Tasteful friends – a Philadelphia "Gramma" Story redux!

Wow, I love the back yard. It has such untapped potential.

There's a lot to like about that house.

The stone facade, tons of light, good-sized rooms, nice flooring, classic AF details (I love a good bannister and casement windows).

The kitchen and bathrooms need redoing, but not with hair-on-fire urgency.

I would re-sod the backyard, but it's a really nice size.

The Kitchen most certainly does not fit in with the general aesthetics of the rest of the house.

It needs some improvements (kitchen and bath updates, repainting, backyard needs work) but, overall, I really like it. If I lived in Philadelphia and was house hunting, I definitely would look at it.

You seriously overplayed your hand OP.

I have no idea about the neighborhood, but house itself is very nice and in fairly good shape overall, the decor is just unremarkable 20th century middle class with somewhat "bohemian" leanings. It's not my taste, but it's not ridiculous - it's like the house of a college friend of your mother's you visited once when you were a teenager.

You sound unhinged, OP. This is overall a solid, handsome house and property.

If you switched out the kitchen tile for hardwood, changed out the cabinet fronts and light fixtures, and added an island, maybe a few pops of color, it could be beautiful. So the bathrooms could use a re-painting--most bathrooms do when you move into a new house. It doesn't appear to need any major renovation apart from a few nitpicky cosmetic changes.

For under a million, this is a steal. I'd almost be suspicious there might be some problem like mold or foundation issues lurking beneath the surface that's prompting such a low asking price.

[quote]I'd almost be suspicious there might be some problem like mold or foundation issues lurking beneath the surface that's prompting such a low asking price.

LOL, R6. In the backyard photos, I immediately looked at the foundation and the basement door with suspicion.

I know too many homeowners to doubt that horrors lurk within.

Interesting. I like the bathrooms.

I love the house.

Seems great for a family, although the kids would likely need private schooling, considering the nearby public high school rates 1/10 on Redfin and comments equate it to the Bronx Zoo. Is this the inner city?

And ahem: The property sold for $480,000 seven years ago. I know housing prices are nuts, but has a house in this area really DOUBLED in value in that time?

Alright, who was murdered there? There must be more to this story.

It's a fine house. I'm not sure why OP is hysterical except that he probably lives in a state of hysteria if this house somehow sets him off. It is also priced about right for the location.

[quote]The orange-red lacquered bottom half of the foyer is an absolute delight. It's as if Dolly Parton's Best Little Whorehouse in Texas came to life up in Yankeeland!

For fuck's sake, take the poppers away and have the painters in like most people do when they buy a house. OP has clearly never bought a house.

[quote]Please ignore the bizarre '70s-era window A/C unit in the enclosed patio with a giraffe-head toddler's toy underneath – I promise it's not creepy in the least!!! The current owners just REALLY love kids!!!

And this photo (at link) freaks OP out because of a toy giraffe? Because of a window unit air conditioner in a sun room? Buy an ancillary air compressor unit to serve the room if needed and lose the window a/c unit if it spooks you out or upsets your delicate sensibilities. $3000 or thereabouts and it's done. And specify in your purchase contract that the house is to be delivered empty of furnishings and personal effects, like everyone else who fears giraffe toys does.

Most buyers can always find a house that is perfectly to their taste where they want to change nothing. Those houses, however, usually cost 2x or 3x more than they can afford, so they do what the great majority of people do: buy with the understanding that they will make some changes to bring the house more in alignment with their taste before moving day or soon after.

People who have never bought an old house but who faithfully watch Hoarders are overrepresented at the Datalounge, and intersect significantly with the circle of gay hysterics who shriek at a paint color they can't abide or a giraffe children's toy.

OP energetically attracting attention to his own discerning snark. Meanwhile, this is nice house, not something deliciously ironic or odd.

This is a pretty nice house. Why is it so cheap?

Because it comes with OP, soused in the orange entry hall, hissing at everyone and everything.

Too often houses like this are over-renovated. Glass railings, walls demolished and replaced with half-assed pillars, everything grey and white.

Meh - why is this special? Not horrific. And not amazing. Just another older house in OK shape in an OK Philly neighborhood. At a price which is OK - not expensive but not cheap for the location. A design gay could do more with it. But if I’m going to pick a place like that to live 20+ minutes from Center City/the gayborhood with public transit access, I would probably pick the Main Line, Swarthmore/Media or Wyncote/Elkins Park area - cleaner, nicer, no income tax, safer and better schools (which contributes to the vibe of an area). I like the hippie-ish multicultural vibe of Mt Airy but it’s not worth the downsides.

Change some of the tile. Refinish the wood paneling. Re paint the walls. How much is that going to cost? Another $200K?

I never thought of how inspirational a shit-brown bathroom could be! It would encourage nice dumps! And, if you shit on the walls, no one will know.

The orange red painting is gross, that powder room (pic 22) looks horrible and pic 44 looks decorated by the women in that late 90s show that has become viral in social media, I forget the name. Otherwise, pretty house, could be 100 times better.

Debbie Travis?

In the windmills of OP's mind this place is the unholy spawn of Lurid Digs and the Winchester Mystery House.

OP is hissing his boundaries NOW, so he doesn't have to hiss them THEN!

Some ghastly paint choices aside, the house looks lovely. The kitchen does need a redo, but it's not an emergency

Is the house near black people?

