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Thursday, December 26, 2019

OIRF Key West Christmas House Tour Dec 27 & 28

60th Annual Key West Home Tour~Friday "Holiday Style"
Friday December 27th & Saturday December 28th
3:00 PM to 7:00 PM

The annual Key West Home Tours™ are one of the oldest and longest running home tours in America, with the first tour in 1960. Old Island Restoration Foundation (OIRF) conducts the tours and they are funded in part by our generous supporters. Each tour features five lovely homes and gardens reflecting the varied tastes and originality of their owners. Homes featured include 1301 Flagler Avenue, 328 William Street, 600 Eaton Street, 724 Eaton, and 744 Windsor Lane. Tickets may be purchased before the tour at the Oldest House at 322 Duval; The Key West Woman’s Club at 319 Duval, and the Amsterdam’s Curry Mansion at 511 Caroline Street. No scheduled tours, but houses open Dec 27 & 28 3-6p.m.

You will be enchanted by exquisite restorations, creative renovations and delightful interiors featuring art collections, antiques, and much more. All proceeds from the tours stay in our local community fulfilling OIRF’s mission of “Celebrating and sustaining Key West’s unique architecture, culture and history.” Grants are provided to local home owners and non-profits to fix up their buildings in the historic district, scholarships are provided to Key West High School students and funds are used to maintain Key West Oldest House Museum and Garden.

744 Windsor Lane, Key West pictured above and below is among the five homes on the 2019 Christmas Tour.
Visitors will be able to tour the gathering room, the formal and informal living areas, the chef's dream kitchen, the multiple decks, and take in the grandeur of one of the largest heated pools on the island. Landscape Craig Reynolds recently completely renovated the front and rear gardens. This is a must see home for the holidays. I will be at the home to say hello to my Dear Readers.
I sell houses for and to people with all sizes of budgets. Every man and woman has a dream home.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

The Christmas Stocking Caper

Longtime Readers may have read this before.

Christmas always has been a time for reflection of times long ago. I remember my childhood with such fondness for the way things were growing up in the 1950s in a suburb west of Denver.  

My parents were barely out of their teens when my sister was born in 1930.  Five years later my big brother was born. My family lived in Omaha, Chicago, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Dallas during Depression and the War years - wherever my dad could find work. They made their way to Denver where I was born in 1947. My parents saved enough money to buy a house in the suburbs two years later. I grew up with kids whose families had also gone through the war years and who were experiencing the rebirth of America after the war. It was a very good time in our collective history.

I remember the cookies, fudge and divinity my mother made - the sprinkles and gum drops and hot chocolate too. Homemade food was the norm then. The treats were good and plentiful. Christmas trees were sold by the foot. My mother bought a Christmas tree not much taller than I was and placed it on top of our coffee table to make it appear taller. There is an old photo in a box somewhere of little me looking up at that special tree. I remember that tree so damned well because one night I pulled on an ornament and down the tree fell. My mother screamed at wee me and I thought bloody hell, I'm done for.

Our house was furnished with 1950's modern blond wood furniture the coffee and end tables and blond drop leaf dining set. On Christmas Eve day a few years after pulling over the tree incident I was helping my mother clean out the refrigerator to make room for our Christmas feast. I placed every single item from the refrigerator on top of the dining room table with one leaf fully extended.

Shortly before Christmas my dad discovered a new super-concentrated liquid coffee sold in a 24 ounce tin can. The concept was simple: add a jigger of the concentrated coffee into a cup into hot water  and whamo you have intensely rich coffee. Back then tin cans had holes punched on tops to let the contents pour. Resealable tops had not yet been invented. The last item I placed on the drop leaf table was my dad's opened quart can of concentrated liquid coffee. At first the table leaf teetered. Then it tottered. The table tilted and fell onto our brand new wall to wall carpet. My mother screamed the same way as she did when I pulled down the Christmas tree years earlier. Bloody hell - again! I thought for sure I would die on this day. I raced to the phone and called my dad begging him to come home immediately. Our uncooked Christmas dinner was all over the floor. The coffee stain remained on the dining room carpet until the day we moved away from that house.

My parents got divorced in 1959. My mother said there would be no Santa Claus that year. She said I was too big. For several years my big brother told there was no Santa. I chose not to believe him. However, I figured out something was amok the year earlier when I went shopping on Christmas Eve day with my mother and grandmother. I found the same Ave Marie 45 RPM record in my Christmas stocking that was in the shopping cart the day earlier. I reluctantly admitted to myself that my treacherous brother hadn't made this stuff up. Well, he was still being mean. I figured he had missed out on Christmases growing up without the things I had. He wanted to spoil Christmas for me. Not so fast, you big dick.  I'll teach you one last trick.

So on Christmas Eve day in 1959 I went Christmas shopping at Woolworth's where I bought some candy, small toys and a few pieces for my Lionel train set. I went back home and put candy and toys inside one of my mother's old nylon hose which I then hid in the garage.

