hi everyone my name is Ken welcome to this house today we are exploring a storybook tutor house
located in afton missouri this house was designed by carl rife a very noteworthy architect here in
the st louis area now before we even go inside there's a lot of charm to kind of talk about
so we noticed this very unique cyclopean brickwork out front immediately and the
local legend has it that he would wheel around wheelbarrows full of bricks and stones and have
the neighborhood children just kind of chuck them up at his house so that's just a really fun story
it probably isn't true but it just goes along with this house so let's go check out the inside
walking inside of this house this is like nothing we've ever seen before the entire
interior is stucco stone and brick as well as local wood types one of the first things that
we really notice is this old mail slot here and we saw the slot for this just next to the front door
as we walk further into this house we of course just pass through an archway
now directly above my head are all of these exposed beams and this kind of delineates the
path to the kitchen which we'll get to soon but first i want to point out there are these little
statues of bears carved out of wood poking out of the walls so this is the story of the three
little bears um just like the fairy tale so we have the baby bear here we have mama bear over
here and then over here on the far side watching the door and guarding the house is papa bear
so as we kind of turn into here we come into a very large living room
this has a lot of amazing details there is an original chandelier there are exposed beams stucco
walls over on this side we have pointed arches above the fireplace and the built-in bookshelf
over here we have this amazing leaded glass with these stained glass details
now these could be family crests i'm not entirely certain and there are just these little beautiful
bits that are kind of put in here with mix matched hardware which is all once again
original to the house now off to this side is a sun room so we can go ahead and explore this
and this sunroom is really lovely we can see we just passed through this double set of french
doors here and over on this side we can see that the beams follow the curves of the house
and this is all screened in so these aren't actually windows it makes it more of a four
seasons room above us are exposed beams and of course these are structural for the house there's
a ceiling fan out here there's a swinging bench now something really interesting once again we can
see the cyclopean construction with the bricks how they're just mashed together in a way that doesn't
really have any rhyme or reason but it still supports the house that's just very interesting
now this little window here is once again another leaded stained glass window and this is going to
look directly into the kitchen so let's go check that out walking back inside the house we are now
going to head over to the kitchen which is down this spiral staircase so come on through here
rounding this corner we now come down the spiral staircase into the kitchen and this is that little
window that we saw on the other side of this out in the sunroom just so we know where we are
so as we come through here this brings us to a small hearth room and it has a fireplace over on
this side and it is non-functioning but it's just super cute of course it has shelves on either side
exposed beams on the ceiling and over on this side is a double french door with its original hardware
and a skeleton key and this is going to take you out to a side patio and we'll explore all of that
in just a little while making our way this way this will actually bring us through a rounded
archway into the actual kitchen and over here is a country charm stove now this is actually a replica
and is not original to the house it was put in here in the 70s and something really charming is
come take a look at this this is how you actually work the stove and i'm not even going to finagle
with this because i have no idea how this actually works but here's another reference to fairy tales
we can see a little mouse that's sticking up out of the oven here and if we turn around and look
above this archway there is another little mouse that's coming out of the woodwork here
moving on now from the kitchen we come into this little closet space and the ceiling has really
started to drop here there are built-ins on this side and this is a giant pantry now through here
there are shelves on the walls in front of us is an exit to the backyard once again with leaded
stained glass and we'll explore all of that very last so come on through here and let's go
upstairs now this takes us up to four steps which is going to take us up to the landing and this is
where we very first enter the house now here's the staircase that's going to take us up to the
second floor so come on up here and immediately facing us is a built-in and it's got original
pieces on it so the original hardware original poles and we're going to start seeing this as
we kind of travel throughout the bedroom so come on up here passing around this piece of built-in
furniture we now come into the bathroom so let's check this out there are mosaic tile floors
which are done very colorfully all around the base here the tub is encased in brick
and over above the tub is a leaded glass window with its original poles which is deeply inset into
the wall and then there are actually hollywood lights that are surrounding the mirror over the
pedestal sink and something really interesting to notice before we exit is that there is a pointed
pediment above the store there's even a knocker on it so it's just a way of asking if someone's
in the restroom and then this hardware is really interesting it has been twisted and coiled
and it's just not quite like something we've ever seen before so let's get a closer look at this
moving on from the bathroom we now come through this open archway and we're going to go down just
a couple of steps to bring us into what could be considered a bedroom originally this room was
designed by carl reiff to be his architecture studio and unfortunately he never actually got
to live in this house because the bank ended up taking it away from him before he could move in
so it said that he died of heartbreak now of course this house has been occupied ever since
we can see the beautiful natural lighting that comes in here with these deep sills
that have been heavily distressed beautiful windows that look out over the garden
and we can imagine that he would have really enjoyed this space for drawing and you know
