1012 Varela Street, Key West

Attention Bargain Hunters: 1012 Varela Street may be the bargain you have been looking for. Here's why. This two cottage assemblage is located in the Viva Varela Condominiums just a stone's throw south of Truman Avenue in the Old Town area of Key West. The front cottage consists of a good sized living room with two story vaulted ceiling. The walls and ceiling are Dade County Pine. Thee is a small bedroom downstairs and the master bedroom is on the second floor. It is accessed by a spiral stairway from the living room. The master bedroom is open to the downstairs so both spaces have a very open feeling. The one bath is located on the first floor. The kitchen is quite large. It has two sets of French doors that open on to the rear bricked courtyard. (There is also a laundry closet in the kitchen.)

The Viva Varela Condominiums is an assemblage of smaller homes grouped together for purpose of creating a common walkway providing ingress and egress to otherwise land lock cottages. The association maintains the common area and includes water. Owners are responsible for paying their own insurances and home maintenance.

I found the black and white photos of the front and rear cottages as photographed 55 years ago. Like in Key West was much less hectic and certainly much less expensive. As Key West became more popular and housing prices increased, home owners and developers created compounds and limited feature condo associations to provide a bit of cover from compliance with strict building code rules especially in creating common swimming pools or walking access lanes as in the Viva Varela example.

The second cottage sits near the rear of the lot. It has a good sized bedroom and large bath with a glass block wall that lets lots of light into the area. There is a deck to the rear of that cottage which has a separate gate that provides private entrance into the cottage without going through the main house. That would be an excellent place to put your guest so they won't disturb you after they return from a night on the town. That cottage does not have a kitchen. The living space is vaulted and has French doors that look out toward the bricked courtyard which separates the two cottages. That courtyard is large enough for a pool.

 CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1012 Varela Street Key West offered for sale at $749,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West, to schedule a private showing. While this house does not have off street parking, it beats a lot of places similarly priced for charm, space, and privacy.

1408 Petronia Street, Key West, Florida

I got a chance to see the newly renovated home at 1408 Petronia Street yesterday morning during Realtor caravan.  I had a sense of deja 'vu all over again as I walked inside but I couldn't figure out what had happened to the house. The listing Realtor asked me to blog about this property which I gladly agreed to do.

The Key West Association of Realtors changed our MLS or IDX provider a short few years ago and with that decision lost a host of old MLS listings, statistics, and photos. I did check the more recent listings of this house which brought back memories of the house.  It has been changed so much that the old house is barely recognizable. And that dear readers is a good thing. A friend of mine used to live directly across the street. He told me the former woman owner would sit on her front porch and stare at him. She's gone. He's gone as well. The aerial photo below shows the location of 1408 Petronia to which I have added an X.

1408 Petronia Street is located on a one-way street accessed off  Eisenhower Drive.  Bayview Park is located about four blocks to the south. Duval Street is located ten blocks to the west. This is a nice quiet neighborhood where most to the historic homes have been renovated. This one is special.

This home is offered "turn key" at $1,850,000, so take note of all the little things that make this house so aesthetically appealing. In prior times the living room was located at the front of the house. Now it and the kitchen and dining areas are combined in a sweet open concept living area under the two sawtooth additions at the back of the house. The back of the house was opened up to the pool and back yard where there is a small cottage.

The outdoor dining area is covered. You don't know how many "smart" people fail to provide a covered area to sit or dine when they are renovating or building a house. Our sun can be intense. Our rains sometimes happen on a moment's notice. Having a place in the shade is necessary - I don't care how much the house costs. The owners added new Trex decking and additional landscaping. There is also a small guest bath to with entrances from the kitchen or off the pool.

The first floor master suite is located at the front of the house where the living room used to be located. This is an absolutely smart reconfiguration of the former space. Sets of closets provide sophisticated and stylish storage just off the bedroom. The bathroom is just plain sexy. You must click thru the MLS photos so see all the attention to detail in this space.

 There are two guest bedrooms on the second floor where they share a bath.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1408 Petronia Street, Key West. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I think you will really like this place.

Key West Single Family Homes Under Contract - February 2020

Long time blog followers know I have my mood swings ranging from pessimism to optimism.  I think most Key West Realtors do. I say this because I talk to them. Or they ask me what I think only to tell me they think it is in a depression mode.

Town has been very, very busy with tourists ever since Christmas week. A friend at one of the small luxury hotels told me their business is going gangbusters. The Conch Trains are full. Those awful golf cart rentals are all over the streets as are scooters and people on rental bikes. The two weeks ago I started to notice more houses going under contract. The numbers are not staggering but they are on the uptick.

Let's take a quick look at the single family homes under contract in Key West as of February 5, 2020.

Number Under Contract    Price Point Range                    Average Price Per SF

3                                            $199,000 -  $500,000                     $976

21                                          $500,001 - $1,000,000                  $557
  
11                                          $1,000,001 - $2,000,000               $812

5                                            $2,000,001                                    $1,022

Total 40 

There are currently 207 single family homes on the market priced from $300,000 to 6,200,000. A couple of those houses are approaching their third anniversary of being offered for sale. That should tell you something about the house, the location, the owner, the listing agent, or all of the above.

