Leslie & Kyle’s Patient Journey to a 40-year Steward's Tangletown Tudor

Classic Homeownership Flightschool 🛩 : an international airline captain passes the torch after nearly 40 years to his cherished Tangletown 1926 English tudor.  

What will happen when the trade secrets of our elders don’t get passed down? The best stewards of vintage architecture ensure their trade secrets of care & maintenance are thoroughly briefed to new owners.

John Cook 👨‍✈️ was a Northwest/Delta captain & on closing day he bestowed Leslie & Kyle with his 8-page maintenance manifesto of how to keep Gladstone well-oiled for decades to come. The amount of effort Capt. Cook placed into this tudor revival guidebook was a reflection of the immense emotional tie that he felt with his long-term home.  

Leslie & Kyle landed one of Tangletown’s most well kept tudors, though the ascent 🧗🏾‍♀️ to Cook’s encapsulated deco tudor wasn’t overnight: these two became polished 👁 of discerning originality.  

Their home search began like many who come to Rare Form for our architectural 🏯 prowess. The initial eye of the touring was drawn to the cosmetically polished homes that continually result in immense demand & inflated purchase prices. Their first lesson was a polished postwar house that was heavily veneered in trendy lighting & paint, and resulted in a 8-10 offer bidding war that taught Leslie & Kyle the priceless lesson: ‘sweat equity is the best equity.’

Months passed of patient searching 🔦 resulting in a deed signing from a meticulous owner: a seller profile that lives in infamy. The international aviation captain, one profile of classic homeowner you need not concern yourself with the detail of a maintenance logbook, this was another example of methodical sequencing of care and preventative examination throughout the seasons by Captain Cook. 

Post closing de-brief with Leslie & Kyle:

RFP🪞 Beginning in winter market, the initial focus you began competing for more "turnkey" or finished on-trend spaces, & ended up with well preserved original example, talk about that translation in your minds, and the mindset changes for each?

Kyle: For me, generally speaking, it has always been “newer is better.”  We knew we wanted an older home, but I was initially attracted to a house with old bones and a finished/more modern kitchen, bathroom, basement, etc. The more we saw, however, changed this initial idea. We found flaws: owners had haphazardly blended styles and given little thought to the development of their spaces. Throughout the process I became more attracted to the preservation of the original. The classic beauty of Gladstone just spoke to me more. 

Leslie: I sort of reject the premise of this question because I was always on board for buying a more “preserved” home. Marriage is a compromise and all that.  

But in all seriousness, I understood Kyle’s original attraction to more updated homes, and at first, I think we both thought that buying a more “finished” home would mean less work. As he alluded to though, that changed throughout our home buying process. We realized that buying a more finished home would mean undoing the work that others had done that did not match our lifestyle, did not match our vision for preserving the original soul of a classic home, or both.  

With RFP’s guidance we became confident that we could take on a less updated home and grow with it. Gladstone has fewer bells and whistles (in the sense of modern updates), and the basement is a completely blank slate, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.  

We loved the house from the moment we first saw it, but if it is at all possible, we love some of its details even more and appreciate the timelessness of the design and the detailed craftmanship throughout the home. Everything has a place and purpose.  It of course helps that it was meticulously cared for by a prior steward, but we continually feel lucky we jumped at the opportunity to own this particular home and that we had someone guiding us along the way that made this dream a reality. 

RFP🪞: does the intensity of the prior steward affect your approach to taking over his tudor?   what things did you pickup from his program that you're going to continue?

Kyle: Definitely. The prior owner had a robust maintenance program and really showed what you can do to preserve the look of an old home, especially one he had lived in for 30 years. It is amazing how like-new an old home can look with proper maintenance! For us as first-time homeowners, the maintenance part is daunting and new. Having a starting guide is helpful and we have leveraged a lot of tips and routine maintenance schedule he has used for 30 years. I have enjoyed the work and taking care of the home and being a steward for future generations. It makes it a lot easier when prior owners were just as committed. 

Leslie: My dad imparted on me at a young age (and constantly reminds Kyle and I) that well-built things can last a lifetime if you take proper care of them. The prior owner of Gladstone clearly shares the same mindset. We were given an eight-page letter from him which detailed all the work he put into maintaining the pristine craftsmanship of the home, which as first-time homebuyers we really appreciated. We have adopted a mentality that we don’t want to let the prior owner, or the house, down. Having yearly checkups on everything has a short-term cost but long-term benefits.   

RFP🪞: renovations! you completed a full above ground cosmetic renovation and swallowed a major update prior to move-in, give us the feedback on how it went, & what you learned from the process ? 

Kyle: We executed the infamous move-in-special: paint, wallpaper, lighting soon 🔜, but those small things added some personal flair in the home. As we have now been here about six months, we have been able to identify other small changes to make the house fit our lifestyle more. In a lot of ways these classic homes are already built in a perfect way where no changes are really required.  

Leslie: One of our favorite things about the Rare Form experience was the connection to designers and craftsman that share an appreciation for small changes that make a classic home shine. It is amazing how our paint scheme, wallpaper, and enameled radiators can bring out the original elements of the home.  

It was also nice to be working with people who let us know what we didn’t need to do immediately before moving in. Anya let us know that we didn’t need to refinish the floors prior to the move due to their condition, which saved us money but also set the tone that we don’t need to rush to do everything all at once, and that the development and care for our home can be a process. This slow growth will help us prioritize what needs to be done and what will be most beneficial—both for us and the home.   

Leslie & Kyle grew immensely throughout their home search, with the hurdles in the process of landing Capt. Cook’s tudor making them a stronger couple - the rewarding results of their move-in-special has paved the way for first couple years of enjoying their house and sorting the details in the yard & getting to know their Tangletown community. Looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for these two!