We really enjoy finding out odd tidbits of information about the house and land. Recently, when looking a house nearby that had gone up for sale, I discovered something rather interesting. The real estate site Zillow archives data for houses. Redfin and others purge photos after a house expires out of the active status within MLS (Multiple Listing Service aka the giant data base 95% of all real estate is listed within), but Zillow keeps the images around. Now if a listing is current, only photos for that current iteration of the listing are shown, but once a transaction is final, all image for that property become part of Zillow’s little archive.
As a result of this, I found some very interesting images of our house. Keep in mind the previous owners had this place listed for sale for about a year before taking it off the market, renovating the kitchen and bathrooms and then placing it back up for sale in April of last year.
First his shot of the pool area. I now know what the hook I use to hang my weighted swim rope line was originally for: a life preserver. We keep our’s just inside the swinging door into the kitchen, as the sun is pretty brutal on that side of the house during the afternoons.
Then there was this arial shot of the property. Two things to note are that there was some sort of structure as show in the lower left corner. We’re not sure what it was and have no easy way to find out. Also of interest is that there was a tree just outside the master bedroom. It was fairly large based upon its size and that of the walnut tree in the front corner of this image. For whatever reason it was removed. It probably died, possibly due to something with the hot tub that sat next to it. If you look at the previous picture you can see it to the right of the great room and no leaves are present in that shot.
Next we have a basic shot of the garage. What’s interesting about this image are actually the trees behind and to the left. At the time this photo was taken those trees were in pretty good health. They weren’t in great health though when we moved in and last fall they were attended to by the crew we had in to trim various trees and clean out the trash pile.
Then there is this image of the foyer. When we looked at the house the long table and chair were not present as except for a few pictures on the wall along with that mirror, the entire foyer was devoid of furnishings. We found this image interesting though as by putting furniture in that space you would basically have to walk around it all the time. For a comparison, check out my earlier post with before/after shots of this space.
I’ve saved the two most interesting images for last as they really helped fill in a few questions we had about the house.
First this one of the master bedroom. It seems the POs did more than just renovate the kitchen and bathrooms–the master bedroom also had some work done too. The first thing we noticed was that the top of the far wall was exposed paneling. This paneling is now hidden behind drywall. In addition, you will notice the fireplace and tiled hearth in the right hand foreground. We know from the floor plan that the fireplace was original to the house’s construction. For whatever reason though, it was ripped out and is no more. (We do still have the hearth’s concrete pad beneath the carpeting.) For a comparison check out my earlier post.
And finally the kitchen. This is the most interesting image of the lot as it explains a lot. Starting from left side, we now know that the upper double cabinets we have were not originally two rows of the same sized cabinets. We also know that what is now all tiled flooring was once a continuation of the teak flooring found everywhere else in the house and that the eating area, which was once a mud room, had a heavy tile floor. In addition since the mud room was once separate from the kitchen a beam with transom window cut across the kitchen space. This explains the odd piece of wood that now exists in its place. In addition the track lighting explains the odd circular plastic covers along the exterior wall.
Other tidbits are the fact that the kitchen counter beneath the windows was added on to in order to extend it out towards the eating area. When the POs remodeled, the configuration of cabinets on that wall changed as the sink was shifted over a bit to the right as was the dishwasher. And the warming oven, which I have yet to find a use for, was added to the mix. Lastly, the refrigerator shown in this pic now lives in the garage.
This is the image of the kitchen that was part of the listing information when we found the house.
And this it the kitchen now.
