Want a lodge with a view? http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-170037143-1570_Virginia_Way_La_Jolla_CA_92037 This fascinating house looks like it belongs somewhere in Monterey rather than La Jolla. So many details of interest! Of course the deerheads stand out - also amazing DR chandelier. Love the airport scene from Casablanca on the bedroom tv.
Clearly a lot of tlc needed for this house! And that’s without seeing the kitchen. Oh - Zillow shows a corner of the kitchen with beautiful wood cabinetry and only the ancient dishwasher. Looks like they’ve been trying to sell it for close to two years.
@BunsenBurner , I remember reading (back when we were remodeling about 8years ago) that a Wolf range was like having Julia Child in your kitchen, and a Bertazzoni was like having Giadda DeLaurentis in your kitchen.
For $20mil I would want a pool, and I would want servants quarters. I would also want gardens and a library. I would not want my kitchen open to my living room. beautiful house in many ways, though.
I looked at the lodge. It is an extremely valuable piece of land but I’m trying to wrap my head around how dark it probably is in real life. I’m sure a lot of money was spent on the wood craftsmanship but it’s going to be a hard sell.
The lodge… so much wood, it could be crawling with termites. And the dead animal heads are usually listed right up there with cigarette smoke as a sure-fire way to turn off a large portion of the buyers. Sure, it is a lodge, but there are plenty of lodges without dead deer staring at you from above the fireplace.
That lodge looks all isolated and woodsy, then you look at the map and realize it’s right next to a major 4 lane road.
I wonder if the furniture is included? Some of those pieces look antique and are probably worth some money. Of course many of them probably smell like musty old great-grandma. And the carpets… omg those are disgusting.
I normally don’t like painting wood, but I think I would make an exception. White ceilings would open the place up and look pretty dramatic.
The listing says the kitchen is 13x10, it probably hasn’t been updated since the house was built in 1915, which is why there’s no picture. It’s hard to get a sense of the floor plan to see if it can be expanded.
I actually love the lodge. The pictures on Zillow are much better. The kitchen looks rather beautiful, from the one photo included. The furnishing is an overwrought version of that particular style, IMHO, although there is a lot of very nice furniture. They have crammed too many pieces into every room, and the artifact/knicknack/collection display is over the top.
It would be interesting to know why they decided to carpet the entire first floor in what looks like seagrass. I bet that the original wood floor with some richly colored area rugs plus removing 50% of the displays and at least 25% of the furniture would look better.
@notrichenough , I think you are mistaken in supposing that this is “musty old grandma” furnishing. Those upholstered items are not of that vintage.
I know where the beach house is by Marine Street and also the lodge although I have never been in either of them! Thanks for posting the links @Marilyn.
Very interesting on that flip. It doesn’t look ‘terrible’ inside. That is a significant price drop. Almost $200k from original asking price. Their pricing was WAY OFF!!!
@notrichenough what do you think the reason is that it is not selling? Is your market extremely seasonal? Is the style wrong for the neighborhood and the target buyers?
That house came to market in July, which is prime buying time. I think it was way over-priced to start with.
It was originally a two-unit building, and it still shows its roots by the fact that the second floor bedrooms are not connected - to get from one to the other you have to walk downstairs and across the house and go back up the steps. This is a terrible layout for families with kids.
The flippers opened up the bottom floor, but now it looks like one giant space. I think it’s hard to imagine how you are going to furnish it or divide up the space.
The walkway out to the river used to have a platform off the end, and it was removed. This makes it hard/impossible to launch a kayak (not sure the river is deep enough for anything else) from there. Given the way the conservation rules are, once it’s removed it probably won’t be allowed to be put back. So that’s a huge drawback.
River frontage is not as desirable as lake or salt-water frontage, so you can’t get the same water premium for this property.
All this adds up to not having a chance someone will pay that steep a price for a refresh.
It’s in a nice area though - it looks nice and secluded from the back, and across the river is a large area of wetlands which can never be developed, so you will never lose the views. Within a 5 or 10 minute walk there’s a food mark, a liquor store, a donut shop, two ice cream places, some restaurants, a bank, a bunch of stores, etc. So it’s in a pretty walkable area.
The last price I saw before it was re-listed was $649K, so it looks like they came to their senses. I think it will sell for around this price.
The stairs to the basement look a little strange - it’s two steps down to a landing, makes a left turn, goes down 6 steps to another landing, makes another left turn, and goes down two final steps to the basement. So between the circular stairway and the basement stairs is a drop that is three steps high, with no railing. Yes I have almost walked off it multiple times. Now I keep something there to block it off.
The bathrooms are tiny - 5’ x 8’ and 6’4" x 8’. And the kitchen is tiny and claustrophobic - about 8’6" x 11’6".
We are thinking of straightening the basement stairs so that entire kitchen wall can be removed. The circular stairs are coming out so we need some other way to get to the balcony. We are putting the atrium in play to enclose some or all of it, to provide room for bigger bathrooms, maybe some closets.
All you wanna-bee architects, take a look and let me know your ideas!
