1501 White Street - Key Wset - A Diamond in the Rough

 The listing Realtor at Preferred Properties, that's where I work but this is not my listing, describes 1501 White Street as a

 "Diamond in the Rough. This charming 2/1 home plus detached guest room is completely walled and gated for privacy. Features include a formal living room with vaulted ceiling and built-in cabinetry, kitchen with granite countertops & nice appliances, dining room with multiple French doors opening onto the beautiful private pool and patio. Off-street parking for two cars. This property has a compound like feel and offers enormous potential to become a real show place."

 A very unique master bath with an adjacent outdoor shower for two is located beyond he bi-fold doors shown just above. The shower is large and spacious and so very private at the same time. It, like so many features of this house, is why this house is so Key Westy in character.

 The updated main house with its lush garden and sunny pool sit behind a tall privacy wall surrounded by large palms and specimen trees. An electric gate opens to covered off street parking. A caretaker's cottage sits at the back of the property. The lot is quite large by Key West standards (60' x 120' or 7,369 sq ft).

The caretaker's cottage sits to the rear of the gated driveway and behind the covered off street parking. This is the part of the property that needs the most attention. The cottage is currently isolated apart from the main house by the privacy fence. I think a new owner might want to open the side by adding French doors, removing the fence, and incorporating the cottage into a share garden and pool space which would end the isolation and prettify the space at the same time.

 The cottage and off street parking are located on other side of the fence.

The pool and gardens are pretty nifty as they sit.  One potential buyer that I showed the house to suggested adding French doors from the living room out to the garden. That would replace the single multi-light door on the right side below with French doors. That would add more light into the living area and bring the outdoor area more inside the living area as well.

1501 White Street is offered at $695,000 or $418 per sq ft for this lovely home, cottage, and extra large sunny lot.  CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet. If you would like to see this home, please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me help you find your place in Paradise. 

3529 Sunrise Drive - Key West

Sherman, Peabody, and the WayBack Machine

The lovely home at 3529 Sunrise Drive in Key West was built in 1963 and incorporates many of the styles and trends of that era. I pulled out the WayBack machine and recalled these events that occurred in 1963: the Beatles recorded their first album Please Please Me in a single session; Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique which re-launched the women's movement; General Hospital and The Outer Limits debuted on ABC and My Favorite Martian premiered on CBS; Leave It To Beaver ended-he grew up; Martin Luther King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for parading without a license and later issued his Letter From Birmingham Jail; Gary Thomas saw President John F. Kennedy in Berlin; the US, UK, and USSR signed the nuclear test ban treaty; Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial; instant replay was used for the first time during the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia; John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and three days later Lee Harvey Oswald was killed on live TV.

Events, styles, trends, fads, they all last for a while but many impact our lives for years or decades into the future. When you are young, you tend to live in the moment. As you get older, you learn that not everything in the world revolves around you. As you get much older, you may learn that what you do or say or think is of no consequence to anybody. That's sort of what happens to styles, trends and fads-they get ignored or displaced or even replaced. Styles that were hip become passe. Maybe that's why for many people buying a house in the Old Town area of Key West is so safe: old is always popular there. Even cherished.

If you are old enough to remember the 1960s you will recall the space race and the New Frontier. You will remember the forward thinking we embraced. Our TV, our culture, our furniture and home goods, and our architecture reflected the hopes and dreams as aspirations of that time. Some homes today still have fallout shelters that were built in the 1960s, a different and sad face of the culture of that time.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features of large suburban homes built during the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. I showed this house recently and decided it was time to blog about the house again.

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

" Everything you want in Key West living. Plenty of room both inside and out for entertaining or just relaxing with the family. Vaulted ceilings and large rooms make the interior exceedingly livable. A walled lot, lush landscaping, large pool and several covered outside seating areas along with off street, covered parking make this an ideal property. This is a home that you can live in tomorrow or add personal touches to create your own island oasis."

3529 Sunrise Drive is a big house located a on a large lot on the east side of Key West- just about four blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. It is far removed from the hub bub of Old Town. This is a family area and this is a very nice family home that has been well maintained during its lifetime. The original owner who custom built this home still owns it. The house has 3378 sq ft of living space under air.  It sits on a 8937 sq ft lot. The lot is surrounded by a large privacy fence. There is a large electrically operated gate for entry to the covered parking plus boat storage area. CLICK HERE to view a slide show with lots of photos of this home. This property is listed by Preferred Properties, but it is not my listing. It is offered at $899,000. And CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls data sheet.

If you would like to see this blast from the past, please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a visit. I am a buyer's agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. in Key West, Florida.