1121 Southard Street, Key West - Unique Eyebrow House

I've said it before and I am saying it again - I think you're gonna like this picture. What's not to like? 1121 Southard Street is the poster child for Key West eyebrow houses. to prove that point I nosed around in my old shoebox where I found a photo taken of the property in the 1930s by the WPA and another random shot from the 1960s. The architectural lines and details are just perfect.

I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps and learned this house existed in 1889. It is located just a couple of houses west of White Street and across the street from the Key West Armory. The Army Barracks were located on the east side of White Street. That site dates back to prior to the Civil War. 

I got to see the house this past Tuesday, the first day it was on the market. The home is tenant occupied and showings in the future will be restricted. Perhaps my blog will help potential buyers appreciate value of this very pretty Key West home.

Key West has changed so much since the black and white photo was taken in front of 1121 Southard Street in the 1960s. But this house looks pretty much the same if not better than ever. I knew I was in for a treat when I stepped up on the elevated front porch and range the door bell.

The entry view is killer: that pool. Those palms. The lifestyle. 

The first floor powder room is located just to the right of the front door. It is so cute. There is deep storage under the stair case as well. More important than that is the crisp white painted trim, Every piece of trim glistens. The wood floors are deep and rich.

A few days ago I blogged about the sameness of so many kitchens across America. This is not one of those. Look how cute this is. The kitchen cabinet plate rack shelf with open shelving above is so practical. The butcher block cabinets add texture and warmth to the space. Windows from three side allow ambient light to enter during the daytime. 

Eyebrow houses get their name from the  construction of the house. The  roof eaves extend out from the body o fhte house a few feet where columns support the weight. Windows on the second floor actually touch the floor allowing light and veneration to enter inside the second floor space. Eyebrow houses vary greatly in physical size as well as how they have been renovated to meet current living requirements. I have never seen two eyebrow houses that are exactly alike. 

This is the master bedroom  which is located on the west side of the house. The bath faces Southard Street while the rear faces the pool. The wide angle lens distorts the room sizes. The second floor landing is located not quite mid-distance between the east and west bedrooms. The master bedroom is the larger.

The back of the house is about the pool - it is the first thing you see because the blue color is so intense opposed ot the red tinted wood deck that wraps the rear. Not seen is the outdoor shower and storage shed on the east side of the house. The back is fences and landscaped. Nobody can see inside. The west There is off street parking for two cars on the west side front.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1121 Southard Street, Key West, Florida offered for sale at $1,295,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 so that I can get you inside this special home. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at preferred Properties Key West.

Imagine All the People

The tree-top bathroom pictured above is located at the end of one the slow lanes in Key West. It once belonged to a famous woman author. Each time I went up here to the turn on lights in preparation for a showing I would imagine all the (famous) people who showered with her in that space. I'm not kidding. 

The Next Suicide

 

A year ago I wrote a blog about a customer of mine who had to endure the suicide of a tenant. It was gruesome. For some people giving up on life is easier than dealing with it. Today's blog is a true story with a better ending.

Some people move to Key West to start of a brand new life. Others come because it is the end of the road. Moving to Key West works out very well for some. And it ends tragically wrong for others. Key West is not the fault. People bring their angles and demons with them to this Isle of Bones.

While some Key West transplants are content with salaried or hourly pay, others aspire to buy a business or to create wealth in real estate. Some have big visions and take moderate to big risks. Some end up very successful. Others do not. A chap I will call "Frank" was a good looking gay man in his early forties. He moved here from a mid-west state and got a real estate license. He paired up in business with another gay realtor I will call "Calvin". They started a real estate company and began selling houses in the mid 2000s when the Key West real estate market was booming. They were successful from the start. Later Frank bought a big fixer-upper in a great location and began to renovate it. Some people think gay men have taste and talent. That is absolutely false. But some gay men have great taste and great talent. Frank was one of those - to a point. He had great vision and undertook a superior renovation project. He overbuilt the house. He ran out of money to complete the project. He tried to sell the unfinished house. The price was too high for the time and location.

