I'm Taking You With Me....

.....on a home tour!

I'm going to show you the house that has this staircase.  Isn't that woodwork too, too pretty?

While I was staying with my parents this summer, in beautiful Cache Valley, Utah, the Bionic Man told me I needed to check out some real estate.  Not that we're moving, or anything.  But eventually, someday--most likely when we retire--we'd like to live in Cache Valley.  So we occasionally think about purchasing property there, as an investment.  This wasn't actually the piece of property I was assigned to go see.  But when I saw it was for sale, I had to go take a look.

How could I resist?

This house sits on one of my very most favorite streets in Logan, Utah.  Known simply as "The Boulevard," this street begins just a block from the historic end of Main Street, and winds gracefully up a hillside until it joins the busy University Hill/400 North.  There are only houses on one side of the street, as the hill is so steep on the other side.  All the homes are vintagey and have fantastic architecture.  Along with the beautiful homes that line one side of The Boulevard, there is also the historic Logan Temple, where the Bionic Man and I were married!  Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to live on this street.  And I've wanted to get inside one of the houses on this street. .

Here are a few shots of the exteriors.  This one is taken from across the street.

The front entry.

I've always called this house the Leave it to Beaver House.  Doesn't it remind you of the Cleavers?

Here's a more detailed look at that rock work.  Feel free to ignore the desperately awful roof, like I did.

Don't you love that?  Painted white brick and stone together.  Fabulous!  There was a darling little courtyard garden to walk through before you stepped up to the door.  And it came complete with a handsome young gardener.

Just kidding!  That good looking young man is Eli.  His mom is one of my good friends from college.  They came along to see the house with me.  If you see dark fuzz in any of my pictures, there is a good chance that that is the top of Eli's head zipping by.  He's fast, very fast.  He is also not shy, but pretended to be shy while we were with the realtor, so that he could have a popsicle afterwards.  Hilarious!

This is the backyard.  So many possibilities!

And, there is a great view of the Logan Temple, no matter where you stand in the yard.

Now, moving on to the interior.....I have to warn you that my camera was not cooperating with me.  I took soooo many pictures of the interiors, but most of them were completely out of focus.  It was distressing, because there was some really, really great woodwork in there.  And all kinds of fun vintagey details.  Unfortunately, there was also lots of stuff everywhere.  The former owners were elderly, had died, and left many treasured items for the children to sort through.  You'll see what I mean about the stuff, but I'm only going to show you the pictures that were mostly in focus.

Here's a look into the main hallway from the entry.

The living room was spacious and had a fantastic fireplace surround, trust me.  But this was my favorite detail, the reading nook.

The formal dining room was down a hall, past the staircase, from the living room.  It was enormous--honestly, my dream dining room.  You could have fit a table for twenty in it, no problem.  On one end, it had these gorgeous built-ins

and on the other end, this pretty bay window.

The built-in china hutches flanked french doors that led to a sunporch.  It had a flagstone floor and was so cheerful and bright--despite the scary weed arrangement.

The kitchen was in between the kitchen and dining room, and although it needed updating, it was a good size and had lots of possibilities.

From the kitchen, there was a hallway that led to a den and a bedroom with a private bath.  Let me tell you, there were some big-time possibilities for my dream mudroom back there.  Hey--check out this pickled wood in the den.  Doesn't it scream, "Sir, I'd like to ask you for your daughter's hand in marriage."?

The stairs were just superb.  They weren't a standard height, they were lower than usual, and seemed very safe.

Here's the master bedroom.

The master bath wasn't anything to get too excited about, but take a look at the closet.

I know, I know, it is a terrible picture!  But that closet was HUGE.  And it was full of built-in cabinetry.  Custom built-in cabinetry.  It was also full of bedding....I had no idea anyone could keep so much bedding on hand in one house.

There were three other bedrooms and two more bathrooms upstairs.  This was my favorite of the bedrooms. It had windows on three sides of the room.

It was connected to another bedroom by a bright little jack-and-jill bathroom.

Here is the hall bath.  All the bathrooms in this house, including the half bath near the entry, had terrific little built-in cabinetry tucked away in the nooks and crannies.

The built-ins in the upstairs linen closet are Martha Stewart worthy.

I have to warn you, the basement was pretty scary.  Fascinating, but scary.  It needs a lot of work.  Here's a look at the fireplaced basement family room.

Here's the basement laundry room.

This was actually a fairly light, bright basement.  It was just jam-packed with stuff.  One of the really unique things about this house was that there were three staircases going down to the basement: one beneath the main stairway that led directly to the rec room, one that came down from the kitchen into one end of the laundry room, and one that came from the garage down into the other end of the laundry room.  Very handy, I thought, and well planned.

I don't know anything about the former owners, but judging from the telephone, they must have been important.

Even stranger than the three staircases was the boathouse.  When I first stepped into the backyard, I thought, "Wow, they share the backyard with another house!"  The other house was completely different architecturally.  But guess what?  It came with the first house!  I think it was the place where the menfolk hung out?  My clues to that being the fully operational garage door, the wood burning stove, the bathroom (that makes seven for this property, if you are counting), the enormous adjoining tool storage shed, and the large boat suspended from the ceiling.  Perhaps the husband died first, because it is currently being used to store....lots of stuff.

When I show you the following pictures of the exterior of the boathouse/mancave/deluxe storage shed, you will see why I was confused.  It looks like somebody else built a house in the backyard.

Here's my plan: paint that yellow brick white, and finish that mancave into a guesthouse.  Don't you love my idea?

And don't you love this house?  Maybe I'm the only one.  I tried to convince the Bionic Man that he could find a job in Cache Valley and we could make a really, really low offer on this house.  Maybe we could knock down the price by $100k by agreeing to haul out all the stuff.  Mmmmhmmm.  The Bionic Man didn't go for it.  He took one look at my pictures of the roof and said, "Did you get a chance to look at that OTHER piece of property?"  Sigh.  Perhaps I was never meant to be June Cleaver.

But if you think you have what it takes to fill June's shoes and renovate this lovely 1934 home to it's rightful glory, then I would suggest you take note of this picture.

Or, go see the MLS listing here.  

Do you have a favorite house that you've always wanted to see inside?