The Best Listing of the Year For Mere Mortals

• December 19th 2011

by Shilpi Paul

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UrbanTurf featured hundreds of homes for sale this year and combed through many thousands more, so picking out the top listing of 2011 (for the mere mortal) was no easy feat. For a number of reasons, we decided on a three-bedroom log cabin-like home in Takoma Park that we wrote about back in February.

We thought there were many cool things about this listing, including the recycled yellow pine floors, the built-in bench on the back deck and the corn/wood pellet burning stove that supplements the home’s traditional heating system.

The most noteworthy feature of the house, however, is its “secret room.” When the former owner’s daughter turned ten, it became clear that she didn’t like being so close to her parents. So, local architect Bill Hutchins came in and raised the roof and converted what had been a storage closet on the top level into a room filled with light and its own deck. The sellers told UrbanTurf that they kept the original closet doors in the room and say that, yes, a few times people have “bonked” their heads in that section of the house. In 2000, an artist custom-designed a stained-glass window for the room.

Though we were quite taken with the place, the price wasn’t initially right. It dropped to $510,000 from $535,000 after about a month on the market, and the final sales price ended up being $500,000.For what it’s worth, the sellers were so taken with the home twenty-three years ago that they made an offer the day it hit the market.

More details and photos below.

• Address: 332 Boyd Avenue, Takoma Park, MD (map)
• Asking Price: $535,000
• Sales Price: $500,000
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: Two
• Square Footage: 1,248

Next Up — Best Real Estate Amenity of 2011

Previous Best Of 2011 entries:

• Best (or Worst) New Neighborhood Moniker: Silicon Hill
• Best (And Most Ridiculous) Real Estate Rumor of 2011: R. Kelly Apartment Hunting on Capitol Hill
• The Best Listing of the Year For Well-Paid Lobbyists

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/the_best_listing_of_the_year_mere_mortals/4792.