1109 Stump Lane, Key West

If a picture is worth a thousand words, there's no stopping me on this house. How cute is the front of 1109 Stump Lane? Wait till you see inside. It looks like the photographer was doing a photo shoot for Ralph Lauren Home or Coastal Living Magazine. It's that adorable!

For readers not familiar with Stump Lane, it is one of those quaint little lanes I like to call the "Slow Lanes of Key West" partly because they are so small, or short, or dead-ended, that drivers cannot get up enough speed to do much of anything. Some slow lanes are accessible only by foot - cars are not allowed. Buyers who want a lot of action and commotion in their lives may not care about today's home because the lane is so quite. Not much happens here. Folks from up north who are tired of hearing traffic and dealing with hordes of people may want to read further. Stump Lane is located between White Street to the east and Frances Street to the west and about 100 feet to the north of Southard Street. The lane has parking on one side of the street which is not a problem for residents as this is not a commercial area. Duval Street is a five to seven minute walk. You can walk to the seaport  in about five minutes. There are gyms and yoga studios on nearby White Street.

Stump Lane was previously called Barracks Lane. That's because it is located just west of the former US Army Barracks located in the triangular area shown in the black and white photo above taken in 1920. I marked the approximate location of 1109 Stump Lane with an "X" in the upper left hand corner. The Historic Sanborn Fire Map shows a house on that location in 1899.  While I could not find a picture of the house itself, I did find a Water Front Pass of Mr. Carl Bervaldi who lived there around World War I. The Army Barracks and other military buildings date back prior to the Civil War. Civilians who worked on the Army base may have lived in one of the  small homes on the nearby streets or lanes. Today most of those old homes have been dolled-up so much that the former occupants would not recognize them. This home has changed very much. However, it does not have an electric doorbell. My house doesn't have one either.

I had shown this home several years ago. I saw it again a few days ago and was surprised to see how much it had changed and yet remained much the same.   The Dade County Pine walls now had a clean white wash look. The original floors were replaced. A hanging barn door apparatus was installed with two 15 light panel doors doors which created a nice division between sitting areas and the dining and kitchen areas.

The kitchen and master bedroom are located in rear additions to the main house. When I say new additions, I mean not parts of the original house. You can tell by the roof line the additions were done in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The high pitched vaulted ceilings create a spatial separation between the kitchen and dinning areas. French doors at the rear flood the kitchen with daytime light. I think whoever did the decorating in this house knew what they were doing. The house is totally different and definitely more inviting. Before the brownish walls made the rooms look smaller. Today the space seems so much larger and definitely more user friendly. 

French doors open out to the pool area. There is a little shed at the rear that was upgraded into a pool bath. I remember it dearly from times when I showed this house. It's a private story I will share when I show the house. The above photo shows a different set of French doors. These doors open into the master suite located in the rear addition to the house. There is an interior passage off the kitchen which leads directly into the bedroom.

One of the joys of living in Key West is the ability to take a late night dip in your pool. There is plenty of privacy at this place. You can lay out and get an all over tan in the daytime and skinny dip at night.

If you look back up at the top of today's blog and checkout the roof line, you will see that the second floor itself is an older dormer-like addition to the original house. The room sizes are workable. Both bedrooms have closets. There is a full bath at the top of the stairs. A family with two or three high school teens might find this space difficult, whereas a middle aged couple with children in college or adult children with kids of their own would find these two rooms accommodating for visits.  These rooms are larger than you will find at the Shipyard Condominiums and Presidents Walk - and utterly more charming. If this home were rented as a monthly vacation rental, guests will find the space delightful.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and to view more listing photos of 1109 Stump Lane. Although the house is not offered furnished, th e furnishings are negotiable A new owner could likely buy most of everything in the house and start rentals or just taking life easy from day one. Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. 

The Thing I called "The Thing" that Appeared and Disappeard from Higgs Beach in Key West

My generation, the baby boomer generation, grew up fearing Russia and anything alien from outer space which I think was really about Russia - a society totally different than our own. One of the cult classics of that time was IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE.  I liked it so much I bought an 8mm five minute silent movie with subtitles.  When we don't understand something we fear it - well, most people do. Others go out and embrace it and figure out what makes it tick. Scientists and daredevils embrace the unknown.