Our house did not have a fireplace. I would always hang one of my mother's old nylons on the floor lamp in the living room and leave the front door unlocked for Santa. On Christmas Eve 1959 I made a point of going into my mother's bedroom to get one of her old nylon stockings which I then hung on the floor lamp. My mother said what I did and repeated that there would be no use. She knew not of my soon to be ruse. I went to bed, my trap had been set, now it was time to take my Christmas nap. Later that night while my mother and brother were asleep, I crept through house not to making one peep. I went to the garage, grabbed the nylon hose which I then hung on the floor lamp in the living room and went back to bed.
For every Christmas morning I could remember, I would spring from my bed by dawn's early light to see what Santa had left me that prior night. I remember one time getting out of bed and heading into the living room. My mother's bedroom door was ajar. She yelled go back to bed! On Christmas morning 1959 I stayed in bed until my mother and brother were up. I heard my mother ask by brother if he had filled the stocking. No he said, had she? How could it be, did Santa exist after all? I finally got up and headed straight to the floor lamp to retrieve my Christmas haul. Oh I got other presents but the Santa stocking was the best of all.


Monday, December 23, 2019

The One that Got Away - Not the Fish!


Key West is famous for its fishing, drinking, and real estate tinkering. Today's blog is about the real estate deal that got away.  All readers are aware of the real estate maxim location, location, location. Some properties have excellent locations and others are not so blessed. Some have have horrible locations. Sometimes good locations have bad juju.

I never forgot a "buyer" I worked with about twenty years ago. He wanted to look at the former Logun's Lobster House end of Simonton Street. It was the location and size of the lot more than the building that made this property so appealing.  The 17,000 square foot lot sat at the south end of Simonton Street overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The lot included off street parking. The building was certainly usable or worthy of remodeling, but the location begged to be re-purposed and made into something more important. 
The former La Brisa (pictured below) was located on the opposite side what became Logun's Lobster House at 1420 Simonton Street also at water's edge. La Brisa was severely damaged in a hurricane and was later moved to South Street where it is now a house. The La Brisa site later became the Sand's Beach Club which itself was razed. That site is now the Reach Resort.

I found a couple of photos in the Monroe County Public Library files which hows South Beach as photographed 1940 from the end of Duval Street looking east toward the Casa Marina Hotel. The lower photo was taken in 1950 and shows a motel which I believe later became a part of the Atlantic Shores Resort.
The aerial photo below shows the location as photographed in the late 1990s - thirty years ago my friends. Only two of the buildings that existed then still exist today - the Reach Resort and a portion of the South Beach Motel which is now the Southernmost Resort complex. The lower photo was taken in 2018 and shows the Southernmost Beach Resort and Reach Resort plus the Santa Maria Condominiums on South Street.
My buyer looked at Logun's Lobster House twice on the same day - once mid-morning and a second time around 2:00 PM when we looked inside with the listing Realtor. Later my buyer and I stood in the middle of Simonton Street admiring the location when he absolutely seized up.



Logun's was located next door to the Atlantic Shores pool which was an institution back in its day. Guests and locals hung out by the pool from 10:00 AM until closing drinking cocktails, eating, sunning, and dancing at Sunday Tea By the Sea.  Nudity was not only allowed, it was encouraged. The music was normally respectful of other businesses in the area but was always loud during tea dance and when certain bartenders rocked the house during their shifts. On the day I showed the Logun's, the bartender from Hell was rocking out of control. My buyer decided that property was not suitable. He could only hear the music blare.

Logun's Lobster House was listed at $3 million. It sold at $2.3 million and was torn down. I happened to drive by the location in 2007 as Logun's and the Atlantic Shores were razed to make way for the new Southernmost resort.
I urge buyers to focus on the goal of buying the property they want and not worry about little things. That can be a difficult and costly lesson for buyers anywhere. There is no real estate lesson worse than remembering the one that got away.



Sunday, December 22, 2019

Price Drop in Paradise - 923 Angela Street Key West - Open House Today

If you saw this lovely home before, 
you must look again.
Price Reduced to $995,000 offered fully furnished.
One of the first things you'll notice when you step onto the inviting front porch is a Historic Florida Keys Foundation Ceramic Star awarded in 2017 for historic preservation of this home. The house was totally restored from foundation to rooftop. The house first appeared in the 1892 Sanborn Fire Map as 721 Angela. The Street number was changed to 923 Angela on the 1899 map.
You will find Dade County Pine walls and ceiling throughout the house. A new wood floor was added during the restoration as were the new kitchen and two new bathrooms. There is also new air conditioning and on demand hot water.
The first floor bed and bath are located at the rear of the home where French doors open out to the lanai, heated pool, outdoor shower, and laundry area.  I recently previewed this house to a Realtor last week ahead of bringing his client. His eyes were drawn through the house to the pool. He was so captivated by the view that he missed seeing the bedroom. He had to come back into the house for a second look and confessed the pool just amazed him to the point he overlooked the bedroom.
The second floor was dramatically changed with the addition of a new bath and roof top deck. The bathroom is bright and cheerful. The deck is the perfect spot to get an all over Key West tan to make your friends and relatives jealous as hell. If you buy this home now, it could be your home by Christmas.
Open House
Sunday 
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
923 Angela Street
Now offered at $995,000
CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos. Listed by Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

923 Angela Street, Key West - Sunday Open House


923 Angela Street, Key West Florida

OPEN HOUSE
SUNDAY
December 14th
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS on 923 Angela Street, Key West.  Offered for sale by Gary Thomas, Realtor, Preferred Properties Key West.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is for discussion purposes only. Under no circumstances does this information constitute a recommendation to buy or sell securities, assets, real estate, or otherwise. Information has not been verified, is not guaranteed, and is subject to change.
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