Author: John Griffin

There’s your thoroughbred bungalow with second-floor pop-ups and deep bay-window extensions, and then there’s your trusty mule bungalow that is the workhorse of the housing stable. This is more the workhorse built to provide long service with an eminently livable layout but not too many fussy details to maintain.

Bungalows large or small were built to last. Brick and stucco were the preferred exterior materials, and here the majority of the house, including the front-porch rail and the tapering porch columns, are brick. Only the upper front gables and the rear are finished in rough-textured stucco.

The front yard has well-sited trees that now frame the view to the door but will, in years to come, add shade as well. A dogwood will remain the under story ornamental, but a maple and oak will fill to majestic proportions. The late-afternoon sun is already blocked by a western trellis on the porch entwined with Carolina jessamine. Once on the porch, the beadboard ceiling, porch swing, and ceiling fan make you want to forget your cares and rest here awhile.

But cross on over the threshold, as there are further delights. The living and dining rooms have had their original dividing wall removed and now extend the big, open welcome of a South Main Street loft. A brick surround provides the appropriately simple adornment of the fireplace. The nine-foot-tall rooms feature both picture molding and cove at the ceiling juncture. There is a ceiling fan in practically every room of the house, which is important not just in summer but also to even out heat distribution throughout the house in winter.

Another welcome change is that the stairs to the attic have been opened up into the living and dining rooms and not kept enclosed, as is more typical of bungalows. The attic has also been finished as a living space. There is track lighting, and this large upper room has also recently been recarpeted. This space provides a nice guest bedroom and still functions as a great studio or home office when guests are not ensconced.

The other two bedrooms occupy the front and rear corners of one side of the ground floor. This allows each of them to have windows on two sides for better light and cross-ventilation, which, blessedly, during springs like this one, is all we need. The bath between them has recently had ceramic tile installed around the tub and retains its original hexagonal-tile floor in perfect working order.

The kitchen has, like the living and dining rooms, been opened up. The original butler’s pantry can now be either a breakfast nook or a cozy seating area. The wall to the back porch has also been removed, allowing the kitchen views to the rear yard. There is a reasonable amount of workspace and storage cabinets here, but there is also enough room to add more cabinets the next time the floor and countertops are updated. A small chopping block would fit in well now. There is a handy rear storage room that, besides holding the boiler for the working radiators, has lots of shelving for household storage needs.

Out back is a large screened porch that might be even nicer than the front porch. The rear yard is fenced, and shared perimeter plantings make it ever so private. A drive gate up front allows you to bring a car or two inside if you desire. The current owner, in residence seven years, has lovingly painted the place, and the new, single-layer roof is only two years old.

If I had to choose between a thoroughbred and a mule to get behind in the morning and plow, I’d bet on this one to last a lifetime.

1850 Walker Avenue

Approximately 1,710 square feet

3 bedrooms, 1 bath

$127,500 FSBO/Will co-op

The Hobson Company

David Leonard, 278-4433

It was as if the government mandated so many bungalows per lot in Midtown in the 1920s. I am sure there was a congressional act tacked onto some weightier matter, no doubt called the Bungalow Bill.

Bungalows were easy to build. A rectangular, shoe-box shape with a moderately low pitched roof, they usually had a full-width concrete-floored porch across the front with brick and/or stone columns. The simple shape made them fit on any width city lot, leaving room for a side drive and a carport in the rear. There was often a small basement and permanent stairs to the attic providing easy access for storage. Inside, floors were oak, and trim and doors were often tupelo or black gum, a local wood that rivaled mahogany in color and grain pattern.

Bungalows are easy to maintain. One reason that home buyers have always loved bungalows is the uncomplicated layout. Halls were kept to a minimum, and public rooms opened directly to each other, and sometimes to the front porch, through pairs of glazed French doors.

Materials like oak floors and black-gum trim needed little maintenance and certainly weren t designed to ever be painted. Likewise, the outside (brick and stone) was built to withstand the test of time. The only wood outside to paint was the window and door surrounds and the deep overhanging roof eaves. This was the first easy-living house after the Victorian era.