Below are photos, most of which I took, but some which I borrowed from others who posted on Instagram, of an object that appeared one day at Higgs Beach in Key West.  I live a couple blocks away and would go over there quite often just after sunrise to visit this thing I could not understand. It just materialized out of nowhere one day. Initially there was no explanation as to what it was.

That is the White Street Pier in the background.  The beach is manicured each morning before the tourists and sun worshipers arrive. Those  tracks in the sand belong to the manicuring machine.

The East Martello Gardens is in the background. Maybe the iron fence was built to keep the aliens out.

We have a bit of a homeless problem in Key West. Some do-gooders feed them and that encourages more to come here - and stay. They sleep anywhere they can find a comfortable and safe place. For the weeks after I discover the thing I call the thing, I would drive over to Atlantic Boulevard (funny name for a two way street about only twenty feet wide) to take pics. Then I would see somebody laying in the bottom of the thing and drive back home.

One day I had had enough. I got out of the car and approached the thing. There was nobody sleeping there - just some mass of some sort. The thing looked like a smashed concrete sewer pipe.

Borrowed photo.

 Borrowed photo

On those occasions I show a condominium with a beach view I tell the prospective buyer about how quickly and how often the views of sand, water, sky change. They normally don't get it. These pictures show it to some degree. It's funny how a stationery object with a hole in it can be so mesmerizing. The hole challenges the viewer to look inside to see what is there. As you move around the view of the hole changes. It's remarkable in its simplicity.

Borrowed photo

Now I realize this not a smashed concrete sewer pipe but instead a fossilized giant shark mouth risen from the ocean.

Notice something different?  There is a little monument that tells us this is not a shark nor an object from outer space but instead a work of art.

The last line of the movie was "Well, they're gone!" or something very close to that.

One day I went to the beach and the thing was gone. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, without notice. I felt a sense of total loss. Seriously.  I had come to love the thing. It was someplace to go. To photograph and to imagine. And then it was no more.

522 Simonton Street, Key West - SOLD

Just Sold - 522 Simonton Street located in Old Town Key West. I represented the buyer who plan  a major revation of the proerty which will take three years to accomplish.  

I wrote about this house several months ago. I had the priviledge of showing this property a couple of times to qualified buyers who love old houses. They were intrigued by the idea of restoring this old house but decided the project and the price was more than they were willing to take on.

But the day I showed this house to the new buyer I could see a sparkle in his eyes. He took his time moving from room to room by flashlight. The house had not been inhabited for several years. The electric power was turned off.  So the only way to see what was "for sale" was by flashlight. What he found was an untouched beauty that had never had air conditioning or heating.  He later told me that it was the craftsmanship and  attention to detail by the original builder that caught his eye.

The newer section of the house was probably added before the end of the 19th Century. The first floor front room was likely the bedroom of the former full time resident who departed the house years ago. Rumor has it the former owner was confined to living on the main level where there are two closets in the front and rear rooms on the south side of the house where some of her clothing still hangs. Two dresses are still hanging in the front closet. They reminded me of college prep English where I read David Copperfield. I envisioned the front room as being the bedroom of Miss Havisham.

A different closet door caught my attention. There was a gaping hole in one of the wood panels that make up the door. I turned on my Iphone flashlight to see if my eyes were deceiving me. They weren't. Termites had eaten their way through much of the wood panel. Good Grief!

This buyer will be taking this house apart and putting it back together board by board.  I invite readers of my blog to check back here over the next three years to watch the progress as the new owners of 522 Simonton Street restore this old house.

I represent people like me who decided that life up north isn't all it is cracked-up to be. Two days ago I received a phone call from a former buyer who told me he and his family moved here as a full time residents. He had been a lawyer up north in a big city. He gave that life up there and found a new life in Key West doing something totally different. He said he didn't regret it one bit. If you are looking to find a new life in Key West or maybe just a condo you can call your second home, please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, Realtor to the Dreamers.