Welcome to 104 “Wonderful” Laidley (And A Lot Of Green)
February 4, 2009
Painted ladies and Tales of the City hillside abodes don’t have a monopoly on homes that scream old school San Francisco (if not only in the address, and in a good way as far as we’re concerned). Welcome to 104 “Wonderful” Laidley (with which we’ll agree).
And as an aside, “offered for rent on Craigslist a few weeks ago, asking $4K/month” according to an observant and plugged-in tipster.
UPDATE: A plugged-in reader adds:
I had some friends that rented the upstairs in that house (for much less than $4k iirc). It was wonderful, but the live-in landlord down in the basement and the neighbors were not. You weren’t allowed to be in the garden or hot tub after 9PM or the neighbors would complain.
Obviously said landlord would no longer be an issue if you buy. No comment on the neighbors.
∙ Listing: 104 Laidley (3/2) – $1,095,000 [MLS]
Comments from Plugged-In Readers
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I’m a huge fan of Laidley… it has so much mystique and a really dynamic blend of architecture from different periods. If you enjoy the “jumble of boxes” SF aesthetic then there’s not many better blocks in town. I was considering some TICs on that block not long ago but the units were just a bit too small. Great views though.
I think this house looks pretty cool! I hope whoever buys it leaves the stove and kitchen as is. Nobody cooks at home anymore anyway, it seems.
$4K/mo wishing rent was a pipe dream.
I love Laidley too. A bit far away but definitely close to the top of my “plan B” list.
I love the old kitchen too, but man that is a LOT of GREEN…
and $950/ft² if you believe prop shark’s 1,154 ft².
[Editor’s Note: We shouldn’t have missed that “lot of green” double entendre line and have since appropriated it for our headline. Cheers. And as always, thank you for plugging in.]
Are you guys serious? Is there some kind of historical significance to this place that I’m not aware of? Because if not, then this appears to be the Glen Park rendition of Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
Meka-leka-hai, meka-heiny-ho!
Quirky, interesting, fun.
Boring builder beige McMansion its not, reminds me why I like SF so much. Way too much green – but hey, some people like green. God Bless.
40 online pictures. one for each color
Nifty, it’s like the Joker’s house.
Someone wanted to “Green that house”, just like someone “greened that mountain” in China:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/14/china
I think it’s just great. The green-ceilinged room is a bit too much green for me, but some Killz would fix that right up.
I had some friends that rented the upstairs in that house (for much less than $4k iirc). It was wonderful, but the live-in landlord down in the basement and the neighbors were not. You weren’t allowed to be in the garden or hot tub after 9PM or the neighbors would complain.
I lived there. The house is truly gorgeous, the most visually beautiful house I’ve lived in. The photos here really don’t do it justice, particularly the back gardens.
As Dav mentioned though, the house presses up against the neighbors’ house to the west, the walls are far too thin so sounds carry, and those neighbors were extremely sensitive, conservative and grouchy and they went to bed extremely early and insisted on complete silence at night in the backyard and hot tub as well as quiet in the west rooms.
A similar situation held between the downstairs bedroom and the main entrance area and living room above. Extremely insufficient sound insulation between these rooms meant that even the lightest walking in the main entrance area sounded loud in the downstairs bedroom.
So in short: the place IS wonderful and unique and visually gorgeous, but it doesn’t really work if you want occasional nighttime parties/dinner parties or entertain friends after hours.
When people say SF is one of the greenest cities in American, is this house what thety are thinking of??
How can a neighbor “insist” upon total silence after 9 p.m.? Why not just ignore them? If they want to call the police at 9:15 p.m. (or 10:15 p.m.) to complain about laughter out back or noise from a dinner party- let them have at it! The cops in this city have no tolerence for crazy people wasting their time. Personally, I have zero tolerence for people that choose to live in the city yet “insist” upon total silence. Part of what makes city living interesting is sounds of life coming from other people’s homes.
Oooh, this is a house I wouldn’t mind a good friend buying so, I could visit it, regularly! It is fun..and, if a friend bought it, I could always go home to a more tranquil place to rest my overstimulated head afterward.
With that said, this home has to go quickly (even in this down market–and, I am a bear with housing), it is just that nifty!!!!
Oh, and, kthnxybe, please don’t mention Kilz–I am a tad bit brain damaged over that stuff (ba-yuck).
Heaven forbid those “those neighbors (who) were extremely sensitive, conservative and grouchy” lived there in the early ’80’s when I looked at a house on Laidley.
I remember you walked up the steep slope of the backyard to a deck that was partially screened by the trees farther down the slope but still had a panoramic view of downtown SF. On the deck, bolted down, fully finctioning and totally exposed was a white porcelain throne, or toilet.
