Humboldt State-Adjacent Bachelor Pad Gets Some Polish, Thanks to Professionals
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When the Jack Turner had his home designed in Arcata, California, it was clearly designed to be comfortable, to take advantage of the gorgeously treed surroundings, and placed within a quick drive to Humboldt State University, where he was an English professor.
Jack, or Uncle Jack to my husband and his brother, passed away last November, and our family made the decision that the house built to be his sanctuary would be placed on the market.
Selling a home from Texas, where we’re all based, isn’t exactly easy.
Uncle Jack was a traveler, a music lover, and a voracious reader, and all of those things were present throughout the home. Bookshelves groaned with literature and classical music CDs. Artwork collected through his travels punctuated the space. He had lived there since 1987, so there were more than three decades of treasures contained in the beloved abode.
It would need to be cataloged, claimed, and distributed before the professionals could get to work.
It took two trips to ready the home for an estate sale. It took countless phone calls between my in-laws (Jack was my mother-in-law’s brother) and the Realtor and stager.
One thing I can tell you when you have to sell a house from a couple of thousand miles away takes good people. As someone who writes about real estate for a living, I contacted a co-worker (and expert stager) Karen Eubank for a recommendation. Once she found a likely candidate, I emailed her.
Kristin Buck-Tierney of Staged Interior Design was an immediate help. Not only did she recommend a tremendous Realtor in Felicia Costa, but she was able to coordinate with Costa to turn a bachelor pad into something a family could find themselves living in, or maybe even a newly-minted academic professional looking for a home that’s a five-minute bike ride from campus.
Costa calls this home at 2613 Terrace Avenue a “quintessential Arcata home.” A custom build, it’s the first time it’s been on the market. It’s got multiple levels designed to take advantage of the peek-a-boo views of the Arcata Bay and the light available and feels somewhat like a treehouse thanks to the fact that it’s tucked into the trees.
All told, there are three bedrooms plus an office loft, two-and-a-half baths over 2,350 square feet on a half acre lot. A substantial kitchen may do with a few updates eventually but is also clean and modern enough that it doesn’t feel like it must be done before move-in.
One of the smart things a good stager and Realtor will do for you is to look at a home and reimagine spaces to maximize their appeal. In this case, a suite downstairs had been used as a rental (since it is a college town), but Costa and Tierney saw a master suite, and by staging it as such, it seems like that’s what it was always meant to be.
The home is full of quirky touches that are pure Uncle Jack, but also unobtrusive and endearing enough that a prospective buyer won’t be turned off. Hardwoods are present throughout the common areas, and new carpet in the bedrooms will provide warmth.
The home is priced at $469,000. To see more of Uncle Jack’s home, click here.
