Chronicles of Nickerson - The Buying of the House

It was February 2005, my husband Charlie and I were disenchanted by a potentially impossible remodel of the home we were living in. Our love is in modern design and architecture, and the more we spent on architects the more we learned we just couldn't do what we wanted where we were. To add to the disenchantment, after 18 months we had found that we didn't really like the neighborhood that the house was in either.

Then Charlie happened upon a house under construction in the neighborhood we wanted to live in, exactly the style we were looking for and at a stage where we could still have input in the final selections. We were told it was designed by an architect who had had the cover of Dwell magazine the year before – my favorite magazine, I remember the article. And it was located just one block off of South Congress Avenue, which means something to anyone who lives here or has ever visited. And although by Austin standards it was very expensive, we had just come from California, so it was cheap. Relativity is wonderful rationalization tool. We couldn't believe our luck.

After negotiating with the builder and broker, we bought the house. We fell in love with the poured-in-place concrete walls that were exposed on the inside of the first floor of the towering 3-story house. The sealed concrete floors. The open floor plan with lots of windows and light. And especially the built-in-place steal staircases. It's a sculpture. We moved in in May 2005.

The first floor of the house is the “kid's floor”. It has 2 bedrooms – each with an 8 foot by 8 foot sliding glass door opening on to their own deck and private yard. Both of the bathrooms on this floor have custom walnut cabinetry, white subway tile, and carrera marble countertops. The large playroom has it's own beverage frig and icemaker, exposed concrete walls are and the sealed concrete floors. You enter the house through a solid glass door 8 feet high and 5 feet wide next to a similarly-sized fixed pane of glass.

You climb the magnificent staircase to second story which is one large room. The 10 foot ceilings that carry on through out house rise to 20 feet at the living room and include one full-length wall of glass opening out on to a deck with nearly-invisible glass railings. The over-sized windows on this floor capture the ample sunlight filtered through the leaves of the many trees that surround the house. The gourmet kitchen has custom cabinetry and is centered around a 10 foot by 5 foot solid granite island. One whole wall is the staircase, in all it's splendor of steal with steal-framed glass railings zigzagging from one floor to the next. Everything is done in a dark walnut, the cabinets, the 4” wide-planked hardwood floors. It's open and light while being warm and inviting.

When you climb to the third floor you are above the treetops with sweeping views in all directions. This is the master suite. The bathroom is huge. Larger than our CA bedroom. There are 3 heads in the shower and a jacuzzi tub that Charlie, at 6'1”, can lie down in. The low, loft-wall is more custom walnut cabinetry designed to take an entertainment system. And both closets house more custom cabinets. And to top it all off, literally, there is a rooftop deck with 360 degree views of Austin including downtown.

We finally closed on the almost-finished house and walked in with our two small children, looking around at the abudance of empty space – we had NO furniture – and wondered in what way karma would get us back for our selfish decision to buy this house. At 2 ½ and 4 years old, this was not a kid-friendly house. We just moved into a house with steal stairs with glass railings landing on a concrete floor. Karma made itself known quickly.

Posted at 12:13PM May 30, 2006 by sarad in General  |