1304 Reynolds Street - The Casa Marina Area - Key West

Just Listed 1304 Reynolds Street in the Casa Marina Area of Key West. Buyers that are looking for a cute-as-can-be home that has been thoughtfully and professionally renovated from bottom to top and from outside to the inside ought to check out this beauty offered at $829,000. Local architect David Knoll did the design work essential in the renovation of the historic home. Please take a look at the black and white photo below that was taken half a century ago that shows how the house probably looked just before the renovation..

Knoll designed the rear addition which created the new bedroom addition at the rear of the original house and that added a pool and parking on the north side of the home. The interior of the original house was gutted and repairs made so that the house would be both structurally sound but also architecturally and functionally  unique. The roof was augmented with specially built new wood trusses. The original ceiling was removed and the "attic" space became the new volume ceiling in the great room. The previously hidden space over the front porch was opened and became a mini-museum for displaying personal treasures with dramatic effect.

If you look back up at the black and white photo you will see the small bay extension that seems a minor part of the old house. Well, it ain't minor anymore. The bay is now the dining area complete with built-in banquet bathed in soft light from the bay windows with calypso shutters. An absolutely elegant chandelier was added as if to be the cherry on top of the cake in this delicious setting.

The perennial problem of Mom or Bob being stuck in the kitchen while others are drinking or doing whatever it is that families and friends do while the cook is a cooking was resolved by removing the kitchen wall and opening the entire space. The post-renovation kitchen had under counter refrigerator and freezer units. A subsequent owner preferred the traditional big box which is now a part of the current kitchen. However, the minimization of the traditional kitchen concept is still evident. The back wall houses the understated kitchen cabinets, range, and refrigerator. The cabinets which face the living area house the dual black sinks, under counter microwave, and dishwasher. The front side of the cabinets unobtrusive place for the TV and book shelf storage elements.

Another ingenious feature of this home is the ability to transform the master suite into two bedrooms by opening or closing a bank of retracting doors. When the doors are shut there are two bedrooms, both of which offer plenty of space. But when the doors are open the bed chamber has a two story sitting area with a set of French doors which open out to the pool. This concept would work really well for empty-nesters who have an occasional visit from the children or a gay couple who have friends down for a holiday.  A new owner might considered installing a permanent wall to have two full time bedrooms.

Dual sinks mean that two adults can primp at the same time. The glass shower wall is beautiful. Filtered light from the south bathes this space throughout the day. There's a nice hallway that separates the master bedroom from the bath and the public spaces in the house.

While not all new buyers want an off street parking spot and a pool, most potential second home buyers do. This home has both. The pool isn't big, but there is a really big ocean located five blocks to the south. I have a big pool at my house. It's boring. Trust me, you'll be at the beach so you can keep tabs on the locals and the tourists. You never know what you'll see at the beach in Key West.

If you dread the coming snow and cold of North America envision yourself in this cute home with lots of clean living options. If you've got grand kids imagine how much fun they could have up in the loft above the living area playing fort or maybe camping for a night or two. Think about the good times your friends could have when they come to visit for a few days. They can walk to Duval Street or the beach in a matter of minutes. CLICK HERE to see more photos I took of this property.

If you are a buyer that wants to purchase a home that you could rent as a vacation rental to help pay for the purchase of the property, this home has a long history as a vacation rental.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on 1304 Reynolds Street which is offered for sale at $829,000 to view the Key West mls datasheet. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I have lived live in the Casa Marina Area for 20 years. This is a great part of Key West. Let me show you this house and my neighborhood. You'll love it!

My First Job

I went back to Denver at the end of July to attend my 50th high school reunion. I drove by the places of my youth which included this group of buildings located at the corner of 44th and Yates Street. I started working there in 1960 at age 14 and stayed until the 1965. Back then this was known as LOOK FURNITURE STORE.  This was my first job.

