Nambé House

John and I went and saw the coolest house for sale the other day. (Wait, what? House hunting? Again? Another house?)

No, not really. I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know. I’m not going to predict what John and I are going to do in the future regarding houses. Because whatever I predict will turn out to be wrong, and then you all will be like, “But you said…”

Let’s just say we’re not pre-approved yet, and we don’t have a real estate agent yet. (Then how did you see a house?) Ok, in a slow market, sometimes it’s possible to talk a listing agent into showing you their own listing. They’re not going to take you around on a grand tour of every house in your price range until you’re pre-approved. And in a fast market you’ve got to have the cash waving in front of their face before they even answer your phone call.

But Nambé (pronounced Nom-béh, with the accent on the second syllable) is not a fast market right now (or probably ever). The house we saw has been on the market for months. And the listing agent apparently had nothing better to do on a warm Sunday afternoon than head up to Nambé and sit on the front porch of a  really cool house and chat with us.

The reality is, I’m not fond of our house in Placitas, and our townhome in Santa Fe is quite small, so maybe someday we could consolidate into one house that works for both of us. Nambé is way too far north to commute to Albuquerque, but John will be retiring within the next few years. At the moment (plans can change) I am expecting to continue working in Santa Fe after he retires.

Anyway – the house. It’s in the bosque, which in our case consists mostly of cottonwood trees, as well as irrigated fields. There’s a time in my life – back when I lived in the Pacific Northwest – when I would have derisively called the cottonwoods “river bottom trees” or even “trash trees”. But after several years in the desert I’m now like “Oooh, bosque…”, with a mysterious lilt in my voice as I savor the ending kaaaay. The bosque makes the house feel like it is actually in the countryside somewhere, instead of stuck-in-the-middle-of-a-desert. John and I both like that part. Look! Trees! Green! Trees!

From the outside the house is a tad funky looking. Or shall we say, it has character? It’s very New Mexican.

Me in “thinking pose” talking to the agent.

The back side:

Then the part that I think is truly amazing is the great room (living room, dining room, kitchen) that looks like a courtyard. An indoor courtyard.

Isn’t that the coolest thing you ever saw? White doors under the white eves, just like in a territorial style courtyard. And above those trusses are clear glass skylights. I’ve never seen a house like it.

There’s no views like we’re used to in Placitas. In fact, the two small windows on either side of the fireplace in the living room look out at a gravel drive and the wall of the neighboring house.

The best views are from a glassed in porch in the old section, which is strange-looking from this angle, but beautiful from the inside looking out.

John would grow tropical plants in there. And palm trees (short ones, we hope).

I was a little dismayed by the amount of cars sitting around on the neighboring lot. I didn’t think John would appreciate messy neighbors. But John says they’re the “right kind of cars”. Uh-hu. I would want to build a courtyard for the dogs, and it would block most of the car view anyway. Plus, look at those trees!

The classic blue and white kitchen has a high-end gas Thermador stove.

Each of the two main bedrooms has it’s own en-suite bath.

The main section was built in the 1990’s and has in-floor radiant heat (my favorite) and evaporative cooling. That’s the main living space with the kitchen-dining-living great room, and two bedrooms each with its own bath. That section is all in good shape.

There’s also an older adobe section (built in 1920’s) with an office, laundry, bath, and the glassed-in sunporch that needs a lot of work. It’s cute and quaint, but the electricity doesn’t work in the old section of the house.

The old section has a lot of character, but it needs a lot of work.

There’s no central heat in the old section, so they put some little wall heaters in some really stupid places. Like in a door. (The door is blocked off, I’m not sure where it goes).

The older section is not insulated (that’s the roof of the little turret).

It’s actually not a turret, it’s a traditional New Mexican architectural element. Unfortunately I forgot the story behind how that style developed, or what it’s actually called. It might be from the Pueblo or Chaco Indians. They had round structures or rooms called kivas, that contained a central fire pit. We now call the rounded adobe fireplaces in New Mexico “kivas”.

Inside the turret-that’s-not-a-turret is a bathtub (in case you’ve been wondering what the heck is in there). John says it’s a good place for a sauna. Sometimes the Minnesota in him comes sneaking out.

Here’s more funky bathroom near the turret-that’s-not-a-turret (also in the old section)

There’s bunches of potential issues we have to slowly get figured out. It’s on a shared well (just this house and the neighbor) which is the same as what we’ve got in Placitas. But we’d need to know the allocation (how many gallons per year we’re allowed to use). Also there was some big regional water lawsuit and settlement, such that there’s going to be a water system put into the neighborhood. We’d need to find out if it’s mandatory to hook up to it, and what that would cost.

We’d need to make sure the septic system is in good shape. And I’d want to know where a new drain field could be installed, if we ever needed to replace it. (Remember the house we didn’t buy last year because of septic issues?)

Another big issue with this house is that there’s no garage. John needs a garage – we’d have to build one. We might be able to put one in the corner of the lot where those two sheds and that car is. But there’s quite a bit of slope, so it may need a fair amount of excavation (think $$).

Also we’d want a courtyard. So between a garage, a courtyard, and a significant amount of work in the old section of the house, we need to figure on a minimum of $100,000 in remodel costs on top of the purchase price.

But have you ever seen a house like that?