The expansiveness of the Victorians demanded not only a different fork for each course at dinner but likewise a different room for every function (morning room, sun room, music room, parlor, library, ad nauseum). Bungalows were the standard-bearers whose motto was Stop all that nonsense. Simplify life. Bungalows were a response to the passing of the Victorian Age when bigger was not always better or even attainable.

Bungalows remain flexible. Rooms were designed to be multifunctional. The use of French doors allowed a room to be thrown open as needed for bigger gatherings but just as easily closed and used as a guest room or office. The kitchen usually had an attached breakfast room with built-in cabinetry and, frequently, a rear-latticed porch to hold garden tools and the icebox.

Both of these rooms remain invaluable. First, the rear porch could be easily enclosed providing the perfect spot to add a washer and dryer when the outdoor clothesline went the way of the icebox. Secondly, the breakfast room can easily be incorporated into the kitchen by removing the wall and thus gaining space for a breakfast bar or a seating area.

This week s house exhibits all the best attributes of the bungalow. The white-oak floors need only a good buffing, and the red-gum trim and French doors remain unpainted and breathtaking. Regretfully, the rustic stone surround of the fireplace has been painted, but a little love and some paint remover can fix that. There is also that second front room that doubles as private or public as needed.

The kitchen has been nicely updated and finished in a palette of creamy whites. The back porch has been enclosed and the attic is fully floored. The breakfast room is still discreet, but a small amount of indiscretion and a sledgehammer would change that. The rear yard is privacy-fenced, and there is a freestanding carport with attached storage room. What s needed here is a little imagination with the color scheme, a few nifty light fixtures, and some fresh landscaping. Nothing too difficult, and this easy-living bungalow in Evergreen remains as rock-solid as an act of Congress.

414 N. Willett St.

Approximately 1,450 square feet

2 bedrooms, 1 bath

$139,000

The Hobson Company

Charlotte Liles, 761-1622

Having finally settled on just the right spot, I turn the soil to plant a new hosta selection with particularly striking leaf variegation. Abruptly, a tiny, old china saucer with squiggles of blue lines reminds me that children played house in my yard at the turn of the last century. My glorious new hosta is forgotten as I, hoping to unearth a tiny cup as well, gently sift the soil, finding instead fat earthworms and the occasional lump of ancient bituminous coal.

My house tilts away from its current track-lighted interior spotlighting canvasses and quilts to a time when coal was hauled in daily to stoke winter fires, and gas lines remaining in the attic supplied the first inhabitants with sputtering light against the night. I’m cast back a hundred years into a time warp, a moment of reverie, which reoccurs every time I spot that little saucer on my sideboard.

I round the corner of Goodlett and Southern, turning back toward the University of Memphis campus. Townhouses from the 1990s and post-WW II homes are the norm here. Between two rows of these townhomes, a smaller, older structure terminates the view. This little house shows the regular rows of bricks turned end-wise to bond the wall together as the courses were laid up. No 20th-century building, this.

The Memphis and LaGrange Railroad, begun in 1845, was the first line out of the city and extended initially 40 miles. Before FedEx, when goods traveled by the iron horse or by horse and buggy, this house was the carriage building to the Philo Goodwyn plantation. Philo Goodwyn was born in Kentucky in 1824. When he was 9 years old the family relocated to New Orleans. He, likewise, relocated his family to Memphis in the early 1840s, inhabiting a home on Adams Avenue and locating a plantation home in 1846 along the new railroad where cotton could easily be shipped into Memphis. It would have been a grand house to have had, since even the carriage house was built of such fine material as brick. Now all is vanished but for this delightful remnant.

In 1989, when the surrounding townhomes were built, this structure was reworked as a residence. The two original downstairs rooms were finished for living and dining. A fireplace opens into the living room, and a spiraling stair winds up out of the dining room. Some of the original brick walls were left exposed inside, and pecky cypress boards finish the interior.