I then checked to see how many single family homes were listed over $2 million - 49! Most of these homes are located in either Old Town or the Casa Marina Area,  One is in Bahama Village, one on Sunset Key, one on Hilton Haven, and several in The Meadows. The average asking price per square foot is $939. 

I meet a lot of "lookers" at open houses most of whom are tourists taking a nosy to see what houses look like and dream about owning one some day. Many of those people are from the upper Midwest, New Jersey and New York. They complain about the cold and taxes (state income and real property taxes) where they live - especially in comparison to real property taxes in Key West. Florida has no state income tax which I believe may be driving some of the higher end home purchases.

It will be interesting to see how many of the 207 single family homes sell (close) before August and how many unsold dogs are on the market in February 2021.

1015 Elgin Lane, Key West, Florida

I wrote about 1015 Elgin Lane, Key West, in March 2018 when it was then listed by Preferred Properties where I work, but it was not my listing. I showed it several times after that but alas it did not sell. I think the owners took to heart some of the suggestions others made as the house has been re-painted inside and outside, the kitchen  freshly renovated , and the house has been de-cluttered..

At first glance you might think the photos above show two separate homes which have been renovated in first class style. Well, the style statement is correct, and yes, they were renovated, but today the two houses that once backed against up to each other are now one single family residence. 1015 Elgin Lane, Key West, Florida is listed by Preferred Properties Key West, that's where I work but this is not my listing. I got to see the house for the first time yesterday during a brokers open house. I have written previous blogs homes on Elgin Lane which is only two blocks long and runs parallel to Eaton Street. It starts at White Street and ends at Grinnell Street. The Old Town Bakery is located at corner of Grinnell Street and is a landmark all returning visitors to Key West should recognize. The lane itself is fairly narrow and not well traveled by anyone except the folks who live on the lane.

I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps and learned that 1014 Eaton Street (now a major component of the Elgin house) was on the 1889 Map and that the rear of the lot (the Elgin site) had no building on it nor was there a building there on the final Map dated 1912.  The black and white photo from 1965 shows 1015 Elgin as it existed at that time, but perplexed me at first sight because the gable roof of 2020 is facing the 90 degrees opposite.  As the "defective detective" MONK would say - this is what happened:

The two houses at 1014 Eaton and 1015 Elgin Lane were joined together by the owner to create one larger home. The houses were taken apart and totally rebuilt from foundation up. I suspect the original Elgin house was rotated on its side and the kitchen addition added. New piers, joists, and all building elements were replaced or updated as necessary. New windows, plumbing and electricity, HVAC, insulation, and drywall were added. The original floors were kept, however, and they are in remarkably good shape.

Even though the Eaton Street facade still has a street numeral and separate bricked off street parking space, there is just one legal address at 1015 Elgin Lane. When I first arrived at the house I did a quick walk through the first floor and opened the front door. It was a few minutes after noon and we are in spring break. Eaton Street was busy with traffic. I shut the door and heard nothing. I opened it again and heard the traffic. I paused in the hallway behind the front door. I heard nothing. I went into the adjacent master bedroom and listened at the window. I heard nothing. I mention this for good reason - even I assumed I would hear traffic. I was wrong. By the way the louvered shutters on the historic photo may have been operational to allow air into the old house. While the shutters still exist in 2020, the wall behind the shutters is solid.

If you saw this house before, you really need to see it again. The transformation of the first floor master suite deserves a fresh visit.

During the renovation the common living spaces were opened into an amazing open living environment. Dining room has a high pitched cathedral ceiling with French doors which open out to the pool and garden. The interior living space is great but it expands even more when the doors are opened to the covered deck, pool, and gardens.

The pool and garden are very well thought out and purposed. French doors open out to the deck which is on the same plain as the interior floors. The transition from inside to outdoors goes unnoticed except that once outside you know you're in a magical tropical setting. The length of the pool surprised me but should not have because the lot size is very large: an irregular rectangle that measures approximately 51.58' X 80'. The new Trex decks line the pool on either side and lead to a step-down area where the grill is located amid adjacent tropical foliage. There is a semi-formal dining area on the Elgin Lane side of the pool. The entire east side of the home is bricked and has off street parking on both Elgin Lane and Eaton Street.

The two second floor guest bedrooms share a bathroom on this level. The front bedroom still has the blue racing stripe walls that survived the interior revision. A modern day skylight replaced the original scuttle visible in a photo I took a few years ago from an adjacent home on Elgin Lane. I suspect the scuttle on the opposite sides were retained for architectural integrity as our homes today have air conditioning which obviates the need for natural drafts.

The owners used the knee wall space to create additional storage.  In searching my shoebox for photos I found a picture of a former owner of the house, V. Oscar Arenberg (1863-1954) who was a ship carpenter employed by William Curry and Sons shipbuilders. The listing broker told me the owners have lots of photos which show the entire renovation of this home. You can see from the above photos the pride of ownership and the attention to detail that went into this very special home.

 The house is located about two blocks from the old seaport. I wonder how Mr. Arnenberg and the other former residents of 1015 Elgin Lane would think of modern day Key West.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1015 Elgin Lane, Key West offered for sale at $1,965,000. Then 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.