Healthcare Concerns

By JULIET CHUNG

Brookline, Mass.

First-time visitors might do a double-take when approaching Harvey Makadon and Ray Powrie’s Dutch Colonial: The couple’s renovated home is fronted by twin, side-by-side entrances.

Upon closer inspection, though, only one is an actual door; the other is a large window that looks like the door. (A screen door, doormat and hanging overhead light offer clues about which is which.) Once inside, visitors are greeted by mirror-image staircases, both leading to the second floor.

“We like that sort of humor,” said Dr. Powrie, 48, an internist and professor at Brown University’s medical school. He and his partner Dr. Makadon, a 64-year-old internist and clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, added that the twin entrances were also a way of maintaining the modest character and scale of their 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom brick-and-clapboard home.

Originally two side-by-side duplexes built as servants’ quarters for a nearby estate, their newly combined house remains modest in comparison to the sprawling mansions in Brookline’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Owners in the area include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Larry Lucchino, chief executive of the Boston Red Sox. A six-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot Colonial house on the next block is on the market for $3.3 million.

With twin entrances, the home of two Massachusetts doctors celebrates its historical origins as two side-by-side duplexes. Juliet Chung gives us a tour on Lunch Break.

Dr. Makadon had lived in his half of the house since the early 1980s. When the longtime neighbor next door said she was moving out, the couple made an offer; the duplex never hit the market. They closed on her half of the house for $600,000 in 2006. The roughly eight-month renovation, completed in 2007 for an additional $600,000, turned the couple’s 1,700-square-foot, two-bedroom duplex into a home nearly twice as big, with two new guest rooms, an additional bathroom and powder room and more space for the study and public living spaces downstairs.

Most renovations that involve taking over an adjoining apartment focus on disguising the blended nature of the space—not emphasizing the fact. Maryann Thompson, the couple’s Cambridge, Mass.-based architect, said the dualistic approach, which she presented to the couple along with options to combine the entrances and staircases, immediately suggested itself as a way of playfully referencing the home’s history.

That sense of playfulness peeks through the rest of the home, where Ms. Thompson knitted together the units in a more conventional manner. A foyer in the front and a kitchen in the back on the ground floor connect the two former duplexes. Upstairs, which houses three bedrooms and two baths, an expanded study does the same.

Ms. Thompson also opened up the home’s interiors by replacing sections of the building’s exterior brick walls with mahogany-framed panels of floor-to-ceiling glass. Glass walls flank an informal dining nook off the kitchen that looks out onto an ipe wood deck and a garden dotted with Japanese maples and columnar beeches. Works by artists including Nan Goldin and Lucian Freud mix with pottery and statues the couple picked up on their travels.

A native of the Philadelphia suburbs who came to Boston for his internal medicine residency, Dr. Makadon bought his half of the house in 1983 because he loved the neighborhood and location, a quick commute to the Boston hospitals where he worked. When he bought it, the duplex had one bath, with no bathroom or closet space on the ground floor.

“It was a total wreck,” he said, recalling that the roof had holes. Working with an architect friend, Stuart Lesser, soon after moving in, he updated the bath and turned three bedrooms into a study, bedroom and closet space.

In 1991, Dr. Makadon and Mr. Lesser worked together again to add a large living room, deck and bathroom on the ground floor, plus a makeshift guest bedroom, screened porch and bathroom in the walkout basement. Dr. Powrie, a Canadian whom Dr. Makadon met that same year at a medical conference, moved in shortly later. “I added the addition, and then Ray,” Dr. Makadon said. “Ray gradually moved in. It was like, all of a sudden, he was here.”

Their latest remodel was their bid to create a home the next owner might not tear down, the couple said. They liked the experience so much, they worked with Ms. Thompson to design and build a modern, four-bedroom vacation house in Cape Cod, with lots of glass and deck space.

The couple said they’re now done with any major renovations, though they don’t count out small projects. “I love this house,” Dr. Makadon said. “I can’t imagine ever leaving a house like this.”

