Tasteful Friends: A Sizable Wisconsin Abode

So help me...I like it

I do too R1. I wouldn't want it but I can appreciate the care that has gone into decorating the home over the years. Everything has been carefully considered.

The basement is weird. Sex parties? Porn movie shoots?

I thought I'd be on a very small minority, but I like it to. There's something cozy and inviting about it.

You have to admit that basement is an incredible space to entertain in. Think of the Super Bowl party you could host there. All it needs are some cosmetic changes to make it more contemporary. Or not. It has that old style pizza parlor look.

Too much shit. All junk

Conveniently, the local New Berlin police department is available for all of your extortion and drug deal needs (for a price, of course) should you need it.

Follies!

The awnings outside make it look like an IHOP.

It's just over-decorated, once all the junk is gone it'll look like an old ranch house that needs updating

It looks like a Disney-fied version of Buffalo Bill’s house and basement

I took OP's advice and ignored the decor (not hard to do; it is atrocious and display case after display case of dreck) but what's up with all the styles of lighting between recessed cans, track lights, wall sconces and god knows what that is in the "office" setup with chromed strips and bare lightbulbs? And when the "rather dramatic secret" is finally revealed... an unfinished basement! The owner, who's lived there since 1969, didn't have time to sheetrock the ceiling? It's clear the entire theater setup was makeshift and done by the unskilled homeowner. I suspect that a nudge and the walls would collapse. The wiring is probably a bunch of extension cords plugged into a single outlet in the corner. And really, unfinished concrete floors (mostly, there was some tile and rugs covering part, but still)?

I guess for Wisconsin this is high style.

Single owner, 50+ years of habitation and shoddy makeshift home "improvement" = Total gut job.

Upon seeing the photo of the house with blue awnings over door as well as windows I said, “That looks like a restaurant or bar.”

I get the feeling the owner never had anyone over his house. That his bar/restaurant/theater was full of imaginary customers

The inside makes the house. I like it.

OMG Jennie's bottle trew up.

The outside is fine but the inside, god bless them!

Well, as the w2w carpet troll, I cannot approve, no matter how good the intentions were.

The exterior looks cheap but I’m actually charmed by the idea of a basement cinema and the seller clearly has a personality, so it’s hard to criticize too much.

@r10, "I guess for Wisconsin this is high style. "

Guess again, butthead. This is in the town where I live in Wisconsin 🤨

R18, is that the house where the nice elderly lady was allegedly murdered by her daughter and son-in-law back in the 80s or so?

R18 Much of Wisc is a suburb of Chicago.

Did theatrical eldergays live in this house?

@r19, No, pumpkin, it was the home of the eldergay billionaire who was well known in the local Gay community

Thank you, R22.

Of course if $40 million is too steep for your budget, the house next door is a more budget friendly $20 million

I'm with R1, R2 and R3 - I actually kind of like it, its interesting and has character and warmth, the inside more than the outside. Usually its the other way round. Lots of colour and patterns which I approve of, even if its not quite my style, and its not dull like so many modern interiors are

And that house at R18 is stunning

Wisconsin home is hiding a rather dramatic secret. Paging Geraldo Rivera 🥸

^ Yeah, the Eldergay who owned it really had an eye for antiques and was well-known among collectors

The flat roof over a garage - any building - in Wisconsin makes me nervous.

And that's before we go inside...

It’s very bohemian. I suspect an old hippy decorated this home. It’s quite cool.

I will join you in liking it R1

beyond depressing.

There is a property in the Midwest that given the amount of acreage, water frontage, and location, is worth (guessing from nearby property comps) about $300,000,000. The house has 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It's hardly a secret locally, any real estate agent there would tell you the same estimate.

It is not in a suburb of Chicago.

It makes me wonder how many other property 'whales' are in the US that you never hear about because of 'shy' owners.

Gasp.

You're right, R18. Those with poor taste live everywhere. My apologies.

I love the indoor pub!

I kinda like the living room and the first few pictures, and the basement theater reminds me a lot of the Chopin Theatre in Chicago.

@r34, " Those with poor taste live everywhere"

I'm sure your trailer park is ground zero for taste and culture

When I trapped myself in an exurb I experimented with plaids, a ton of perennials, and repro stained glass lamps Fortunately, that time ended.

I can see myself going to extremes if time was endless. It’s not as if I had company often. The bullshit was meant to please me.

I cannot abide abodes with tiny, ineffectual/no natural lighting. I get that's how design used to be in snowy climes, but having spent one godawful winter semester in an apartment very much like this house (in Boulder, CO), waiting all day for a brief sliver of sunlight to cross the one hiiiiggh narrow window in my place had me near suicidal. I had to take the next semester off to regain my senses at home (with its shit-ton of windows) in the sunny South.

All the clever indoor lighting in the world cannot counteract that.

^ Wow, dude, it was Boulder not Antarctica did you ever think to, I don't know, step outside?

OP asks us to not mind the decor. Fair enough, it's a useful skill of mine. But without the decor what is interesting about this dumpy house? The ersatz dinner theatre Streisand basement shopping mall? It's nothing that couldn't be dismantled and hauled away in a couple hours by two day laborers from Home Depot.

I feel a seizure coming on......or a migraine.

And "sizable abode"?

It's 2514 square feet (233m²). The average U S. house in 2300 square feet (213m²).

I don't know why everyone is distraught over this house, looks like a typical overdone mid-century mess. No different than a million others everywhere

I grew up in Madison. The house has a lot of personality for WI architecture, most of which tends to feel as though it were built with scraps Costco rejected.

^ This ^ Most houses in Wisconsin tend to be tidy taupe boxes with little character or personality using only the most basic builder grade materials

I guess the realtor didn’t give them the standard declutter and depersonalize memo.

I'm with R1. Take out the track lighting and I'd move in. Fuck off and die, HGTV.

R46, couldn’t agree more. There’s an inertia that permeates most buildings in WI, where foam core doors go to die.

^ You know when you're in Wisconsin where granite countertops are considered "fancy" 🙄