I think you are right. I would love to dig into some of those piles of books. Gorgeous house, BTW.

Lovely home! If I were to buy (yeah right) I would not change much except the kitchen, art work and a bit of tweaking in the baths. To me the house and decor has a nice feel to it.

Fantastic home!

Yes -- as suggested above -- maybe the kitchen, bathrooms (except that deep lovely old tub! so good for a soak!)

Very nice! I'd have to redo the kitchen and change the peach color in the stairwell. Otherwise, I really like it!

Architecturally, it's gorgeous. The only thing I would change is to gut the kitchen and paint. Even the bathroom doesn't bother me.

What a wonderful place to live. I don't care what anyone says about peach - its such a feel good color. I love the exterior the most, and the grounds.

Great house! Love the exterior. A little too much peach for me in the interior but a great use of many different colors. Can't be dated when you use the whole palette.

Most of the decor is so traditional. I am not a fan of chintz, but these owners are and it works well. It will never go out of style. I wonder what kind of brain freeze they had in the day they chose that orange carpeting in the stairs.

I've always wanted a house with a butler's pantry. And a butler.

I am imagining the homeowners are at least in their 70s and the house was done once in the 1980s and only a bit of replacement has been done here and there as needed.

If you look, the orange carpet picks up the background of a lot of the persian rugs, which are antique or semi-antique and probably came first.

I think I would only change the kitchen substantially and try to work with most of the colors of the rooms as is, and just do a different type of treatment with a similar mix of furniture. If it were sold furnished I could probably live with mostly everything but the ruffles and more exuberant balloon shades.

Beautiful home! Love the exterior and the scullery cabinetry.

Need to clean my keyboard-- wet from drool.

I love peach/coral, too. LOVE. So warm.

Francypants, re: "can't be dated when you use the whole palette"-- what does that mean? Please explain if you have a chance! :)

Well, if I had the moolah, I'd love to buy this house vs the $ 1.7 m house we stumbled upon on a Sunday Open House drive around here. It was a 10 year old house, about 10,000 sq feet too, with a pool. The oak railing was painted with a gold paint...lots of mafia type of paintings, secret stairwells, creepy stuff. My dh on a whim asked "what's the story" and the realtors sort of stumbled, and my dh said "are they just moving?" They told us "yes, they are moving".....whole thing seemed very very odd. Came home and with a little google research...yeah, the Mr. of the house was moving alright--to PRISON!!! On embezzlement charges! It was just so tacky, lots of nice stone balconies, but that was about it.

Daddy is going away...

My dd2 lives close to that house in Chestnut HIll Pal. I'll tell her to save her pennies.

When you have a beautiful, classic traditional house, and in great shape, trends are unimportant~with this home, it's more about having great taste. It also has a certain charm, which in itself is usually enough to make the sale. If you add good-size rooms and a great floorplan into the equation, that would probably seal the deal. ;o)

I could live there without any changes to the place!

Gracious living never needs staging!

I love Chestnut Hill. I love chintz. I love old white bathrooms. I love peach. *sigh*

amazing!

OH wow ... I normally don't like traditional, but that place has a very "together" feel to it. I could movein tomorrow.

I like the way they matched the staircase walls to the entry rug - a no-apologies peach that doesn't wimp out. And with the orange runner on the stairs.

Is it peach or pumpkin which we see a lot of in the old colonial revolutionary homes here outside of Washington, DC.

I don't want to be one of the HGTV folks who whines and would have to change the kitchen right away. I think the butlers pantry is fabulous. I would want to savor it awhile.

By the looks of the pictures, it is move in ready. Don't know the whole story of the structural testing.

It's a bargain here in VA by a million or so.

And if one does change the kitchen what would you do with it considering the age and period of the home? A simple granite, stainless steel update seems weak.
Any thoughts or pics you would consider.
Yes, and I love the grounds, as hilly as they are. I would think someone in Chestnut Hill might be likely buyer.

Loved seeing it. Thanks

I would be happy with just the doors alone out of that house. Someday when I grow up I'd like to have "real" doors in my home.

Thank you Pal for posting that link. I honestly thought it was Bostonian...old m o n e y...and old family. Unabashedly unapologetic!

I'd have to live there a year and a day before doing anything. Live through all of the Seasons. See how light & shadow falls. Hear how floor boards creak & walls crackle. Feel how the land & house interact.

*Dreamy Sigh* Houses with presence and character...

Yummy, beautiful old house.

The architecture of the house adds to the interiors, of course. But I maintain that anybody with good taste could furnish a typical house in an essentially eclectic fashion without following trends too closely, and achieve the same thing. I think you can tell about when this house was done, because certain colors predominate but I don't think it matters. There isn't a goose with a bonnet to be seen although it's of that period. If they had any they were probably of the stuffed fabric kind, not something so permanent as wallpaper or upholstery.

The other thing is that things were allowed to age. If you look, there are some marks in the wallpaper, and wear to the broadloom rugs and things like that, (one of the window cornices is hanging down, too) but these things weren't immediately removed and replaced with something fresh, (but probably inferior in quality).

It's hard for me to understand how stores such as Pottery Barn and the like can stay in business with beautiful reproduction pieces of furniture like those featured in this home and available in many furniture lines. Does everyone follow trends so extensively they can't venture out on their own and explore what other possibilities are available in furniture, or just settle? Spending big bucks isn't necessary either.

