On the market: A brick Colonial in Elkins Park for $389,000
The four-bedroom, 2½-bath is 3,280 square feet and in the Cheltenham School District.
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When Ilene and Jeff Rush were leaving State College for the Philadelphia area, they had about a month to find a new house.
“We had a sofa and some plastic toys,” Ilene says.
But the four-bedroom, 2½-bath brick Colonial in Elkins Park stood them well: They’ve lived in it for 30 years.
“It was a fantastic place to raise our kids,” says Jeff, a film professor whose faculty appointment at Temple University brought about the move from Penn State.
Jeff’s parents lived nearby, and the Cheltenham School District, sports teams and other activities of the diverse community sold them.
But the house, built in 1950, needed work, although Ilene describes thinking of it as “elegant” and says that “the basic bones were pretty exquisite."
“We opened it up,” she says, “built a back patio, put in AC.”
The house is 3,280 square feet — about twice the size of the house that the couple, now empty nesters, are buying in Chestnut Hill.
The newly rebuilt covered entrance leads to a wide center hallway that provides access to a ceramic tile powder room and rear outside entrance.
There are hardwood floors throughout; a large living room with double French doors, bay window and fireplace; an adjacent family or TV room; and a rear brick patio.
The modern kitchen has an Italian tile floor, opens to a breakfast room, and has an outside entrance.
The master bedroom has a large walk-in closet and a ceramic tile bath with an oversize, glass-enclosed shower.
The unfinished attic provides ample storage space, and a large unfinished basement could be converted into a recreation or TV room or a workshop.
The oversized two-car garage has inside access, and the garage roof, with access from two bedrooms, could be converted to a porch.
Willow Grove Mall is close by, and there is easy access to Old York Road, Route 309, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Elkins Park and Jenkintown regional rail stations.
The property is listed by Denise Finer of BHHS Fox & Roach-Jenkintown for $389,000.