Country Living in the City

Home for Sale!

MLS#: 58458

413 East 8^th St. Moscow, ID 83823

Circa 1907 Sears-Roebuck home

When we first arrived in Moscow our goal was to move to the country. To do that we had to generate a certain amount of monthly income and began working toward having a telephone consultation practice with over 90% of my clients serviced solely via the phone and internet. Well, in May of 2008 we reached that goal and moved to the country. We now live  in a 4500 square foot home on several hundred acres we are renting as we search for our dream property with a creek. Just one more step! You'll love our house. She (our home in Moscow) wanted to come with us, but we couldn't take her.

The porch swing, however, wanted to stay with the house. It really enjoys itself when it's used. We spent oodles of time out there eating our meals in the summer and fall months or just watching the world go by with a hot cup of coffee.

$197,500. We think she’s worth it but we’ll consider your offer!

Listed in the 2008 Parade of Homes under Team Idaho Real Estate

(more pictures here as well!)

Call (208) 883-9500 to view

The Sears Home

Zoned for a business

The Sun Room

Monthly Bills

Outbuildings

Deluxe Chicken Coop

Yard featured in Lewiston Tribune

Back Yard, Fencing, Arbors, Garden

Main floor Office or Bedroom

Oak Laminate Floors

New Furnace

Dining room

Basement Remodel (other half unfinished)

Bathroom

Master upstairs Bedroom

Guest upstairs Bedroom

List of Plants at 413 East 8th

Location, location, location: Within a few block to:

·        Univ. of Idaho

·        Post Office

·        Moscow Food Co-op

·        Gritman Hospital

·        Downtown businesses

·        Public Library

·        1912 Senior Center

·        Moscow Saturday Market

·        Moscow High School

·        Moscow Jr. High School

We actually found an old newspaper in the walls when we were doing some work on the house dated back to 1907. We haven’t been able to locate the exact picture of the home from the Sears Catalogues, but here’s what one site says about the Sears Roebuck and Co. Model homes:

Moving In: We had to remove a couple of trees and create a parking slot before we opened our doors. Here's what our house looked like when we first arrived, before we took out two trees which were not looking that healthy.

One of the trees was edging towards the foundation.

We then took the summer, dug French drains around the entire front of the house and dug up the front yard making a series of 2 foot by 18 inch ditches that we filled with leaves and mulch to fortify the soil so that it would both absorb moisture and support the plants we wanted to grow.

The Sears home: “Sears was not an innovative home designer. Sears was instead a very able follower of popular home designs but with the added advantage of modifying houses and hardware according to buyer tastes. Individuals could even design their own homes and submit the blueprints to Sears, which would then ship off the appropriate precut and fitted materials, putting the home owner in full creative control. Modern Home customers had the freedom to build their own dream houses, and Sears helped realize these dreams through quality custom design and favorable financing.” From: http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/index.htm

Zoned for a Business…

The Healing Center Serviced several hundred clients it's first years in business. My mentor lived across the street and had a home-based healing practice for over 30 years.

• RO Zoning District: Examples of such uses include, but are not limited to, the offices of professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, counselors, architects, and engineers; insurance and business consultants offices; lending and financial institutions; administrator's offices; beauty and barber shops; and graphic artist and photographic studios.

• Three (3) Off Street Parking Spaces.

Drive strips in front are embedded with leaf imprints. We love watching people walk by, notice them and stop to figure out how we did it. A few people have asked permission to copy our idea.

The House is painted with Columbia Masterpiece Paint color: Rainforest Teal. Lots of people have painted their own houses and outbuildings with that color after they've asked us what color it was and where we got the paint.

The person owning  the big yellow house next door wants to paint his house the color of our purple trim!

Dr. Moffat doing a phone consult in the Sun Room.  Door to back yard from Sunroom.

From the Sunroom looking                                     From Sunroom looking into the Kitchen.

into the back yard and Garden Shed

We replaced the very nice white Berber carpeting with green paint as it was much easier to clean up after a day of gardening. We also removed the bright orange carpeting from the steps leading upstairs and that was laid on the basement downstairs. There is still some to be removed that is on the basement stairs but we only had enough time for so many projects!

There's a little cupboard opposite these windows and you may wonder what on earth that is all about. Well, the previous owners were quite the entertainers. Their idea was to have a keg of beer in the basement and have a long tube that came up inside the little door on the cabinet. The only problem was that this caused so much foam that no beer came out--only foam! It was a nice idea anyway. 

Monthly Bills (Averaged):

• Gas and Electric (Avista) $136.00 (Temperature at 68 degrees)

• Water/Sewer/Garbage- 1 can through City of Moscow $75.25/month

• DSL $45.95

• Other bills (including taxes) are listed on the Team Idaho Real Estate site.

