Caroline and Kyle Randolph weren’t even in town when the newlywed nest of their dreams came on the market. They had been hunting for a while, and were starting to get a little discouraged.
“My dad drove by this house and saw this agent putting the sign in the yard,” Caroline said. “He begged her to take it down so that we would have the chance to see it.”
When they got there to get a good look they took in the non-descript brownish-tan home with black trim. “It was super boring,” Caroline said of the outside. When they went in the front door, they were greeted with hideous orange paint in the living room, and bright green in the dining area. The whole home was a mess.
And they both promptly fell in love.
Caroline is a self-admitted “junker,” or “picker,” if you please. She’s used to seeing the beauty that lies beneath a patina of neglect and hard wear, so 819 N. Montclair in the Kings Highway Conservation District was opportunity knocking once again, albeit on a much larger scale.
But a few years, many renovations, and one very adorable baby later, the Randolphs have outgrown their cozy cottage, and have enlisted Jenni Stolarski with Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty to list it.
“This is the perfect first house,” Caroline said. “I love this house, but I feel like now is the right time. We both feel peaceful about it.”
And truly, this home is a hot ticket in a neighborhood that has seen quite a few remodels and a general resurgence in the past decade. Kings Highway is a lovely nook of a neighborhood, as Stolarski describes it. “It was the very first conservation district in Dallas,” Stolarski noted, established in 1988. It’s roughly sandwiched between Kessler Park and Winnetka Heights, and feeds into the Rosemont Elementary attendance zone. The school itself is just down the street, actually, making for an easy walk to and from.
As a result, this bungalow with Craftsman touches, plenty of warm and relatable design that Millennials find appealing, was listed for $285,000. Considering that this home tops out at not quite 1,100 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath, that’s pretty incredible. It only takes a single peek inside to see why it’s priced at more than $260 per square foot.
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As it turns out, Caroline inherited her mother’s talent for finding vintage furniture and decor and absolutely littering her spaces with it in the most eye-catching, Pinterest-worthy way. “My mom’s email address starts with ‘flea market junkie’!” Caroline said with a laugh. “We’ve been junking for maybe four years.”
Some of the more incredible vintage finds — an original midcentury modern dresser in the master bedroom, a cool midcentury atomic-style fixture in the dining room, a spare tire cover in the back emblazoned with “Montclair,” and a cool door on a suspended track just near the back porch — were found all over Dallas, though one of her favorite shops, where she gleaned that perfectly worn vintage door with inset mirror, is Old Home Supply in Fort Worth.
But the home itself had plenty of character to work with. All of the windows were replaced, the floors were sanded and refinished to a warm lacquer that shows of the beautiful grain, and everything got a coat of paint. Some of the notable fixes include a cool marmoleum floor near the back door, new counters and a herringbone backsplash in the kitchen, a wine refrigerator, and a terrific bay window off of the dining room that fills the front of the home with light.
And while Caroline loves the Tudor arch that separates the living and dining areas, it’s the spaces themselves that have been the most memorable for her. This is where she called home after marrying her husband, after bringing home Lucy, her absolutely perfect baby girl, and it’s the first place she really put her fingerprints on.
She just hopes the next owner sees all the love that was poured into this very special home, too.
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