Walking and Gawking in Avondale, Part 1

As I mentioned yesterday, Dave and I went on a tour of historic mansions in North Avondale over the weekend, and now I have lots of fun photos to share with you.

Avondale was one of the earliest, and toniest, suburbs of Cincinnati. In 1886 Willard Glazier wrote about it in his book Peculiarities of American Cities, calling it a beautiful enclave where “the homes of Cincinnati’s merchant princes and millionaires are found…in elegant cottages, tasteful villas and substantial mansions.”

Avondale itself was modeled on an English town concept with large lots, winding streets, sidewalks, underground utilities, and gaslights that still flicker. The leading local architects of the Victorian era were hired to design fashionable homes for many wealthy German-Jewish families, who had been excluded from Cincinnati’s social circles and moved to Avondale to establish their own community there.

Racial unrest in Cincinnati in the 1960s caused many residents to leave the suburb. Some of these mansions sat empty for years or were turned into apartment buildings. But there have since been successful efforts with the North Avondale Neighborhood Association to promote better community relations within this racially integrated community and to restore the homes to their former glory.

The Cincinnati Preservation Association organized the home tour in the Rose Hill area of North Avondale. It was 70 degrees and sunny on Saturday, which was perfect weather for strolling up and down the streets of this lovely neighborhood, taking pictures as we went. Take a walk and gawk with us now.

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there–but especially to mine, who is so wonderful that she won’t even mind that I showed this old picture of us to the world.

For Mother’s Day my husband Handy Dave bought tickets for Cincinnati Preservation Association’s house tour of old mansions in North Avondale, one of the city’s earliest suburbs. What a perfect gift for me! It was so much fun I could hardly stand it. We spent the entire afternoon strolling around the historic tony neighborhood yesterday and took 144 photos of the gorgeous old homes. I can’t wait to show some of them to you later this week. That’ll be my Mother’s Day present to you.

In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful day! You deserve it.

Fantasy Open House: It’s Time to Make an Offer!

Hard to believe our Fantasy Open House tour of Birmingham, Alabama is already over. This town certainly didn’t disappoint. We’ve seen a lot together this week. Some things made us swoon–sunrooms, bluestone terraces, fountains and pools, long brick driveways, fabulous fireplaces, and walls of windows. We’ve also seen some things that made us shudder–dead animals used as decor, wig closets, and wallpaper that could wake the dead.

Now it’s time to vote for the house you’d most like to live in. This is a Fantasy Open House, which means you can pretend all eight are in your price range. It’s more about figuring out which one closest matches your style than which will give the smartest return on your investment.

You can also vote on which one you’d least like to live in, since you all seem to have so many opinions on the matter! To review, here are your choices:

House #1: French Chateau in Birmingham

House #2: Shook Hill Mansion

House #3: Sleek Greek Contemporary

House #4: Southern Traditional

House #5: Homewood Manor

House #6: Rockledge Estate

House #7: Stately Brick Traditional

House #8: Old Leeds Ridge

~~CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN OFFER ON YOUR FAVORITE~~

~~CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR LEAST FAVORITE~~

Thanks to everyone who played along with our Fantasy Open House game this week. The comments you left each day made it so much fun. I can’t wait to see which houses you vote for!

Open House #8: Old Leeds Ridge

This is the final stop on our Birmingham Fantasy Open House tour, and I saved the biggest and most expensive house for last. Welcome to Old Leeds Ridge, a sprawling mansion that sits on 5 acres.

Here’s what the description on the MLS has to say about this home, which is selling for $5.8 million:

Welcome to this stunning 5 bedroom, 5 full baths and two half baths estate home! Combining the finest qualities of two different worlds-the order, symmetry and formality of French and Italian design with the rich ornamentation of the Renaissance-this home extols the remarkable beauty of the Beaux Arts movement.

A formal portico, roof-line balustrades, handmade window surrounds and decorative garlands and shields accentuate the splendor of the tri-partite facade. Solid concrete construction offers permanence to this estate home which combined with the elegance of the interior make for gracious living and extravagant entertaining.

Take a look and see what you think.

Open House #7: Stately Brick Traditional

Welcome to this stately brick traditional home on the market in Birmingham, Alabama, for $2.49 million. It has 4 BR and 6.5 baths and sits on 2.1 acres.

According to the description on the MLS listing:

This incredible home is a Sprott Long Design and was built by Frances Byrant Builders in 1985. It is located on one of the most desired streets in Mountain Brook. The property has a large “L” shaped pool with a beautiful brick patio, fenced back yard, and over one acre of land. Kitchen was remodeled in 2007 with top-end appliances, large island with marble, limestone counters and dark cherry cabinets. Hardwood and brick flooring, high ceilings, crown moulding, and plenty of storage.

