House Huntin’: Old Town Pinehurst

I have a pretty serious addiction to…houses. Maybe you already knew that about me. I like to remodel every house on the block in my mind. I’m always on the hunt and I often troll local real estate listings at least once a week just daydreaming about what could be. I like old houses mostly, houses that need to be rejuvenated so I can make it my own.

So I’m going to share the house that catches my eye on my local MLS (multiple listing service) and maybe talk a little bit about why its captured my attention or what could be changed to make it a little or a lot more fabulous than it is in its current condition.

I live near a place called the Village of Pinehurst. Pinehurst is a golf mecca settled by a Bostonian named James Walker Tufts in the late 1800s. What most might call the downtown area is called Old Town in Pinehurst and this is where all of the charm of the town culminates.

So a listing popped up recently in Pinehurst that sparked my interest, 125 Chinquapin Road. So I asked my favorite agent Sarah O’Brien to come take the tour with me. This listing is really all about location, Old Town is a coveted place to live around here.

Pretty charming right, but the house has been for sale for around three years and it started out looking like this with a price tag of $600,000, now with a new exterior paint job shown above the price has drastically dropped to $350,000

Like the Indiana project, the house has a flat front and could benefit from a covered entry and as it turns out the house originally had an entry and two dormers on top. Looks a lot better to me with those dormers and entry.

This is a fairly large house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, somewhere between 2600-2800 existing square feet. Anytime a listing says sleeping porch or maids quarters I’m intrigued not because I have a maid obviously but because that means there’s additional living space and possibly some fun, unusual spaces.

Let’s tour shall we,

Nice open, L-shaped living room and wide stairwell, that door leads to a bonus room with a bunch of cool windows lining the exterior wall. Stairwells in old houses always seem so narrow and steep but not this one it has a landing, great treads.   There’s some nice millwork in here with some beam action on the ceiling. The floors are beautiful heart pine throughout the whole house.

view towards front of house in living room

sunny dining room with original built-ins

dreamy butler’s pantry, the cabinets could be salvaged and reconditioned,

the kitchen is just a shell,

This is part of the maid’s quarters which is comprised of two rooms on the 2nd level with a small bathroom in between. The maid’s quarters is accessible from a service stairwell off the kitchen as well as the main stairwell. Private stairwells are always so fun.

This is one of the bedrooms on the 2nd level. A lot of real estate listings will say “good sized bedrooms” and that’s not always the case but this time it was. Great windows and light in all of the front rooms.

Here is the sleeping porch, its got great potential like the rest of the house

Looking up as the stairwell continues to the 3rd floor filled with attic space that spans the entire width of the house, it could be converted in to more liveable space.

Standing in the hallway on the 2nd level,

We finished up our tour as the sun was going down but this house has so many great angles on the exterior. Its not actually this spooky looking in person.

So why isn’t anyone snapping this place up? Well–its got some structural issues of undetermined severity. But I’ve heard that the seller plans to invest 30K in structural repairs, not exactly sure what those are. Barring any huge issues like the foundation is crumbling or the house is sinking in to the earth, this house is probably finally near a good selling price.

If you’re thinking about viewing the property, take a flashlight and some imagination. On the 2nd visit I would take a structural engineer or a good and trusted contractor.