My Listing in the 8th Annual Big Big Tour
This years marks the 8th annual “Big Big Tour” of for sale homes in the City of St. Louis. As with past years, the events includes a wide variety of properties for sale. From their website:
St. Louis’ ONLY city-wide house tour returns soon for its eighth year! This popular and FREE extreme open house and Homebuyer’s Fair will be held Sunday, March 25, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. (Homebuyer’s Fair starts at 12:00, properties open at 1:00) beginning at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman at Kingshighway in the Central West End.
This year, over 200 “for sale” properties priced from $30,000 to well over $600,000 will be available to tour in neighborhoods in all corners of the city.
Be sure to check out the Big Big Tour this Sunday afternoon!
And while you are out and about, stop by and see my latest listing — a former shotgun house reconfigured into modern living space.
I think this home may change your perceptions about what a shotgun house can look like. The owner of this house (which is not me, btw) relocated the kitchen from the back to the second room. This creates a public space in the front two rooms with a private bedroom area at the back. At just over 900sf, this is larger than some new lofts.
And the new kitchen is stunning! Many of you may recognize the cabinets as being from Ikea, they are very effective providing lots of storage. But the point of this post is not to sell you the house but to show a new way to think about the shotgun house of which St. Louis has thousands of examples.
The living room, dining area and kitchen all feel spacious and the relationship to each other is quite nice.
Originally this house was actually a 4-room shotgun. The area you see above was a tiny kitchen. By removing the wall between the old kitchen and the closet sized bedroom the home feels so much more open.
A bed now fits nicely in the back room with plenty of room for a home office and dressing area.
The bathroom is entirely new and completely reconfigured from the original bathroom.
Many people have claimed these homes are “obsolete” as a means of justifying razing them. However, given the massive quantity of houses like this that we have I think it makes more sense to reconfigure the interior spaces to work for modern life.
Come by Sunday afternoon between 1pm and 4pm to check it out for yourself, the address is 3459 Itaska (map). For more information review the official listing; #719782 ($109,900).
Looks great – good luck! . . . . “Obsolete” ranks up there with “blighted”. Value, as is beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes, yes, you do have to “throw money at the problem”. Fortunately, much of our old housing stock is masonry, so it takes a lot more neglect to make them truly worthless. In many other places, shotgun houses are wood-framed, so they’re more likely to be candidates for demolition after decades of neglect . . .
The house looks great. I love my old house even with its’ imperfections. I wish I could be in that good of shape at 98 years old.
I often wonder if the new construction homes will be able to last 98 years like my old girl.
It does look great, though the modern furniture is not my style, I guess I have mixed feelings though because if this was a public site, I would not want to see agents pushing for a sale, but this is Steve’s site and he does have to earn a living (one would guess blogging doesn’t pay much).
I think equally important is that the owners upgraded the flooring (refinished or pergo? bamboo would have been better), extremely nice warm colors that go with the modern feel of the furnishings. Furniture gives a feel for what can be accomplished in small spaces versus empty rooms. I see that somewhere in its’ history, they did not paint over the original wood trim (why is it that weekend remodelers do that when they should never touch a brush?) .
Student discount?
I’ve recently become re-enamoured of shotguns, and these photos give good reasons why: for an increasingly single population, they’re great! Good luck on selling it, Steve
Also, Maurice–once you figure in the energy used to transport Asian bamboo to the States, and consider that most of the bamboo you see is the cheaper sort that is backed with poplar, not bamboo all the way through …. good old Missouri oak is a lot more sustainable. And in a lot of these old homes, the wood was originally painted. We went to a considerable amount of trouble to strip our millwork down to bare wood only to discover paint grade material unsuitable for clear finish. It goes house by house ….
According to the web, St. Louis Hardwoods carries Smith Flooring, from the FSC Certified and sustainably managed Pioneer Forest in Missouri.
Great remodel! My husband does this for a “living” (ha!) and has a shotgun from the CDA that they said has been done the way it should be done. His and yours are nice little houses. Somewhere along the line my husband heard that there’s a shortage of inexpensive, small housing, so I say; Save the Shotguns! Or something…
Steve,
When you finish your degree, what are your career plans? Are you considering real estate? I had always thought you were aiming towards politics.
-bch
So, you’re headed over to the dark side, to become a developer? 😉
The “Dark-side” could use a few Steve Pattersons.
I agree!
Great house! I used to not like shotguns, but now I love them. One level living is more attractive to me these days. And nobody builds small, one-level houses anymore. This is perfect for a single or a couple that wants to simplify. The advantage of a single-family house without all the stairs and extra rooms to maintain.
Steve:
Great looking house- I think these shotguns are really important in the affordable housing market.
All these duplexes and 4-fams that are being converted to single and fee simple condos across the city can be big and expensive when finished. In decent neighborhoods, these 2 to 1 family conversions are usually in the 250-350k range. These shotguns can provide a great efficient space on the cheap, and that is ever important.
andy
Hi. I stumbled across your site and saw your remodel of this home. We are looking at remodeling a semi shotgun house and wondered if you would mind telling us around how much did the remodeling cost? You can email it to me at sandyfacree@yahoo.com. The house is a great price but I would want to do basically what you have done here. This would give me an idea of what we are looking at to redo it. Thanks so much.
Thanks for the info. I live in Florida.
We'r ed hardy outlet one of the most profession
of the coolest and latest ed hardy apparel, such as
ed hardy tee ,ed hardy bags,
ed hardy bathing suits, ed hardy shoes,
ed hardy board shorts ， don ed hardyt,ed hardy tank tops, ed hardy for women,
ed hardy swimwearand more,
ed hardy clothing. We offers a wide selection of fashion
cheap ed hardyproducts. Welcome to our shop or just enjoy browsing through our stunning collection available wholesale ed hardy in our shop.
our goal is to delight you with our distinctive collection of mindful ed hardy products while providing value and excellent service. Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction and we offer only 100% satisfacted service and ed hardy products. Please feel free to contact us at any time; we are committed to your 100% customer satisfaction. If you're looking for the best service and best selection, stay right where you are and continue shopping at here is your best online choice for the reasonable prices. So why not buy your ed hardy now, I am sure they we won’t let you down.