Early Palmer & Krisel Tampa Homes Property For Sale – Reseda, CA

Built in 1953 is this early Palmer & Krisel-designed home in the Tampa Homes subdivision in Reseda, CA. With four bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,296 square feet situated on a 6,100 square foot lot with a pool and a detached two-car garage and carries an asking price of $480,000.

Front of home

The Tampa Homes consist of a dozen Palmer & Krisel-designed homes that all sit elevated above Tampa Avenue, with driveway and garage access via an adjacent rear alleyway. Concrete steps lead up past a sloped lawn holding a mature tree to the side entry of the home. Vintage stone veneer accents cover the front of the home, most likely not original but still vintage in their own right.  

Entry walkway 

Entry

Living room with original Krisel fireplace

Succulents and drought-tolerant landscape line the entry walkway to the south-facing entrance of the home. The entry leads into a small foyer which in turn leads into the north-facing living room. Once featuring large sliding glass doors, the living room windows overlooking the side yard have been reduced in size and replaced with a mullioned front door. The original modernist fireplace is still intact with its clean, simple lines that are as still relevant and sharp today as they were 63 years ago.

Living and dining rooms

Living and dining room 

Galley kitchen 

The dining room sits adjacent and open to the living room, with a shortened window overlooking the adjacent pool. The west-facing clerestories have been removed, severely cutting down on the amount of natural light entering the space. The adjacent galley kitchen has been updated with traditional materials, including raised-panel cabinetry, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. The open laundry area is located on the south side of the kitchen, and a strange breakfast bar window has been cut into the kitchen wall overlooking the entry hall. Like the dining room, the kitchen shows dark due to removed clerestory windows.  

Bedroom 

Bedroom 

Bath

The bedrooms still feature their open-beamed celotex ceilings which have been drywalled over in the living and dining rooms. Four bedrooms in 1,300 square feet is tight, and all bedrooms are diminutive in stature and size. The front-facing eastern bedrooms have seen their clerestories removed, which is unfortunate as they were also a design-tactic of Krisel’s which would allow small rooms to seem larger. The bathrooms have been traditionally renovated like the kitchen, with floor tiles on the tub surrounds.

Covered patio off of living room 

North side of home is a blank slate

Backyard and pool 

The backyard is taken up mostly by the pool and rear yard garage, and a small covered porch sits on the north side of the property adjacent to the living area.

This home is a perfect restoration opportunity, and at its current price point is predicted by Redfin.com to be a fast sell, so be sure to check it out before it’s gone.

Check out the full listing on Redfin.com here: 6603 Tampa Avenue

Or Zillow.com here: 6603 Tampa Avenue

Flipped Flair Home Returns – Tucson, AZ

Last seen on the blog in November as a trashed and thrashed fixer upper is this now-renovated 1960 Palmer & Krisel Tucson Flair Home that’s been flipped and flopped. With four bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,611 square feet sited on a 8,700 square-foot lot, the asking price on this home is $175,000.

Front of home

Selling above ask at $102,500 in January of this year, the current owner has admittedly done a lot with a small budget. They’ve cleaned the property, painted inside and out, replaced trashed baths and given the home new windows and a kitchen. Of course there are flipper hallmarks everywhere – boob lights, vinyl windows, a weird corral carved out of a kitchen doorway and bizarre placement of the master bedroom door.

Front of home - gravel matches paint colors

Out front, new dark red gravel has been added to the front yard, replacing the lighter salt & pepper gravel that in place. A lighter pink gravel serves as the driveway, and the original landscape was cleaned up. The home has been painted the same color as the driveway and yard gravel, light pink and red.

Living room 

Living room, master bedroom entry and entry hall

Living room and view to kitchen 

Inside, the rear facing living room has been floored in wood laminate, and new windows and sliders look out to the unfinished yet cleared and cleaned backyard. The entrance to the master bedroom has been relocated to the south living room wall, making couch and television placement in the room a challenge.

And where one door was added, interestingly, another was taken away. The kitchen to living room  ingress and egress has been removed and raised to a half-height wall, creating a strange portal opening exposing more of the kitchen – and the side of the to-be-installed-fridge - than before to the living area. Sometimes in an effort to open spaces up, consideration to detail is overlooked resulting in new problems being created.

Kitchen 

Kitchen 

The kitchen is now a small corral, accessed only from the family/dining room area now. Granite counters sit over shaker cabinetry, and the hanging cabinetry has been removed reducing the amount of storage space available.

Dining/family room 

Dining/family room 

The dining/family room still maintains its original clerestory windows, and serves as the central hallway accessing the three secondary bedrooms as well as the laundry area, now concealed behind a set a bi-fold doors. The former jack and jill bath between the two original secondary bedrooms has been reconfigured, with the doors to the bedrooms being removed and a new doorway now faces the dining area, an unfortunate consideration for dining guests.

Added fourth bedroom at rear of home

Secondary bedroom 

Secondary bedroom 

Guest bath

Master bedroom 

Weird master bath entry through closet - this was a flipper add-on

Master bath

The secondary bedrooms all feature boob lights and brown carpeting, both of which are improvements over previous condition. The master bedroom still features its original clerestory windows, and the configuration has been altered, with the entrance placed at the living room and the former entry converted to a closet. This new configuration also now means that the master bathroom is now accessed through the closet, which isn’t really an improvement to the floor plan.

Back of home and backyard 

Backyard

Wishing well - I wish the mid-mod gets put back into this home

The backyard has been cleared and cleaned, but otherwise is a blank slate, because the flipper handbook tells readers not to landscape a backyard as a buyer’s mind is typically made up by the time they see the house.

