House Hunters brought London residents Hannah and Matthias to LA to find a second home. The couple recently renovated their Victoria style home in London, so Matthias really didn’t want to take on that type of project again.
Matthias and Hannah met in a London pub, and have been married for nine years. Hannah is a gardener and designer, and Matthias works in films. He often travels from London to LA, where he spends a lot of time on other people’s couches. He wants to find a home that he can live in when he needs to work in LA.
The couple mention maybe living in London during the summer and LA in the winter. Everyone’s dream, basically.
Wish Lists
They want a three bedroom, two bedroom place. The extra rooms could be for family or to sublet when they’re not in LA. Ideally, they would love to live in the Silver Lake area. They have an $800,000 budget, including renovations.
His: Matthias wants a move-in ready hhome with a Spanish bungalow style or craftsman style. He wants the place to have an office and space for rentals.
Hers: Hannah wants a fixer-upper to add her own design touches. She also wouldn’t mind something quirky.
House #1, $775,000
This home faces a gorgeous view of the hills. At first, Hannah finds the slump from being on a hill off putting but she seems to find the home more appeals as they walk through it. They love all the natural light, and all the extra space for rental. There is a nice backyard area with a patio–perfect for Hannah’s garden ideas.
They didn’t like that most of the bedrooms and bathrooms were small. Matthias didn’t like all the work that it would require to get it up to their standards, especially with it already being near the top of their budget.
House #2, $749,000
This home is move-in ready with a craftsman style. It also has little quirky features, like stainless steel windows, to give it character. This place also has a lot of space, and even a separate area that looks like a second apartment with a kitchenette and separate bathroom. It also has its own access to the entrance.
It’s listed as a three bedroom, two and a half bathrooms home but with the extra space, it makes it really more of a four bedroom home. The biggest drawback for Hannah and Matthias is the location, it’s a little too far from Silver Lake. Hannah also doesn’t like that it’s already completely renovated. She wants to add some design elements.
House #3, $700,000
This is the first home actually located in Silver Lake. The outside looks like it’s coming apart, the toilet has odd stains, and each room is painted a weird color. This place needs serious work.
However, it does have some strange yet cool design elements like a small door in the bedroom and a hole that looks into the washer-dryer units. Matthias compares it to a fairytale home.
Decision Time: This one seemed like a no-brainer right? House #1 was nice but not nice enough for the price and the work it needed. House #3 needed so much work. It was actually kind of an ugly home, and Matthias seemed so anti-renovations. House #2 was the perfect home for them.
In the end, they picked the fairytale home…House #3.
This decision baffled us, but it seems like the right choice for them. Their real estate agent got it down from $700,000 to $630,000. They also already started taking out walls, adding paint, and have floor plans for the new design. We’re actually really curious to see how it turns out.
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