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In 1975, inspired by ancient American Indian mounds and prehistoric earthworks, the renowned modernist architect William Morgan carved the Dune House into the sand outside Jacksonville, Florida. Now it’s for sale for $1.85 million.
Two Florida realtors, Tansy Moon and Martie Lieberman, are working hard to find a buyer who will keep this unique oceanfront property intact.
Tucked inside are two 1BR, 1 bath units (share it with a friend?), with ‘conversation pits’ and other original built-ins. The architect used the house as rental property. He liked to water the Dune House’s grass roof each evening to relax, his wife Bunny said. The houses on either side are also distinguished William Morgan designs.
(Click on any of the images below to enlarge them.)
At William Morgan’s own site, you can see the architect’s entire body of work — all futuristic but probably none so much as the Dune House.
There’s a tour of Morgan’s extraordinary work in the Jacksonville and Gainesville areas coming up March 7, sponsored by the Jacksonville AIA and Florida’s Docomomo.
IN LATE 2007, I GOT A NEW MORTGAGE from Sovereign Bank on an investment property in Philadelphia, and refinanced a weekend house in upstate New York with Countrywide, just before the fall.
In both cases, despite a perfectly lovely FICO score, I had to jump through an extensive series of hoops. So I’ve never quite understood this whole business about mortgages having been handed out freely to anyone with a heartbeat (I suppose the difference is that I was looking for a decent rate).
Lately I’ve been wondering: if I were to find that next great old house this weekend, would I be able to get a mortgage in this market? How much cash do I have to hoard? What kind of creative financing would be in order?
Short of applying for a new loan myself and finding out the hard way, I decided to e-mail my questions to several real estate brokers I know. I got replies from Gary DiMauro of Gary DiMauro Real Estate, a vintage-property specialist with offices in Tivoli, Hudson, and Catskill, N.Y.; Jim Cumisky of Quogue East Realty, East Quogue, L.I.; and Johnny McDonald, a Philadelphia realtor and developer of LEED-certified ‘green’ condos in the Northern Liberties area, including Onion Flats and Thin Flats.
Here are my questions, and a summary of what they had to say:
- How “frozen” is the current mortgage market? Is it really more difficult to get a mortgage than it was a year ago?
- How much down payment is required now? Is that percentage more than in the past?
- How flexible are sellers as to prices? Are sellers taking back mortgages more than in the past? Read the rest of this entry »
Finally! After 30 years, the producers of the long-running ‘This Old House’ PBS TV series have noticed that Brooklyn has a few 19th century houses (the nation’s largest stock, actually) in need of spiffing up.
For their next reno project, they’ve chosen a modest, bay-windowed 1904 Prospect Heights row house owned by a young couple with three sons. The house is absolutely LADEN with original, late-Victorian woodwork from the days when builders ordered from catalogues of mass-produced millwork.
(Click any of the above images to enlarge it)
“The more the better” was the attitude, and this house has intact everything, from oak archways, classical columns, and gingerbread fretwork to built-in birds-eye maple cabinets and fancy brass door knobs and hinges..
It’s not just a refinishing job; they are also reincarnating the four-story house as a three-family, with an owner duplex in the middle and rental units on the garden level and top floor.
The Brooklyn segments start airing in mid-February. In the meantime, there’s more on this project in the January/February issue of This Old House magazine.
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