Set on tree- and shrub-lined grounds, the house for sale on Winchester’s Ledgewood Road underwent a massive make-over recently. Its owners have turned what was a dowdy 1948 mock Tudor-styled home into an elegant New England estate.
“The owners gut-renovated the house,” says Bill Janovitz of Lexington’s Hammond Residential Real Estate. Janovitz has appeared in this paper before, but more frequently in the Entertainment section; besides dealing with real estate, he also sings and plays guitar in still-active Boston trio Buffalo Tom.
“They added an addition with a family room and bedroom over it, imported materials from Italy,” he notes. The owners also used Italian architect Carlotta De Bevilacqua, who worked with Cambridge-based Joseph Artley on the house. Before and after photos of the house show a remarkable difference.
“It went from being a very dark, dank, outdated, traditional Tudor-style home into a clean, bright, austere and sophisticated modern home that would fit in well in Cambridge or in Scandinavia,” says Janovitz.
But this is no house flip. As with many high-quality rehabs, there’s little profit to be made. This month the price was reduced by more than $70,000.
“They put a lot of money in and tried a higher price,” says Janovitz. “It did not sell, hence the price reduction. Someone will be getting a great value, [considering] what was put into the house.”