This area is located at the northwest corner of Denver near the famous Lakeside Amusement Park and former Lakeside Speedway. The old Denver Tramway crossed over Cherry Creek and made its way eventually heading north on Yates Street where it jogged two blocks west and ended at Lakeside Park at 46th and Sheridan. This was the end of the line and also the end of  Denver until just after World War II when the western suburbs began to emerge just west of Sheridan Boulevard. Before the War and even afterward to some extent, many people did not have cars. They relied on their feet and public transportation like the Denver Tramway. Little neighborhood convenience stores and theaters were the forerunners of shopping centers that popped up in the 1950s. The corner building (top photo) was originally a drug store. The gray monster to the right used to be the Coronet Theater.  The buildings that front onto Yates Street were small stores. 

Denver Tramway car at 40th and Yates C. 1910

Danny Ferguson was the owner of Look Furniture.  He created doorway passages between the buildings to interconnect the separate spaces into one very large retail space. The main entry was in the middle on Yates Street. It looks like a subsequent owner removed the doorway passages and turned the spaces and buildings into separate entities. The former main entry (below) is now an abandoned showroom of some sort. Most of the other store fronts appeared abandoned.

One of the buildings on the Yates Street was where we sold new and used appliances. In addition to helping load and unload furniture, I would dust the furniture, mop the floors, and clean used appliances so that they would look clean for resale. I got pretty good at it. When I turned 16 I got to help deliver furniture. My pay went from fifty cents and hour to a dollar an hour. I saved my earnings and used them to pay for my trip to Europe in the summer of 1963 where I got to see President Kennedy in Berlin and to run through the cobblestone streets of Salzburg Austria on a rainy Saturday night. I worked for below minimum wage. But I worked and I learned the value of money and of saving. I paid my way through college and law school. I did not do a lot of the things other kids my age did. There is a trade-off for that. Looking back I don't know if I made the right choices. But I can't change the choices I made. 

In August 1964 I had to drive a big truck to downtown Denver to deliver furniture. I had to go past the corner of Colfax at Broadway. That was a mistake. The BEATLES were staying at the Brown Palace Hotel about two blocks away. I got caught up in traffic hell. There streets were flooded with girls. Traffic was stopped in all directions. I found one photo that shows the chaos around the hotel and another that shows the crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheater located about 12 miles away at the foot of the Rockies. These photos show the way girls wore their hair back in the mid 1960s. They all looked alike.  This July when I walked into the registration at my reunion, the women all had gray hair or white hair. One woman was in a walker. You have no idea how depressed that made me feel. No way whatsoever - unless, like me, you are over 65.

I remember one day at work when I was 14 or 15. An engineer who worked at Martin Marietta had a part time job as a furniture salesman.  He was probably in his very early 40s was maybe 5'9 to 5'10. He had two sons: one my age and a younger boy. He always wore his short sleeve dress shirts with the cuff rolled up just one furl to show off his muscles. Even engineers do it.  I’m no big guy. I was maybe 5′7″ then. He was standing at the sales counter when he challenged me to arm wrestle him. I was on one side and he was on the other. We locked palms. We struggled but I won.I put him down like the engineer he was. He was so mad. I could see it in his red face. His eyes looked like he would explode. I didn’t make a big deal about beating an adult. But I loved it. 

Formerly Look Furniture Store

The movie theater was where we displayed used furniture. I remember parking a truck in the alley where we could carry newly acquired used furniture to place on the theater floors that still slanted down toward the stage. The owner hired an upholsterer who set up his re-upholstery shop on the stage. His job was to recover old sofas and chairs to give them new life. America was not as quick to throw away furniture as quickly in the 1960s as it is today. Of course, furniture back then was made in America had an inherent quality that lasted longer than much of the cheap stuff we get from Mexico and Asia today. (I gotta agree the Great Orange Man on that.)

I remember one time when I helped unload a new batch of old furniture that was either a trade in or that the company bought for resale.I opened an old chest of drawers and found a folio of pencil drawings that were made in a prisoner of war camp.  I assume the camp was in Germany because all the signs were written in German and that the prisoners were Americans and allies. The pictures showed daily life in the camp including a ‘delousing’ station where men took showers. Other pics showed sleeping and eating places. I kept the folio and looked at it periodically over the years. I stored in the basement of my first house together with boxes of photos. (Yes, I really do have boxes and boxes of photos.) I went to retrieve the folio one time only to discover it missing. I assume it was taken by a young guy I rented an apartment in the third floor of my house.  He did not have access to my house, but he had access to the basement where he could use the washer and dryer. In retrospect I should have told somebody about the pencil drawings when I first found them. They were something totally unique and probably very important to the person who brought them back from the war. Maybe the tenant's larceny was payback for mine. 

