We went up to the Sunset Idea House here in Denver today. They'd taken a mid-century ranch, popped the top to add a second floor, gutted the interior rooms and made it over in mid-century style.
The Good – Well, mid-century thematically remains one of my favorite decorating motifs, and was the inspiration for what we did with the kitchen.
The bathroom and kitchen tilework and flooring were all pretty nice, as were any number of period decoration accents (including the Star Trek inspired stairway screen).
The fairly open floorplan was a nice revision of what the house originally was like, without being nebulous as so many open floorplans are.
I loved the translucent garage door.
The Bad – The house still routes into the kitchen with little opportunity to divert traffic. The rooftop deck was fun but needed significantly more shading. The wet bar in the entertainment room in the basement had no outlets and no lighting.
The yard was more suggestive than practical. The patio shades were for an area that would never get direct sun, and the areas getting direct sun were fully unshaded. The ash trees have (as Mary noted) a limited life span given current tree problems, and the aspens were in a similar boat. The touted sprinkling system was inefficent, IMO, for the large areas it was to cover. The shade plants were in far too much sun.
The concrete-gray Caesar-stone countertops kind of worked in some areas, but in other areas came across as (deceptively) cheap.
There was no real plan for dealing with visual privacy with the neighbors. The large windows on the south / street side would need (lacking) window treatment and would simply let in a ton of heat in the summer.
The back gate was a very nice two-door gate, but the way it was hinged (and then the sidewalk outside it bent) would make it a real struggle taking the trash cans out.
The Ugly – For a Sunset house, there was a shocking level of quality. Caulk seams missing. Bathroom arrangements (toilets vs shower openings) were cattywampus. Walls and ceiling areas that had either been opened for repairs / fixes and not closed, or closed but not repainted. The cinderblock frame for the back porch was not only unfinished up top (visible from the second floor), but had concrete dribbling down the sides. The trash can storage area is plainly visible from one of the back hard entertainment areas.
Overall, lots of cool ideas, furniture, decorator accents, and lovely tile work, and a remarkable transformation of a house. But lots of small problems and some significant ones makes me … disinclined to approach the $2M selling price, let alone the $470K original purchase price.
See also: http://www.sunset.com/home/idea-houses/denver-idea-house
Sunset’s Idea House in Denver is open weekends through Sept. 13
Sunset’s 2015 Idea House in Denver is opens weekends through Sept. 13
Yeah, I think that the unfinished bits and bobs were the biggest shocks to me. Followed by the lack of outlets and lighting in places that should have had outlets and lighting. Lastly the outside plantings were really poorly planed out (I would have moved the two Blue Spuce's to the western yard as shade and a screen to the neighbors yard (as well as the Ash trees and poorly laid out gate and walkway)
Best thing were the tiles and furniture.
My ad-blocker picked up 38 ads on that page before I finally gave up and quit. That has to be a record.
+Paula Moore Which one? The Denver Post page comes in at 11, but pretty quickly. The Sunset page show 8 ads for me.
Interestingly enough, there are some moderate differences between the floorplan on the Sunset page and the actual house (the entry all area and the basement bathroom most obviously).
Straight off your link to the Denver Post. I just got an ad-bocker, and I'm amazed at how much it speeds things up.
+Paula Moore Huh. It may be over-blocking some of the sidebar stuff. Mine only came up with 14 this time, and I didn't see anything that caused me grief.