What $750,000 Buys You in Connecticut Missouri and Minnesota
Noank, Conn. | $749,000
A one-and-a-half-story cottage built in 1846, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, on a 0.26-acre lot
This property is in a tiny, historic village on a peninsula between Groton (about six miles northwest) and Mystic (about three miles northeast), on the coast of southeastern Connecticut. It occupies a residential and commercial street near the waterfront, at a high enough elevation to prevent flooding. (The website Flood Factor ranks the 30-year risk as minimal.) The house is within a few blocks of deepwater marinas and popular restaurants, including Costello’s Clam Shack and Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough. A liquor store up the street makes deliveries with a golf cart.
Size: 1,721 square feet
Price per square foot: $435
Indoors: The current owners, one of whom is a retired building contractor, bought the house five years ago and put in a new kitchen. The front door opens into a small foyer. To the right, French doors lead to a parlor of about 12 by 14 feet, with hardwood floors, two exposures, a built-in bookcase and a propane-fueled fireplace. This room and the hallway alongside it continue into a living-and-dining room that extends the width of the house (about 24 feet) and contains built-ins and a nonfunctional fireplace.
A doorway and pass-through provide access to the kitchen, which has white and knotty-pine cabinets with marble counters, white subway-tile backsplashes, a central island and stainless steel appliances. Beyond the kitchen is a second hallway that connects to a white-tiled bathroom with a corner shower. Sliding doors at the back open to a patio.
The second floor contains a short hallway with entries into two bedrooms with slanted ceilings and skylights; a full bathroom; and a walk-in closet. The rear bedroom opens into another, large closet; beyond it is a windowed room about 13 by 19 square feet that currently holds a full-size washing machine and dryer.
Outdoor space: A white picket fence decorates the front yard. The rear patio is paved in bluestone, and there is a large lawn, a pergola and a shingled storage shed. A gravel driveway provides ample parking space.
Taxes: $7,572
Contact: Judith Caracausa, Market Realty, 860-912-9903; marketrealtyllc.com
St. Louis | $729,999
A 1902 American Foursquare with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, on a 7,187-square-foot lot
This house is in the Central West End neighborhood, about a mile north of Forest Park, with its lakes, lagoons and cultural riches, including the St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Art Museum and Forest Park Golf Course. The area has many shops and restaurants and is near the Barnes-Jewish medical campus, St. Louis University and historic Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.
Size: 4,073 square feet
Price per square foot: $179
Indoors: The windowed front entrance leads into a central hallway with tiger-striped oak wainscoting, carved doorway frames and fluted columns. To the right, pocket doors open to a double parlor containing bay windows at the front and on the side, and a pair of currently nonfunctioning brick fireplaces flanked by stained glass.
To the left, another set of pocket doors opens to a royal blue dining room with period lighting. There, the fireplace is covered in subway tile and surrounded by plaster decoration. At the end of the center hall is a powder room with vintage-style fixtures and basket-weave floor tile.
Turning left before the tiger-striped oak front staircase — which has a diamond-mullioned casement window on the landing, with a bench — takes you into the kitchen. The recently updated room includes marble-patterned ceramic-tile flooring, silver metallic hardware, illuminated upper cabinets and a walk-in pantry. The service staircase is off to one side, and a sun porch on the other side walks out to the backyard.
On the second floor, the bedrooms have connecting doors as well as hallway entrances, offering opportunities to create a large master suite with an office and private bathroom (with a marble-tile floor, a Shaker-style vanity with double sinks and a walk-in shower). A second bathroom is painted purple and has a bathtub with a shower head. There is also a windowed laundry room.
The third floor includes two additional bedrooms with hardwood floors and dormers and a bathroom with a marble-topped vanity and shower.
Outdoor space: A rocking-chair porch is in front, and a lawn and garden beds are in back. A detached brick garage can be entered on foot from the garden, or by vehicle from a rear alley.
Taxes: $11,031, plus a $500 annual homeowners’ fee covering the landscaping and upkeep of common grounds
Contact: Robin Halterman or Traci Stix, Dielmann Sotheby’s International Realty, 314-456-6733; dielmannsothebysrealty.com
St. Paul, Minn. | $739,900
An 1890 Queen Anne house with seven bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, on a 6,098-square-foot lot
This pale lilac house is on Summit Hill, seven blocks south of Grand Avenue, the district’s main commercial corridor, and less than 15 minutes from the downtowns of both Twin Cities. Coffee shops, wine stores, parks and a Pottery Barn are all within walking distance. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is about six miles southwest.
Size: 4,033 square feet
Price per square foot: $183
Indoors: A deep rocking-chair porch with columns leads to an interior with narrow-plank hardwood floors and a black-and-white color scheme. The house has had only five owners in 130 years. Many of its Victorian trimmings have been left intact, while its systems have been updated with central air-conditioning.
The paneled and windowpaned front door opens to a hall dividing a double parlor and dining room on the right from a study and staircase on the left. The parlor includes a front-facing bay window with leaded glass over a center pane and a currently nonfunctioning fireplace with a green-tile surround and mirrored overmantel. The original chandelier is fringed like a flapper’s dress.
More leaded glass decorates the side windows, while a matching fringed chandelier dangles from the ceiling as you move toward the dining room at the rear. Here, there is a stained-glass chandelier and a fireplace with a wrought-iron grate, as well as a wall of built-in cabinetry ornamented with arched and leaded-glass door fronts.
Leaded glass is centered in the bay window of the study immediately to the left of the front door. Beyond the staircase is an aquamarine powder room, and then a kitchen wrapped in wood cabinets with laminate tops and Harlequin-diamond-patterned ceramic wall tile.
An illuminated newel post cap shaped like a girl holding a basket of flowers is a staircase novelty and is backed by a trio of leaded-glass windows and walls papered above the wainscot in a black-and-white pattern.
The second-floor master bedroom includes a bay with a leaded-glass window. It connects to a sitting room that contains bookshelves and a decorative green-marble fireplace, and also incorporates an open dressing room with a pedestal sink, double closets and a green-and-white-tiled bathroom. Two smaller bedrooms on this floor share a hall bathroom with mint-green walls and a claw-foot tub.
The third floor, reached by a back staircase, contains a large bedroom that opens to a front-facing balcony, as well as two bonus rooms.
Outdoor space: The house has a deep front porch and a fenced backyard containing a patio paved in brick. The two-car garage at the base of the lawn is entered from a rear alley and has finished space with electricity on its upper level.
Taxes: $10,006
Contact: Samantha Marks or Julie Gould, Re/Max Advantage Plus, 651-238-6155; remax.com
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