Frank borrowed money to purchase his property from Countrywide Mortgage. Countrywide recklessly loaned millions of dollars to home buyers in Key West in the mid 2000s when the real estate market was booming. A lot of houses were renovated and flipped at a nice profit. Countrywide also loaned millions to locals who bought investment properties like the transient licensed condos at Beachside Resort and the four story condos at Seaside Residences. When the real estate market tanked in 2008 many of the investor wannabes became the has-beens. There were foreclosures and short sales everywhere. Frank and Calvin split-up as business partners. Frank did not have enough money to complete his renovation project. He attempted suicide. He failed at that as well. Countrywide collapsed and was acquired by Bank of America which foreclosed on Frank's property. I sold Frank's house the day after it was listed for sale as a bank owned property. My buyer out-bid an offer made by one of Calvin's customers. 

Frank left Key West and went back up north. I don't know what happened to Calvin. He disappeared as well.

1901 S Roosevelt Blvd #103 West, Key West

Take a few seconds to contemplate looking out to the Key West Salt Ponds each morning as the sun rises over Smathers Beach. The newly listed two bedroom / two bath unit was 2012 completely renovated and designed by a renowned interior designer in 2012. It is offered turnkey with McGuire dining and lounge chairs, Baker furniture, Angelo Donghia lighting and furnishings, custom bedding and window treatments and a gorgeous Currey & Co Hedy Turquoise and Jade glass bead chandelier. Donghia was a world famous designer who owned a couple of Key West houses back before Key West was "discovered" including the "Calvin Klein House" and his residence across the street which I blogged about two years ago. CLICK HERE.

How restful is this wake-up view? That bed looks awfully comfy. Glass sliders open out to the deck overlooking the salt ponds to the east. 

 

Another set of glass sliders open out to the salt pond views from the open concept living area where a set on windows in the kitchen bring west light into that space. This is Key West where outdoor views are so important.

The guest bedroom and bath are located opposite the kitchen. A center hall bisects the spaces and leads into the living area. This unit has 1099 sq ft of living space and is offered turnkey at $719,000. Consider that a Shipyard Condominium unit with 780 sq ft is being offered for sale in the $699,000 range. It makes sense to me to take a look at this to compare.

La Brisa Condominiums have a beautiful pool, tennis courts, spa, bar-b-Que area, and off street parking. And  the complex is located across the street from the largest beach in Key West. I dug into my old shoebox and found a photo taken in 1985 which shows La Brisa and 1800 Atlantic Condominiums still under construction. The west building at La Brisa was built in 1996. Key West has changed so much since then. The gardens at La Brisa are now lush. The beach is still sunny and inviting.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1901 S Roosevelt Blvd #103 West, Key West, Florida. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a privater showing of this property. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Twitter House Shaming

 

The pandemic has opened my horizons to so many places I never ventured before. With a click of a button I can find beautiful images on Instagram, stupid people tricks on TikTok, and a lot of interesting stuff on Twitter including a new account I follow Crappy Cheapo Architecture 

Followers can chime in and comment on the author's postings as they did on the house above. I looked at it and thought it looks like Denver where I grew up. The snow was clue number one. There is a tag at bottom right which also says it is from Colorado.

One guy re-posted the pic which he marked-up with his critique:

this house's geometry contains shapes i cannot comprehend from this angle. does anything in the blue area touch or does that tower just poke up for no reason independent of the second porch

Another added: 

Half the time I see these things, it's holding the hvac ducts and/or air handler because there was nowhere else to put it with that screwed up roofline and randomly placed cathedral ceilings all over the house

The best:

I love it! it's like a bad layer cake!

Another property

 

Seriously, you gotta check out the link. Somebody actually paid money to build that thing or buy it.

I have resisted shaming some of the crap I see in Key West. I did post a pic a few months ago. Nobody picked up on it. Maybe I am a snob. Confirmed. I am. 

 

This was added so I must ad it.

724 Windsor Ln, Key West - Open House - Directions

 Open House

Sunday

March 7th

12:00 to 2:00 PM

724 Windsor Lane, Key West

 

Directions from the Key West MLS: "From Simonton Street Go East on Angela, Proceed to Right on Windsor Lane. Located at Corner of Galveston Lane. If you reach the cemetery, turn around. You do not want to go in there."

 

CLICK HERE

 

920 Cornish Lane, Key West - Just Listed

Just Listed but not by me 920 Cornish Lane, Key West. There are not enough superlatives to describe this cute-as-can-be cottage hidden at the end of an Old Town lane. I wrote about the house ten years ago. Now it has a heated pool and off street parking. And if it is possible, it's sweeter now! 

