Lock Him Up!

Six months have passed since Hurricane Irma whipped through the Lower Florida Keys. I live in Key West where most of the damage here was done to our huge old trees and with little damage or no damage to most of our homes.

Some of the people I know that live outside of Key West did not fare as well. This is a truc story of one such couple. I know a lady, husband, and their new born child who live a few miles  outside of Key West. They decided not to evacuate but to remain in the Keys for personal reasons.

After the storm passed they returned to their badly damaged home and found a stranger moving about inside. The lady got out her gun and told the culprit to "Stick 'em up!"  He complied. Her husband found some rope and hogtied the would-be thief.  The lady called the Monroe County Sheriff to report the capture of the burglar.  The voice from the Sheriff's Office said we are not open or words to that affect.

The couple were bound to not let their quarry go free. So they loaded the varmint into the back of their pickup truck and took him to the Monroe County substation on Cudjoe Key.  They removed the thief and placed him at the front door of the Sheriff's office. 

 I don't know what happened to the guy after that. I hope the Sheriff locked him up and saved him until the courts reopened where a judge may have put him away for a few days.  The fact that he didn't take anything is no reason to set him free. His intent to steal from people whose home was damaged in the storm can be inferred from his location inside the house during the daytime.

1015 Elgin Lane, Key West

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 2018 is facing the opposite 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 2018, the wall behind the shutters is solid.

The master bedroom is fairly large and has a large en-suite bath. There is a guest bath located adjacent. The living room and dining room, entry foyer, and kitchen are located in the Elgin Lane portion of the home.

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 immensely when the doors are opened to the great outdoors.

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.

There are two good sized bedrooms on the second floor which share a bath. 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.

"Because Elgin produced so many watches and produced so many spare parts, they can still be easily bought and fixed, so even a 100 year old Elgin can be used, with care, on a daily basis. While mechanical watches can't compete with quartz watches for accuracy, there is something about having a watch that ticks that a quartz watch just can't replace."

The Elgin Watch Collectors Site

I think the same can be said about old houses like this one. 


CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and more photos of 1015 Elgin Lane. 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. I think any buyer will be awed by this beautiful home.

The Key West House I Did Not Sell

I made my first trip to Key West as a visitor thirty-four years ago this month. I have written in my blog about that life changing trip several times over the years and won't bore readers to tell that tale again.  I fell deeply in love with Key West and decided to make this my home. It took a few years, but I made it happen. During the time of the first trip and my move to Key West, I stayed at several different guest houses. Those experiences taught me how difficult it must be for a home owner to lived next to or even near to a guest house.

(The business card above is from years ago and is not the guest house or the location I am writing about today. Besides, most places in Key West now have hot and cold running water.)

I found a particular guest house I really liked and stayed there on almost every trip I made to Key West. The guest house eventually grew from nine rooms to over forty rooms. The owner  purchased adjacent apartment buildings and a couple of single family houses which he illegally rented nightly. He paid the state bed tax and got away with it.

Several years ago a fixer-upper house located very near my favorite guest house was listed for sale. I wrote about that property in my blog and showed it to prospective buyers. It was purchased by couple from New York who had renovated other properties before. They did a total renovation on this well located house for which they were awarded a ceramic star. They sold the place a year or so later and moved on to a new project.

I showed their renovated property to several potential buyers. One couple really liked it. We looked at the place at least twice and maybe three times. They were considering making an offer. I suggested they check out the house at different times of the day and night. I sensed something was not right but did not want to sabotage a sale in the event I was wrong. They ultimately decided not to make an offer and later bought a home through me in a totally different part of town.

Some other buyer bought this particular place. And another bought it a couple of years later. And another someone else bought it. Three different buyers bought the place in a seven year period after it was renovated.

Last week I saw the photo at the top of today's blog on the internet. The photo shows a DJ spinning records at my favorite old guest house where college kids were enjoying spring break.

The real estate axiom "location", "location", "location" is so true. I am so happy I did not sell the single family with the problematic location adjacent to a sprawling forty unit guest house complex to my customer. They would be listening to the music along with the spring breakers and probably the rest of the year as well.

412 Grinnell Street, Key West - Historic Eyebrow House Now Offered For Sale

Just Listed 412 Grinnell Street in Key West. I fell in love with this house the first time I stepped inside nearly two decades ago. I believe this was the first eyebrow house I got to see from the inside. The house was deliciously enchanting. That owner (Richard Sheldon) had renovated the  original house, built a new living room and kitchen addition, and added a pool. The home has changed ownership three times since then. The current owners purchased the house through me in 2012 and undertook a thorough renovation and small expansion of the property for which they were awarded the 2015 Historic Florida Keys Ceramic Star for excellence for preservation, restoration, rehabilitation and new construction. Now 412 Grinnell Street is offered for sale. The current owners feel the need to be near their toddler granddaughter and her soon to be sibling and for this reason this home is now offered for sale. 

