As real estate agents, oftentimes when we are asked to come and view an older home that we will represent for sale, we walk into a loved and lived-in home and take time to study it – around, upward and down.
We can feel a home that has been loved and lived in with years of memories and cherished items: old skateboards and roller skates hanging in the garage; garden tools that have seen better days but could still be used to dig and shape a current garden; white casserole dishes with blue designs that have been the vehicle for delicious meals to neighbors in need or local holiday gatherings; or initials carved into the cement years ago.
The sight that makes all of us tear up a bit is the height charts drawn in the doorways that measure time and children (and sometimes pets) as they grow and change. The silver italic-lettered wooden name plates that perch atop the older weathered mailboxes with the homeowners’ last name always bring comfort of days perhaps more trusting and neighborly.
We encourage sellers to take photos of their favorite parts of the house and hang onto a few keepsakes and treasures. At times, it can soften the needed changes for a house sale.
We ask questions about the house’s history and ask the owners if they have stories to share. For example, is there meaning behind the exterior house color, and what is it? More often than not, answers will include stories of travel, their grandparents’ favorite colors or a love of history. It often helps us honor and give a nod to a new starting color scheme, making sure to retain some connection with the spirit and past of the home.
There are stories of porch swings, apricot orchards and kids on bikes from dawn to dusk. Tales of newspaper routes, big storms in past winters and amazing vegetable garden rewards. We savor these stories of old Los Altos and do our best to bring a house up to the warmth-filled essence it had when these families first moved here with a station wagon full of kids and a dog.
Bridging the decades
We have to ask ourselves: What is it that the older generations preserved and loved, and why? Are there safety concerns to address? Yes, there are pink and maroon bath tiles and tubs that we keep with a smile.
At times, they can be retained, updated and appreciated, as they now look “cool” with a nod to mid-century colors that broke the mold of years gone by. We find the challenge is with retaining ever-so-personal choices of wall-
paper, and we struggle to find reasons to keep it.
We respect the period of time when consumers pored over thick wallpaper sample books and chose one that perhaps later surprisingly placed an explosion of colors and patterns now glued on one’s walls and even ceilings. It was, as it is now, difficult to picture the resulting impact as represented in a scrap size in a book. So, wallpaper (with a few historical and elegant exceptions) is removed or concealed.
Another modern bump is wall-to-wall carpeting of old. Sometimes we pull back carpeting and it is preserving an oak floor that is waiting to be appreciated and has been hidden for years. More often than not, the wood floors need to be refinished and repaired (dang those huge potted plants of the 1970s), but the reward for the beauty of the original wood is breathtaking. Please consider having a flooring expert view and provide options to update the carpeting of yesteryear. It brings life back to a home. We promise.
Preparing a home – your home – for sale is about balance and the importance of bridging the Los Altos of yesteryear with the safety, needs and aesthetics of today. Updating can inspire the future homeowners either to continue with their ideas of the prettiest wallpaper ever or to live in the newly reborn home and add their own memories and experiences.
Owen Halliday is a longtime Los Altos resident and realtor who manages the Christie’s-Sereno office in downtown Los Altos. Call him at (650) 492-0062 or email [email protected].