When I was 16 a recent returnee from the Army went to work at the store as a truck driver. He was probably in his early 20s. Anyone older than me was "old". I respected "old" because I was brought up that way. Except on this day I was a brat. I was up in the movie theater projection booth.  I heard him walking up the narrow stairs. The space was very small. The stairway was not lighted as I recall. The projection room was dimly lit. When he walked in I spooked him. He cried out “Oh Shit!”  He almost hit me. He should have.

Looking back maybe my first job was a pretty good thing for me despite the fact that I missed out on a lot of things kids my age got to do. I learned the value of hard work. I mean that. I learned the value of saving money. I remember envying this studly Italian boy who lived across the hall from me in my college dormitory. He had a new car and all kinds of spending money. His dad and brother were lawyers. He became one too. Looks and wealth run in some families. Not in mine, however.  I did okay, though. I became a lawyer in a western Denver suburb not far from Lakeside Park. That was a long time ago. Today I live in Key West and I sell real estate. I still have all of my own hair even if it is gray. I can't beat a 14 year old at arm wrestling and I know enough not to try. I do pretty good at negotiating deals for my buyers and sellers, however.

1400 Virginia Street - A Real Housebuy of Key West

Today's blog is directed at readers who are looking for the quintessential Key West cottage style home that is priced under a million dollars. 1400 Virginia Street is that special home which I truly believe is a real housebuy! I've previously written about the two neighboring homes that were joined together several years ago to create a very exceptional home.

This home is located across from Bayview Park in the quiet little area often referred to as The Arts District in Key West.  The exterior of the house looks weathered and worn. That's by design. The owner gives the exterior a clear coat every couple of years to maintain the patina that makes this place so picturesque.

The main house (fronting on Virginia Street) is a shotgun style house with a long hallway which leads from the front door to the rear where the vaulted living area is located. There is a guest bedroom located at the very front of the house. French doors open out to the pool deck area from this bedroom so your guests can skinny dip while you sleep in the rear cottage.

The living area and kitchen are a located at the rear of the front house. The ceiling in the living area is vaulted. A custom bookcase creates lots of storage and display spaces for books and objets d'art. French doors open out to the covered outdoor dining area and then on to the pool, deck, and garden.  A small bar sink at the edge of the living room perks our interest and draws us in to see the chef's kitchen. The kitchen space comes alive when we see two sets of stacking windows which open at the corner. The impact rated windows retract back to make the entire area open to the pool and garden area. A portion of the kitchen counter is counter-levered to the outside and creates a breakfast bar. The owner told me the windows and doors remain open much of January through May when our temperatures are at their best. If you live in the Midwest or the northeast you probably wear wool socks and mittens when you go outside from Christmas till March first.  CLICK HERE to view more photos I took of the entire property.

The rear cottage originally had an entry door on Florida Street.The owner created a closet where the entry used to be located. The door entry could be easily restored simply by removing the closet hanger fixtures. The adjacent front bedroom could be used by guests. Right now, the current owner uses this room as an office. The larger room is the master suite. It has one wall lined with custom built bookshelves on which books, photos and, collectibles are on display. French doors open out toto a covered private porch that overlooks the pool. Imagine waking up in the morning looking out to the pool and garden.

Many of the windows in this home are impact glass. The rest of the windows have approved Miami Dade shutters. There is a whole house generator which means you will have electricity on those few times electric service is shut down. Also, there is a sprinkler system and landscape lighting. And there is a special mister system which automatically sprays for outdoor pests. Most potential buyers see beautiful landscaping and pools and take them for granted. There are mature specimen trees and tropical foliage on all four sides of the property. The yard and garden almost look park-like. The outdoor spaces add so much additional value to this home.

The owner advised me that everything that you see except the dogs and a couple of pieces of art can be purchased separately from the home. CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet and to view all listing photos (some of which I copied). Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a private showing of this truly pretty home which is offered for sale at $989,000. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Remember this home has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool, and parking.This is one of the most charming homes in all of Key West.  I consider this home to be a real house buy!