Outbuildings:

• Nicest chicken coop in Idaho (one person called it the Malibu Coop!) Yes, you can have 3 chickens per person within the city limits! There are now three chicken coops within our block. It has an overhead light and an electrical outlet so could be used as a cat kennel or clubhouse as well.

•  Garden/storage shed with add on just for hanging and storing your garden tools.

•  3 Compost Bins which we've filled every year then put the mulch on the beds in mid summer.

The chicken coop has a cement floor sealed with epoxy and polyurethane paint.

Our garden shed and storage shed (combined). Garden tools are hung on the left hand side and that part of the shed has a separate entry door. The compost bin is to the right and holds about 3 yards of compost. Virginia Creeper was planted on the back side of the bin so the neighbors don't have to look at it. It's on its way to covering the hog fencing.

Yard featured in Lewiston Tribune Close to Home Section in 2006

• Lots of variety in perennial plants and shrubs, bulbs (see list below)

• Raised flower/vegetable beds

• Terraced landscaping

• Trellises

• Fully fenced (almost) back yard

• Haven for birds and squirrels

Back Yard, Fencing and Arbors:

Passiflora is totally covering this arbor now. It's a lovely place to sit and meditate in the summer and it even keeps you from getting wet during a rainstorm. There are few occupied birdhouses which we left on top of the fence posts. We used to have a pond in the center of the backyard. Really loved that, but so did the raccoons! The poor fish were afraid to come to the top to be fed because they thought they were going to be eaten. They were. We couldn't bear it anymore.

Michael's Pumpkin Patch in the far corner of the yard gets to be like the Little Shop of Horrors sometimes (but I love it!)

The House:

• Roof 8 years old

• Painted inside and out in 2004 by a professional painter (two coats)

• New Oak Laminate Flooring - living and formal dining room (2007)

• New Vinyl Tile in kitchen, bathroom, ½ basement (2007)

• New Trane Energy Efficient Central Heating System and ductwork (2007)

• New Electrical Panel and rewired (2007)

• New Plumbing (Pex pipe with manifold in 2007)

• EcoWater Systems Water Conditioner (2006). EcoWater Systems ECR3000R20 Water Conditioner removes the calcium, magnesium and the iron that plague Moscow area homeowners.  EcoWater Systems water conditioners use 50% less water, 50 - 60% less salt and there is 50 - 60% less sodium in the treated water… approximately 50% of the amount of sodium commonly found in milk.

• Most efficient, most effective conditioner/softener available today.

• Hydrotek 5-Stage Reverse Osmosis Drinking/Cooking Water System (2006). Hydrotek Reverse Osmosis Drinking/Cooking Water System significantly reduces sodium, chlorine, bad tastes, odors, arsenic, lead, organic compounds, dissolved solids, metals, many bacteria, cysts, pesticides, nitrates and more.

• Partially finished basement

• New tub/shower surround (2008)

• Sky lights

• Sun room

• Formal dining room

• Extra phone jacks and DSL or cable ready

• 2648 square feet

• Includes Refrigerator (older model), Stove (purchased 2003), Washer and Dryer

Dr. Moffat's Office and Pharmacy area (This was a third bedroom we converted to an office.) This is about half of the room. The color is Benjamin Moore Million Dollar Red with gold and silver sponging. It's wired with dedicated circuitry for computer and DSL and has two phone lines. The best part is that it looks out into the back yard at all the squirrel and bird feeders and to where the chicken coop is. A kaleidoscope of color all year round.

Oak Laminate flooring before and after pictures:

The flooring was our Christmas present to ourselves and the house in 2006. We didn't put up a tree or decorate that year because the place was a mess and we were trying to complete the "easy 8-hour project" before we saw clients again after Christmas.

The project ended up taking about two weeks and it cost us twice as much because the under flooring needed to have an overlay. We ended up purchasing special tools and taking hours to painstakingly cut around all the little corners. It turned out nice though. Very easy to take care of.

The laminate is all the same color, more towards the picture on the left. The room on the right is an extension of the living room and we used it for my husband's office. I affectionately labeled him "Mrs. Cravitz" from the sitcom Bewitched, because he knew everything that was going on in the neighborhood which he noticed from the front window as he spent endless hours on his computer working.

New Furnace and complete ductwork throughout house:

Dining Room before and after pics:

Basement Remodel Project (before and after picture):

Usually I do sheetrock work all by hand, but this time I thought I'd treat myself and rent a power sander. What a difference (but it's still a messy job!) We hired an electrician to put in the new wiring and electrical panel and to hook up the outlets and lighting. And a professional team installed the new duct work and furnace.

Bathroom: New Tub Surround (May, 2008) and vinyl tile flooring in the kitchen and bathroom (2007).

The bathroom still needs a fan and the little heater could be removed as it doesn't work and the new ductwork to the bathroom works great! The vanity area could use some work, but we had to prioritize (we opted for the basics of heat, electric, and plumbing) so this are still needs wallpaper.

