McCartney house for sale

[Richard A. Levin]

McCartney is up for sale. Asking price is $239,900. Realtor.com under Kalamazoo, MI has the details, including 46 recent pictures.

Rich Levin

[SDR]

Thanks, Richard. Is that by any chance the same realtor (ahem, Realtor) who nursed Eppstein through the long process of finding the right buyer ?

S

[DavidC]

Actually, it looks like they are asking $329,900:

2662 Taliesin Dr, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008


David

[SDR]

Ouch. The old girl needs some help. It's a miracle that no one has opened a can of paint anywhere near her---yet.



© 1993 by W A Storrer




© The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)


© Yukio Futagawa

[Richard A. Levin]

Sorry, I transposed the numbers! $329,900 is the correct asking price. Thanks for catching the error.

Rich Levin

[MOman2]

What did they do to the fireplace?

[Roderick Grant]

There has been work on the roof since I saw it in '85 (not surprisingly). At that time, part of the roof was shingle, the other asphalt. So at least that looks good. The fireplace alteration is unfortunate.

[SDR]

I gather the fireplace alteration occurred some time ago . . .

Futagawa's photo above is comparable to this one https://ap.rdcpix.com/43d43c9129931d35f ... 4_h768.jpg

The upward curl of the carport/workshop roof is most unusual; the sag visible along its length is more common. In any event the roof clearly needs to be rebuilt. Deterioration of some exterior blocks (or tiles) is extensive; one thinks of the LA houses at their worst. The house is now further than ever away from the images imparted by the pair of limpid and wistful renderings we have . . .

I can't find some photos an owner sent just a few years back, showing landscape work---specifically, new steel strips to be laid edgewise in the soil as curbs for the crushed-rock perimeter beds. Wasn't that McCartney ?

S

[Paul Ringstrom]

Actually, it looks like they are asking $329,900: 2662 Taliesin Dr, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008 David

The word "Pending" on the listing means there is a contract on the property that has not closed.

[DRN]

John Meyers owned the house 7-9years ago and was a Chatter on this board for a while:
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... f=2&t=6715
John opened his house to the FLWBC's Grand Rapids Conference tours in 2013...I hope he is well.

Some information about the fireplace insert, which is removable/reversible for those who prefer a less efficient but more traditional hearth:
https://www.tulikivi.com/usa-can/news/T ... tney_House

[Matt2]

Seems to be a good candidate for disassembly...it would almost require rebuilding given the condition.

[DRN]

Disassembly?
The house or the soapstone fireplace?

The house needs work, but aside from some issues with carport roof, the house proper was sound in 2013. Its garden wall extensions could stand to be replaced, and efflorescence from condensation or flashing/roofing deferred maintenance needs to be removed from some interior surfaces once the issues that caused them are addressed. Mr. Myers had just replaced the boiler with an instantaneous hot water heater for the radiant floor in 2013. I’m not sure of how much insulation is above the plywood ceilings, it’s condition, or if the roof framing is vented.
It’s a neat little house that deserves to be repaired/restored. It is part of a group of houses that used the same “kit of parts”...to remove it from that neighborhood would erase a bit of Wright’s concept of a collective using materials produced in bulk to build their community.

[SDR]

Somehow, the uncoated masonry is worth the rest of it put together---even though I'm not sure any of the Usonian Automatics or other non-CMU block (tile ?) houses have been painted, so far. Yes, it's a treasure. (A virtually unique variant of this Maginel Barney-derived plan is the unbuilt Clifton house of 1952.)

S