor pool.

This house is an insatiable bottom.

I like the alternating stripes of light and dark wood on the floor in the hall.

[quote]I like the alternating stripes of light and dark wood on the floor in the hall.

Yes, so do I. And the Eastlake newel post lamp.

"I could refashion most of the whore drapes."

"You have no taste."

I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist...

Only a whore would refer to them as "drapes."

At least you understood the reference. And those valances are as dated as the hobnail bullshit. That dining room is delightful.

And, yes, I would fuck around with glazing because the kitchen would be a mess anyway - might as well do it all at once.

I'm pretty sure the "pool" is there for hydrotherapy. There is a wheelchair ramp outside. Someone in the owner's family has/had a chronic pain issue.

The hallway stripes are just awful. And then when next to that busy wallpaper, it's enough to set off seizures. If you're going to have an indoor pool, put in a full-size pool. The room that bothers me too is the white bedroom with a study attached. I would make them separate rooms. Maybe a French door transition would work.

R24- Levittown , N.Y. is still about 75% White.

i felt the same way about the clash of the flooring and wallpaper in the hallway. i would replace the wallpaper; i rather like the unique flooring.

the kitchen is horrid and barely even any cabinet space so that's a complete re-do.

i think the hydrotherapy pool is fine. it was obviously for physical therapy for someone with health issues. heated, so you can use it year round (turn off the heat in the summer to cool down).

i think the worst thing about the house is the exterior is how far down that roofing extends on the building. that needs to be removed.

the hostas are gorgeous!!

Outside is really nice; the inside sucks. Rooms are too small and the ceilings are too low.

The entire house doesn’t make sense. But that pool looks like a huge issue. One, it’s surrounded by wood floors. Two, the heating ducts are on the floor, so too much movement in the water and you may get a nice bit of water right into your heating duct. I’m no expert but I feel that that’s be a bad thing.

The exterior is so...defined by that shit brown Mansard. I like the massing and 1.5 story Mansards are striking usually, but it comes down to being a $650k house in a $3.5M neighborhood.

The interior decoration and furniture are terrible (and the kitchen), but the rooms themselves are quite pleasant if a little kiw-ceilinged.

I'm guessing someone had a physical disability for that rehab looking pool; there's no excuse for it otherwise. It will cost way too much money to be rid of that problem.

*low-ceilinged

It can snow in May in Brookline. No wonder the therapy pool is inside.

Dealing with a detached garage would get old really fast.

I love that all the bedrooms have fireplaces. Also love the velvet-covered chandelier poles in the drawing room. The interior design suits the house, I think. The rooms don't look small to me. Love the double-parlor drawing room....it's huge!

I really like the hanging bronze light in the front hall. And the portraits are lovely. Also like the period sconces and the Eastlake hanging light in the teal library. And I like to newel post lamp in the front hall.

I love the smell of chlorine in the morning.

R69 forgot to mention trashy.

[quote]And those valances are as dated as the hobnail bullshit.

What is the hobnail bullshit?

Love how this place looks like a house museum.

It looks like where the caretaker for a cemetery stays.

[quote]It looks like where the caretaker for a cemetery stays.

Really? I doubt most cemetery caretakers live in such surroundings.

Meh.

Meh?

No thanks. Dreary.

Yeah, R85. Meh.

I see that place every time I go to the cardiologist or the dentist. It's across the - very nice - street from the Green Line of the MBTA, Boston's public transit system. For that kind of money, I'd like a better view than trolley tracks with trains running on 'em from 5 am until 1 am. The line is electrified so it's not like diesel locomotives going by all day, but still...

Something else weird there, too: the RE assessment from the Town of Brookline has been almost halved (down by 43%, something that almost never happens unless the place burned down) and is now valued, for taxes, as less than what it sold for in 2016 despite the new garage and breezeway connecting it to the house which would have cost at the very least $150,000 - 200,000 to build.

The bedrooms need attention.

I love the teal room! The kitchen is tragic.