That’s the new kitchen at 824 Douglass Street above. As the room looked when the Noe home was purchased for $1,165,000 with a more traditional floor plan in 2010:
The one old bathroom looked a little different then as well.
And then there’s the all new master bath:
Taken down to the studs and expanded from 1,602 to 2,777 square feet, 824 Douglass is now back on the market as a “Modern/High Tech” home and listed for $2,695,000.
∙ Listing: 824 Douglass (4/3.5) – $2,695,000 [824douglass.com]
Interesting use of lower-end, pro style Viking appliances in a “modern/tech” home for almost $3MM. I suppose the builder wanted to minimize costs but I would much rather see a more modern pro range like a black Bertazzoni or even built-in appliances like Miele or Gaggenau.
Nice slab of Calacatta marble on the island.
@Matt – I talked to a flipper once and asked the same question: why cheap appliances in high end homes. He said buyers on this end almost always have their own preferences and put in their own stuff.
Why does anyone put the sink in the middle of the island? Practically, its going to be piled with dirty dishes, drying pots & pans…etc. half the time. All while your guest is sitting two inches away on the stool. I get the benefit of being able to do dishes while talking to the person sitting at the bar, but I think it is impractical/messy. Am I alone on this?
beautifully done but major screw up on the kitchen. instead of table and built-in banquette, should have been a couch and TV. I don’t know what it is, but the way we live today is we have to be connected to the kitchen while watching tv or at the very least, keeping the cook company while waiting for your meal. duh.
Ex-bernaler – I think they tried to split the baby on this one. I love center island sinks, if there is a larger sink, adjacent to storage and the dishwasher, which serves as the principal cleaning station. Being able to rinse and dispose of things in proximity to the cooking surface (not to mention having a proximate water source) is great. Having it be the location for all dirty dishes is not.
I would have bet that there was another sink. I would have been wrong.
I’m curious what the premium now is for a private garage. What would this house be listed for if there were no garage?
Mr. E – couldn’t agree with you more… great if it is a second sink.
Btw, it is almost as bad as when the stove is in the middle of the island and the bar stools are about two inches away. We call this the benihana island. That way your guests can be sprayed with cooking oil and your kids can reach across the stool and put their hands over the stove.
Is a Viking range truly “low end”? We put in a Wolf 6-burner gas range and matching pro hood, and they cost at least $8,000 before tax, IIRC. Isn’t Viking comparable to Wolf? How much are you supposed to spend before you are out of the “low end”?
@NJ Viking has really fallen out of favor with designers and consumers, in my observation. Very little innovation, poor reliability, and dated design. They are also migrating their product strategy to much lower price points. IMO, a Wolf Range runs circles around a Viking and aren’t really in the same class.
PS I am sure your Wolf range and hood cost closer to $10,000.
I recommend the two-sink solution as well (two-dishwashers also works), but usually there is a limited amount of space in which to fit everything in these narrow lots. Putting the stove in the island is worse because it has to be vented and running the fan in the center of a fairly small room isn’t overly pleasant. Likewise, it makes remodeling the kitchen a pain. I agree that a family room off the kitchen would’ve been more appealing to buyers.
@ex-bernaler, Haha re: the Benihana island. Never heard that one before, but so true.
IMO kitchen islands are a trend that is likely to fade in a few years. I particularly can’t stand when an over-large island is shoved into a kitchen space, which appears to be the case here. Looks like there’s just enough clearance on either length-wise side to allow the oven doors to open and for someone to scoot by the other side when there are people seated on the stools.
Also, I completely agree with the Viking assessment – definitely fading fast in the appliance hegemony…
And one final snark – love the carefully selected books highlighted on the bookshelf to emphasize how literate and well-read the owners are and/or the buyers want to believe they are.
“And one final snark – love the carefully selected books highlighted on the bookshelf to emphasize how literate and well-read the owners are and/or the buyers want to believe they are.”
Yeah right. “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest” …. Real effete stuff, there. Hahahha. You sure conveyed that you’re a bit over eager to bash stuff though. Don’t force it, young one. Let the hate coarse through your fingertips.
I rarely comment on this, but I love the staging. It’s nice to actually see some color on walls here and there, rather than beige beige beige.
White marble counters….zzzzz
Let’s move on to the next trend, people.
high tech … without the look. Misnomer if i’ve ever seen one.
Don’t really understand why all these flip/renovations replace the flooring with wide-plank wood; it looks remarkably out of place in a house like this. Is that the point? Do dispel any notion that it isn’t new?
The misnomer appears to come from socketsite. The website doesn’t describe it as ‘high tech’.
[Editor’s Note: “Modern/High Tech” was selected as a descriptor on the MLS (as was Contemporary and Edwardian).]
hugh,
They are done because people like them. That is how it goes with most of these trends. Besides, I wouldn’t say that marble counters is a current trend, in fact this whole house goes against the Make It Super Modern Inside the Victorian trend.
Where is all the praise for this house not being “modern”? That style gets beat up on here all the time why not more positives for this instead of (wrongly IMHO) bashing the appliances?
“Yeah right. “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest” …. Real effete stuff, there. Hahahha. You sure conveyed that you’re a bit over eager to bash stuff though. Don’t force it, young one. Let the hate coarse through your fingertips.”
Good of you to pick the most pop-culture-ish of the bunch there. Anyhoo, that’s the one among the bunch the owners or stagers have any chance at all of having actually read.
And BTW, Ironic – talk about being over eager to bash.
