Home of the Week: For $875,000, a parklike oasis awaits in Roslindale
This 87-year-old Colonial also offers four bedrooms and 1.5 baths. Search the latest listings to rent or buy at realestate.boston.com.
355 Metropolitan Ave.
$875,000
Style Colonial
Year built 1934
Square feet 2,058
Bedrooms 4
Baths 1 full, 1 half
Sewer/water Public
Taxes $4,827 (without residential exemption
There is a chance that moving into this house will mean you can call Boston’s next mayor “neighbor.’’ Michelle Wu is also a Roslindale resident, and she lives not far from this single-family home, which provides the perfect escape from all things political: a stellar garden. (Mayoral finalist Anissa Essaibi George lives in Dorchester.)
The fenced-in backyard of the quarter-plus-acre property is professionally landscaped and has a stream running through it. Rocks line the stream as it travels through the backyard and into a stocked koi pond, which can be admired from a bridge. A pathway of black mulch ribbons its way through the yard, connecting four sitting areas, including one where there is space for just one person. One of these seating areas is across the driveway and features a trellis and a fire pit. The one-car detached garage is part of this refuge, too: The roof was topped this year with a wide composite deck that has electricity and provides the perfect perch over the leafy area.
Natural beauty is often complemented by comfortable shelter. And this home offers that, too. Mature plantings start at the street and shroud the stairs to an enclosed front porch with overhead lighting, a bead-board ceiling, and banks of windows.
A wood door with 12 panes of glass opens into a central hallway with stairs on the left, the living room on the right, and the kitchen directly ahead.
The living room serves as a welcoming space and a bellwether of the design choices in the home: The beauty of natural wood is on display in the window frames, the crown molding, the mantel above the wood-burning replace, and the flooring. Recessed lighting and a drum shade hint that the home has been updated.
The ornate light fixture and the recessed lighting in the dining room are newer, too. The space also boasts a chair rail, crown molding, a built-in china cabinet, and two windows.
Naturally, the dining room connects to the kitchen, where the flooring is hardwood, the cabinets are pine, and the counters are laminate. The updated appliances are mostly stainless steel, and so is the backsplash behind the electric range. Track lighting and sconces supplement the natural light from two windows.
Just off the kitchen, a short hallway leads to the half bath, a mudroom, and a door to the driveway, which has space for four vehicles.
The second floor holds three bedrooms, two hall closets, and the home’s full bath, which features double shower heads over a whirlpool tub, a single wood Mission-style vanity with a vessel sink, two mirrors, and a porcelain tile floor.
The three bedrooms are pretty close in size. Two offer deep single-door closets. One has no closet at all; the closet was converted into built-in shelving and file drawer cabinetry. The bedrooms depart in one respect from the first-floor design: The crown molding is painted white, while the window frames and hardwood flooring retain the natural look. The largest bedroom has a ceiling fan, hardwood flooring, recessed lighting, and two windows. The bedroom in the front of the house with all of the built-ins is currently used as an office.
The third floor is, in a way, a cousin to the refuge-like backyard and the perfect spot for reading when the weather is miserable. It is a single room with several bookshelves, knotty-wood paneling, three closets, and two windows, one on each side of the room. It is counted as the fourth bedroom.
The basement is unfinished, all of the rooms have custom radiator covers, and the home has central air with two zones.
Kathryn Grealish and Rosalee Kaschel of The Residential Group at William Raveis Real Estate are the listing agents.
See more photos of the home below:
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. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter @globehomes.
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