Two Upstairs Bedrooms with Skylights

Our goal was to put double-paned windows in the entire house, but we ran out of time and money. We also think that an inner lining of insulation inside the closets would greatly improve the "too hot in summer, too cool in winter" situation upstairs. The main floor and basement are a pleasant temperature year round at this point.

Bedroom #1 (We used as a Master Bedroom):

A Feng Shui practitioner evaluated the house for us when we first got to Moscow. We incorporated several of her suggestions in the house and yard (except for tearing the walls out upstairs between the bedrooms!) I still don't like that blue at the top of the stairs, but it looks nice in the bedroom. We really enjoyed the walk in closets.

Bedroom # 2 (We used as a Guest Bedroom):

List of Some of the Plants at 413 East 8^th:

·        Ajuga

·        Allium, variety (big purple balls of color! Save the seeds. The new sprouts look like little onions)

·        Anemone (white and purple)

·        Arbor vitae

·        Artemesia

·        Asters, purple

·        Astilbe, white

·        Barberry shrub

·        Basket of Gold

·        Bee Balm

·        Bleeding heart

·        Blue Fescue grass or blue oat grass? Ornamental

·        Bluebells

·        Butterfly bush (purple) Our old cat, Kit Kat who died of kidney cancer is buried under this one.

·        Canterbury Bells, blue

·        Chinese Lanterns

·        Chives

·        Columbine, blue

·        Comfrey

·        Coral Bells

·        Coral Bells, Stormy Seas

·        Crocus, purple and white

·        Currents (red) prolific producers as these were planted four years ago.

·        Daffodils (variety)

·        Day Lilies

·        Dianthus

·        Dwarf Cattail

·        Echinacea (Purple coneflower)

·        Empress Lilies

·        Evening primrose (yellow)

·        Ferns

·        Fir trees

·        Geranium, Johnson’s Blue (smells wonderful!)

·        Geum

·        Gladiolas (purple, orange and yellow) will come back year after year if you mulch them heavy in the fall.

·        Grape Hyacinth

·        Hare Bells (all around the yard, wonderful cut flowers)

·        Heirloom Pinks about 140 years old passed down from family to family given to us by Hilda Roberts.

·        Heliopsis (golden globe lasts through first few frosts)

·        Hollyhock

·        Hops (female) give beautiful yellow flowers. Most people have the male version around here which does not produce flowers

·        Horehound

·        Hostas, several varieties

·        Hyacinth (pink, purple, white and grape)

·        Irises: variety purchased from the local iris gardens

·        Irish moss

·        Ivy, English

·        Jerusalem Artichokes up by the chicken coop. High in FOS and inulin and a great vegetable for diabetics and people with bowel problems.

·        Lamb’s ear

·        Lemon Balm

·        Liatris

·        Lilacs: Feint purple

·        Lithosperm

·        Lungwort

·        Maple trees

·        Mountain Ash brings prosperity to the home. Ours has a squirrel feeder on it. The squirrels will let you know when it’s empty because they smash the lid down hard to get your attention and stare at you.

·        Mountain Bells (yellow)

·        Niagara grape: Sweetest after the first frost

·        Oregano

·        Pansies (Johnny jump ups)

·        Parsley

·        Peonies (red and pink) The pink ones were a gift from the grandmother of the previous owners.

·        Peppermint

·        Phlox, creeping purple

·        Pin cushions

·        Pine trees

·        Poppies, California

·        Quaking Aspen (front yard)

·        Raspberries: Thornless and from stock that is over 20 years old. I’ve seen these berries grow up to 15 feet in height and bear so many berries that I got tired of picking them. These relatives of the original stock are against the fence next to the yellow house and up be the back alley.

·        Rose Champion

·        Rosemary

·        Roses (Yellow Peace and Ronald Regan)

·        Russian sage

·        Sage, variegated

·        Scabiosa

·        Sea Bright

·        Sedums

·        Shasta daisies

·        Snapdragons

·        Snow in Summer

·        Snowdrops (the first flowers up in spring—just beautiful right outside the sun room in the circle flower bed.)

·        Spirea bush

·        Strawberries, ornamental

·        Sweet Woodruff

·        Tayberries: Stickery buggers but they put out great berries. A mix between raspberries and blackberries.

·        Tulips (lots of color)

·        Veronica

·        Vinca minor

·        Virginia creeper on the fence by the back porch. I’m also growing some on the ugly side of the compost bin so the neighbors don’t have to look at it.

·        Weeping elm. These trees were not allowed for several years within city limits because an insect was killing them. The only facility allowed to keep this type of tree was the University of Idaho. They have a stand of mature trees around one of their main buildings which are a must see!

·        Weigelia, variegated

·        Wooley Thyme

·        Yarrow, pink

Agent:  Loaiza, Debbie
Agency: Team Idaho Real Estate
Phone:  1-208-882-9500
MLS#: 58458

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