Home of the Week: Price drops to nearly $1.3 million for Melrose antique
The current owner has made extensive updates to this five-bedroom home. Search the latest listings at realestate.boston.com.
118 Bellevue Ave., Melrose
$1,299,000
Style: Colonial Revival
Year built: 1910
Square feet: 6,296
Bedrooms: 5
Baths: 3 full, 1 half
Sewer/water: Public
Taxes: $14,662 (2018)
From the sidewalk, the portico and paired columns of this 108-year-old Colonial Revival suggest it’s a house where a dour formality reigns.
Not so. And the proof is in the home’s fresh yellow paint and on the portico itself, where the owner has installed a hammock, a symbol of summer indolence. The door leads to a comfortably sized foyer that includes a nook for artwork.
To the left is a formal living room with elaborate crown molding highlighted by thin lines of paint that mimic goldleaf. The chandelier — the first of several in the house — is made of German crystal and shines on a working fireplace with a carved-wood mantel and a surround of light tan marble. The flooring, narrow strips of oak, is original to the house.
Across the hall and behind bifold doors is an office with its share of elaborate crown molding, along with the smallest room in this expansive house — a half bath with a you-have-to-bend-your-head-no-matter-how-tall-you-are ceiling and a white marble floor. The ceilings on the rest of the first floor, as well as the second, are 9 feet high.
Deeper into the home, French doors lead to a formal dining room with an American crystal chandelier, exposed ceiling beams, and a red-brick fireplace with a wooden mantel and Portugese tiles that depict a scene from ancient Rome. In a corner is a built-in china cabinet with glass doors, a piece original to the house.
The interior of the house has been reconfigured over the decades, and the current owner has made extensive updates, including the electrical, plumbing, windows, air conditioning, and heating. The remodeled kitchen glistens all the time, not just after a good scrubbing. The makeover included topping the base cabinets with a sparkling granite, using the same stone for the wainscot, and installing a glossy granite floor. The cabinets are a Brazilian cherry, and the appliances, including a large Italian stove and a double-wide refrigerator, are stainless steel. The original pantry remains.
A door from the kitchen leads to a entertainment-focused backyard with a brick patio and a fountained koi pond flanked by red pergolas.
Carpeted stairs lead to the second floor, where the owner again changed things up, this time converting two bedrooms into full baths. One is a Jack-and-Jill with a crystal chandelier, a tub/shower combo, and travertine flooring. The bathroom also showcases a custom vanity; brown granite tops an antique Sheraton sideboard.
The bathroom connects two of the three bedrooms on this level, including the former master, which has a fireplace.
The current master bedroom takes up nearly half the floor and is reached through privacy-ensuring French doors. Straight ahead is a Hepplewhite sideboard with a blue-pearl granite on top used as a coffee bar. The flooring is also a blue-pearl granite, and there is white marble wainscot.
The bedroom has a crystal chandelier, a closet with built-ins behind mirrored doors, and a second closet that’s smaller. It has abundant natural light and oak floors.
The master bath walls are clad in travertine. There is a toilet, a bidet, a deep whirlpool tub, and a separate shower enclosed in clear glass. The vanity is a large Hepplewhite sideboard with a counter of emperador dark marble, the same material used for the flooring.
Both the bath and bedroom have pocket doors.
The third floor could serve as a suite. There’s an updated full bath with absolute black granite and white marble squares on the floor and black granite wainscot. The vanity is another visual confection: a granite counter with a carved-wood base. The bathroom has a whirlpool tub/shower combo.
This floor also has a two bedrooms, a coffee bar, and a living room.
The basement is unfinished. There is a brick patio that offers parking for five cars and a detached two-car garage. On-street parking is not allowed on Bellevue Avenue. The lot is 0.32 of an acre.
Arnold Silva of Bellevue Realty is the listing broker and the homeowner.
View additional photos of the home:
Follow John R. Ellement on Twitter @JREbosglobe. Send listings to [email protected]. Please note: We do not feature unfurnished homes and will not respond to submissions we won’t pursue. Subscribe to our newsletter at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp
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