New construction provided room for an eat-in kitchen with a surprisingly long run of counter and cabinets. A half-bath and a laundry closet complete the ground floor. Upstairs, two bedrooms were created along with a full bath. Closets are not plentiful, but the current owner converted the smaller of the two bedrooms into a spacious dressing room which, for a couple, makes a lot of sense.

This surviving structure from an earlier era has been quite successfully adapted as a comfortable living space today. The scale of the rooms and the low-ceilinged garret of the second floor all impart a distinct sense of its age. The original brick and the pecky cypress add a note of appealing rusticity. Modern conveniences like central heat and air, ample off-street parking, and a brick-walled patio don’t hurt either. It’s a delightful time warp and, no matter where you find it, I’d recommend it.

This house is on the border between the Berclair and Nutbush neighborhoods north of Summer Avenue, just off Graham. I cut through here occasionally, but when I heard there was a renovated house on the market for $60,000 I made a beeline over to take a look-see. That’s about what I paid for my starter (and still-current) home 25 years ago. And finding anything in that price range today is rare indeed.

First the negatives. It’s got some original paneling that’s been freshened up with a good coat of primer and a nice soft paint color. The ceilings are only eight feet. There isn’t central heat and air, and the house is small. You were expecting 10-foot ceilings and 1,200 square feet completely renovated for $60,000? Get real!!

This little house is set on a well-maintained street with a lot of long-term residents. It also has two lovely, mature oaks in the south-facing front yard. They alone will go a long way in reducing those air-conditioning bills in the summer. There’s another large tree in the rear yard too. You will have leaves to rake in the fall, but the trade-off is worth it.

This renovation removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room to open up the space. New cabinets were installed, as were a ceramic-tile countertop and backsplash, something not common at this price range. A beadboard wainscot wraps around the bottom half of the new kitchen and dining room. This material takes abuse better than Sheetrock, and the glossy paint finish is easier to keep clean, no little matter in the long run.

The living room is comfortably scaled, and, surprisingly, the two bedrooms each have two generous windows that allow light and air from two directions. That’s a detail most new homes even above this price range have eliminated as nonessential — to their detriment. Both the living room and bedrooms have been newly carpeted, and new fans and lights have been installed throughout the house.

The bathroom was also completely redone. Well, not 100 percent, because the renovators realized the value of the original heavy tub and kept it when all else was gutted and set on the street. So, with the original tub as centerpiece, a new toilet and pedestal sink were installed. This room also got a beadboard wainscoting, and the walls above were given a light tone-on-tone faux finish to add pizzazz.

There is a carport attached to the house on the west side and a covered front porch to welcome guests. In addition, there is a masonry, single-car garage out back that has had an equally large wood-framed shop added to the rear. You could probably park two cars nose-to-tail if you just had to, but having that shop area seems like a better deal. There is also a separate, small shed to store garden tools

This little house has been redone top to bottom. The lot is large and could easily accommodate an addition off the rear. That would make it easy to expand the kitchen and add a master bath as well. It is in move-in condition and quite appealing, but it’s the price that makes it a rare find.

4042 Print Avenue

720 square feet

2 bedrooms, 1 bath; $59,900

FSBO: Teresa, 409-1422

This house, built along North Parkway in 1939, began as a very traditional Colonial Revival. The primary roof runs parallel to the street, and a gabled porch sits at the center of the main mass, supported on one end by a single, large Tuscan column. But in the 1950s, a wholesale renovation swept through like a tornado, and when it was over, this Colonial cutie became one of Midtown’s outstanding mid-century mods.

The first hint of this is that the other front-porch column has been replaced with a rectangular brick pier with a planter at its base. Once on the porch, the asymmetrical grid of the west side trellis appears — a classic ’50s decorative divider. The windows in the public rooms have been replaced and gridded to resemble a Japanese shoji screen. (Ray and Charles Eames also played with this same grid design in some of their famous ’50s wall units.) Even the brick walks and porch floor are laid in this same pattern. You quickly figure out that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

The living and dining rooms are united by white-oak floors and nine-foot ceilings. A sun room to the east was obviously once an open porch but has now been enclosed with two walls of glass, the far end filled with bookcases and media cabinetry. These three public rooms have the sweep of a loft and provide the perfect setting for a growing collection of mid-century modern furniture.

