Homeowner turned ‘disaster’ into a stunner. See revamped Sacramento midcentury ‘treehouse’
Earlier this year, Matt Jones took on the restoration of a Sacramento-area home in such bad condition that he describes the property as “a disaster.”
The late 1970s midcentury modern home had been neglected for years. There was extensive dry rot, an uneven floor in the main room and a leaky roof. Furthermore, the house was built on a hillside lot so it was a challenge to move vehicles and materials around the work site.
He pulled it off in stunning fashion.
Now, the unique house in Fair Oaks has hit the market for $849,000.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence spans more than 1,800 square feet on a 0.37-acre lot. The interior is an open-concept design with the living room flowing seamlessly into the kitchen and dining areas. The home is roomy inside with 21-foot ceilings and a lot of windows, allowing natural light to stream in.
The 800-square-foot primary suite, which occupies the entire second floor, is Jones’ favorite feature. The open floor plan integrates the main bedroom and bathroom with a sitting area spotlighted by a midcentury fireplace in mint condition. The primary suite is lofted above the downstairs and opens out to a private, west-facing, redwood balcony.
“It’s a phenomenal space,” said Jones, who is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty and owner of Uncommon Projects, a home renovation company.
Described as a ‘treehouse’
The other two bedrooms and the main living space all extend out to an expansive wrap-around redwood deck with views above a canopy of trees. The backyard lawn has horizontal fencing and a detached shed.
The property listing describes the residence, at 7605 Southcliff Drive, as a “mid-century treehouse that’s like a permanent vacation in the city.” The description emphasizes the modern kitchen, which was expanded 4 feet and upgraded with modern appliances, and the Zen-like primary bathroom.
Jones characterizes the house vibe as being like a Lake Tahoe cabin, especially with all the original knotty cedar wood on the interior walls that his workers were able to restore.
The journey from dilapidated to marvelous took about six months, Jones said. Throughout the process, he wanted to preserve the original architecture of the home.
“This one took an extreme amount of work,” he said of the makeover. “It had been neglected for many, many years. There was a rotted sub-floor. You could not walk on the decks. The decks were just deteriorated. The dry rot bill was very intense on this house. It was a disaster.”
The cost to address the dry rot alone ran $270,000, Jones said, which “is the most I’ve ever seen,” Jones said.
In the living room, the floor had settled 3 inches from the center to the edges.
If a typical homeowner were to go out and hire a contractor to do all the work, the retail cost of the entire renovation would be more than $400,000, Jones estimated.
Three big challenges
“There were three big challenges,” he said. “ Working on the decks was very intense, because we had to build scaffolding to rebuild the decks the way they were because they were about 20 feet in the air. And then same thing with painting the exterior. Due to the home being so far off the ground, we had to build temporary scaffolding just to paint the house walls.
“So those were the two exterior challenges. And then the interior challenge was leveling the floor,” he added. “Because the floor was so out of whack, we really had to do a lot of work. It took my carpenters over a month to get this floor the way it is.”
Uncommon Projects snapped up the residence for $353,000 in March, according to public property records. There has been less than a handful of owners since the house was built in 1977.
This story was originally published October 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