maybe someday someone else who has a passion for architecture or the arts will be able to utilize
this as a studio as it was originally intended now there are these massive built-ins over here and
let's actually get a closer look at this the wood grain on here is just gorgeous and it also has
its original hardware pieces so let's just open one of these up and take a peek inside of here
moving on out of this bedroom we're now going to go up more steps
and this is a good place to point out that all of these rails and spindles were
handcrafted by carl reif himself so we can just take a closer look at that for a moment
above the stairs here is a light fixture that he also crafted by himself
and it's just one of those really unique pieces that just blends so perfectly into the house
so moving on up here the ceiling starts to compress again and we come to this pointed archway
and this is going to lead us to an outlook where we can see over the great room that we very first
saw and this takes us into the owner's bedroom and we've passed through this pointed archway here
and there's this beautiful door with all of its original hardware and bracing that we can see
as we start to look around the space there are some more built-ins that are built into the wall
and the structure there is a closet over here and we'll just take a peek inside of this
now that we've seen everything that's above ground let's go check out the basement come on
passing back by the entryway there is actually another opening that the front
door conceals whenever you open it and this is going to take us down to the basement
arriving at the bottom of the steps we are first greeted by camelot the horse
and this horse actually contains a bit of a secret we can open up
these doors here and we find a handle which is going to take us out to a shed so this is like
a secret hidden room so come on in here and we'll just kind of glance around this area
moving on from the secret room there is another leaded window right here and it
has its original hardware and this peeks out once again over the back garden and over
on this side are these amazing built-in shelves and this is all solid wood original
with the house so let's just take a moment to really appreciate the woodwork in this room
now moving out of this space we're now going to go down more stairs
and this is going to bring us down to the winemaking room
but first there's a lovely closet over here once again with its original hardware mixed
wood types all original to the house and we'll just take a peek inside of here
now making our way to the very bottom of the house now we're as far down as we can go there is this
old table set up right here and this is where wine would have been made so we can see that
there's an old sink here that's covered up right now beautiful hardware and beautiful wood finishes
and over on this side of the basement is the root cellar and this is where canned goods would have
been stored perhaps the wine would have been put to ferment and we can just imagine that this was
a very usable and very utilitarian space in the house over here we can see an original support
beam to the house and above this is the spiral staircase that took us down to the kitchen from
the living room and we can see the very bottom of that in concrete now that we've seen the entirety
of the house let's go explore the gardens walking outside now we can really start to explore this
garden and we're just going to kind of walk through the yard here there is this adorable
windmill that sits out front now it does look like it needs a little bit of repair work but it's just
one of those details that's been with the house for its history and really blends into the space
now right here is in front of the great room and this is the awning that comes down over the
led glass we can see that there is moss that is growing on it which just really lends it more to
that fairytale feel cutting back this way through the yard we're passing by the front door again and
we are going to go explore the backyard so the way we get there is through this lovely garden
path which brings us downhill now over here the secret room that we saw behind camelot
while we were inside so come on up here there are these beautiful granite pavers that bring us into
the backyard and this garden is just breathtaking there are all of these mature shorter trees and we
can really see the masonry work back here we can see the tudor swath and timbers that are set above
the brick and over here is a porch now this leads from the kitchen to the backyard
there is a water pump over to this side and back here in the corner
is an old well this no longer functions for the house of course this is on public water
now that we've seen the entire property let's go talk to the listing agent
dana i want to thank you so much for allowing us to tour this home now right before we showed up
something interesting happened can you tell our audience kind of what went down here it was a
little scary and i was a little freaked out about it so i apologize for my attitude but this is such
a unique house i think people think it's theirs and so when we came in there were actually people
in that sun room and i had to shoo them out and they wouldn't leave so
just in respect to this house and any other houses you may see it's still a private residence
and unless it's open for viewing or you have somebody with you i here's a good reminder
it's somebody's house and just because it's for sale or it's out in the public domain
it's still somebody's public or private house and be respectful that's all i can say yep and just
because a house seems to be vacant doesn't mean that it's abandoned or that it isn't cared for
anymore and dana you like to list these old and unique properties and find new stewards to take
care of these marvelous works of architecture so i greatly admire your work in the real estate market
here well you know it's it's an interesting industry and this is the most interesting
house i've ever had i mostly work in suburbia west county et cetera in suburbia houses that
all look the same so this is extremely nice love to have that business and you can contact me down
here he's gonna put my website on there but i i think the size family and the cannabis family for
let me represent them in this house all right dana it's been an absolute pleasure
thank you so much i appreciate it it's awesome awesome meeting you too thank you everybody for
watching make sure to like comment share and subscribe i'll see you next time on this house
you