I got to preview the house the day after it was listed for a buyer coming to Key West this weekend. I parked on Grinnell Street and walked down Cornish Lane. I could not believe my eyes. I had not been down the lane in a couple of years. The vegetation on either side of the narrow lane had grown so tall and lush. I met the listing Realtor and a fellow agent who had just toured the property for his customer. I sort of did a spin around the front yard taking in the splendor of the setting. Bougainvillea was blooming, the sky was cloudless, the trees lush and leafy. I stepped up the front porch to take it all in. There was so much to see. That does not happen all that often - stopping to look around the outside before going inside - this was going to be something special.

I remember this house from when years ago when I first started to sell houses in Key West. The location at the end of the lane and a fairly good sized lot intrigued me. The original house had been updated but not all that well. It needed a lot of work. In my then limited experience I could tell this house had a lot of potential. See the black and white photo of the house from1965 and compare it to the porch photo above. It is the same house, the same location, but totally different. This week marks the 35th anniversary of my first trip to Key West. I can't believe how much the island has changed - most of it for the good. Renovations to homes like this and the addition of lush gardens have enhanced this little island I now call home.

I opened the front door into what is now a center hall. An addition was added to the right side of the house. The hall bisects the house with two bedrooms and bath on the left and the living and dining area on the right. The kitchen is at rear. I had to stop again to take in the subtle magnitude of the space. The Dade County Pine walls were "perfect" - not a nail hole or termite trail or fill. Crisp white trim, baseboards, and crown molding punctuate the simple wood walls. The ceiling is painted white. Walls on the right were painted. The agent told me the renovator did a bottom to top renovation of every feature in the house starting with the piers. The house was basically rebuilt on site. The renovator brought salvaged doors and other items from New Orleans to add to the house including the stained glass fitted front door. 

The first of three bedrooms is located just off the front entry. The ceiling is vaulted. A wood ladder leads to a loft that runs fifteen feet or so. That area is air conditioned and it works well. I tested it. There is a full bath located on the other side of the hall. Cypress pocket doors slip into the wall recesses as needed. Cypress shutters are used in both bathroom storage areas.

The master bedroom and bath follow. The bedroom is quite large and unlike the front bedroom has painted walls which soften the area. Both bathrooms have marble baths with inlaid basket weave floors.

The living and dining area span thirty feet or so. Two sets of French doors open out to the rear deck, pool, and garden. Windows on the right bath the living room with soft light from the west garden. The right, rear, and left sides of the house are totally private and unseen by neighboring homes. It's almost like a cottage in the woods except it's not in the woods.

The listing Realtor and I walked into the dining area when she pointed out the curve-shaped Bahama wood ceilings the renovator added to the house. The same ceiling flows into the kitchen which adds height and drama to the space. A big old fashioned farmer's sink sets off the kitchen. Three windows fill the kitchen with daytime light including a small stained glass window at the side. Not visible is a good sized pantry for additional storage. 

The pool and decking were added to the property by the current owner. The pool has built-in seating around the edge. Ipe decking lines the pool and wraps around the small cottage which has an outdoor shower just off the side door. I referenced the property as having three bedrooms. This would be the third or as used now, an artist studio. There is room for a full sized bed. But if you add a bed, you'll probably have a brother-in-law move in.  I checked both sides of the house. Everything is immaculate. I saw no deferred maintenance. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 920 Cornish Lane, Key West offered for sale at $1,369,000. 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. You will really like this house. 

724 Windsor Lane, Key West - Open House

 If you are wanda-ring about on Saturday or Sunday between 12:00 to 2:00 PM stop by the Open House at 724 Windsor Lane. Bring your Vision for a Key Westview of this Old Town cottage. There is off street parking behind the house.

Key West Barberism

 

Key West shoeshine stand in barbershop. Photo from the Library of Congress taken in January 1938 by Arthur Rothstein.

I told this tale before and won't belabor it today. A customer of mine who has a real estate license in another state routinely sought the real estate advice of her Key West hairdresser. This was not just casual conversation as I recall. She is a smart lady and a trusting person. He ended up giving her some bad tips, and I don't mean split-ends or bad dye jobs.