Blog Stories The Water Heater King's Castle

The Water Heater King’s Castle

By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, February 14, 2018

My buyer JT and his partner moved to Portland a little over a year ago with the goal of purchasing a home with the right size, layout and yard to form a communal living space with enough room for a large garden. They have started a non-profit with the goal of promoting community building and community based governance by providing weekly gatherings where people can enjoy healthy affordable dinners with neighbors while learning how to engage in local and national government, and the plan was that their new home is to be the hub.

A past client of mine who runs an awesome non-profit dedicated to educating the public about the evils of factory farming referred JT and his partner to me about a year ago. The ball started rolling this past September as we began the search. We looked everywhere on the east side for large homes on large properties with the right layout that fosters communal living and with a yard large enough room to grow a bounty of food in a location that was both convenient to services and public transportation. Shortly after New Years, we went to take a look at a house that seemed almost too good to be true. Located in the Foster Powell neighborhood, the home was built as George Morlan’s personal residence. George Morlan started his plumbing business on Foster Rd in 1927, and by the mid 1950’s, the business had grown big enough to open a second location. It was during this time in 1956 that the mid-century castle was built.  No expense was spared building the house, quite fitting for a king. Oversized timbers frame the over sized house- 1700 sf on the main floor, 1700 sf finished basement with tall ceilings and a second kitchen even larger than the main kitchen upstairs, plus an 800 sf finished attic for over 4200 sf of nice open living space. The home currently has 5 good sized bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, and with a little tweaking at least 2 or 3 more bedrooms can be added. We’re guessing that either George Morlan must have had an in with talented craftspeople including the most talented linoleum installer in town. In a masterpiece of mid-century linoleum floor design, large tear shaped pieces of linoleum in multiple patterns are merged together seamlessly in the attic- not the kind of detail one puts into a house’s attic unless the budget is endless. The large basement bathroom has a custom extra large custom tub, with matching toilet and sink in the loveliest lavender/grey/blue color. The kitchen was updated from the original kitchen in the early 80’s, presumably by the Moreland family. Talk about 1980’s top of the line fancy. A custom sized sub-zero fridge faced with the same cabinets as the rest of the large kitchen. The cooktop looks ventless, but when you are ready to cook, you press a button and up pops a thingy that acts as a vent sucking in the greasy smoky air as you cook. And if the inside wasn’t stellar enough, the house and property are on a double lot, with the house sitting on one 50×100 lot, and the yard is being an entire 50×100 plot surrounded by fruit trees. That’s a lot of space to grow a cornucopia of food and lot of roaming room for chickens.

The house needs cosmetic refreshing, a facelift including a paint job, a new roof and a little bit of love to up the curb appeal, but it’s the planned transformation into the heart of a new community that I am most looking forward to watching sprout and grow.

Alyssa Isenstein Krueger

Broker | OR

She/Her

I am living the dream. Working as a real estate broker in my home town brings this native Portland gal joy beyond measure. Check Out My Reviews! I took the round-about-road towards this career...
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  • T: 503-724-6933
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