Write to Juliet Chung at juliet.chung@wsj.com

By CANDACE JACKSON

Architect David Solner bought a small home on a wooded lot in the mid-1990′s with plans to build a dream home. But it took a tornado in 2008 to spur him to begin building. He used wood from the downed trees and other recycled materials throughout the contemporary, 4200 sq. ft. house.

Apple Valley, Minn.

About 15 years ago, architect Dave Solner and his wife, Chip, bought a modest home with plans to tear it down and build their dream home. “I saw the potential of the site,” said Mr. Solner, who liked the densely wooded lot, the area’s rural feel and the good schools. But a decade later, the Solners, who subsequently had two energetic sons, were still in their 1,500-square-foot ranch home.

In August 2008, nature intervened. A storm with 70-mile-per-hour winds knocked down dozens of trees and damaged their house as well as the small rental home they owned next door. As the Solners surveyed the damage, “it just kind of hit us,” Mr. Solner said. “If we didn’t do something now, we never would.”

They gathered friends, neighbors and hired hands and for several weeks used chainsaws to salvage wood from the more than 50 downed trees, which they stockpiled and eventually milled on the property. Mr. Solner, whose professional projects have included designing dozens of Rainforest Cafe restaurants world-wide, said the salvaged lumber was then used to build everything from staircases to a fireplace mantle to the dining table.

Designed by Mr. Solner, the new house is a 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath contemporary. Wrapped in recycled stainless steel and cement fiber-board shingles, it looks like a series of interconnected boxes. Inside, high ceilings and floors at varying levels distinguish the rooms in the otherwise open floor plan.

A sleek kitchen with 20-foot ceilings and dark wood cabinets is at the center of the home. A large stone fireplace in the living room and wood throughout the house lend a warmer touch. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows along the back of the home overlook a feature created by the storm—a view onto a small lake nearby.

Architect Dave Solner replaced his storm-damaged home with a 6,000-square-foot contemporary, wrapped in stainless steel and recycled wood shingles, that looks like a series of interconnected boxes. Candace Jackson has details on Lunch Break.

The house was also designed to consume minimal energy and incorporates a number environmentally friendly features, including geothermal heating and cooling and recycled tile floors and countertops.

Mrs. Solner, a homemaker who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and enjoys gardening, has several skylit indoor gardens she enjoys tending, often filling them with tropical plants and flowers. Mr. Solner, also originally from Wisconsin, has a woodshop in the garage. ‪

Their two sons, 9 and 11, have the upstairs wing to themselves, with a playroom and two bedrooms (one painted bright orange and the other green). One of the family’s favorite places to hang out is an outside patio, decorated with strings of light bulbs, warmed by a fireplace and with its own TV. The Solners said the patio, along with a hot tub and a fire pit near the lake, means they spend lots of time outside, even during the frigid Minnesota winter.

The home stands out in dramatic contrast to the more conventional homes in the area. “There are really pretty Ethan Allen and Pottery Barn houses that anybody could step into and live,” said Molly Wellik, a neighbor. “But Chip and Dave’s house 100% reflects both of them.”

Mr. Solner, a partner at Minneapolis-based Cuningham Group Architecture, said he spent about $900,000 building the home, which is on five acres. The figure reflects some cost-savings from some free labor from friends and colleagues, and longtime relationships with vendors and consultants. A Victorian-style 4,600-square-foot five-bedroom house built in 2004 on a quarter of an acre is on the market nearby for about $600,000.‪

The couple said building after the storm forced them to get financing in 2008, an extremely challenging time for loans and one of their biggest obstacles to completing the project. But it also eliminated the challenge of building around all the old trees on their lot. And they still have a lot of wood left over, stacked piles lining their property perimeter. “We’ve still got plenty of wood for bonfires,” said Mr. Solner.

Write to Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com

By JUNE FLETCHER

Q: I found a three-bedroom house, built in the 1970s, that I’d like to buy. The current homeowners are retiring to Florida. But the house is being sold “as is.” What does that mean, exactly? I’m a little worried, because it smells musty.

—Nashville, Tenn.