The bedroom wing is to the rear. The first bedroom could easily do double-duty as an office and a guest room. There’s a wall-long built-in desk with storage to both sides. This room is paneled and might just benefit from a coat of paint. But all that the cork-tile floor needs is a colorful area rug to set it off. Midway down the back hall, the bedroom wing can be closed off with a folding shoji-screen door. This handy placement allows additional privacy in the sleeping areas when folks are still active in the front rooms.

During the same ’50s renovation, a large master suite was added off the rear. It’s got a spacious bedroom with lots of built-in storage and a long cedar-planked closet. The adjoining, private bath is comfortably scaled and done simply in white ceramic with black accents. The current owner (only the second in the house’s history) finished the attic to create a fourth, also very large bedroom and yet another private bath.

The big production here was saved for the kitchen. All the cabinetry was replaced in the ’50s and has its original stained finish and sliding doors like miniature shoji screens. Even the backsplash above the countertops is wood. Adjustable shelf units can be moved about as needed. This is a novel detail I’ve never seen before (and that certainly doesn’t happen too often). Both the cooktop and the wall oven are by Chambers, one of the hottest names in the kitchen-appliance market. If I changed anything, I would spice up the countertops with a more colorful plastic laminate or a cool selection of stone — but only if that backsplash could be safely preserved!

The yard is filled with a nice selection of plants and places from which to enjoy them. A double garage out back is well-screened, and the laundry room has a sink, countertop, and storage to make it a potting shed as well. The front walk runs past a local tupelo tree just starting to show its glorious fall reds. Mature azaleas abound, as do huge old crape myrtles. And a couple of Japanese maples are carefully sited. Even a sea of poppies wouldn’t prevent me from clicking my heels twice and whisking right over if I were looking for a special place to call home.

1578 North Parkway

2,400 square feet

4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths; $189,000

Realtor: Crye-Leike, 766-9004

Agent: Virginia Kyle, 484-6080

Neander Woods Jr. may have been Memphis’ most inventive architect of the first quarter of the 20th century. He did notable buildings downtown like the Cotton Exchange, but his houses, mostly sited in Central Gardens, are distinguished by a very organic twisting of floor plans and by roof volumes that both hunker low over porches and push up through the roof as dormers in a controlled explosion of form. He was the Frank Gehry of his day — working with only tile, stucco, and stone.

One of Woods’ signature forms was to twist the carriage entrance, or porte cochere, away from the primary mass of the house on a diagonal and set a covered, outdoor entertaining room across the drive but accessible to the house via the entry. These garden pavilions usually end up surrounded by masses of azaleas, which, as they mature, provide a private spot from which to view activities in the front yard and out on the street.

This house in Hein Park is thought to date from the late 1920s but seems consistent with the work Woods was doing between 1909 and 1912. One of the exceptional features is the unusually deep front yard. This allows the drive to begin over against the right property line and continue to the house, hugging that side and leaving an expansive front yard until the last moment, when it too turns at a diagonal running in front of the house and under the porte cochere. This is as close to foreplay as architecture gets.

After alighting, you proceed up the diagonal entry where French doors tease you with views of the living room. At the last moment, you turn yet again and enter the foyer. The narrow-oak floors have inlaid borders of dark and light woods. The living room has a very late 1920s or early 1930s Moderne fireplace mantel of spandrel glass, which was commonly used on Deco commercial facades. It’s too cool and could easily be Woods pushing the envelope once again in the late ’20s.

