The worst house in Shaker Heights?

15901 Onaway has all the appearances of a stately Shaker Heights home. It sits on 3/4 of an acre lot, across the street from Shaker Heights High School. It's a 4900 square foot ranch / Cape Cod, built in 1951, with an addition to the rear added later. It has hot water heat and central air. It has a slate roof and wood siding, covered by vinyl.


This is the addition, to the back, which includes some office space and a second two car garage. Due to the shape of the driveway and the edge of the lot, one must back into this garage, making it far more useful as a workshop space than for parking.


One of my favorite exterior elements are the numerals, made from neon. They appear to have been damaged and repaired at one point. While it is unclear as to whether they are original, they are definitely at least 35 years old.


Inside the house, the kitchen looks reasonably decent, if not quite the build quality that one would expect of a house in this neighborhood.


In the living room, however, the water damage becomes obvious.


Other rooms didn't fare much better.




The master bathroom has this, um, wonderful tub. Or perhaps awful is the word I'm looking for.


The second floor was in better condition. The largest roof featured a shuffleboard court and a wet bar. Yes, a shuffleboard court.


On the back patio, which is has a nice balcony (perhps a a railing could be put around it on the second floor?) is this wood-fired grill.


The back yard is spacious, although the landscaping needs some real work.

If you haven't run away screaming yet, check out some more photos. The house is currently listed at $139,000. Fixed up, it'd be a $400,000 house. I think, with the market as it is, the bank might be willing to take $30K on it. It'll take a ton of skill or a good chunk of money, but I think it's totally repairable.

From what I can tell, the pipes must have burst this winter. There is virtually no water damage on the second floor - the exception is by one of the radiators - which leads me to suspect that the radiator pipes froze. The house has good lines, and would be great for entertaining. Overall, it's a great deal if you're willing to wear a respirator for the next year while you fix it up. I doubt there'll ever be this much house at this price point in Shaker Heights again.

I've seen the city point of sale inspection report, and it's not so horrible as one might expect. The damage seems to be primarily to the plaster, as well as the usual foreclosure vandalism.

All in all, the house has great lines and great potential. There must be some other idiot than myself who thinks that restoring this house would be a good idea.