A hot tip from reader Abigail lead us to this 5,153 sq. ft., impeccably maintained — and impeccably detailed — 1959 split level time capsule home, listed for sale in Kettering, Ohio. The home has an impressive collection of original bathrooms — three full and two half — filled with stunning mosaic tile walls, walk-in sunken showers, double vintage laminate vanities with colorful sinks and some amazing wallpaper. Throughout the house, stunning stone and brick walls seem to await around every corner, along with many other fantastic midcentury details, preserved and loved by the large family that called this house their home since the day they moved in — 55 years ago, in 1959. Wow.
- Price: $325,000
- Year Built: 1959
- Square footage: 5,153
- Bedrooms: 5
- Bathrooms: 3 full, 2 half
Gorgeous neighborhood in West Kettering by Kettering Medical Center, first offering on a popular quiet street, all tucked away, loved by the same family since day 1 in 1959! Sellers are sad to leave but ready to pass on their passion for this home after raising a large family, retro & fun, all the amazing 3 full baths are original but have huge walk in tiled floor to ceiling showers, you won’t believe this contemporary home created way before its time, multi levels throughout, walls of windows, great potential for a young family, retro lighting, kitchen was updated in the years past, 1st floor study with built-ins & unique distressed wood built ins, double sinks & more fun, 5 bedrooms, all good sized, inviting family room with doors to patios & perennial gardens, lots of privacy with beautiful mature trees, huge stone wall, 3 HVAC systems, separate workshop in the 2 car garage, invisible fence, security system….
Yowza — this house is a textural treat for the eyes — with high contrast black stacked stone walls, stacked roman brick, streaky VCT flooring, gorgeous pecky cypress paneling, and many additional, gorgeous materials throughout the house.
Then there are the home’s amazing bathrooms. This minty green bathroom is spacious and user friendly with double sinks, plenty of storage in the vanity and built-in under mirror medicine cabinets.
I am in love with the one inch mosaic tiles that span all of the walls, and that sink — so pretty. You can tell the bathrooms in this house were set up to serve many people at once, as evidenced by the separate space for the (likely mint green) toilet.
And that vintage wallpaper — so neat. It appears to have a horse racing theme to the design. Pam is going crazy for the vintage novelty wallpaper in this house, of course.
Each of the full bathrooms have a huge, sunken, walk in shower that feels luxurious even by today’s standards.
Yes — they have a pink bathroom too — with the same set up of double laminate vanities with pretty pink sinks, mosaic tile on all the walls and under mirror medicine cabinet storage. So cute.
The layout of this pretty pink bathroom also seems to mimic the minty green bath– enormous!
Dig that retro striped detail in the pink and red vinyl tile flooring.
The wallpaper looks like mid mod mad Paul Revere to us. Adds new meaning to “coolonial”.
The home’s third full bathroom must be the master. It has a different type of shower, along side the same awesome fixtures and mosaic tiles as in the other bathrooms, this time in aqua blue.
The curved corner section of the vanity must have held a vanity chair where mom could sit and relax while getting ready. And look at all the storage built into the wall just above the backsplash. This is a very handy idea, if you have the space — and the patience and craftsmanship to build niches like this.
You can tell by looking at these bathrooms that a real effort was made to coordinate all of them.
The materials used throughout this house: We estimate they would cost oodles and oodles of money to replicate today. Oodles. As with all of the other time capsule houses we show — we sure hope this one finds appreciative new owners who recognize all the value in this gem of a house.
Link love:
- Listing for this 1959 Kettering, Ohio house.
- Mega thanks to Coldwell Banker Heritage Realtor Cindy Buckreus for giving us permission to feature this fantastic listing.
- Photos courtesy of Todd Kivimaki, Wow Video Tours
Ronda Vallejo says
Okay, I just realized this is an older post, and see that someone had already asked about the bathrooms. I didn’t see the built-in sewing machine. I would love that! Congrats to you, Andy. I hope you are very happy in the house. 🙂
Joe Felice says
Well, if there’s going to be a party, I’ll fly in from Colorado!
Andy says
Hello all,
I know that this is an old thread–but I thought I would comment here because me and my partner closed on this house this past december and it is currently under renovation.
pam kueber says
Congratulations! I will email you separately – I’d love to see how it turns out! GORGEOUS house!!!!!
Skott Michael says
Dear MCM Jesus please have me over for a fabulous dinner party so I can oogle it. I live right down the road and work at the hospital :’)
Anne says
We just went to the open house. Wow. It is really a lot of house for that price in a really wonderful neighborhood. Yes, the kitchen needs to be redone and some things need touched up. But the bathrooms – they are amazing. The bedrooms are huge. Two walk in closets in the master – his and hers. I didn’t look for outlets in the bathrooms but my guess is that they are behind all of the cool sliding panels just above the vanity. The stone and grout appear to be original. So unique. Can we talk about the built in sewing machine in the laundry room – nice! I was wondering about the bath tubs too – it looked like the showers might also serve as tubs but we did not ask that question. All in all – great home. Great neighborhood.
pam kueber says
Wow, wish I coulda been at the open house!
Laurie V says
I’m a little late to the game here, but I was wondering about the showers shown in the pink & green bathrooms. It seems like they are also bathtubs. I looks like a faucet is under the shower head, and even one of those thingys that closes the drain. Could this be right?
Joe Felice says
Well, the basin is deep enough for a bath, but that would take a LOT of water to fill. Of course, back then, who was worried about water? (Or electricity, natural gas, gasoline, etc.) I’ve noticed in the HGTV shows filmed in Canada (which is mostly all of them), there are tub spouts in every shower, even though they could never be used as tubs. I wonder if anyone knows the purpose of this? Might it just be for ease of cleaning?
Turggles says
I am imagining the kids that grew up in this house had LOADS of fun finding nooks to hide in for hide N seek! This place makes me long for my home I grew up in. Seems in those days the builder focused on personality of a home rather than just pumping out the same house just turned the other direction. Ya know!! Most neighborhoods now have like 6-9 different types to choose from and everyone’s house looks the same. BORING! I love love love the pink bathroom in this house….I had one growing up and it was heavenly. The only downfall I can see with the bathroom vanity area is the lack of outlets. Mine was like that…I had a wonderful vanity area with NO OUTLETS! Sheesh!
Ronda Vallejo says
Wow! We have a large family and a small house, due to moving in a sellers’ market to a really good school district. The sheer space of this house makes me drool. That entryway is fantastic! Ours is roughly 5′ x6′ and always stuffed with everyone’s shoes. I love the tile in the bathrooms, and how spacious they are, but I have one question: are there bathtubs in any of them? And the fireplace(s) are fantastic. I wonder what the original kitchen looked like. Compared to rest of the house, the kitchen actually looks quite small. It’s definitely a very cool house, though. Like Turggles said above, I too am very tired of cookie cutter houses and HOA’s that regulate the color of everything to some shade of beige or tan.