Casey Abby Blog's: A Must-See Affordable and Adorable Midcentury Home in Tiny Wisconsin Town

Monday 10 May 2021

A Must-See Affordable and Adorable Midcentury Home in Tiny Wisconsin Town

It didn’t take long for offers to roll in on a marvelous midcentury modern home in a tiny Wisconsin town.

Built in 1957, the fully restored residence landed on the market for for $229,000 in mid-April.

The Atomic Age classic sits in the small town of Hazel Green, WI—whose population in 2010 was 1,256. It’s tucked into the southwest corner of the Cheese State, and its closest large city is Dubuque, IA—about 25 minutes away.

And because this standout home sticks out in a small town, all the locals know about it.

“The second owner of the house was a friend of mine, so I grew up with her, and spent a lot of time in this house when I was a kid,” says the listing agent, Lori Droessler. “The third buyer, who now owns it, grew up next door, so he remembers this house in its glory. When he took it over, he took it back to the way that he remembered it.”

When he bought the 2,221-square-foot home in 2013, it needed a lot of work.

“He took carpet out. He took some French doors out. [The previous owners] had removed a wall. He put it back,” Droessler explains. “They had covered all those tiny tiles in the main floor bath with a fiberglass material. He took all that off, sanded it all down, and then went out and searched for the yellow sink and the yellow toilet to match the way it was originally. It’s stunning.”

Exterior of home in Hazel Green, WI
Virtual House Media

As currently configured, the home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two kitchens.

The main floor kitchen was restored to its original footprint, but the owners decided not to hew tightly to the home’s aesthetic when they selected the appliances, cabinetry, and countertops.

“They tried to do that midcentury modern look, but they liked to cook, so they made it a little friendlier,” the agent says.

However, the second kitchen downstairs has all the ’50s-era vibes.

“The cabinets are originally from the kitchen on the main level,” says Droessler.

It turns out that those cabinets were taken from this house to another house in town. The current owners found the person who had acquired them and asked if they could buy the cabinets back.

“The guy said, ‘You can have them,’” the agent says. “So they took them back to the house and put them in the basement.”

Once they secured the cabinets, they went out and searched for period appliances, including a period-appropriate pink double oven, a refrigerator, a sink, and stovetop.

Another amenity, rare in homes priced under a million bucks, is the elevator, which serves the home’s three levels.

Outside is a deck and plenty of outdoor space.

The house may also boast a tenuous connection to the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but that remains unconfirmed.

Droessler says that Wright had a school about an hour away from the house, and that the architect who built this house may have worked for him at one time.

One other unique feature in the home? The electrical outlets.

“The outlets move along the baseboards. If you’re in the living room or the dining room and you want to move your lights, you can move the outlet,” Droessler explains. “It has things in it I’ve never seen before.”

Droessler says she didn’t expect the listing to take off as it did.

“We throw everything on Facebook right away, because we have a very good following on Facebook. And then, from there, it usually goes on the MLS within six hours,” she explains. “I think by the end of the day, the first day that I put it up, it had over 100,000 views. The comments are just fun to read.”

Now, just three weeks after landing on the market, the home is now pending sale, with a buyer waiting to be the steward of this midcentury classic for the next decade or two.