Key West - In the Wee Hours

I wish I were a better photographer so that I could share with you the views I see when I wake-up way too early most mornings.

Unlike the house above, my house sits behind a privacy fence obscured by a lot of palm trees and tropical foliage. I have Plantation shutters in the bedroom which I sometimes shut to block out the street light or maybe the moon. My office adjoins the bedroom. It also has shutters. I have tried but can't seem to take pictures from the inside looking out to the palms and the sky. My area of town is quiet most of the day. But at night and the wee hours of the morning before even the birds and butterflies wake up, it is especially quiet and so damned pretty.

So this morning I took my Kodak out to the street, put it on a box, and held the button down long enough to take a couple of Kodak moments to share with you.

I sell houses in Key West. If you are looking to buy a place, give me a call.

1023 Johnson Street, Key West ~ an Indredible Transformation

Just Listed: 1023 Johnson Street, Key West, Florida ~ An Incredible Transformation

I first wrote about this circa 1938 Casa Marina Area home in December 2008 when it was offered for sale by its former long time owner. At that time the house had 2400 square feet of "potential" that sat upon a 7500 square foot lot (75' X100') on the most fashionable street in the Casa Marina Area. I even had a buyer who made a stab at buying the place back then. The owner was stubborn and demanded his price for his pride and joy. The former owner's inability to compromise let the house sit unsold until after his death. My buyer, on the other hand, bought a nearby landmark home and did a crackerjack job of restoring it. The Johnson Street home did not sell until 2014. Renovations began in 2015 and are now completed. The renovated home has undergone an incredible transformation and fits right into this three block stretch from White Street to the gates of the Casa Marina Hotel.

The black and white photos date back to the 1960s and the color picture was taken in 2014. Compare those to the twilight photo at the top of today's blog. The potential I wrote about nearly a decade ago has been achieved.

The listing Realtor describes this property this way:

"Much sought after Casa Marina area. Re-designed and renovated in its entirety. Surrounded with a privacy fence and rolling gate. Consisting of 5 bedrooms 5.5 baths. You enter into an incredibly well thought out living/ entertaining area with sliding pocket doors leading to the outside pool and deck. Over sized kitchen with pantry, viking stove, wine refrigerator, beverage center, french door fridge, 2 sinks, dishwasher, microwave draw and large prep island. Downstairs en suite master opening to the pool, den/family room, and separate office. Upstairs 3 en-suite bedrooms and laundry room, custom closets throughout. Tropical landscaping and lighting."

I have an album full of before photos, progress pictures, and current listing photos buyers and readers of my blog may which to view - CLICK HERE. The house has been expanded to 3,307 square feet of quality living space on two floors plus the newly created guest cottage located off the new pool. The former densely overgrown back yard was cleared and now has a sunny pool and deck worthy of respect. The freshly transformed guest cottage may become the most sought after sleeping accommodation in this house.

The two photos above show the rear two story addition and former garage that was transformed into the poolside guest cottage. (Photo immediately above.) The second floor deck will be appear later as an appendage off the master bedroom on the second floor. 

The original house had a bunch of single purpose rooms, some of which were tiny and basically useless and others like the master bedroom which was too too big. The new owners ripped apart the house to the studs, replaced the all the old windows with modern and efficient impact glass windows and doors (save the front door which was painstakingly restored). The electric service and plumbing were replaced and upgraded. Chases were added during the re-framing to create the new coffered ceilings and to conceal the new air conditioning.

Coffered ceilings, crown moldings, high baseboards, and rich wood floors define and separate the former living areas once housed in separate rooms into a new spatial environment sans the old walls that separated living spaces by function. Today the living spaces are all open and free for multiple purposes.

The archaic den located to the left side of the front entry has been transformed into a stunning first floor den (with option to be a bedroom). This room employs the same coffered ceiling, down-lighting,and rich wood floors to distinguish this home from what one might expect to see in our one time fishing village of not so long ago.