Ready to take the tour?

Open House #6: Rockledge Estate

One thing I’ve learned from spending so much time looking at homes in the Birmingham area is that they are building a lot of new ones with all of the character and charm of older homes. There were several that I thought were older homes at first. This one, for example, which is on Rockledge Road in the exclusive Mountain Brook neighborhood, was “recently constructed” per the MLS, even though it looks like it’s been there forever.

According to the MLS, it’s on the market for $2.75 million and sits on 1 acre. It has bluestone porches, a mahogany front door, 10′ ceilings, wrought-iron handrails, copper gutters, travertine floors in the kitchen, and a slate roof.

Let’s start the tour!

Open House #5: Homewood Manor

Welcome to Day 4 of our Fantasy Open House week! You guys are really good at this. I love how you pay such close attention to the details of each house and point things out that I hadn’t noticed before. You don’t miss anything.

I’ve been really amazed by the variety of architectural styles represented in Birmingham homes. This one looks very Old English to me, at least outside.

According to the MLS description, this home is on the market for $2.25 million and sits on an acre:

Bill Ingram design construction started in 1999 finished by present owners in 2002. Layered Stucco with slate roof. Huge Cook’s kitchen with Limestone counters, commercial appliances and beautiful breakfast area. Two walk in pantries, all custom cabinetry. Cedar beams in kitchen. Cedar ceiling in dining room with gorgeous chandelier.

Master suite on main with French doors to terrace and heated pool. Three huge bedrooms upstairs with laundry area and 2 baths. Staircase is iron and brass. Full finished basement with bedroom, bath, laundry and work out room. Also huge storage area. 3 car detached garage with cedar carriage doors and finished office/playroom over garage and a media room in the 3rd floor of the garage. Magnificient view of Red Mtn and Vulcan.

Magnificent view of Vulcan? Does that mean Leonard Nimoy lives next door? (Ha! I’m here all week, folks! Tell your friends!) Seriously, I’m thinking that must be a mountain or something. Someone from B’ham can clue us in. It’s probably some famous landmark and I’m showing my ignorance for not knowing about it.

Open House #4: Southern Traditional

Okay. As promised, I’m going to show you two houses today, tomorrow, and Friday instead of one a day as I had originally planned. Here’s the second one for today (if you didn’t see Open House #3: Sleek Greek Contemporary, be sure to check it out, too).

Take a look at this traditional home on the market for $2.85 million in Birmingham. It has 7 bedrooms and 6.5 baths. According to the agent’s description on the MLS:

Nestled on a beautifully landscaped private wooded lot in the heart of Abingdon. Gorgeous appointments throughout with attention to detail! Ideal for entertaining with beautiful family room that opens to enclosed Bluestone Terrace with pool, fabulous sunroom and large wet bar that opens to both terrace and courtyard with fireplace, gas lighting, and fountain!

Gorgeous new addition with 2nd two-bay garage (4 deep) with dark stained floor and vented for heating and cooling, beautiful sports room with vaulted ceiling. Beautiful banquet-size dining room! Fabulous master bedroom suite that opens to pool. Large media room. Billiard room, exercise room with mirrored wall, and incredible wine cellar!

Let’s start the tour!

Open House #3: Sleek Greek Contemporary

The great thing about having my own blog is that I can do what I want with it, really. I am the boss. I can change the rules in the middle of the game.

The boss has hereby decided that since there are so many interesting homes on the market in Birmingham, we’re going to look at two Open Houses each day instead of one from here on out. In other words, I’m adding three more tours to the original five I had planned.

You’ve all been playing along with the game so well this week that I think you can handle it.

The third home we’re going to look at is a 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath contemporary, described on the MLS as a “spectacular classical Greek” home. Can a house be both classical and contemporary? Judge for yourself!

According to the MLS, the home was built in 1988 and is on the market for $1.49 million. The exterior features genuine, multi-layered stucco and a limestone terrace. The inground pool with spa is surrounded by gardens. And here’s my favorite line: “With your own U.S. Open-grade tennis court, you can enjoy the outdoors and find that exercise can indeed be fun!” Any house that can convince me that exercise is fun is one I should probably buy.

Let’s start the tour!

Open House #2: Shook Hill Mansion

Ready to check out the second home on our Fantasy Open House tour? All week we’re looking at homes worth millions of dollars in Birmingham, Alabama. This is Shook Hill Mansion and it’s on the market for $4.99 million.