Maybe they’ll sell it to a leprechaun…great place for a St. Paddy’s party
Noe: That wasn’t an option for us because the landlord who lived in the downstairs room backed the neighbors. If you owned the place you’d have a lot more freedom; but then again who wants angry pissy neighbors?
Agreed though… They should move to a nice quiet McMansion in the suburbs. The living city is not a happy place for people who demand constant silence and solitude.
does anyone have approximate square footage? leaving aside interior colors, this place looks fantastic.
Steve,
The place is really cool. I was in it yesterday. That rear atrium with expansive garden above it is particularly neat. But it isn’t large. The tax records say 1154 sq ft, not sure if that counts the loft space, or the lower unit.
Finally, a house that is truly green!
“The tax records say 1154 sq ft, not sure if that counts the loft space…”
I doubt that loft space is included as only small children can stand there. Even small adults would bump their heads. The peak ceiling height seems to be less than 4 feet. This hardly counts as living space (but a fun bonus playroom if you have small kids).
So does that little loft open up to a deck? Do you have to military crawl to get out there? The loft seems pointless.
It was probably built as a sleeping loft.
I don’t know whether the loft, atrium, or lower rooms are included. My gut tells me none are. Regardless the place still isn’t that big. It kind of wants to be built out, and the lower rooms incorporated. Don’t know whethet that’s possible or not.
I shared a wall in S.F. with pissy neighbors for 3 years (they once complained about acoustic guitar music played at background listening levels at 7pm). I don’t really think the police factor into the situation at all – they are not going to respond to a noise complaint at 9:30pm. If you can learn to ignore the neighbors, you’ll be happy. If you can’t, they can make your life miserable. It’d be too bad to buy a place hoping to live amongst neighborhood friends and then be disappointed, but you’ve got to be realistic. There are a lot of really unreasonable neighbors out there! Thankfully, ours were pretty easy to ignore. Their chosen method of communication was to put paper signs up in their bay windows that said things like “Turn the music DOWN!” and had a big arrow pointing towards our house. They refused to answer the door when we tried to talk to them about it. You could live next to someone much worse, I’d imagine.
Good post Valentino – it saved me a trip
RE: The loft: It does open out onto a beautiful deck, connected by a walkway to the main gardens/fishpond/jacuzzi area.
Also you can climb up into it from the main floor via a ladder and hatch!
And yes, it’s ceilings are too short for most adults to stand in. It has a fantastic commanding view of the SF skyline in front and the gardens in back and it’s heavenly for… horizontal activities. I actually loved the loft; the low ceilings gave it a great secret playhouse quality. If you’re tightly-wound (like the neighbors) you’ll probably hate it but I loved it.
Now I’m starting to miss that place…
I had a bad downstairs neighbor once who would insist on complaining by pounding on the ceiling to make his point that I was walking too loudly. Note I was just walking — not sure if I should be expected to tiptoe in my own home.
Its a bad situation w/ neighbors like this. My old one was there longer so he must have felt it was his empire and he had to set the rules down early w/ force. You can be more and more loud and create a crisis, but in the end its a pissing war and everyone gets wet.
This is why I hate condos and anything w/ shared walls or neighbors too close.
How do you best find outwhen this place (or any place,,) is having an open house?
sfbond: It’s pretty tough to find even a SFH in SF without shared walls- but I’m with you 100%. Our walls are only about 3 feet apart from each neighbor, but it still makes a big difference.
We have a tenant below. When we list our place for rent, we are clear that we play music and entertain, and that people that cherish silence need not apply (we did put a layer of cork down underneath our wood floors for sound proofing). So far this upfront transparency has worked out very well for us and we have had really fantastic tenants.
Hello from Larry the owner of the green house. Thanks for all your fun comments.
I wish more people would get creative and colorful with their abodes. The world has too much beige.
Back on the market at $959,000.
Too bad the MLS has no pics of the house or square footage. What is being sold here is the view, as well as a great location.
Less than a Million for a house in a good location with a view. What’s up with that? I think the issue is the market segment. Either you’ll get a visionary/spender who will double the square footage at and will end up paying close to 2M for his dream house, or a quiet person/couple who will enjoy the place as it is. Still a good 5-6K/month in total expenses without the upgrades/fixes that you’re bound to want. In both cases, a limited number of buyers and it’s still close to $1000/sf when even Noe doesn’t get that on quality anymore. Someone will fall in love with the place I am sure, and all these worries will become secondary.
“This is why I hate condos and anything w/ shared walls or neighbors too close.”
To be fair though, the renter made strange choice by living upstairs from the owner of the house. Any rental situation where the landlord is constantly babysitting his/her own house is a disaster.
Easier to deal with the neighbors.