A: “As is” clauses in sale contracts mean that sellers aren’t making guarantees as to a property’s condition, and aren’t going to make any repairs. That’s a buzz-kill to many buyers, who assume, rightly or wrongly, that something major is wrong with the house.

But the problem can lie with sellers’ finances, instead. Folks who are living on a fixed income—perhaps the situation with the sellers of the house you want to buy—or going through a job loss or divorce may not have the cash to make any fixes. So before you make an offer, find out as much as you can both from your agent and the listing agent as to why the house is being sold “as is.”

Then, proceed with caution. Buying “as is” means that you are agreeing to shoulder the costs for any obvious defects, from ripped screens to stained carpeting. Hidden defects that sellers know about should be listed on the property disclosure form. (That includes issues that could be causing that musty smell, like leaky pipes or water intrusion from the recent snowstorms.) Back away from the deal if the sellers ask you to sign a disclaimer noting that they have elected not to fill out this form. If you do, you’ll be signing away an important protection.

If you decide to make an offer, make sure that it is contingent on inspections for mold and wood-boring insects like termites that dwell in moist wood, as well as a general home inspection. If problems are found, feel free to ask for reasonable repair costs. Additionally, you might ask for a small sum, say $1,000, to cover any handyman issues that might arise during the escrow period. The sellers may decide to turn you down, but with buyers still in short supply, they may well work with you.

Meanwhile, the source of that musty smell must be pinpointed. It may be coming from one of the current owner’s possessions, like old books that have been left in a humid basement. But if it is coming from the house itself, then it must be remediated. Drywall often smells bad when it becomes wet, as mold, mildew and bacteria devour it. Superficial splashes can sometimes be cleaned with a bleach solution, but if the drywall got really soaked then it will have to be replaced.

And keep in mind that if mold is found, you may have difficulty obtaining insurance. Since the hurricane-ravaged mid-2000s, many insurers began to limit or even eliminate coverage for mold. Some will not write policies at all on homes that have had even minor mold damage.

Send questions or comments to June Fletcher at fletcher.june@gmail.com

Courtesy Rizzoli

Recently the sunburst mirror has gone mainstream, with chains offering modest-priced replicas of vintage designs.

With bleak winter days upon us, a mirror will refract each precious ray of sunlight—and the sunburst mirror seems to stand in for the sun itself.

No wonder, then, the newly married couple painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434 invested in a bulls-eye convex mirror, living as they did in the sun-deprived city of Bruges. Fast-forward to the 17th century when Louis XIV established the first glass and mirror factory in Northern Europe at St. Gobain, France. In doing so, he broke the Venetian Republic’s monopoly on the making of these precious commodities, and, in the process, raised the aesthetic and technological bar by making mirrors bigger and clearer than ever before.

Despite Louis XIV’s affinity for mirrors and for the sunburst motif—the personal emblem of the self-styled “Sun King” was a head of Apollo surrounded by rays of light—the sunburst mirror didn’t make an appearance during his reign.

According to Louis Bofferding, a Manhattan antiques dealer, we probably have the French Revolution to thank for the sunburst mirror’s debut. “The revolutionaries stormed, shuttered, even destroyed monasteries, convents and churches. Among the loot of the rabble were the gilded aureoles of celestial rays that had haloed representations of the Holy Family and saints on altars,” Mr. Bofferding said. “It didn’t take long for enterprising antiques dealers and collectors to buy those vacant sunbursts for a song, slip mirrors into the cavities and launch what would become a vogue in the 20th century.”

By 1940, the great French metalworker Gilbert Poillerat forged and gilded sunburst mirrors that smacked more of café society than the celestial realm. Soon, Parisian artisan Line Vautrin made sunburst mirror frames out of plastic—a technological innovation of her own day—never imagining that they would become an auction-world juggernaut at the turn of the 21st century.

