It was an honor to attend yesterday’s 26th Annual Bungalow Heaven tour in Pasadena. The owners of the eight featured houses, were kind enough to let us in and see their beautiful homes. What an exciting experience and what a sunny, lovely day it was!
Starting at 10 am, I traded in my $20 printed ticket (bought online) for a brochure with map, at the McDonald park. All the homes were very easily accessible and close to one another. The different bungalow styles consisted of Craftsman, Spanish and English Revival, and were built in the early 1900s, for around $2000-$10,000, at the time.
Heading to the first home on 798 Mar Vista Ave, I noticed the long line of people outside the home, but was relieved, as the line moved fairly quickly. The docents were grouping the visitors into ten at a time. We listened to a short introduction about the builder of the house while waiting on the porch. I was intrigued by all the architectural elements and fascinated that many details of the home are still original and well kept, such as the shingles, window box and casement windows with cruciform motif.
Heading into the house, the second docent took over and we were guided through the living area, bedrooms and lastly kitchen, with its original cabinets. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the interior, to protect the owner’s privacy.
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Other great elements to the houses were well intact original bathrooms, with wainscot, medicine cabinet, and sunken tub. Granite stone fire places flanked by built-in storage benches (where people spent lots of time staying warm, in those days), wide majestic solid pieces of crown molding, which would cost a fortune today, Chicago-style windows, and the list goes on. We found out that some of the homeowners crafted their own furniture….really cool!
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Strolling through the Bungalow Heaven neighborhood, I enjoyed listening to several music artist performing, see home owners’ arts and crafts and most important, refueling with lemonade and cookies at the refreshment stands. Overall a well-organized event that I highly recommend for anyone interested in the Arts and Crafts era.
Learn more about bungalow heaven by visiting http://www.bungalowheaven.org/
If you are interested in selling your home, call Irina Netchaev at 626-627-7107 for a private consultation.