The undisciplined chaos of the original second floor was destroyed when the old walls were torn down and the second floor re-framed and expanded just a big. New appropriately sized rooms were created. A deck was added of the master bedroom which provides a perfect perch to look down to the pool below or to watch sunset far from the madding crowds at Mallory Square. It's the same sunset but without the circus atmosphere.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet for 1023 Johnson Street and then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, for a private showing of this freshly renovated Casa Marina home. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I am also a twenty-two year resident of the Casa Marina Area. I can share with you the joys of living in this neighborhood that is within easy walking distance to the beaches and near enough to everything Key West has to offer full time and part time owners. I'll get you to sit down inside this house and out by the pool. It won't take too long for you to imagine how great life could be if you lived here. 

1105 Washington Street, Key West - New Casa Marina Renovation

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More than thirty years ago someone told me one of the best lessons about Key West real estate: you can't tell what a house is like from the front! Look up at the photo of the pool at this freshly renovated Casa Marina Area home. I live a block away and have seen the front of this house for more than twenty-two years. I have written about it a couple of times over the years and even remarked that a new owner could add a pool. I never expected to see a view like this. It is stunning.

The listing Realtor describes 1105 Washington Street in Key West this way:

"Remarkable Renovation, resulting in a stunning restful retreat. An easy stroll to the Ocean, this One Level Gem is located in heart of Casa Marina District. The combination of finishes and design creates a beach house ambiance, from Stunning wood finished walls, Sparkling Quartz Kitchen and Gorgeous tiled floors. Each of the three bedrooms feature ensuite bathrooms, finished with soft hues of gray and white tile and quartz. Two sets of French doors open out from the living room to stunning Keystone Paved Deck and New pool with cascading waterfalls. Metal roof, Impact Glass windows and Doors and concrete structure will contribute to low insurance costs while providing high energy efficiency and protection. Plenty of room for parking, with one off street spot and additional street parking."

The design is very efficient and pragmatic. It is sort of akin to what you might expect in Scandinavia. It is cool, modern, and sleek. Two of the three bedrooms are located at the front. Both have large en-suite bathrooms and walk-in closets. The porcelain tile floors look like wood but are much easier to clean and maintain. The quartz counter-tops in the bathrooms are plain elegant. I was especially taken by the front right bathroom with a built-in linen closet of sorts that reminds me of houses back in the 1950s.  New wood walls were added to various rooms in the house including the bedrooms. This design element offers a change of pace from typical drywall. Other design elements used throughout the house include recessed ceiling lights, large baseboards, trim, crown molding, and matte black hardware. Each bedroom has windows which look out to the front porch and fenced front yard.  The new owner will get to landscape the house with as much or as little vegetation as desired. I am a firm believer that less is more because everything grows in Key West except hair. (I have all of mine.) I would keep tropical plantings to a minimum because they will grow, but it you add too much or too tall plants, you won't be able to see the house or the street.

The renovation added another design element that did not previously exist. The house was sort of bisected and a center hall added. The hall also has wood walls and a couple of doors. One leads to the laundry area. But it is the hall itself that adds to the drama of arrival at the open great great room at the rear of the house and the cool pool view beyond. Then the guest cottage (or third bedroom) appears.

The great room is designed for Key West laid back living. It you use this house as a full time home or a part time getaway place, you will spend a lot of time outdoors. That is what we all do. That is why we moved here - to enjoy the wonderful Key West weather. The French doors will be open throughout most of the year and family members and guests will be inside and outside all the time.

The bathroom for the rear bedroom does double duty as the guest bath for the main house. A door off the living room provides easy access.  The third bedroom could easily be a home office or a painter's cottage or writer's studio for most of the time until the grand kids show up.  

White Street Pier in the 1970s

Higg's Beach 2003

Sandy's Cafe 2016

 The Casa Marina Area has been my home for the past twenty-two years. The ocean is nearby. It never changes, but it is always different. The skies, the breezes, the smells - they change. They always change and draw my attention as I drive by.  Faustos Grocery is a couple of blocks away. It is the primary grocer for many and a quick stop for someone like me who goes there for milk, bread, or a lottery ticket. There are several gyms and yoga studios in the area as well. Yesterday I was driving home from my open house just after 2:00 PM and there had to be 20 people in line across the street at Sandy's waiting to get something to eat. These are things you can expect and will enjoy to be a part of your future no matter where you buy in Key West. They are just closer if you live in the Casa Marina Area.
CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and then please give me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, a phone call to set up a showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me take you around the neighborhood and you may just fall in love with another part of Key West that you never thought of.

