House Stalking On New Things for the New Year

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I'm sure you guys have all picked up on the fact that I'm not really a new house person. I like old houses for lots of reasons. Not that new houses aren't beautiful. Many of them are. So I thought I'd feature new construction for the first House Stalking of the New Year.

Infill housing refers to houses built long after the majority of housing in the neighborhood was constructed. In my opinion, most infill housing looks awful. People construct large Tuscan-style villa McMansions on streets full of turn of last century cottages. Not a good look.

Grant Park is a wonderful in-town Atlanta neighborhood with great restaurants (Six Feet Under!) and in walking distance to the actual Grant Park and Zoo Atlanta. As a desirable intown neighborhood, it is no stranger to infill housing.

Here is a beautiful example of infill housing done well. 

All photos from Realtor.com 

The listing calls the house "Craftsman" which...okay. The neighborhood is full of Craftsmen style homes, but it also has lots of what I think of as Early Twentieth Century Vernacular Construction. This house falls more into that category, in my opinion, but it is completely adorable.

Love the deep front porch (I'd go with a black wicker loveseat and rocker). Painting porch ceilings blue is an old southern tradition. What's the purpose behind it? It's believe to both protect the house against haunts and the blue color keeps spider from spinning webs on the porch. Either way, I like. The leaded glass numbers embedded in the front door is a nice, Craftsman-y touch.

The foyer. The paneled door shows nice attention to detail.

 The living room, which is open to the dining room and kitchen.

The dining room, with batten board paneling and an absolutely fantastic built-in china cabinet. Leaded glass doors! Crystal knobs! And check out the windows! They really look like old house windows. Love it. 

Who ever designed this house did a a great job with almost all the permanent fixtures and most of the other design choices, but the chandelier was not the best choice. Maybe a more Craftsman style fixture like this or this? Even a Tiffany style chandelier would work in this space.

 I think this is the downstairs bath. The tile wall is a little trendy, but everything else looks classic.

 This (upstairs hall?) bath sports classic black and white tile and equally classic fixtures.

So this bathroom is so awesome I'm just going to imagine my steam shower and long, hot bath. Love the double sinks and restrained luxury. 

The screened in porch on the first floor runs the width of the house. The master bedroom has its own screened porch upstairs.

So I am absolutely in love with this house, right? I mean, if I won the lottery tomorrow and bought it the only change I'd make is the dining room light fixture. It's a great, great house.

And then I saw the picture of the kitchen. The whole house is brilliantly designed to recall the past while incorporating modern life and luxuries (open living room, the amazing master bath). So why does the kitchen look like 2012 threw up all over it? I personally think super dark cabinetry is going to look dated fast. There's also the matter of the very busy backsplash and equally busy granite countertops. Also...boob light. I don't understand the thinking here. Wouldn't white cabinets with a creamy marble tile backsplash and white granite counters with softer pattern work better with the over all style of the house?

Still, this a beautiful house in a great neighborhood and a great example of good infill housing.