The improvements made to this property don’t acknowledge the history or architects behind the property, but they definitely made the property livable once again. Hopefully the new owners will choose to return the home back to its modernist roots.

Check out the full listing on Redfin.com: 1144 Wheatridge Drive

Or Zillow.com here: 1144 Wheatridge Drive

Santa Maria Palmer & Krisel Meet Seventies Zen – Santa Maria, CA

Located in northwestern Santa Barbara County is this 1959 Palmer & Krisel-designed home in the town of Santa Maria, CA. This three bedroom, two bathroom home has been expanded with additions on both the front and rear of the home, to encompass 1,971 square feet. Sited on a 6,900 square-foot lot, this Palmer & Krisel with a 1970s Japanese-influenced renovation carries an asking price of $285,000.

Out front, much of what can be seen from the street on the front of the home isn’t original. The formerly detached garage has been attached to the home with a long, linear front addition, topped with a gabled addition opposite the garage. The scale of the original structure has been retained, as have original design cues such as clerestory windows and a central beam.

Entry

Entry hall - original 'front' of home is on left

The entry leads directly into the front addition, which immediately sets the tone as a 1970’s Japanese-inspired setting. Shoji screens line the entry and conceal former windows from the original front of the home. From here, the home gets a bit maze-like, while bits and pieces of Krisel’s original design work can be seen under decades-old alterations.

Dining room is pretty interesting 

Living room still maintains the original modernist fireplace

Sunroom addition at the back of the home has seen better days

A raised-platform dining area has been carved out of an original portion of the home, surrounded by shoji screens, wood paneling and sliding door, with original clerestories still in place. The original living room sits towards the rear of the home, maintaining its substantial hallmark modernist fireplace, illuminated by an overhead added skylight. An opening leads to the rear addition, which is a long, linear sunroom lining most of the back of the home.

L-shaped kitchen 

Kitchen 

Sunken Roman tub added on at back of home

Master bathroom, presumably

The only bedroom photo provided, and there's lots going on in this small space

No telling what this room is about - there's a bathtub, counter and what looks like a kitchen or laundry sink

The kitchen sits in an L-shaped galley form, with vintage seventies cabinetry and appliances. One of the original end bedrooms is shown, which still retains its original clerestories and some built-in shelving. Added on the back of the home is a spa-like bathroom, with a deep mosaic-tiled roman tub overlooking the backyard. The rest of the house is a mystery, but if it’s half as interesting as the other rooms shown, it won’t disappoint.

Backyard

Backyard

The backyard appears to be impeccably maintained, with neatly trimmed landscape surrounding a lush green lawn.

While this home has been pretty altered over the years, there’s something interesting about it that makes us want to see more – especially what it looked like in its heyday, and what’s up with that room with the bathtub in it?

Check out the full listing on Redfin.com here: 838 East Tunnell Street

Or Realtor.com here: 838 East Tunnell Street

Palm Gardens Modified Palmer & Krisel Home For Sale – Granada Hills, CA

Built in 1955 by Murray Strauss & Associates is this modified Palmer & Krisel-designed home new to the market. With four bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,200 square feet, this home sits on a 7,700 square-foot lot with a detached two-car garage and carries an asking price of $550,000.

Front of home with chunky replacement windows

The front of the home features a new drought-tolerant xeriscaped front yard, with shall plantings replacing what was once a thirsty lawn. The exterior windows have been reimagined with chunky mullioned white vinyl replacements, while partial stone veneer extends across the base of the home. 

Entry leads into kitchen island

Inside, the entry opens directly into the super-kitchen-dining-living room, which drops visitors off at the granite-topped central island. All demising walls within the living areas have been removed, leaving no division of space or privacy within the central living area.

Kitchen 

The kitchen sits at the front of the home and features newer shaker-style cabinetry topped with granite counters. A large-scaled farmhouse sink sits beneath a mosaic tiled wall, while a pair of French doors where the former breakfast nook would have been located leads to the service porch and front yard garage.

Living and dining area as seen from kitchen island

Living room - fireplace blockwork is without context due to 'flattening' of drywall overmantle

The dining area and living room sit at the rear of the home, overlooking the backyard through more mullioned windows and French doors. The mullions create division between the indoors and out, which directly contradicts the modernist idea of blending the indoors with outdoors, allowing spaces to flow from one to another. The original west-facing clerestories are still in place, and luckily haven’t been covered or replaced with vinyl. The original modernist fireplace is essentially still there; however, the drywalled overmantle popout has been flattened, lying flush with the original blockwork, leaving a curious pattern without context.

Bedroom 

Circa 2006 bathroom 

Bedroom  

Bedroom 

Bedroom

Bath

The four bedrooms all still maintain their original open beamed celotex paneled ceilings, which were drywalled over in the main living area. The end bedrooms maintain their original clerestory windows, and all rooms are fairly diminutive in size. Both bathrooms have been updated over the years, with one appearing to utilize trends that were popular in 2006, while the other maintains a much cleaner, modernist makeover, with floating vanity and glass mosaic tilework.

Backyard and back of home

Backyard

The backyard of the home is generously-sized and open, with a large grassy area surrounded by dense perimeter plantings. A covered patio along with a large uncovered patio area sits off of the living and dining room, while a nearby large tree offers shade to the north-facing yard.

While some of the original character has been stripped from this home, it does hold the potential for restoration, and at its current price point Redfin.com predicts it’ll sell quickly.

Check out the full listing on Redfin.com here: 15655 Simonds Street

Or Zillow.com here: 15655 Simonds Street