Eyebrow houses are particularly unique to Key West. They are two story homes which vary in height, width, and size. These houses get the name "eyebrow" because the second floor windows are sheltered by the front roof eave which extends out over the house and supported by columns or posts.  Before electric fans and later air conditioning, shade and natural air flow cooled homes. The windows of an eyebrow house can be left open during rain storms which allows air to flow to cool the rooms.  412 Grinnell Street is one of the larger such homes on the island.

This home was built in the 1880s. It looks so cute and sweet from the outside. Then when you step inside you know the place is going to be even better than you imagined. Your eyes are immediately drawn past the entry hall and through the living room out to the pool. And what pool it is - a 30' X 10' pool and  a 6' X 6' spa. The rear side has a tall privacy fence with native trees and tropical foliage that has grown to adult height.  Later you will learn there are no neighbors to the immediate rear which is Fletchers Lane - a walking lane accessed off Eaton Street, about 100 feet to the north.

The owners did a bundle of projects during the renovation including replacing the metal roof; replacing piers where required; and installing heart pine floors (aged 200 to 500 years) which look absolutely perfect. All floors on both levels are flat and flawless. All of the HVAC is new.  The owner updated all of the interior spaces, renovated all bathrooms, added wind impact resistant windows and doors where permissible. Every town has a go-to local custom cabinet maker. Hansen & Bringle is that company in Key West. They installed new custom cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms and wainscoting in living and dining rooms.

The kitchen, while relatively recently new, was still renovated. An all too large bank of windows was removed and replaced with a single new window which permitted the installation of upper cabinets. The laundry closet became a pantry and the washer and dryer were placed under the kitchen peninsula. New SubZero, Wolf, and Miele appliances were added as were new granite counter-tops. One of the best features is the kitchen door which opens out to a little porch where there is an herb garden. The porch leads down to the brick paved driveway with electrically opening gate.

The owners took down the original guest cottage and built an entirely new 23' X 12' guest house. It is located in a separate building just off the covered rear deck. That deck will probably be the most used space in the house besides the bedroom. The guest cottage has a cathedral ceiling punctuated by a round impact glass window near the top of the gable, natural travertine marble floors, and a wet bar with under counter refrigerator. It has a full bath. This cottage and bath mean the entire home has four or five bedrooms (explained below) each with bath. The owner thinks the guest cottage could be used as a master suite.

The guest cottage is located next to the pool which has a gate that opens out to Fletchers Lane. Guests can return from a night out in Key West without disturbing the folks in the main house. The newly resurfaced and revamped pool includes a salt water filtration system, LED light show, and remote control programing. Travertine marble coping surrounds the pool and spa. All new Azec decks were installed including the covered rear lanai. The gardens were replanted with native foliage. The owners added an irrigation system to supplement Mother Nature.

Depending on your need, the main house has either four bedrooms and four baths or three bedrooms and a study.  The study or fourth bedroom is located at the right front of the home. It has two stained glass doors and panels. Everybody who sees it goes "Ooh and Aah". This space would inspire any would-be writer, artist, or thinker of great thoughts, or a grandmother who knits booties (do they still do that?) or a grandfather who smokes a pipe (do they still do that, either?). The room has a half bath that is illuminated by a Swarovski  crystal chandelier. The owners had a new stained glass window made with the house numerals which was place in the transom over the front door. The ceramic star is placed above the transom. Passersby at night admire the colors emanating from this room.

The owners use the main floor bedroom as their master. It is located at the front of the house opposite the study/bedroom. About half of the main floor Dade County Pine walls are natural and the remaining walls are painted. The master bedroom has Dade Pine and has a fairly good sized en-suite bath with large shower complete a marine porthole where you can look out to see tropical foliage and that can be opened for ventilation. I guarantee you will have a smile on your face every day if you use this shower and that's not a bad way to start your day any day.

There are two more bedrooms on the second floor. Notice the windows near floor level and look out to the street. You will then understand the eyebrow concept. The heart pine floors are gorgeous. Each bedroom has a brand new en-suite bath with shower. The rooms are not big, nor are they small. They are how people lived one hundred twenty five years ago except these rooms are air conditioned, have electricity, and have bathrooms.

CLICK HERE for a 3D Tour of the Main House and CLICK HERE for a 3D Tour of the Guest Cottage.

The owner traced the history of this home back to the beginning of the island. Every detail of  this old house has been committed to writing and detailed so that future generations may share in the history of this home. I think any potential buyer will appreciate the care that has been given not only to the preservation of the structure but also of the history of the house which the owners call "La Casa Ceja", The Eyebrow House. CLICK HERE to view an album of photos of this beautiful Old Town treasure that has been carefully and thoughtfully restored and made better than ever before. You won't have to do a thing except enjoy your home and make reservations for dinner.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on 412 Grinnell Street offered at $1,999,000. The please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am the listing agent on this very special property. You won't find anything comparable at this price. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.