And when bidders at Sotheby’s and Christie’s go wild for something, you know Crate & Barrel, Target and Pier 1 Imports can’t be far behind. Victoria Hagan, New York decorator to uptown clients, said she finds “sunburst mirrors add a happy touch, a sparkle, to any space, from the tiniest of powder rooms to the grandest of living rooms. I use them in unexpected ways, hanging them over another mirror, or above a piece of art in a small space, like a vestibule.” Meanwhile, downtown decorator Miles Redd, who caters to the haute bohème set, said, “They can dress up a boring space. They bring a sense of architecture and reflective surface to a room. I love them hanging above a headboard on a canopy bed.”

Said interior designer Thom Filicia, “I’ve hung them over fireplaces, where they pick up and play with the flames.”

The sunburst mirror has always fallen somewhere between decoration and art: from midcentury decorator Tony Duquette’s readymade-like versions created with automobile hubcaps to a recent Jonathan Adler design that used vintage Barbie dolls to create the sunburst motif. And so, it would seem, whether old or new, expensive or cheap, high- or low-brow, the sunburst mirror, in one form or another, will always be with us.

—Steve GarbarinoPrinted in The Wall Street Journal, page D5

The Los Angeles home of the late Hollywood director Sydney Pollack is on the market for $7.9 million. Juliet Chung has details.

The Los Angeles home of the late Hollywood director Sydney Pollack is on the market for nearly $7.9 million.

Mr. Pollack, who died in 2008 at the age of 73 and whose credits include “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa,” bought the Wallace Neff-designed house in the early 1980s with his wife, Claire, who died earlier this year. Built in the 1940s, the home is on 0.8-acre in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and has an oval dining room, peg-and-groove oak floors and a master bedroom with a wood-burning fireplace and his-and-hers baths. The home also has a wood-paneled office, a wine cellar and a darkroom.

The late Ms. Pollack, who had an architecture degree, restored and added on to the house. Her changes included creating a screening room with a wet bar and expanding the kitchen. She also built a two-story guest house with a wooden deck and outdoor entertaining spaces including a sunken fire pit, a gazebo and a trellised patio. The property also has lawns, an oval saltwater pool and spa and a koi pond. The seller is the family trust.

David Mossler of Teles Properties has the listing.

Greenwich Equestrian Estate Lists for $45 Million

An equestrian estate with a French-style mansion in Greenwich, Conn., is on the market for $45 million, the most expensive listing in Greenwich.

The mansion, on 18 acres, has eight bedrooms and was renovated last year. The estate borders land trust property and has barns, a practice polo field and a track. The seller is private investor Catherine Lawson, who has two young children and whose husband died in 2008. Ms. Lawson says she wants to travel more with her children and buy a place in Kenya, where she has philanthropic interests, but adds she’s in no rush to sell. “I’m very content living in this house,” she says. Lyn Stevens of Greenwich Fine Properties has the listing.

The former Leona Helmsley estate, once asking $125 million, sold last year for $35 million and was recently re-listed for $42.9 million.

Mark Madoff’s Nantucket Home Is Taken Off the Market

The Nantucket, Mass., vacation home of Bernard Madoff’s late son, Mark, and his wife, Stephanie, has been rented out and taken off the market. It was first listed for $7.5 million in June 2010; the most recent asking price was $7 million.

Mark Madoff committed suicide in December at the age of 46 on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. The couple bought the home in 2008 for $6.5 million. The oceanfront home sits on 3.2 acres in the Tom Nevers neighborhood. It was built in 2005 and has five bedrooms, a wrap-around porch and stair access to the beach, according to the listing. There’s a pool and guest cottage with a garage.

A spokeswoman for Stephanie Madoff-Mack, who recently sold a memoir to Penguin Group USA, didn’t return calls seeking comment. The home’s last listing agent, Marybeth Gibson of Congdon & Coleman, declined to comment.

—Juliet Chung and Steve Eder —Email: privateproperties@wsj.com

By JOANNE LEE-YOUNG

STATS: A 13,484-square-foot, eight-bedroom, 10-bath home on just under one acre of land asking C$25 million ($25.9 million), or C$1,854.04 per square foot. Property taxes in 2010 were C$48,957.41.

