Thanks, I may look at it since there is an open house. It's a bit out of budget. The updated Prufoxroach site is really buggy.

Is anyone else seeing the print of these links outside of the GW white area?

Not only the links, but Kevin's text, too. Odd!

Here's the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: House for sale

Beautiful. I love the courtyard.

You could be neighbors! Share cups of sugar! Do each others hair on Friday nights...oh, ok, maybe that's going too far.

The house age is listed as 999 years. I know it's old, but not that old!

It is just so adorable. I would love to live there. That is one of the best parts of the city, except for the parking. You could almost get along without a car in that location.

The first floor layout seems similar to your house.

We do get along without a car. I have been here 20 years without one, and I work one day a week in the suburbs. It's not hard, really.

Oooh, get it get it get it!

Ahem.

Even though it's in a countercyclical boomlet, Philly real estate still seems to offer some good values. In a nice urban walkable area, that place would be double the price in Boston.

If I were younger, I would love that! It is a wonderful location in the city and those floors! The courtyard is such a plus, too.

The courtyard is nice. I thought mine was huge at 15' square, but this one is ridiculous.

The guy to the left is a pastor at the church around the corner (the house is owned by the church, I believe), and the house to the right is a young woman who works in academia, so good neighbors on either side. The prior owners were (older) lawyers who just moved on up to Delancey St.

I know it also was freshly painted and has a new roof, so there really shouldn't be anything that has to be done right away (if at all depending on how you feel about that 3rd floor bathroom). It also has a non-spiral staircase, which is also rare. That side of the block has the good stairs but most of them to the right share a communal garden (i.e., wall-less), so this is much better than the others. And it has all of the original mortise and tenon doors on the closets, which is hard to believe. The number of working fireplaces is also insane. I really cannot believe that some of them weren't covered up in years past. If only I had the wall space to uncover the fireplace in my canopy room, I would.

I may see you there because I want to snoop on Sunday to see if the square footage is accurate.

This post was edited by KevinMP on Wed, Apr 3, 13 at 19:59

I know nothing about the issues with owning these sorts of houses, but the pictures certainly show a charming, character-filled interior.

I could be wrong, but the decks to me look like they need some work done to them. that said , I do like the house.

How nice! I just had a brief fantasy of living there with DH and the dog.

Beth p

Philly real estate is chronically reasonable. As a Pennsylvanian who grew up in Bucks County, went to school and grad school in Phila, and had my first apt (10th and Pine) and first job (5th and Walnut) there, I can say it baffles me a bit. I don't know any city of a comparable size with comparable institutions that is that low cost. An actual house with a yard in a nice part of a city, for under 1mn?

I'm not sure if I'm more drawn to the actual house or my single memories of living there. It's a cutie!

Lovely house, looks to be in great shape. The price is amazing. "Chronically reasonable," lol. Not the case in my city I'm afraid.

That price seems low - it's a lovely home- certainly there must be something wrong with it. Post back and let us know. With 3 kids living in the city now I find myself drawn to selling my suburban home and joining them. However DH would insist on a garage which certainly limits the selection and raises the price considerably.

Maire, from what I know there's nothing wrong with the house at all. They just need to sell it because they tried to rent it for $2800 per month and couldn't find a renter that wasn't a group of med students to do it and they had to move out into their new place on Delancey. The house next to it sold for $575K last year, I believe, but this one is more preserved and original and has a much bigger yard. The price seems fair, but I still question the square footage unless they're including the allegedly finished basement.

I have a car (although I don't really need one), and I just park on the street for $35 per year, but you can get a spot in a garage around the corner for $165-200 per month. It's easy.

That courtyard is just wonderful.

I think the price is about right for the size and the age combined with the location. These houses live very small because of the doorways and as Kevin said, the square footage includes the floorspace in that room under the eaves that contains lots of unusable volume.

We looked at a house that was of the same age but quite a bit larger, and it was still plagued by 22" wide doors (couldn't be widened because they were next to and between flues) head banging headers in the stairwells and things such as that. We noticed that most of the furniture upstairs was IKEA because the only things that would fit without removing a window were things that could be assembled in the rooms. I really didn't want to furnish a 200 year old house in IKEA.

Pal, you shouldn't have those problems here. Everything should be able to get upstairs through the door to the rear, 2nd floor deck (three options: carry to the patio through the house and lift, pass over the brick wall from Iseminger St. and onto the patio, or there's a small, locked alley that accesses the property from Iseminger). And you should really be able to get almost everything up the steps since it's a fairly traditional staircase.

ugh! but, $35 doesn't include the cost of the tylenol needed to treat your headache which develops when trying to find street parking?? do you use your car much?

Since the courtyard extends to the street behind, could you not do a curb cut and add a parking space or even a garage?

I don't think the city would let you do that (not that you'd even want to since you don't have or need a car). The "street" behind it is the width of a carriage and the street to get to it is cobblestone and the same width. They're not meant to be driven on (and aren't easy to turn from, although that doesn't stop people from doing it.

No car for 20 years here so that's not a problem. Getting a curb cut is almost impossible in Center City. Now, I think you have to build providing parking--which doesn't improve the way the houses look, generally.

I'm Canadian and I have never seen a home like this (or like your own gorgeous home Kevin).

I gasped when I saw the price though - about twice the price of the best in my neighbourhood (although on the plus side, my lot is 54 feet by 140 feet).

Anyway, just wanted to thank you for posting pics of beautiful traditional homes.

"..Philly real estate is chronically reasonable. As a Pennsylvanian who grew up in Bucks County, went to school and grad school in Phila, and had my first apt (10th and Pine) and first job (5th and Walnut)..."

Really?
that just gives us the funds needed to purchase our $2 million +++ shore house in Ocean City or Stone Harbor, NJ.

Great house, Kevin. From the photos, I don't think it's overpriced.

I think I saw a couple writing up an offer yesterday outside but I could be wrong. It's still worth checking out on Sunday at the open house. I doubt the owners would accept an offer before then.

Kevin or Pal, did you go to the open house today? What did you think?

I went. Pal, if you went, too, I'm sure you saw me stripping and sanding a door on the sidewalk across the street.

My impression is that the second and third floors felt small, and the patio, while large, didn't seem all that much larger than what I have even though it is. The first floor is nice, and I loved the basement. There is exposed stone and brick in the basement, a ceramic tile floor, laundry room with toilet and sink, built ins, and an original fireplace that's been converted to gas. It's a great space, and I think that's the reason the square footage is higher than you'd expect. No offer was made on Friday as I had thought.

I went ( I saw the door leaning on your sidewalk). I like the house and I actually liked it pretty much, especially the yard, which went through to the other street. Quirky and full of character.

We also looked at Charles Peterson's house on 3rd and Spruce, that was just rehabbed again. It wasn't too bad. They punched the ceiling full of recessed cans (so many the house was hot inside) and the original floors look like they were coated with epoxy, they are so shiny. A 2013-style master bath that will be hopelessly out of fashion by next week. A couple plastic ceiling medallions where a few hundred more dollars, (in a $2M house) would have put up the real thing.

All in all, not too disappointing, comparatively.

This post was edited by palimpsest on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 19:34

You should've stopped by to say hi. The house is really great, and it has a ton of storage space, and you really cannot beat being able to have a fire in nearly every room of the house (even if it is gas). Good luck if you're interested enough to bid.

This post was edited by KevinMP on Mon, Apr 8, 13 at 8:23