Selling Killdeer
After several years of making home at the New Orleans lakefront, we are selling our Lake Oaks house. We didn’t get to every project we’d imagined for this 1970 brick rancher, but we loved bringing some spark back into this not-so-old gal’s life. Before we move on to a new home in Macon, we’re reminiscing on the before/after images of this great space our family has loved.
Simple 1970 brick rancher as it was in early 2018. The house had been owned by a man named Sam Fazio, and all the neighbors had amazing stories about him. He'd clearly set it up as a wonderful space for entertaining in his younger years.
The neighborhood is named for its lakefront location and the amazing live oaks that line the streets. This tree in the front yard is really breathtaking. Stewards of our very own live oak!
Thankfully, some original elements to the house were untouched. While the wiring for the old speaker system has long been removed, three of the speaker panels remain. We left them intact because they're fantastic.
This beauty is really what got us. An enormous pool WITH original diving board--10' wide and 30' long, 11' deep at its deepest. We could squint and see the future.
We lost all of this shade in our first two years here. The palm tree was already dead (see previous picture of the fronds hanging over the diving board), and a hurricane took out most of the neighbors trees across the wall.
The original listing mentioned a pool house that can be used as a guest house. The only photo in the listing was this one, so we were eager to tour the property and find out the potential of that space.
A slight jungle, but a well-maintained old pool. I think we were sold from this photo alone.
From 2018 listing: Living room looking toward the front window and front door. Note: bare concrete where shag carpet was removed.
From listing: dining room looking toward front windows. Note the grey glass chandelier.
And here we begin to discover Sam's love of mirrors. We learned from his daughter that he had a jukebox in this room instead of using the space as a dining room.
The kitchen remains, for me, the biggest challenge. But the flow of the space has been a dream.
The dining room flows into the kitchen and into the large family room, so the somewhat cloistered kitchen is really saved by not having a 4th wall.
The family room opens straight out to the pool deck. While the tile floors aren't what I would have chosen for that space, they're absolutely perfect for wet people (especially kids) coming in and out of the house all summer long.
Now it gets funky. Sam Fazio must have been a wild man, and the few stories we have heard confirm that. The back bedroom (sliding doors go out to the pool deck) was formerly two small bedrooms. He knocked down a wall between the two and decorated with lots of blue paint and lots of mirrors. Mirrors on the closet doors. Mirrors on the ceiling fans. Mirrors on the blinds on the windows and door, and panels of mirrors on the walls.
Each of these panels was an unfinished piece of glass--nothing up to code, and we had a really hard time finally finding a salvage shop that would accept them.
Also, notice the floors are concrete. There was shag carpet throughout the house, and Sam's family removed the carpet before we bought it. They left the concrete (and carpet nails in the concrete) as is for a new buyer to design.
From original listing: This is the middle bedroom. For a family of 4, it meant someone got the short straw. But it would really make a perfect home office.
Making this long hall brighter was a fun challenge.
The primary bedroom really just needed fresh paint and whatever flooring choice we made.
Ah, the gold bathroom. Honestly, I love the vintage accents and didn't want to touch the old wallpaper. It was just about adding modern touches to the 1970 design.
Another huge mirror with Sam's signature blue. This bathroom has a jacuzzi tub that we've actually loved having.
As you can see from the original listing photo of the family room, the floor tile went up about the fireplace surround about 4'. The fireplace is not original and actually does not have a chimney. There was a a working, unvented gas flame installed when we moved in. As a tremendous safety hazard, we removed that immediately and had the gas line capped off. We decided we'd remove the tile and got so excited when we realized there was brick underneath!
Alas, Sam had installed a groovy clock in the 70s that required drilling considerable holes into the brick. See also: the favorite blue again. So, bummed about our failed exploration, Nathan began pretty for sheetrock *without* 4' of tile on the surround.
et voila!
Nathan wanted to go with a responsibly sourced, environmentally conscious cork flooring that spoke to the 70s vibes of the house. Knowing the 8' ceilings can be cavelike, I chose the brightest, truest white I could find. Du Jour by Valspar never turns yellow. I actually watched these samples over a week and eliminated them whenever one started to look yellow as light changed across the day.