Open House #3: Observatory Dr. in Hyde Park
This week at Hooked on Houses we’re looking at houses for sale in the historic Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Ready for the final stop on this week’s Fantasy Open House tour?
Don’t even try to pretend you’re above snooping inside houses. I’m onto you. The last two Open Houses I posted this week have gotten so many hits that my computer is smoking. (If you’re in the minority and truly don’t care to peek inside these places, then you’re on the wrong website anyway, so you can just scoot along.)
This Tudor home, sitting in the same leafy, older neighborhood as the last two we looked at (on Rookwood Drive and Edwards Road), has 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and is on the market for $699,900. Check it out and then vote on whether you want to buy it, sleep on it, or leave it.
Click “more” below for house tour:
Entry:
Living Room:
Dining Room:
Living Room:
Remodeled kitchen with granite countertops:
Breakfast nook:
Family Room:
Bedroom:
Master Bath:
Master bedroom:
Solarium:
Backyard patio:
According to the MLS listing:
Designer owned Tudor w/ 5 bdrms on desirable Hyde Park cul-de-sac street. Newer high-end kitchen, lovely solarium, glorious new patio w/ landscaping, plus recent upgrades throughout. Exceptional!
Now it’s time to decide: Will you vote to buy it, sleep on it, or walk away without remorse? Remember, it’s just a game, so you can pretend it’s in your price range. You can afford it. The neighborhood is solid. Do you want the house or not?
Click on the link below to vote and see how everyone else is leaning. And we’d love it if you left a comment explaining why you voted the way you did. Reading everyone’s comments is half the fun! So come on and dish with us.
CLICK HERE TO VOTE AND SEE RESULTS SO FAR
If you’re hooked on house tours:
- Open House #1: Rookwood Drive
- Open House #2: Edwards Road
- HGTV Green Home ‘08
- The Purple Angel House
- The Spite House in Virginia (only 7 feet wide!).
- Cobble Court, a manor in Ohio built to look like a French-Norman estate.
- Stokesay Court, the estate used in the Keira Knightley film “Atonement.”
- Coco Chanel’s elegant Parisian apartment at 31 Rue Cambon.
- 1908 Mansion for sale in Compton Heights area of St. Louis














The Hooked on House Tours Fall Blog Party kicks off on Friday, October 24. I hope you'll join us for a Fantasy Open House around the blogosphere!
April 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I’d have to pass. Don’t think I’d make it much past the front entrance, really. I dunno, it just seems to lack any personality. Its bland and anemic. The interior looks like just about every new house I see these days. Down in Texas we call it the “Dallas Special” . Assembly line housing. All promise, no punch.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Looking at the outside of the house I was hoping for so much more! It’s… okay. I want that 1/2 a birdcage in the solarium though. Think that conveys? :o)
April 8th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I really liked this house except for the Entry. The entry was very much in keeping with that style of building. I definitely could tell it had been done by a designer (except for the rug in the kitchen breakfast area that didn’t fit) and staged for showing. It needed no work so I said buy it. Although I hope she takes the “prissy”window treatments with her……. LOL
April 8th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I would be moving in if I could afford that price tag. And if I lived in Cinncinati. It could use a little color, but the structure and space were amazing!! LOVE IT!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
it’s a beautiful home…but a bit foofy for my taste…so I’d have to pass because for that price tag I shouldn’t have to remove layers of wallpaper and valances!
April 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I said walk away because it’s just not my style. I don’t really like Tudor- loved the entry way and the unusual front door though.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Hooked on houses - you have one lovely blog here
Thanks for popping by and also for the technorati vote 
April 9th, 2008 at 5:42 am
I would walk away because it would take too much work to get it to our tastes. I loved the outside and was hoping it would have a lot of warmth inside, but I found it to be cold and uninviting.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Is it wrong to reject a house because of an inappropriate wrought-iron banister?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I said sleep on it. I really really liked it, and I’m not a wallpaper fan, but some of it wasn’t bad - the bold pink in the baby’s room was at least intriguing in a small picture like that! The price is right around what I would expect for a house like that. The architecture is beautiful, but it could use some curb appeal help. Personally, even though it’s more work, there’s just something appealing to me about making a house your own, so I would be more inclined to go with yesterday’s fixer-upper Craftsman and really turn it into something wonderful.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I vote sleep on it because although a lot of the architecture is nice, I’m not sure about some of that decor. The living and dining rooms seem a little too artificial for me. All that white. And what’s with the window treatments? Those valances in the living room and kitchen are unique to say the least. Some of the rooms are just fine with me (entry, master bath, family room), but some are so fussy, I would think I’m in a museum of the home of an elderly spinster aunt.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
So I was really charmed by the exterior. I think that the front of that house is so interesting and beautiful. Wow! Then I walked inside and felt very disappointed in the blah-ness. I thought the family room was very cozy and didn’t need much changing, but everything else would need a major personality injection. Also, for that price, the kitchen bones would have to be better for me. I walked away. I will keep dreaming of the front exterior, though, I think that is one of my favorites in a long time!
April 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Love the exterior - thanks for the post!
April 12th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Oh, looks like I need to set aside some time here, you are on a roll girl! I’m coming back to linger…
April 13th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I vote sleep on it. Personally, I would have the walls done
in a different way. Wall paper can be nice, but its a lot of
work. Otherwise that, I really liked the house, it was
beautiful, and felt like a fun home to wake up in.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am
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