[Quote]Change some of the tile. Refinish the wood paneling. Re paint the walls. How much is that going to cost? Another $200K?

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

How much would it cost to strip all of that red enamel off and restore and stain the woodwork? There's so much.

That reminds me of Veep when Selena is like, "how much does a gallon of milk cost anyway--$12-$13?"

^*Selina

I really like this house and it looks like it is in good shape. The owners don't have any style, clearly - but so much potential and easily fixed.

Why is it so cheap? Is this a bad area or inconvenient?

A lot of new home owners paint over that wood anyway. i wouldn't necessarily but changing the orange for off white world work wonders.

The 4 way traffic light isn't too bad - doesn't look like it would be THAT busy since it is on the edge of the city abutting a park.

It is decidedly residential and maybe not a very exciting neighborhood with places to walk to - but this looks pretty damn good to me.

[QUOTE]The owners don't have any style

It's hard to have style with rug rats running around.

Overall, this is one of the LEAST objectionable Tasteful friends entry I've seen.

From OP's overblown intro post, I was prepared for something truly ghastly, when it turns out it's quite a nice place and doesn't actually need too much work to bring it up to my tastes and standards. The kitchen cabinets suck, but that (while not cheap), is fairly easily changed.

And, as I stated in my first post at r1, that backyard has so much untapped potential!

R31 - kids aren't running around re-painting rooms or climbing walls to knock art off the wall. No - they just don't know what they're doing - and leaned into 'traditional' to fit the house.

But most of the furniture looks like flea-market finds and there is no warmth - and way too bare.

When they did decide to try something, they ended up with this bathroom - which is awful.

Look, I'm not calling them awful people - but decor and style is overwhelming for them. No shade - but it's a fact.

[quote]How much would it cost to strip all of that red enamel off and restore and stain the woodwork? There's so much.

The woodwork was intended to be painted, consistent with the date and style of the house and the regional taste of the period. It would not have been stained and clear-finished, so that wouldn't be a restoration.

The woodwork is surely not a finish grade wood, probably pine with a coarse grain.

Are you sure that bathroom was their handiwork? Yes, it's ghastly. Kids are expensive, r33, was my primary point which rereading my post I realize I didn't emphasize well. A young family doesn't necessarily have the resources to decorate. And kids, especially boys, can really be destructive. Could they have done better? Sure, but they might have other priorities.

R35 - I get it.

For me, and for many gays, I have to love my surroundings in my home - it's where I spend a lot of time and it's my retreat from the world. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money - BUT it does take a lot of time. Particularly if you do not have a lot of money.

Kids? Just put a food bowl and some water out for them. They practically raise themselves. If they jump on anything they shouldn't, just get a water bottle and spray them with it. Easy peasy.

I agree R34 - the door frames and chair rail are wood, but the wainscoting looks like it could be plaster, like the molding on the upper part if the wall - so likely it was all originally painted.

When you strip painted woodwork you often get surprises. The doorways and baseboards in my apartment were thick with about 80 years if paint (assuming they were first painted over around 15 years after they were installed - enough time for them to look "dated." The heat gun actually liquified the shellac under all the paint pretty easily and it came off in big sheets. The melted shellac was like very dark brown shoe polish - it was probably 2 or 3 layers of color and faux graining to make the white oak look like mahogany - so even though I was stripping off all the added paint, I was also destroying, not revealing, the original look.

And exposing yourself to lead paint r37

Has anyone checked on OP? I'm worried he's going through something.

What a bizarre post. The house is fine, has some nice features, and while the color choices are pretty awful, they're fixable. The decor is otherwise pretty basic.

This didn't even need a thread, let alone a nonsensical 10 paragraph diatribe.

Ceilings are a bit low for a 1920s house. Or maybe they only seem that way.

The kitchen looks great. Love the tile. The hardwood floors craze needs to go away all ready, it gives HGTV vibes.

Lead paint is a valid concern R38 - that's why I did sone research and ultimately went with the heat gun. The worst thing you can do to lead based paint is scrape or sand it - any mechanical removal creates toxic dust.

Chemical strippers are recommended for lead paint because no dust is created and the lead is "contained" - in the messy glop you need to scrape off. This can work ok on furniture because you can usually create a flat surface to strip and keep the mess to a minimum, less ideal on 10 foot high door frames. Also chemical strippers were all reformulated in the last 10 years because they were toxic themselves. However new "safer" strippers don't work very well.

Lead paint vaporizes into toxic gas at around 900 / 1000 degrees, so they never recommend working with the gun above 700 degrees. But I had latex paint over lead paint over shellac. Shellac melts at around 167 - so by setting the heat gun to 225 you quickly soften the entire thick multi-paint layer and liquify the shellac below - the whole thing comes off the wood in big strips and the lead is neither dusty nor off-gassing. You also wear a respirator.

[quote]Ceilings are a bit low for a 1920s house. Or maybe they only seem that way.

Agreed R40. It's a bit of a Philadelphia thing in that many architects working in the Colonial Revival style from about 1905-1935 looked to vernacular regional models of 18thC stone houses found in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The low ceiling height was seen as adding regional authenticity and informality to Colonial Revival which was so popular at the time that it could sometimes lose much of its connection to its roots. I can understand the thinking behind making low ceiling heights chic, but I'm always one to argue for higher ceilings.