Key West Horror Story No. 8

Just like reading the opening credits of each new episode of Fargo this is a true story. Everything told here really happened. This is the simple tale of the house I bought 22 years ago and the events that led to a trip to the psychiatric hospital and later to death at my Key West house.

There were three primary reasons I bought my house:  it was located in the Casa Marina Area of Key West which was close enough that I could ride my bike to work or to the beach. It had one of the largest private pools on the island. And it had a small (and legal) apartment which I could rent to help pay for taxes, insurance, and have a little left over for lunch money.

The house was located on a very large corner lot about four blocks from the ocean. The area is lush with huge palms and tropical foliage everywhere. Most of the streets do not have sidewalks and gutters to the feel is more rural the urban. The front door of the apartment was set back thirty feet or more from the front gate and hidden from view by a dense tropical garden and a small pond inhabited by fish and frogs. I regularly removed as many tadpoles as possible to keep the frog population in check, but the tadpoles ate the mosquito larva so it all worked out okay.

One day I decided to clean and repaint the pond and to make it into a KOI pond. I had a KOI pond years earlier when I lived in Denver. (I had a greenhouse of sorts. The fish lived and thrived there. My dog loved to watch stare at them and imagined getting to catch and eat one someday.)

I used a bucket to remove the stinky brown water and bailed it into the foliage. Then I got out my pressure washer and began to power wash away the years of scum on the sides of the cement pond when all of a sudden I screamed so loudly that the tenant bolted from the apartment to find what had happened. I was grasping the fingers of my left hand to stop the blood. I had been holding the nozzle end with my left hand directing water and used by right hand to regulate the water pressure. The water accidentally cut deeply into finger. The tenant ran back inside her place, grabbed a paper towel, and wrapped it around my finger. She offered to call an ambulance. I thanked her and said I would drive myself to the hospital.

I ran to my part of the house, grabbed my keys and wallet, and got into my car and raced down Flagler Avenue. I turned left on Kennedy Drive and drove a block or so and then ran inside Depoo Hospital. It was like an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE: nobody was there - in the hospital. Not a sole.  I remember walking through the entry way looking for someone, anyone. Then some man emerged. As I recall he was wearing hospital green. Then someone else came out - maybe a nurse. I remember a woman. They saw the dishtowel around my hand. I said something and one of them responded NO. NO. NO. And then they talked more in Spanish. Oh this truly was THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  Finally someone else came out and told me that I had gone to the wrong place. Depoo is not a medical hospital. I needed to go the hospital by the golf course - of course, the one by the golf course. Where was the golf course? This was before the Key West Golf Club Community was built so I had no idea where to go. Later I learned that Depoo Hospital was our local psychiatric hospital.

When I got to the real medical hospital the intake lady asked for my identification, insurance card, and so forth. She told me to have a seat and wait. I did. I stuck my arm up into the air to prevent what blood I had left in me from dripping onto the floor. It seemed like I waited twenty minutes or longer to get inside the trauma area. Finally a doctor came in. He recognized me from the gym.  He asked what happened, sewed me up, and sent me back home.

Soon after my wound healed I went back over and finished cleaning the pond. I patched a couple of holes to plug a leak. I then painted the surface.  I bought a new pump and some chemical to treat the water so that the new fish would not die from the chlorine. Everything was ready for the fish.

I bought two or three large KOI and a lot of feeder fish plus several water plants. I acclimated the water and later added all the fish and water plants. The pond looked really cute. The tentant came out and thanked me.

Back then I was working at Prudential Knight Realty on Duval Street. I routinely road my bike to the office. I road my bike to work the day after I stocked the KOI pond. As I neared me house that afternoon I noticed an egret strutting around out in the middle of the street. We don't have much traffic in my area. I remember thinking "The Fish". I raced around to the apartment entrance, opened the gate, and headed toward the pond.  The tenant came out and said something like "Gary I came out as soon as I saw it". (Meaning the egret.) "They are all gone." The KOI were gone. Eaten alive. Dead. I didn't know or even think about a bird eating the fish. My fish in Denver had never been exposed to anything that could eat them except my dog. And she knew better.  Those fish had lived their lives just fine until I got involved. It was my fault. I decided then - nevermore. I tore out the pond and planted some more foliage. You can't kill anything green in Key West.