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jonnyp_gw

Circa 1912 Colonial

jonnyp
12 years ago

Just 8 miles from downtown Boston and the price is right

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/slideshow/houseandhome/30360376/detail.html

Comments (10)

  • jakabedy
    12 years ago

    This forum isn't to be used for advertising. Please see the forum rules.

  • columbusguy1
    12 years ago

    Besides advertising, what a hideous misuse of the term colonial! But what do you expect from a realtor?
    More A&C than colonial, or even some Mission/Prairie elements. And I just have to say, that kitchen is horrible.
    I didn't catch the price, but you would have to pay ME to live in it.

  • renovator8
    12 years ago

    1.84 million

  • vjrnts
    12 years ago

    Wow, tough room! Advertising is forbidden here, and that isn't a colonial, that's quite right, and I think the real estate agent might have corralled a different class of buyer by advertising "Arts and Crafts" but otherwise, I think it's a lovely house. Kitchens (and to a much lesser extent, baths) are one place where I'll cut a lot of slack in modernizing. I admire people who restore their kitchens to their original form and do well in 2012 with a hundred-year-old kitchen, but most of us want the mod cons and I think that's forgiveable. (Although putting a chrome and concrete contemporary kitchen in a 1924 colonial revivial is a move I will never understand or condone. You want concrete and chrome? Buy a midcentury modern, or build, or something!) A house is, after all, a home, not a museum. (Although another of my peeves is "opening up" the small kitchens of the early 20th century for an "open floor plan." Again, if you want a contemporary house, don't buy an old house.)

    OK, rambling now. But I'd live in that house, and I'd probably love it.

  • renovator8
    12 years ago

    In that part of Winchester it will be sold in a week. Too bad they cut down all the trees.

  • chibimimi
    12 years ago

    Columbusguy, I lived someplace where any house with two stories and a center hall was labeled a colonial ... and sometimes even if it didn't have a center hall!

    I've also lived someplace else where any house with one story was labeled a "rancher" ... sometimes even if it had a second story!

    I think some agents use any term they think will attract potential buyers.

  • renovator8
    12 years ago

    This house may have some Arts & Crafts/Craftsman and Prairie influences but the main massing is characteristic of the most popular style of that time in the Boston area: Colonial Revival. To be a stronger candidate for that classification it would need more classical detailing but no Boston realtor would dare label a house Arts & Crafts or Prairie especially in this price range because these styles never became popular in the Northeast.

    jonnyp is not a spammer but a regular contributor from the Boston area who apparently thought we would be interested in this house. I think there is much to like about it but the color should have been left khaki instead of yellow and I wonder how much of the low roofed front element is original.

  • jonnyp
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks Renovator8. What's funny is I don't recognize the complainers. If that house was in Salem you wouldn't see it advertised as such.

  • columbusguy1
    12 years ago

    I stand by my comments on the kitchen of that house--and though I have kept my house close to its original state (because so much of it was intact), it is NOT a museum. I was lucky to find my original cabinet doors in the garage, and knew enough carpentry to build my own frames for them.
    My philosophy is that a house should be respected for what it is, and not be made into something it is not, and cannot, be made into. People with far more money than I, have done huge renovations and remodels to old houses--and what do they have when done? A slick, glossy magazine shot which has lost the true character and feel of the original house.
    And mod cons? They are primarily meant to save time--or so they say--but they take more effort to clean than doing things more simply, and what do you then do with this 'saved' time? Generally work rather than use it for family or leisure.
    I grew up in the late 60s, so I am used to not having every push-button gimmick which seems vital today, but my food tastes as good, and is done as quickly, and my dishes get done without a dishwasher--all part of the 'clean as you go' methods I picked up as a kid.
    Some might think that kitchen looked close enough, but it just took current trends and lumped them all together, rather than a just as easy attempt at accuracy. Upper cabinets with glass doors--the muntins were too fat, and there was still a toe-kick, which was a later innovation which made cleaning more difficult.

  • renovator8
    12 years ago

    Who in their right mind would want to live with a 1910 kitchen? Mine was from 1891 and it had a hatch for ice delivery and a huge soapstone sink low enough to cause serious back damage. You should be more generous about how you think others should live. And since when did the habits of realtors become relevant to the architecture of houses? I am grateful to the developer for saving this house from the wrecking ball.