Kingstown is a “census designated place” across from Chestertown and outlined by highway 213 and the Chester River. The best part of Kingstown for me is the popular Bohemia retail establishment that is hard to resist whenever I am scouting for potential House of the Week properties around Chestertown and Kent County. This charming Cape Cod style cottage was built the year WWII ended and has a large lot with both a house and a detached building for a “She Shed” or “Man Cave.”
The front elevation has most of the features of the Cape Cod style including a symmetrical appearance, front entry in the center, steep roof with side gables, gabled window dormers, double hung windows with shutters and simple exterior ornamentation. The exterior color palette of white lap siding and light blue shutters is classic and the original house has been expanded with both a low sloped roofed family room addition at one side and a sunroom overlooking the deep rear yard.
Towering trees around the house and mature landscaping accentuate the white massing of the house. Along the front elevation, a low border of stacked stone defines a planting bed on each side of the brick stoop with its brick steps to concrete sidewalks to both the side driveway and to the sidewalk along the street. The driveway ends at the detached shed set further back into the rear yard than the sunroom so the latter’s views are not blocked. Exterior access to the sunroom is from either two sets of brick steps or a wooden ramp. The exterior rear elevation opens up to the landscaping with the full height windows and doors of the sunroom that spans across most of the main house, the dining room’s single window and the double windows of the family room.
The front door opens to reveal a space plan with easy flow among the rooms. Between the front door and the single-run stairs is a cased opening to a room currently used as an office but the space could have myriad uses. The living room has sunlight from the front and side walls’ 8/8 windows and the storm door at the entry. The honey colored hardwood floors flow into the office and through a wide cased opening into the dining room. Sunlight from both the side and rear windows make this a pleasant spot for meals. The table and chairs are set perpendicular to the rear window so everyone has a view of the landscaping and the side wall has space for a wide hutch for display of china and glassware.
Between the dining room and the kitchen is a full bath. Switching the “office” room and the dining room would make a quiet primary suite at the rear corner of the house and there is already a door between the office and the kitchen for flow from the living room, dining room and kitchen.
The large kitchen has a pair of French doors to the sunroom and a wide cased opening to the family room. I am not a fan of knotty pine since the house in which I grew up was full of it. If it were my kitchen, I would paint the cabinets a color, tile over the brick backsplash and leave the white island as an accent. The washer/dryer closet in the short hall between the kitchen, office and family room has a barn sliding door that is faced with the same knotty pine so it disappears against the wall when the unit is not in use. The sunroom with its windows/doors wrapping around three sides for panoramic views of the deep yard and mature landscaping is a delightful space. The French door at the rear wall leads to a landing leading to steps down to the yard and to a ramp along the rear of the house to the brick sidewalk to the driveway. Another French door at the side also has steps down to the driveway. The spacious family room with windows on its three exterior walls, including a double window overlooking the rear yard, is a great spot to relax by the fire and watch TV.
The upstairs rooms have a range of interior architecture from the front bedrooms with single dormer windows between sloped ceilings on either side meeting the underside of the ceiling rafter above, windows in the side gable walls and the flat ceiling under the rear shed dormer. Instead of chests, recessed drawers are cleverly tucked into the eaves beside the single window dormers. I would paint the knotty pine on the sloped portion of the front bedrooms’ walls/ceilings to make the sloped portion part of the ceiling and not the wall. The bedroom in the corner of the rear shed dormer has painted vertical paneling, a double unit window on the rear wall and a single window at the side wall for panoramic views of the landscape.
Whether you need a “She Shed” or “Man Cave,” the detached shed is a finished space with a gambrel shaped ceiling and sunlight from the pair of French doors at the front and the side single French door and two windows at the side wall overlooking the yard. The white walls and ceilings reflect the light, the beadboard walls add texture and the gray floor tiles are easy care which would be the perfect interior for any creative endeavor. This would also be a great space for teens to hang out with friends.
Large and deep lot with mature trees and landscaping, easy potential for a main floor primary bedroom, compact floor plan with minimal halls and great flow among the rooms, sunroom overlooking the rear yard’s landscaping, and the detached building for your “She Shed,” “Man Cave” or teen party space!
For more information about this property contact Mary Fielding with Coldwell Banker Chesapeake Real Estate Company at 410-778-0330 (o), 410-708-4852 (c) , or [email protected]. For more pictures and pricing, visit www.cbchesapeake.com, “Equal Housing Opportunity”
Jennifer Martella has pursued her dual careers in architecture and real estate since she moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004. Her award winning work has ranged from revitalization projects to a collaboration with the Maya Lin Studio for the Children’s Defense Fund’s corporate retreat in her home state of Tennessee.
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