HGTV would have a heyday with this home. It needs gutted. It's been listed for a year....

Extremely cool & it looks impeccably maintained. They could charge for tours through this home!

Holy upholstery Bat Man. I love and hate this home all at the same time. Much more interesting from the inside than from the outside.

That green tile bathroom is super cool 😊

The price seems low because it hasn't been decorated, except drawers in the kitchen for about 30 years. I love the bright colors but the general public probably doesnt.

The listing photos show the decor, not the house. I know the decor is hard to ignore, but they have closeups of the curtain trim and the dog figurines? That doesn’t help me get an idea for the home, how it works, how rooms relate to each other. Give me a floor plan! (in fact, I wish most listings showed the exterior, then a layout, then the photos.)

That said, when is the estate sale so I can check out the plates on the wall?

Exactly, bpath, the listing shows the decor, not the house. That’s a shame because it is a beautiful house and grounds. What a shame people can’t see it.

The close up of the underside of a light fixture in a real estate ad was a new one for me. I too wondered if they were selling it 'as is' furnished given the pictures.

I hope whoever buys this cares for it as much as the original owners. It certainly needs updating but you can tell the owners loved this house and made it a real home for them.

Very cool house. I agree that it's a shame that the realtor hasn't given them better advice. Or that they haven't accepted it.

Hopefully, they moved to a nice retirement community and are not worrying too much about the sale.

Wow.

I think I agree with just about all the comments. I think it totally captures an era and a style, and it's well done. I mean, I don't know that I'd be comfortable living there, but viewing it takes me back to a time period and I can imagine how fresh and amazing it must have seen.

I mean that as a compliment; not sure how written text comes across.

The only thing I'd suggest they remove asap is those flowerpots along the stair/balcony. Among everything there, that stood out to be as over the top. :)

thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed the stroll down memory lane.

edting to add- strange that the post says posted 2 days ago and it just seemed to have come to life. I wonder if it was in houzz limbo.

I hope @palimpsest will comment about the custom upholstery and window treatments. I'm guessing they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on those things alone.

I just noticed the stacks and stacks of Portmeirion items jammed into the glass cabinets in the kitchen. Imagine what the rest of those cabinets hold!

It would take more than the purchase price to iron out the functional problems (including the layout), modernize the bathrooms and kitchen and then tackle things like flooring and finally decor. Someone would have to love the location and town to pour that much into it.

I love the yellow wallpapers, the red and green bathroom not so much… I would live there!

I like the privacy/location but the house needs alot. I agree, it pretty much needs to be gutted.

very few of us here would move into any house and not redecorate completely, so I don’t see the problem. The listing doesn't say anything about structural problems so the buyer would have plenty of decor money to paint the whole thing gray or beige. I’m being a bit sarcastic, but it looks like a steal to me. The real estate pictures don’t do the house justice, imho.

It's clearly overpriced for the area. Or there is something majorly wrong with it. Or both. It's been on the market for almost a year.

I agree that the pictures are not helping the sale. I'm not looking for decor if I'm looking to purchase a house.

What is with the multiple towel bars all along the edge of the kitchen counters? I've never seen that. Is that a thing?

It's a lovely home in a beautiful setting. I suspect once you stripped away some of the very taste-specific window coverings, wallpaper, furniture, etc. and a zillion plates (!) the bones of the house would be appealing. OTOH, I can't imagine there's a huge market for 7000+_ sq. ft. house. I mean, you're talking about a tiny market for a house that size so it's not surprising it's been sitting on the market for a year.

Big no for me. The decor looks like Lilly Pulitzer threw up all over the place. I could look past that but will require a lot of work and money to take care of getting rid of some of that wallpaper. There are too many stairs. Too many rooms that I do not need and wouldn't use. Too much grass/yard to take care of. Too out dated. I doubt someone will buy it and leave it like that.

What a cool house. It would be interesting to see without all of the ”stuff.” I disagree that it needs to be gutted.

Fun fact: a dear friend spent part of her childhood in Ottummwwa.

And it’s on 9+ gorgeous acres! Hardly anybody needs a house that big, but several here do.

I did spend a fair amount of time imagining the rooms unfurnished (it is possible to do so) - such a lot of fussy, busy decor!

Wondering how old the carpet is? That would be the main thing I'd want to remove.

Another thing that caught my attention was all those wineglasses - how much entertaining(&/or drinking) did they do?

Wow, that setting is gorgeous. I like the architecture of the house and how retro the inside is. I remember so much of that decor and other features from when I was a kid, it made me smile.

I’d certainly change some things, as I would most pre-owned homes, but wouldn’t gut it.

It seems like a happy place … good energy and well-loved. I have decades worth of wonderful Iowa memories and have been through Ottumwa more than once.

Thank you for sharing, mnzinnia.

Lots of potential! If I was in the market for a large home in this area of Iowa, this home would be on my radar to tour. I would want to see if it would be workable with some updating and reconfiguration. Like the colorful rooms, agree that it needs an update that is not just gray and white. Beautiful acreage, gorgeous trees.

This is 1970's FANCY SCHMANCY! I love it! It's cheap too! Ugly little houses in our neighborhood are listed for $200,000 these days!

Built in 1953....I wonder who the builder was. For the 50's it is pretty fabulous. The downside is there is not bedroom/bath on the first floor. I'm sure that could be solved. Keeping in the era, I like the tiled bathrooms, and the detail in the kitchen is special. Of course, we are looking at professional photos, but, yes, if I were young, with a large family and a good income, I would take it on.

Lots of interesting comments and viewpoints. A comment re "estate sale" caused me to look around and I found that many items were sold via an online auction this fall.

so the house is probably empty now. I'm not sure if I can get a link but it's Atomic Auctions

Fun fact re MASH's Radar O'Riley and his Ottumwa hometown. When I moved to Ottumwa in the late 70's the O'Rileys lived across the street from me!

Atomic Auctions https://midwest.hibid.com/catalog/578602/atomic-auctions-executive-estate-sale--ottumwa-iowa?apage=3

That’s more than four times the size of my house, but it’s fun to imagine frosting my hair, buying a dozen caftans and moving right in.

That is a HUGE house! The decor is a great time capsule for us Boomers. Looks like all the homes of my childhood.

Someone with imagination needs to buy this house.

It would be great for an ashram/ retreat center/ cult headquarters!

The home is interesting and the grounds are beautiful, but it is hard as much as you would like to about the home. Agree a floorplan would be helpful. There are a number of things to like even for a person like me whose colors do not include yellow and orange except as accents to blue and green. There will be a million nail and picture hanger holes to repair. I'd love to see the house gently but completely updated, not gutted throughout. The kitchen -- maybe so.

I looked through the auction pages -- those seem to be the things from the cabinets no family wanted. The umbrella stands went for more than sets of vintage Fiesta ware, Spode and Lenox holiday china. Interesting. There were some bargains there.