SELLERS:
Arkun Durmaz, 48, who distributes a European apparel brand in Canada, and his wife, who live there with their two daughters.

DETAILS: This contemporary, high-tech home has ocean and mountain views of Howe Sound to the west of Vancouver, the city’s North Shore, Burrard Inlet and the downtown skyline. A geothermal heating and cooling system keeps the natural-gas bills low for the interior, pool and heated driveway. A garage-like roll down door divides the pool into indoor and outdoor sections; on really chilly days plastic dividers separate the water below the surface. There’s also an outdoor tub, sauna, steam room and a temperature-controlled wine room. A relative designed the seamless glass railings that run along the outside decks and inside staircases. Existing furniture and art is negotiable; the items include a custom-made dining table, cut from a single claro walnut tree from Oregon, that’s 18 feet long.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: This West Point Grey area is an upscale neighborhood. Grab a white chocolate raspberry scone (C$2.63 with tax) from Bean Around the World on nearby West 10th Avenue.

WHAT I PAID: C$3.15 million eight years ago for a 1,800-square-foot older home and the land. Since then, he has put in C$10 million, including “the architect, hard costs, soft ones, and landscaping,” says Mr. Durmaz.

WHY I’M SELLING: “It’s quite expensive to keep up,” says Mr. Durmaz, adding he would like to build an identical but smaller house.

WHAT I’LL MISS: “Everything,” says Mr. Durmaz. “When you look left and right, you don’t see the neighbors, and out, you see forever. It feels like six or seven acres.”

WHAT I WON’T: “The taxes.”

OTHERS SAY:
Judith Adamick, an agent at Sutton Group West Coast Realty, who sold the property to Mr. Durmaz, said the house next door—which sold for C$16.8 million three months ago and was the biggest residential sale in the west side area of Vancouver this year—is “a much older home on a much smaller lot. Not nearly as nice.”

Malcolm Hasman at Angell Hasman (Malcolm Hasman Realty), who has previously listed the house, said the “above C$8 million to C$10 million market” is dominated by interest from mainland Chinese buyers. He “wouldn’t be surprised if it sold for between C$22 million to C$23 million,” but cautioned that at that price, for a house that isn’t custom-built, it would take the “perfect buyer.”

By NICK TIMIRAOS

The Federal Reserve has pushed mortgage rates to near half-century lows, but millions of U.S. homeowners haven’t benefited from that because they can’t—or won’t—refinance.

Falling home prices have left many owners with little or no equity, making it harder to qualify for refinancing. Moreover, stricter lending standards and higher fees by banks and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and declining incomes have made it tougher and less attractive for borrowers to seek new loans.

Around 37% of all borrowers with 30-year conforming fixed-rate mortgages—who collectively hold about $1.2 trillion of home loans—have mortgage rates of 6% or higher, according to investment bank Credit Suisse. Many could reduce their rates by a full percentage point if they refinanced at current rates, about 5%. More than half could lower their rates nearly three-quarters of a percentage point, according to Credit Suisse.

But new refinance applications in January stood near their lowest levels in the past year. Weekly data compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association also show that refinance activity has been muted, considering that rates are so low.

“Traditionally, these borrowers would be aggressively refinancing,” said Mahesh Swaminathan, senior mortgage strategist at Credit Suisse.

Click on image to enlarge

One indicator of the economic impact of refinancing: Loans that refinanced in 2009 will result in $3.4 billion in savings for consumers this year, according to a report by First American CoreLogic, a research firm based in Santa Ana, Calif. That will return an additional $17.2 billion in savings to borrowers over the next five years. That’s money consumers can potentially use to help spur economic recovery.

About a quarter of all mortgage holders are “underwater”—they owe more on the house than it’s worth—which normally makes it impossible to get refinancing: Banks want collateral to back the value of home loans they make. The Obama administration recently extended a program intended to help underwater homeowners refinance, but few people have tapped it so far. The program has faced logistical hurdles, delays and confusion from brokers and lenders.

