VILLAS — Suddenly Villas is popping off for homebuyers looking for a good investment and a fun neighborhood.
The mostly post-war community has been home to retirees, summer residents and families that reflected a certain wind-swept and sun-drenched variety of Americana, always in step with the era.
Perched right on Delaware Bay and blessed with sunsets that seem to take a little longer than anywhere else, Villas has endured by staying humble; even when the urge to brag about beachfront property must have been strong, the people here stayed quiet and kept a good thing going.
This week’s featured home is the quintessential 1950s rancher as it has been most beloved on the cape: sunny color scheme, cute, scalloped siding and gingerbread details, wide green lot. The home at 35 Maple Ave. makes the strongest argument possible for the simple pleasures of cottage life, with the same mysterious roominess in a deceptively petite package we’ve come to expect from mid-century design, the same well-crafted sturdiness that adapts so smoothly to modern upgrades, and the same old familiar knack of making the floor plan truly efficient and comfortable.
This is the sort of flexible little home that could be grandma’s beachy headquarters or the host of the best sleepovers on the street, with even the opportunity to add more land to the oversized lot, if desired.
The clean and spruce lines of the yellow-and-white house push the front porch as the focal point with reason: this is a perfect spot for watching the world go by.
The location is far enough away from Bayshore Road, just before it arcs west past Fishing Creek, that the traffic is fairly light though it’s still convenient for commuting or shopping.
The position, just south of Fulling Mill Road, means when the traffic does get heavy in midsummer there’s always a secret “Bat Entrance” to use to avoid the mess.
The irony of Fulling Mill Road being one of the most scenic routes in the state as it winds from one bustling population center to another never gets old, and neither does the sweet mental break it offers between the office and the home life, if needed.
Once safely back at home at this gingerbread cottage, the front door opens to a bright living room with baseboard radiators warmed by an on-demand water heater. There’s also central air conditioning when it’s desired to keep things cool.
While not an open floor plan, this home features what must have seemed a wildly accessible approach to home design when it was built in 1952, as the living room almost pours directly into an overwhelmingly cute kitchen.
It doesn’t get much more old-fashioned than this kitchen, and though it seems there’s not much of the original cabinetry or finishes left now after 70 years, all the intervening upgrades have stuck the landing and kept the original dimensions and feel.
Over and over, it appears that the people who lived here really, truly loved this house, and were at pains to keep it just as it was the day they first swept over the threshold.
The nostalgia didn’t prevent maintenance and additions, however, which means someone had to get creative; more importantly that someone had to be really handy.
The home is filled with little touches no store has ever sold, and whoever the woodworker was made sure every little addition, whether it was trim over the kitchen sink or a TV shelf in the bedroom or built-in closet drawers, all matched perfectly the sweetheart style of this home throughout.
The first of the three bedrooms could also be a home office, with built-ins for storage as well as a closet, and a location just off the main living space.
A small hallway leads away from the living room to a closet, pull-down entrance to the attic and the other two bedrooms, both of which are surprisingly large.
Between those two bedrooms is that most mid-century of space-saving solutions: the Jack-and-Jill bathroom.
Between the primary bedroom and the hall is a powder room, which is unusual and almost suggests the original owners of the home were exceedingly tired of waiting in line. The powder room boasts one detail that sets it miles apart from other homes of the era: a built-in vanity, complete with a little colonial-style chair.
The same tidy attention to detail that governed the house must have made going out quite the sartorial event, which is also supported by the multiple closets and built-ins for clothing storage.
Both bathrooms have been maintained over the years in a simple style that never feels at odds with the overall design of the house, and there’s absolutely nothing trendy in here. The house makes one feel as if the past 20 years, at least, had happened to other people.
At some point, the family must have expanded in a way that made even the bright living room feel insufficient: why else would they build a simply enormous family room behind the kitchen that extends all the way to the garage and nearly doubles the footprint of the house to its current 1,620 square feet?
The extension must have been done before the 1980s, because it’s a big colonial-style affair with a brick wall, double-width gas fireplace under a hefty mantel and wood beams holding up the paneled ceiling.
Also hidden within this addition? A laundry room with even more storage, and another full bath, this time with more modern fixtures and colors.
Whoever built this addition built it right, however, as its true age is told not in the colonial style and tiled entry but in how straight every line still is.
There are newer homes settling just a bit crooked not a mile from there, and once again the old saw about not building them like they used to comes to mind. The housing stock of the previous century, especially at the tail-end of the boom when home builders had been working full-tilt for years to provide enough housing for everyone trying to get out of the cities, shines in comparison to anything built after 1980. But there are still more surprises to come in the backyard.
Behind the house are a deck just off the family room, a patio behind the bedrooms, two garages (both are slightly larger than standard), a huge lot with mature trees and plenty of room for a garden or playtime. There’s also a lot stretching away from the back that’s also for sale if desired.
Right now, the two lots are conjoined and the total space is fenced in with neat white vinyl fencing. The other lot is for sale separately but it’s easy to see why the owners have held onto it this long, as it guarantees space and privacy in the back.
In every step, the old-fashioned charmer plays it close to the vest but offers one pleasant surprise after another.