The interior wood trim has been blessedly spared the paint brush and has mellowed to an unspoiled patina. The dining room is pushed out in a separate wing with windows on three sides so that you practically dine al fresco every night. The kitchen is surprisingly large for its day. But if it’s gone through a later structural enlargement, it was done seamlessly. There are dark beams at the ceiling and an overscaled wrought-iron chandelier, both of which seem too fancy for a “staffed” kitchen but look perfect. There’s also a back service porch and a breakfast room currently used as a home office. One rear corner of the main floor houses a bedroom with an adjacent full bath.

The stairs are tucked away off the back hall. Downstairs, a room is finished in the basement, and up are three bedrooms and another full bath. The master bedroom runs across the rear of the house and is also surprisingly large. A wall of built-ins accommodates hanging and folding clothes. But the ultimate bedroom here is the one over the diagonal porte cochere that commands the property, with views in all directions.

There are also two water features of note here: A kidney-shaped water garden is nestled into the crook of the front drive and filled with water lilies, horsetail, and other aquatic plants. Out back, in lieu of more lawn, is a Gunite pool. It’s big, as is the paved deck around it, and the only room left is occupied by a two-car garage and shrub borders. So after the buildup to the house, with all its architectural bells and whistles, you can cool down by the pool out back and steal yet another post-ramble glance at this sexy beast.

665 N. Trezevant St.

2,800 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths; $335,000

Realtor: Re/Max Elite, 685-6000

Agent: Nancy Ligon Hughes, 550-1412

There’s something about a really significant building that attracts zealots. Really old houses fall into this category, and most folks wouldn’t touch them at any price. Then there are the truly driven who throw themselves at a project with almost religious devotion. It’s important to remember some zealots are the only ones willing to preserve our cultural treasures.

The Eli Rayner House has enjoyed the attentions of a devoted house fanatic for a while now. The property was acquired by the current owner more than 20 years ago, and major structural repairs and systems updating were undertaken. That kind of money spent on a project is more a hidden investment that doesn’t add glamour or rich detailing but rather adds years to the life of the house.

This is a house worthy of the investment. Eli Rayner, born in North Carolina in 1815, had settled in Fayette County by 1851, but he decided to relocate closer to Memphis as his five children grew up. So he bought 2,000 acres of prime cotton land along the right-of-way of the newly founded Memphis & Charleston Railroad. In 1865, he erected this spectacular example of the Old South, a Greek temple built of local yellow poplar just as the end of the plantation economy was at hand and during the last gasps of the Greek Revival style.

The house features an exceptionally narrow two-story center pavilion with a full-width temple front. Matching one-story wings flank the center pavilion. The door surround has narrow sidelights and a transom filled with leaded glass. A wrought-iron balcony hangs under the portico at second-floor level.

The two-story fluted Corinthian columns with their foliated capitals (normally, acanthus leaves, but, this being Memphis, they’re supposedly lotus!) are the most difficult to carve and, subsequently, the least common. The cornice and pedimented front gable (think Parthenon) are also intricately worked with paired sawn brackets and a round gable vest, both of which owe a nod to the contemporaneously popular Italianate style.

Inside there is a grand central entry with a “floating” circular stair featuring a most delicate balustrade. One side wing is an immense living room. The dining room is directly behind the entry, overlooking the backyard. The other wing contains a bedroom which could also be a home office or a library. A country kitchen fills out this wing with an attached, sumptuously scaled, latticed porch that, with a little wire screening, would be perfect for outdoor dining.

Some outbuildings remain, and the house sits upon a generous corner lot, but little has been done to the landscaping of late. History tells us that Eli Rayner had extensive gardens, including greenhouses where he grew exotic tropicals like lemons and oranges. If that’s the kind of historical tidbit that fires up your imagination, then this may be just the cultural treasure you’d fall fast in love with.

1020 Rayner Street

3,100 square feet

3 bedrooms, 2 baths;

$109,900

Realtor: Crye-Leike,

276-8800

Agent: Scott Housewirth,

864-9592

This looks more like a small town home than a city residence. North Parkway was newly built and neither Rhodes nor Hein Park had even been laid out when this part of Vollintine-Evergreen was being filled in with rustic bungalows and slightly fancier Queen Anne cottages.