Some people are so far underwater, refinancing ends up being out of the question. John Albright, a retired Navy officer in Manassas, Va., hasn’t been able to refinance because the value of his home has plunged. He figures its market value is now around $275,000, but he and his wife still owe more than $500,000 on their mortgage.

Their refinance application was turned down last year because they lacked equity in the home. He says his lender told him he could refinance only if he could come up with about $200,000 to pay down his mortgage. So they are stuck with an interest rate of about 6.5% at a time when his wife’s income has declined. “We’re going from paycheck to paycheck, but what can you do?” Mr. Albright says.

Some mortgage bankers say higher fees by lenders have undermined the effort to encourage refinancing. Fees that Fannie and Freddie began imposing in 2008, as loan delinquencies began to rise, have made it unattractive for some borrowers to refinance. For example, a borrower with 20% down and a 695 credit score seeking to refinance must pay fees equal to 1% of the loan amount. Those fees rise for borrowers with weaker credit scores, higher loan-to-value ratios, or other risk factors.

Overcorrecting for the abuses of financial institutions “has defeated the Fed’s purchase program,” said Alan Boyce, a mortgage-securities-market veteran. Those loan fees, he said, are partly “responsible for why there’s been no refi boom.”

The higher fees and tight credit standards show the tensions facing Fannie and Freddie. As the government-controlled companies try to raise revenue to offset their losses, those efforts can conflict with their basic public-policy mission: to help stabilize the housing market.

Fannie and Freddie have to strike a balance between risk and access to credit. Figuring out “where that line is involves some trade-offs,” said Edward DeMarco, acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie.

The last time mortgage rates were at current levels, in 2003, refinancing activity hit $2.9 trillion, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance. Last year, refinance volume reached $1.2 trillion, the highest amount since 2003 but not nearly as much as expected, considering how low interest rates have fallen.

Traditionally, borrowers have an incentive to refinance when they can reduce their mortgage rate by one percentage point or more.

Borrowers who are refinancing tend to be those who need it least. Fannie and Freddie refinanced 4.2 million borrowers last year. On average, borrowers who refinanced through Freddie Mac saved $2,600 annually. But the savings on the whole have gone to “very, very good credit borrowers and it really isn’t going very far down the credit spectrum,” said Michael Fratantoni, the head of research and economics for the MBA.

The experience of Connecticut resident Cathy Grandahl shows some of the trade-offs borrowers must grapple with in today’s low-interest-rate, high-fee environment. She wanted to refinance two loans on her West Simsbury, Conn., home: a fixed-rate mortgage with a 5.75% rate and a second mortgage with an adjustable rate that she worries will rise sharply in coming years.

Refinancing would save them around $125 a month on their first mortgage while providing a fixed rate on their second loan. But extinguishing that mortgage by refinancing into one larger loan—considered a “cash-out” refinance—would trigger an additional fee. That, plus several thousand dollars in closing costs, ultimately persuaded the couple not to refinance after all.

“It’s not a matter of our credit. We just can’t get a good enough rate to make the refi worth it,” says Ms. Grandahl, a 53-year-old land-records researcher who has three children in college.

Her broker, Michael Menatian, said that sort of scenario “happens all the time” with qualified borrowers. “There’s nothing wrong with these people—good equity, good income—and you have to tell them, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t give you the low rate you thought you could get.’ “

Falling home values are one of the biggest factors raising borrowers’ refinancing costs. Borrowers with less than 20% equity may have to pay for mortgage insurance.

On Monday, the Obama administration said it would extend for a year a program launched last April to help homeowners with little or no equity to refinance. That program, which had been set to expire this June, was called a “failure” last week by analysts at Barclays Capital. While the administration had said it would benefit millions, so far just 188,000 borrowers who owe between 80% and 105% of the value of their homes had refinanced through December. Last September, it was expanded to include borrowers who owe up to 125% of their home value, but fewer than 2,000 borrowers have used that program through December.

The administration says it is also considering new ways to allow distressed homeowners to refinance through the Federal Housing Administration.

—James R. Hagerty contributed to this article.

Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com