I love the classic traditional style, and it doesn't have to look as formal as it is here if you mix it up a little.

I know everyone has their own taste/style, but it seems the 'copy cat' style is what's popular, with traditional not even in the running. Oh well, when it makes it's return, i'll be ready. ;o)

I think the whole issue is pretty complex.

Most people can't afford to furnish the houses they live in anywhere near to completion let alone with good furniture.
I think this is more of an issue in areas with high real estate prices, but I think the tendency is for people to buy as much square footage as they can, no matter the market, so they are just buying that much more house in an area with lower RE prices.

Then people buy the furniture they need out of necessity and since they can't afford good furniture, they buy furniture that needs to be replaced fairly often and they spin their wheels. Or they buy good pieces so slowly that they don't have anything done at the same time.

The next person who buys this house will most likely not be able to furnish some of it at all, let alone anywhere to this level of completion. At least that's a lot of what I see. And, if you much less house than you can afford, people think you are weird.

The only things I would change would be the kitchen to bring it up to the same level as the rest of the house, and I'd remove those two chintz pillows from the blue sofa.

Such an elegant, classy house and grounds. It makes me happy to look at the pictures.

Except that now I have rug envy!

Such an elegant, classy house and grounds. It makes me happy to look at the pictures.

Except that now I have rug envy!

I'm used to NY prices, so it seems a steal for the asking price. I love the hallways, even the bathroom, which is unpretentious but appealing. I wonder what happened with the kitchen, it seems like it was an afterthought, and not at all in keeping with the rest of the house. The property looks lovely. I'd like to know how much land there is.

The kitchen does not live up to the rest of the home for sure in size, style or grandeur. The books need reducing. They seem to be stacked on any surface close to flat. They used a cohesive color through out--there's that. Unfortunately it is not a color I could live with. I guess I will just have to stay put. LOL.

To even suggest that this house be "staged" would be like asking Catherine Deneuve at the hight of her career to get a "makeover" before a photo shoot!

More modest houses with less lovely things in them may benefit from a pro's suggestions for paint colors, accessorizing, furniture arrangement, removal, and substitution, but this house and its decor are anything but typical. It's a gorgeous, extraordinary house, from stem to stern, inside and out! The owners indeed have impeccable taste, and have made the most of every square inch of their property.

Depending on where this house is in Chestnut Hill, that may have something to do with the relative price. Most of CH is very nice, but it could be close to something commercial or institutional. Some of the very large houses are no longer residential.

As for the kitchen, they are probably of a generation that considered the kitchen a more utilitarian room. As the house has 10,000 square feet, they probably have help, which may include someone who comes in and cooks at least the main meal. I looked at a house (not one that I could afford),that had a strictly service kitchen in the basement underneath the dining room, it was possible that the owners no longer had much staff, but if they were using the kitchen themselves they left it as it was.

I love Chestnut Hill. I used to drive through when I came back to my center city Alden Park apartment from visiting my family in Bucks County. It was circuitous but pretty.

One of my favorite streets is near there, Wellesley between Emlen and I think Lincoln? It is not fancy and in fact, at least when I was last there, run down. But the line of of little cottage each with the large sunporch always seemed magical to me. Not sure if this link captures it. Do you know the area, Pal? Some great architecture.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wellesley Street and Emlen, Philadelphia, PA 19119

i meant to say center city OR Alden Park (which is in Germantown)

sorry, that didnt seem to work

on google maps if you type in 334 Wellesley, Philadelphia 19119, and move the little man onto the street, you see both sides of this pretty streetscape

I had great-aunts and -uncles who lived in Alden Park when it was relatively new. I also had a great-aunt who lived in CH proper in a house that had something like 25 rooms, and I try out on occasion to find out if it is still residential. Typical of a lot of Philadelphia though, all but the real core of any neighborhood can often be a mixed bag. This isn't a Bad thing, in my mind, but how much crime is in the mix and how good the infrastructure is nearby are factors.

A few months ago, I think my mother's actual house was for sale (she only lived there 'til she was 7...) and it was in great condition and it was Cheap. If you went in one direction the street got better and then you were in CH proper (this was GT or one of the Mt Airy's depending on what map you looked at). But drive on the street map a short distance in the other direction and there were abandoned cars. And no convenience stores or grocery stores for quite a ways.

Really? That's neat. Alden Park was a wonderful place to live. The rooms were so large, and such great detailing. It was a pretty dicey neigborhood though when we rented there.

Did you go see your Mom's old house when it was for sale?

I think I developed my love of houses driving in that area, CH, Lincoln Drive.

See if you can see that charming street on Google Maps.

I didn't. Her house was a large Colonial Revival twin, probably new when they lived in it (mid-twenties-early-thirties) and very Utilitarian. It had nice detailing by today's standards but was clearly built as a solid house for a large family (10+ the occasional elderly relative by the time they moved). A portion of my grandmother's and grandfather's siblings never owned, they rented apartments and had houses or apartments "down the shore" --and the older relatives moved from one family to the next, in turn.

That is a nice street. One of my instructors at Penn lived on that street, I remember the name.

"down the shore"

No one gets that in CT!

Really, that's funny!

I'm actually off to Bucks Cty right now to visit family. I will wave your way~