1018 James Street - Key West Renovation Property

I wrote about 1018 James Street (pictured immediately below) in January 2011. It did not sell then, but I'm pretty confident the soon to be completed renovation of the house next door at 1016 James Street will help persuade wannabe fixer-uppers that 1018 James Street is a project worthy of serious consideration.  The Monroe County Property Appraiser says that 1018 James Street was built in 1900.

1018 James Street - 1965

I dug into the old shoebox and found the photo below which says it was taken by the WPA in the 1930s. It shows homes in the 1000 block of James Street (dirt road is a better description).

Look at how sharp and clean the house next door at 1016 James Street now looks. Compare today's visage with how run down and forlorn the house looked in August 2010 when the renovations began at that location.

October 2012

August 2010

Now let's look at the front and rear of 1018 James Street.  Let your mind's eye envision how you could transform this similarly sad street scene into something especially satisfying.


 

 Look at the back of the house and the large back yard. Imagine how you could reconfigure the house, maybe enlarge it and add a rear deck, a pool, perhaps convert the ugly little building to the side into a pool cabana. The lot is 41' x 80'.

1018 James Street offers a bonus to potential buyers that out of towners may not appreciate until you start getting estimates from builders. That bonus is that the rear of the property is located on Thompson Lane. This is make demolition of existing building parts and removal of debris very easy. Likewise, having the extra space available during construction should reduce your construction costs and save money on not having to carry materials back and forth on the side lot or through the house. (Labor makes up a big portion of any project. Keep labor costs down by buying smart renovation projects.)

Rear building might become a pool cabana

 I took some additional photos which you can view if you CLICK HERE. And please CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls datasheet and listing photos of this property.  1018 James Street is a 1510 sq ft house that sits on a 3304 sq ft lot (or 41' x 80').  It is offered for sale at $425,000.  (The house next door at 1016 James Street was originally a 984 sq ft house that sits on a 40' x 80' lot.)

The Key West Historic Architectural Review Commission will have some impact on what you can do to the outside of the property, but you as a new homeowner can decide how you want to re-create the inside of the house.  You and your architect and builder will tear down existing walls and eliminate decades of old school design. You can create you perfect Key West getaway place.

1018 James Street is located about two blocks south of the Historic Key West Seaport and the shops and restaurants in that area. The shops, galleries, and nightlife on Duval Street is an easy walk from here, just six blocks or about ten minutes.

If you would like to see 1018 James Street or any other home in Key West please contact me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 or send me an email at kw1101v@aol.com. I am a buyers agent and  a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. Let me help you find your place in Paradise.

824 Terry Lane - Key West - A Piece of Heaven

I have often written about life on the slow lanes of Key West. The cottage at 824 Terry Lane is a perfect example of space and time: it is a wonderful embodiment of space and time means nothing if you live here.

The cottage is located at the rear of the Terry Lane Court condo compound (which I will describe later). The house itself is 747 sq ft of living space most of which is on the ground floor. (Lot size is 1131 sq ft.) The front door opens into a small foyer that leads forward into the combined kitchen and living room. The kitchen looks like it is brand new and has beautiful cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and rich granite counter-tops and back splash. 

 The laundry area is concealed behind a door and is located in the kitchen.

The living area is stunning. It is so simple, but so grand at the same time. The space seems expansive because of the vaulted ceiling and French doors that open out to the garden and pool.  A coy nook off to the side has a writer's desk that Ebenezer Scrooge would find charming. The floor are real wood (not like much of the product you see in many homes and condos these days. And the floors are beautiful. The steel stairway leads to the second level open bedroom which is currently used as an office.

A proper powder room is located just off the entry and opposite the entry into the ground floor bedroom. The bright and cheery is quite large and has extra tall ceilings which are made more prominent by the woven thatched ceiling. The bedroom accommodates a king size bed - not something you see in most Key West cottages where space is minimal.  The main bathroom is extra large as well. It is bright and cheerful.

The little compound is composed of six old homes that were originally located on this portion of Terry Lane. Each house is owned in fee simple, just like a traditional house in just about any town anywhere in America. Only here, the owners share a common area that includes the long meandering pool that is located at the rear of the other homes. Each home looks different from the rest. Some are as cute as a button and one was a bank foreclosure last year that still needs some reinvention. But all work in this little piece of heaven. The condo fees are $200 monthly which pays common area and pool maintenance. Each homeowner pays his own home insurance and home maintenance cost.   But all owners share the use of the pool and common areas. See photos below.

I took a couple of photos of the private area (below) for 824 Terry Lane. The space is precious as it can be. Imagine owning this wonderful little spot.

824 Terry Lane is offered at $424,900. CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls datasheet and listing photos. I took some additional photos which you can see if you CLICK HERE. Better than pushing buttons, why don't you call me, Gary Thomas 305-766-2642 and schedule a private showing of this cute as hell little piece of heaven. I am a buyer agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. You will fall in love with this house. And I dare you to try to find any condo or single family home in Old Town that beats this property by size or amenities for this price. Compare this property to units available at Shipyard or smaller condos in the Old Town area.  I really think this place beats them all.

Bert and Ernie in Key West

Rumor has it that Bert and Ernie have been in Key West scoping out a new place to live in case Mitt Romney wins the election and makes good on his threat to stop funding PBS.

Bert started out drinking on the plane.  The thought of losing one's home and job is a pretty scary thing to happen to anyone - even a Muppet.  It could cause the most sober of creatures to turn to drink who knows what.

Day and night, night and day, Bert and Ernie did the Duval Crawl. Bert got separated from Ernie after having had one too many....

Bert ended up mounting a Hemingway Cat that looks like Adolph Hitler reincarnated!  Once he sobered up he set out to find Ernie.

Bert got a little edgy and started wandering the streets of Key West.

He ended up in back of B.O.'s Fish Wagon down at the seaport. He wandered around Old Town and found his way up to the Key West Cemetery.

I guess Bert was looking for a new home since Sesame Street might not be available next year.  He found this sweet little pink house over by the Key West Cemetery.  It was sold earlier this year. Bert found out that there isn't much to rent in Key West, especially if you don't have an income.

Later, he found some affordable trailers over on Simonton Street.  That could work, he thought.

Bert ended up next door to Alcoholics Anonymous. He didn't fall off the end of the earth, Thank God!  He wandered the streets for quite some time and eventually reconnected with Ernie.  They embraced and decided that if Romney gets elected they will definitely move to Key West.

Bert and Ernie have been together for a long, long time. The gang at Sesame Street accepts Bert and Ernie for who they are. Not everyone everywhere is quite as accepting. Maybe that is why they came to Key West where the motto is One Human Family. Okay, they aren't human. Neither is Mitt Romney.

But Bert and Ernie need to know that if they decide to leave Sesame Street, they will always be welcomed in Key West.  All are welcome here. Including Mitt.

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.