1644 Vance

The basics

2008-01-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Price: $165,000

This fabulous brick house, built in 1922, has two bedrooms, one bath, a den, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. There is a fireplace, central heat and air, radiator heat, an attic fan, a walk-in attic, and a small basement. According to the tax assessor, the house is about 1200 square feet.

This is an old photo of the house. I have removed the holly bush on the right because it was too difficult to squeeze between it and the car. I also repainted the trim a few years ago -- it's a little bit lighter now.

The flowerbeds are gorgeous in the spring and summer.

Living room and dining room

2007-11-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

Note the beautiful built-in bookcases between the living and the dining room. There are also shelves next to the door.

The floors are in excellent condition. I think the old man who lived here before I did never wore shoes indoors.

Kitchen

2007-11-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

The kitchen is in great shape. A friend offered me $4,000 for the sink (which I believe is original to the house), but I told her that I didn't want to have to replace it.

I had under-cabinet lighting installed and added shelves to the door of the pantry. There is a pull-out cutting board above the silverware drawer. I think the hardware is original to the house.

The kitchen is big, with plenty of room for a breakfast table. There is a door to the back yard to the left of the table; the basement door is across from the back door.

The basement is unfinished and about the size of the kitchen. It's a great place to store wine, bicycles and pieces of wood you might need someday.

Bedrooms

2007-11-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

There are two bedrooms and one office that could be used as a bedroom. They are away from the street and very quiet, although even streetside wouldn't be so bad now that the neighbors who never took their trash can in and always had wild parties have moved. The other neighbors with the three yippy dogs (the whole reason I had the eight-foot fence put up between our yards) have also moved. There are some birds that like to sing early in the morning, but the neighborhood cats should make short work of them soon.

Bathroom

2007-11-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

Detailing

2007-11-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

The house has beautiful original and authentic detailing, like this fireplace with a gas furnace. There is molding on all the ceilings , the door and windowframes are exquisite and many of the doorknobs are glass. The walls are plaster and solid: when a tree fell on my next-door neighbor's roof, his house barely trembled.

The house also has its original radiators and heating system, which works great. There is also central heat and air and a huge attic fan that keeps the house cool enough most of the summer so that A/C is not necessary. It's nice weather most of the year here -- nice enough to sit on the porch swing and watch the butterflies and hummingbirds.

The neighborhood

2007-11-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

Central Gardens is one of the best places to live in Memphis. The neighborhood association puts on a Fourth of July parade every year and decorates for Christmas. The people are nice and they take good care of their homes.

Almost everything you might need is within walking distance of my house. Food within walking distance includes

Baskin-Robbins
Pei Wei
High Point Coffee
Sean's Smooth Moves and Gyro Shop, which also sells cigarettes and lottery tickets, should you be so inclined

Other useful businesses within walking distance are

Happy Days dry cleaners
The shoe repair guy whose dad had the business before him
Outdoor Sports
Several antique stores
Midtown Video
the Post Office
Blockbuster
Schnuck's grocery store, a St Louis, family-owned chain is a few blocks the other way.
Kimbrough Liquor

Within walking or a minute driving

El Mezcal (a wonderful Mexican place)
the Philly cheesesteak place (run by a Pennsylvania Yankee)
the Italian place
The Cupboard, which is just about my favorite place to eat in Memphis. I will miss it when I leave.
Walgreen's
Cafe 1912

Within a mile:

Easy Way, which is the best (and the only, I believe) greengrocer in Memphis. They buy local produce as much as possible and will have items (like persimmons and muscadine grapes) that you won't see at the chain grocery stores. In the summer, they sell local tomatoes for about 77 cents a pound.
The only place that can beat their prices is the Vietnamese grocery store on Cleveland (where you can also get live fish, eels and shellfish), but there is almost never a line at Easy Way because their checkers are so fast.
Home Depot, Walgreen's and Starbucks are less than a mile away and they are building a Target near the Home Depot.

Close entertainment includes

Malco's art cinema, Studio on the Square, is within ten minutes, door to door.
The The Playhouse on the Square is even closer.
Peabody Place downtown has about 15 screens and shows more mainstream movies. It's 15 minutes door to door -- it's right past Autozone ballpark and next to the FedEx Forum.

Schools:

Grace-St Luke's (Episcopal) and Immaculate Conception (Catholic). Grace-St Luke's goes to eighth grade; IC is K-12. Both are less than half a mile from my house.
Idlewild Presbyterian. also only a few blocks, has a kindergarten, I believe.
There is a public elementary school (Idlewild) less than a mile from my house. The public junior high and high school are about two miles away.

Churches:

Idlewild Presbyterian
Grace-St Luke's Episcopal Church
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Union Avenue Methodist Church
Lindenwood Christian Church
Midtown Church of Christ