The house is a bungalow in the Arts and Crafts Style, which promoted casual, informal living. The exterior reflects this in its heavily textured stucco, deep overhanging roof supported by large triangular brackets, and a welcoming front porch that runs the full width of the house. Mature sweet gums cast the majority of the front yard in shade and perfectly frame the house. Miniature fairy roses line the wall that runs from the street to the porch. Evergreen azaleas and nandinas in front of the porch provide spring flowers and winterberries.

Amazingly for the 1920s, when ceiling heights were dropping to nine and even eight feet, this house is graced with 10-foot ceilings. The shed roof with its deep overhang makes the house feel low from the street, so it’s a surprise to enter and find rooms that are tall and generously scaled.

The living-room seating area is arranged nicely around a fireplace flanked by bookcases. The entrance end is equally spacious and now comfortably holds a baby-grand piano. Likewise, the dining room beyond is a large, almost banquet-scaled room that feels even bigger because a long bay window with a built-in seat pushes the room out to the west.

Two bedrooms and a bath are downstairs. Both bedrooms also feature expansive bay windows. The bath has had a shower added near the tub. A long vanity topped with a slab of black marble and with an undermounted white sink is the appropriate focus here.

The original attic fan still operates so in spring you can employ it for cooling rather than the new central heat-and-air system. A fan is a real bonus from the past that is too often removed in renovations.

The kitchen has been renovated by the current owners several times since they took up residence in 1958 — a testament to the continuing appeal of the street. Most houses here are now occupied by younger households who are renovating and adding on.

Although the kitchen layout is perfectly functional, it’s probably due another update. The washer and dryer have been relocated from the basement to an area that was originally the breakfast room and butler’s pantry. The center of the space holds the kitchen in a galley layout, and the rear, which had been porch and utility, has been opened up to the backyard, with triple French doors providing the perfect new eating area.

Out back, the patio would benefit from the addition of an arbor, since the rear yard, unlike the front, is very sunny. Of course, it’s a perfect area for flower and vegetable gardening, and there are some spectacular perimeter shrubs like leather leaf viburnums and even several gardenias. There are two garden sheds in the rear corners of the fenced backyard and rear-alley access.

The rear-alley access would allow you to build a freestanding garage, but a spacious shed-roofed carport has already been attached to the house with a drive gate and an exterior door right into the kitchen for easy grocery unloading.

The upstairs has also been finished out with two rooms. The addition of a bath here would turn this into quite a nice master suite. With all the work that’s been done this is an eminently livable house, which, with a little updating, could easily become a shed-roofed showcase.

1755 Faxon Avenue

1,760 square feet

3 bedrooms, 1 bath; $139,900

Realtor: Crye-Leike, 372-3690

Agent: Clarry Foster, 381-4655

This house near the University of Memphis has just had a very thorough renovation inside and out. It had been inhabited, but the yard was completely neglected. Suffice it to say, there was no lawn. The adjoining neighbors refused to even trim their hedges, because it was just too depressing to look next door. After the recent renovation, they didn’t just trim the hedges, they removed them to enjoy the view. Need I say more?

The current owner started this renovation from the top down just two years ago. There’s a new roof, new storm windows, and new electrical and water services. The water heater and central heat and air are new, as is the large deck out back. There’re also a new privacy fence around the backyard topped with lattice on the Southern Avenue side and a white picket fence along that street in the front yard. There’s even new evergreen plantings, which, as they mature, will buffer the street noise. The real treat is the half-dozen mature shade trees that keep the house decidedly cooler in summer. The light that falls through them now dances across a newly planted lawn.

The house itself has a symmetrical facade with two shuttered windows flanking a central-pedimented front porch. The porch isn’t one of those vestigial things but large enough to hold a porch swing and two chairs, creating an inviting entry. Since this is a Colonial Revival home, the square wooden columns are appropriate, but it would be more fun to beef them up a bit. Either a pair this size at each corner or two larger columns would add even more architectural interest.

