Richmond Heights Palmer & Krisel Restoration Opportunity – Hanford, CA

At $99,900, here’s one of the best-priced midcentury Palmer & Krisel home’s we’ve seen in a while in the Richmond Heights subdivision in Hanford, CA. With three bedrooms and two bathrooms, this 1958 expanded home includes 1,662 square feet of living space, an (empty) in-ground pool and a detached two-car garage on a 9,500 square-foot lot.

Front of home features rare original vertical wooden screen over master bathroom window

This one needs some work, but it’s a great property with lots of original features still in place. The exterior of the home still features its original window layout; however, it appears that the original clerestory windows on the sides of the home have been removed. One great and rare original feature still intact on the front exterior of the home is the vertical sun screen over the master bathroom window, adjacent to the front door. These typically didn’t survive after a half-century, and very few homes still have their original screens today.

Living room appears to have been updated in the late 1960s

Living room and family/dining room addition with built-in grotto

Inside, the home appears to have been updated in the late 1960s, with a wood-paneled living room and adjacent step-down family room expansion, complete with its own grotto and turned wood columns. Blood-red carpeting highlights both rooms, along with the original open-beamed ceilings.

Kitchen features original cabinetry, wall oven and vent hood. Wall unit behind range is a later addition

Unfortunately one cabinet door is missing; a carpenter could easily recreate a new one

The kitchen has its original cabinetry, and unfortunately there’s one door missing, which a carpenter could easily replicate. The countertops are a later addition as are the cooktop and dishwasher, but the original wall oven and vent hood are still in place, along with the original supports which allowed the cooktop island to and upper cabinets to float.

Original Dining/family room off of kitchen

Master bedroom and bathroom just off of entry

At least the master has plenty of natural light, which will be great when paint and floors go in. Until then best to keep the blinds shut

Master bathroom with original mirror and medicine cabinet

Jack and jill bathroom between secondary bedrooms

The dining room sits off the kitchen, and includes vintage, well-worn low-pile carpeting and large windows overlooking the pool area. The secondary bedrooms feature a jack-and-jill bath between them, and are split from the master. The master bath is also jack-and-jill, accessing both the front-corner master bedroom and entry hall like many of Krisel’s designs. The original mirrors and medicine cabinets are still present in both bathrooms, but fixtures and vanities have been updated over time.

Swimming pool is the center of the backyard

Covered patio at rear of home

View of home from northeast corner of backyard

The backyard is a blank slate ready for a smart makeover. The swimming pool is mostly empty, in need of repair, and there are remnants of some landscape still in place, a rusting storage shed sitting in the corner and an extremely tall ham radio antenna, visible in the street shot of this property.

This property needs a lot of cosmetic work, but when finished could be a real modernist show-stopper. At the current asking price of $99,900, this home will definitely sell quickly and be a great opportunity for one lucky buyer.

Check out the full listing on Realtor.com here: 1012 East Myrtle Street

Or Zillow.com here: 1012 East Myrtle Street

1958 Palmer & Krisel in Richmond Heights For Sale – Hanford, CA

This is the first Palmer & Krisel-designed home in Hanford, California’s Richmond Heights subdivision that we’ve featured here on the blog. Hanford, CA sits in the southeast San Joaquin Valley as the county seat of Kings County, with a population of approximately 57,000. This Palmer & Krisel-designed home is one of only 16 homes built by Sierra Properties in the late 1950s. This 1958 three bedroom, two bathroom 1,545 square-foot home includes a detached two-car garage, sits on a 9,500 square-foot lot and carries an asking price of $187,000.

The product of a recent flip, this home last sold in April 2015 for $110,000. There’s some hallmarks of typical flippers – light fixtures and bath vanities straight out of the big-box do-it-yourself stores, but the overall integrity of the home remains, along with most of the original kitchen.

Living Room with signature Krisel modernist fireplace

Addition at rear of home

The living room sits at the back of the home, and features a wide, modernist signature Krisel fireplace, to which a distracting wooden mantle has been added by a well-meaning flipper. Unfortunately the added mantle muddies the lines a bit, but is an easy removal. Just to the right of the fireplace sits what was once the rear window and glass door to the backyard, but now serves as the access point to a wide, open addition.

Original Kitchen with updated cabinet fronts and appliances

Great shot of that original kitchen - the big-box store chandelier needs to go though

The kitchen in this home really shines, with its yellow tile countertops and original cabinet boxes. It does appear as if the cabinet doors have been replaced and updated with squared, raised panel doors. The blending of new and old creates a funny look – it would have been better if the flipper retained the original doors. We love the floating cabinets where the cooktop is located, a fun feature that we see in other Palmer & Krisel-designed homes from time to time. Even the yellow VCT floor tiles appear to be vintage, which is great to see still in place.

Bathroom off of Kitchen/Entry. Note generic vanity, mirror too small for the space and ill-placed wall light fixture

Hall bathroom - large floor tiles as tub surround aren't centered on fixtures, creating a permanent off-centered, unbalanced appearance

The bathrooms of the home appear to have been updated in a very generic style that is functional, but clearly originates from a big-box home improvement store. The hall bath also features floor tile on the walls, a common cost-saving technique of flippers that readily reads as such. The other detail that the flipper overlooked is that the tile surrounding the faucets and shower head of the tub isn’t even centered on the center fixtures, creating a permanent uneven and unbalanced look.

Master Bedroom

All three bedrooms feature vaulted ceilings which help visually enlarge small spaces, and all feature laminate wood floors. The master bedrooms still features its original clerestory windows. The backyard has not been improved, another common trait of flippers. The general assumption is that home buyers have made up their minds whether or not to buy a home before they walk out back, therefore no to spend additional money on the yard.

Backyard remains untouched and unimproved by the flipper

It’s great that the original kitchen is still in place, along with the wonderful modernist fireplace in the living room, but there’s other parts of the home that need to be reconsidered, namely the bathrooms, and there’s a desperate need for color on the property. These faults aside, it’s a great price on a Palmer & Krisel-designed home, and if you’ve got to live in Hanford and love mid-mod, this home is a pretty good option.

Check out the full listing on Realtor.com here: 1000 East Myrtle Avenue