Four Houses, Four Brief Comments

Perfect storm: Thanks to Anne I visited four open houses: $236, $308, $265, $225 a square foot.

The Aronstam House by Pringle and Smith 1928 has glorious bathrooms.


Anne Powers (left) and I grew up High Point, NC. She's now an agent for Beacham and Company.


1310 Ponce de Leon Adair Park Condominiums $850,000
This is one of Anne's, a townhouse house I'd driven by for years. In 2000 the developer re-purposed two Druid Hills Mansions into condos and added a few more. Menefee+Winer Architects now Make3 designed the project. Condo 1310 was almost 4,000 square feet and it felt great. I think this is a great adaptive use for when might otherwise be white elephant properties. I'll blog this some more. Here is the Plat for Adair Park if you are interested is that sort of thing. 


834 Lullwater Road $1,850,000
This is the Aronstam House by Pringle and Smith 1928 or 1924. I blogged it before. It's a 6,000 square feet hilltop Lullwater mansion that hasn't been messed with. It's livable today but it needs TLC, a buyer in love, and about about $500,000 to make it right.


How wonderful to see a nearly empty, unstaged house with wallpaper! Thanks to Doris Robinson for showing it to me.


1150 Cumberland $929,000
It sold before it was finished but they held the open house anyway thanks to Jim Getzinger. I call this a poptop, a major renovation by John Willis Custom Homes. It's notable that its big (3500 square feet), effectively brand new, and totally in keeping with it's neighbors, all built in the early 1930's. I think John Willis pops tops and gets them sold as well as anybody around here.


1325 Edmund Park $450,000
Edmund Park contains 86 homes each on less than 1/10 acre, shoulder to shoulder built out in 2001. They are about 2000 square of clever design with wide open living areas. Each home had a unique street-side design, a little museum of styles, very picturesque. The porch side faces busy, noisy Rock Springs. The front door and garage is on the alley behind. Urbanists might be proud.

Architecture tourists visit open houses for entertainment.

The Foyer on Inman Circle

I made a plan: Win the lottery, buy it, move in by Thanksgiving, invite the extended family over for a long Christmas holiday.

I don't get to do this. Jim Getzinger invited me to caravan 15 Inman Circle in Atlanta's Ansley Park today. It's a 1904'er on 1/3 acre. If you aren't from Atlanta: This is as good as it gets this close to the city. It's a block from the High Museum and more.

They don't know who designed it. Ward Seymour & Associates "did a down to the studs renovation with the highest level of finishes revealing an authentic period total restoration."



Then Kemp Mooney added an indoor pool outback, (understatement).

It's livable and lived in, neither stuffy, nor precious. It looks like 1904, gently nudged and tweaked for modern living. We'll still love it in 2104.

The foyer alone was enough for me. It is three stories tall and a show off.

But it dosn't say, "Look how tall I am you puny human."

It says, "I'm here to make you feel important."


Here's the front door from the inside.


There's a Greek temple up there. The entablature atop the columns is massive, to my eyes just the right size for the space and the house. It "feels" like it's safely supporting the house. Was it like this in 1904?


From the balcony, you can see 3 stories of stained glass windows that bring light into the center of the house. The entablature becomes the massive cornice. (I welcome corrections on these architecture terms.)


This is the window that's way up there. Is the one white circle a repair?


The background and sunlight provide the color in the lower windows. You can kind-of see out.


Beautiful no?

A 10 second tour:


Here's what you do when you walk in.

One more thing.


A shower stool really warms up the tile.