Inside’s received equal treatment. Two doors to the kitchen were relocated so that counter and cabinet space could be doubled. A pair of windows in the middle bedroom were converted to French doors onto the new deck. This allows more light and makes this room perfect for a den or home office.

There are two master-bedroom options here. The one downstairs is in the back corner and doesn’t connect to the main bath but is immediately adjoining. The ample lot, however, would make an addition to this room for more closets and a private bath a cinch.

Upstairs holds another option for the master. There, a brand-new bath and closet do connect to the bedroom. The new bath has the added touches of a travertine vanity top and glass block, which lets light into the new tub/shower. The glass blocks are set flush with the ceramic tile around the tub so there is no future problem of water standing here.

All the quartersawn oak floors in the house have been freshly sanded and refinished. The interior and exterior are newly painted, and an antique oak overmantel with mirror has been installed above the wood-burning fireplace in the living room. New fans and lights are the final touch in this textbook reno.

597 S. Holmes St.

1,300 square feet

3 bedrooms, 2 baths; $124,900

Realtor: Sowell & Company, 278-4380

Agent: Steve Solomon, 454-1931

There is a penchant these days for all things Country French. In the design of houses, it’s manifest in an asymmetrical layout with an extremely high-pitched roof and a lot of stonework. A graveled courtyard is usually thrown in for good measure. These details derive from the grand 16th-century chateaus, especially the ones that line the Loire Valley.

This house was built in 1939 for a newly married couple. The bride was a native of New Orleans and, therefore, fond of all things French. She loved the village of Versailles just outside of Paris, and so this house was based on the style of that area.

The front is quite symmetrical, the roof pitch is rather low, and neither stone nor gravel is in sight. This is more astonishing when you realize that the first floor mimics a stone facade. The door surround, lintels over the windows, and quoining at the corners are all typical of French stone detailing.

Memphis being a hardwood center, with not a quarry in sight, the builders copied all these details faithfully in wood. After all, George Washington did the same at Mount Vernon. George even enhanced the effect by adding coarse sand to the paint to give more texture to those Virginia pine boards.

The current occupant has only been in residence for the past four years, but the long list of accomplishments suggests it has been a busy time filled with renovations. The house was repainted top to bottom, in and out, in a pale, neutral palette. That required a lot of wood replacement and new gutters. At the same time, new plantation shutters were added inside the house. Bathroom tiles were replaced in an equally off-white scheme, and the master bath was gutted and rebuilt from scratch. A new laundry closet off the kitchen was added at the same time. All of the wood floors were refinished, and electrical, security, and mechanical systems were enlarged and updated.

This renovation allowed the original plan to shine anew. The brick-floored center hall opens to a big living room. This room focuses on a fireplace surrounded by floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The formal dining room opens to a large, renovated kitchen with an adjoining cathedral-ceilinged keeping room. A brick-floored sun room overlooks the deep rear yard. There is a downstairs master suite, and upstairs are two large bedrooms with a shared bath and a separate cedar closet. A two-car garage has an attached shop, and there’s additional tool storage as well.

A detached guest house out back has also been redone top to bottom. It would be a great home office or studio space as well. A wood-framed greenhouse with a brick floor has been converted into a dining pavilion with grill, sink, and potting areas.

The grounds were not overlooked. Trees were thinned and removed. A formal woodland garden was created in front where dense planting obscures the street. A new drive and guest parking were installed. The owner’s collection of Japanese maples was carefully sited around the property. A formal yard was laid out in the rear and surrounded by broad beds filled with an extensive selection of shrubs and perennials. Irrigation and exterior lighting maintain the plantings and highlight them in the evenings. The plantings around the perimeter of the property are so mature that you’d hardly know this wonderful house was there and certainly not have witnessed all the work that has recently gone on. Now is your chance to enjoy this delightful French confection.

476 South Goodlett St.

3,500 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; $379,500

Realtor: The Hobson Company, 761-1622

Agents: Lila Saunders, 312-2986

Mary Frances Pitts, 312-2942