According to the MLS Listing, it’s a European-style mansion that sits on over 3 acres. There’s plenty of room to entertain for the weekend because it has 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Other features include 4-story elevator, red tile roof, heated Gunite pool, exquisite moldings, coffered ceilings, and “handsome paneling.”

To top it all off, the home was designed from top to bottom “by famous decorator Andrea Carmichael.” I have to admit I had never heard of famous decorator Andrea Carmichael, so feel free to fill me in if you have. I did find her website if anyone’s interested: Andrea Carmichael Inc.

Okay, now that you’ve read all about it, it’s time to look around.

Open House #1: French Chateau in Birmingham

Are you ready? Got your comfy walking shoes on? Because it’s time for another Fantasy Open House! As promised, this week we’ll be touring homes for sale in Birmingham, Alabama.

Today we’re visiting an elegant home built in 1991 to look like a French Chateau. You already saw its ornate powder room yesterday. According to the MLS listing, this 4 BR, 4.5 BA home is on the market for $2.85 million.

It may look French, but it was built with an interesting mix of materials culled from all over, including a slate roof from an old courthouse in Mississippi, beams from New Orleans, limestone blocks salvaged from an opera house, and a fireplace brought back to the U.S. from Portugal.

Take a look and then decide if it’ll go on your short list of favorites. At the end of the week you’ll choose which of the homes that we toured that you’d want to live in. If you could only buy one, which one would it be?

To start the Open House tour, click “more” below:

French-Chateau Powder Room: Hooked or Hate It?

Here’s a little something to kick off this week’s Fantasy Open House series. So many of you played along last time when we toured homes for sale in Hyde Park, Ohio that I thought we’d do it again. For the next Open House series I’m showing you some amazing properties on the market in Birmingham, Alabama.

This ornate powder room belongs to one of them–a multimillion-dollar home built to look like a French Chateau. Since it’s not your run-of-the-mill half bath, I thought it would be a good candidate for our new game, Hooked or Hate It?

Take a good look. Now tell us what you think. Are you hooked on this look or do you hate it? Or something in between? I added a middle-of-the-road option this time around, per popular request.

THE POLL IS NOW CLOSED. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FINAL RESULTS.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. It’s just a chance to spout your personal opinion and think about whether different styles appeal to you or not. Don’t forget to leave a comment letting us know why you voted the way you did. As you know, reading everyone’s comments is half the fun.

To see the rest of the house that this powder room came from, click here.

If You’re Hooked on Playing Hooked or Hate It:

• Girl’s Room Gone Wild
  
• Pink Kitchen Remodel
• Decorative Textured Ceilings

Delightful Blogs

Hey, guys, just a quick note to let you know Hooked on Houses was accepted on the Delightful Blogs Directory recently. Yay.

If you’re not familiar with DB, it’s a directory of blogs that the editors deem “delightful” on creative topics such as home and garden, design, style, and fashion. It’s basically a way to help people find the good stuff out there on the Internet.

Readers can rate the blogs from 1-10 (1= dud and 10 = delightful), as well as leave comments about them. So far I have no ratings or comments since I just got listed, and my page is looking pretty sad, like I have no friends.

If you like my blog, I hope you’ll hop on over to the Delightful Blogs site and give Hooked on Houses some love (click here). On the other hand, if you don’t particularly care for this site, then forget I said anything . . .

From Bachelorette to Baby: Trista Sutter’s Nursery

Okay, tell me I’m not the only one who watches “The Bachelor” on ABC. I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I tune in every week to see host Chris Harrison announce, “Coming up: our most shocking. Rose ceremony. Ever.”

Whenever a new season begins, I swear I’m giving it up. But then I have to take a quick look to see who the resident crazies in the mansion are this time around, and before I know it, I’ve been sucked in again.

I’ve been watching since the very first season, with Alex as the first (smarmy) bachelor. He tossed Trista Rehn aside at the last minute and broke her heart, so producers cleverly brought her back as the first Bachelorette. Right up until the end, I was sure she was going to pick the other guy. But I always guess them wrong. At the final rose ceremony, Trista chose Ryan Sutter, the sweet and handsome Colorado firefighter who wrote poetry for her.

Trista and Ryan are one of the only happy endings that have lasted long beyond the final credits of the show. I was one of the 20 million viewers who tuned in to watch their pink wedding on TV in 2003. The couple now lives in Vail, Colorado. Last July they had their first baby, a son named Maxwell Alston.

To see his nursery, click “more” below: