Good Enough Homes & Destinations: What You Get For $325K

The Gray Lady is playing around with a budget of $2,000,000 this week, and her first find is a California wine country “contemporary” (read: “sci-fi wackadoodle”) estate. Here are some of my favorite details:

+ The contemporary is divided into two tower-like wings, separated by a concrete courtyard. The first wing was built in 1993; the second in 2008, at which point the original wing was extensively renovated. Both are clad with stucco and corrugated metal and have walls of glass overlooking woods. [editor’s note: cozy!]

+ An upstairs loft with floor-to-ceiling windows is used as a reading nook. There is also a temperature-controlled wine room with shelves for 600 bottles, concrete floors and sliding glass doors to the outside.

+ Also on the property is a tower with a hot tub and skylights, designed for stargazing.

+ The space can be enclosed with rolling garage-style doors. The property has a 250-vine sauvignon blanc vineyard and a greenhouse.

There aren’t enough exclamation points in the world. So, okay, that’s what you can get for $2 mil: your own vineyard and an opportunity to use last week’s vocab word. Here, in this week’s Good Enough Homes & Destinations, we’ll explore what you get for a more modest $325,000.

This three-bedroom, three-bath, 1800-square-foot Neapolitan contemporary is on the market in Boise, Idaho (pronounced boy-see; viz, “there ain’t no Z in Boise”) for $314,900, via Trulia. Loftlike, with lots of custom details in the kitchen, including countertops. There’s also a bar with a fireplace and some beamed ceilings, if you like having things to see when you look up, and, ooh, pretty patio.

Own a house on Houston Street in Manhattan, KS! How’s about that for cognitive dissonance? Ten unit investment property — nine bedrooms, nine baths — available for $320,000, via Trulia. Make $52,000 a year and live like a king, albeit one who has to unclog a lot of shower drains to remove what look like Cousin It from each, and who has to decide how he feels about funny-smelling smoke, and sophomoric conversation about Foucault, wafting through the halls.

Now that is a bathtub. It happens to be located in a three-bedroom, three-bath, 1800-square-foot condo in Portsmouth, VA, for $320,000, via Trulia. River views from virtually every window, which means you can salute Old Glory even while in your birthday suit. The apartment as-is says “retirement home chic” to me for some reason but there’s lots of potential: two balconies, huge his-and-hers walk-in closets, and building amenities downstairs — game room and gym — to keep you young.

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