The listing describes the house as having had a ‘full seismic upgrade’. I wonder if this means that the house now meets all current seismic codes, or if it just got improvements at the discretion of the builder. There is a DOB rule that substantial changes to 2 of 3 floors trigger this requirement but, if this house indeed got that treatment, the listing agent could have touted that the house was upgraded to current seismic code.
For me, this is what separates the flipper specials from well-done jobs. Finishes and appliances are just fluff to dazzle the naive.
In terms of ventilation for an island, you are seeing a lot more flush ceiling inserts out of Italy that can be a good and super quiet solution with an external blower:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/698192/Cirrus—CC34ESB-modern-kitchen-hoods-and-vents-
Around1905,
I don’t think parsing the real estate agents description of what was done structurally is worthwhile. “upgraded to current seismic code” (the description you like) doesn’t sound like as much was done as “full seismic upgrade”, so for the uneducated on the subject it is better for the listing.
Yet another workingman’s cottage in what used to be a modest neighborhood all dolled up for almost $3m. What will they get for a real mansion, restored and modernized only for comfort and practical purposes?
I LOVE the bathrooms. Big improvement.
The Viking Pro actually lists for more than a similar sized Bertazzoni. The Viking D3 is their lower end offering and is showing up in more and more quick flips. Viking is running a series of specials and promotions under their new ownership, as they have fallen out of favor and sales declnie, as noted above. The Bertazzoni is actually considered a step down from the Wolf, in terms of the appliance hierarchy (price, capability). At the top end of the line (with modern styling) would be the new La Cornue W series or a Molteni.
@conifer–I think the answer is: a real mansion doesn’t exist in Noe. And perhaps that’s part of the appeal. Unlike Pac Heights or Atherton, the houses are all about the same and the structural look and feel of the neighborhood won’t ever change much. Combine that with the outstanding weather, easy commute and general family friendliness, and it’s clear why people are willing to start with the shells of mostly circa 1906 ‘working class’ homes, modernize the inside, and be happy paying $3mm to call it home.
I have Bertazzoni as well as Sub-zero, Bosch and U-Line in my kitchen.
The Bertazzoni fits FLUSH with the front of the base cabinets. The other brands you mentioned all stick out 4-6″ past the casework, making for a more bulky looking kitchen.
Flush built-ins really do make a kitchen seem larger.
@conifer,
Why does that bother you? Your comment seems pretty anachronistic, like some Noe Valley hand wringing circa 2004.
“The Bertazzoni fits FLUSH with the front of the base cabinets. The other brands you mentioned all stick out 4-6″ past the casework, making for a more bulky looking kitchen.”
Honest question: If you have the space, why can’t the builder make cabinets 4-6″ deeper to match the deeper ranges? It seems they are doing this with upper cabinets more and more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324102604578497192510890084.html
Very expensive to make cabinets deeper JUST to fit appliance depth. Just does not make sense, and I have never seen that done. Standard base cabinets are 24″ deep, even with high end systems.
I also have never seen upper cabinets made deeper either. Standard upper cabinets are 12″-13″ deep, even with high end.
Unplugged,
Lots of reasons it isn’t done. The main one would be the how a 29″ counter would make upper cabinets harder to use unless those were also built to 16″ deep. They don’t have much reason to be that big, once you get to 14″ you fit big plates. On top of that the lower cabinets wouldn’t get any more function as the slides and mechanisms are all set up for 24″ so you just have extra air space at the back of rollouts and corners. Also, you build out the whole cabinet run that much and you lose room in kitchen, fine in a big open space but not when the room is smaller. On top of that you are paying more for a bigger counter as well.
Slightly bigger than standard is a good idea for uppers, but doesn’t make sense for the lowers.
Any quality custom cabinet maker or high end line offers deeper base cabinets, at an upcharge. You would not bump out 4 to 6 inches, you would only need to bump out one inch to accommodate the deeper side panel on the Wolf. The rest of the distance (4″) is door, knobs and handle.
One to three inches is what is sometimes done in high end kitchens. Deeper counters can be fully usable, as deeper drawer hardware (Blum) is readily available, and the extra countertop space is especially useful in a prep zone.
Marble is nice and timeless…think Italian delis and ice cream parlors of yore and the wonderful counter at Acme bread in the Ferry Building. With all the “blowing up” of little workingman cottages in Noe Valley into little mansions, I wonder two things: what will people do when they want a separate kitchen and separate dining area again in 10 to 15 years and how do all these rich people manage to live with only a very small one car garage when all the basement space is taken over by tv rooms and fourth of fifth bedrooms and wine cellars, etc.
Indeed, how do rich people manage with only one small car? I can’t even imagine having to live in such a desperate fashion.
^^^coming from a person who owns a car himself.
I can easily see how many buyers in the +2.5 million dollar market have two cars. This is about moving real estate, not finger wagging.
Private 2 car garage homes in better neighborhoods sell VERY fast. I am aware of many buyers that will only look at these types of properties. Why are so many San Franciscans so judgemental of other people’s lifestyles?
@BuilderSF That is a really strong argument. Why do we persist in finger waggling and being judgemental of smokers? Why can’t they just smoke wherever they want to? Who cares if the people around them get sick? And speeders? If someone wants to drive 80 in a 25 mile an hour zone, that should be their right! Don’t you agree? If they happen to run over a small child or two, oh well, don’t try and harsh their mellow. As San Franciscans, we should be tolerant of this behavior.
More directly to the point, since I guess subtlety is lost on this crowd, I am “rich”, live in an expensive house in Noe Valley and am perfectly happy with one small car. So it is only a sample of one, but there is some kind of market for this sort of property.
The sale of 824 Douglass closed escrow today with a reported contract price of $3,200,000 ($1,152 per square foot).
Wow…$3.2M. High psf, no?