Another of Art Troutner’s “middle class” designs is the lovely home on Mesa Vista Drive. The house, built in 1955, sits on a perfect lot with a view over downtown Boise. There is a large yard in the back of the house with evergreens and a patio with Boise bricks, and in the front there are beautiful trees that have grown to be huge over time. The lot is 0.34 acre and the house, at 1562 ft2, sits comfortably towards the back.
As you enter the home, you are met by a small hallway with the kitchen on the right and another hallway to the bedrooms on your left. Straight in front of you is the living room.
The kitchen is situated along the front of the house with a long counter and an opening into the dining room. Although the kitchen resembles much of the original plan, the owner has still managed to incorporate many modern appliances — such as a gas stove top and stainless steel fixtures. The counter top is designed with inch-sized tiles in different blues to create a diamond pattern. The cabinets, including an old ironing cabinet that has been converted into a spice cabinet, are all of the original wood with push-to-open technology…some of the cabinets open one way and some the other, quite randomly.
At the end of the kitchen is a small office space, and deeming by the abrupt change in the wood on the outside, it seems to be an add-on, but there are no records that say it wasn’t there to begin with.
Through the opening in the wall of the kitchen, you enter a dining room that parallels into a living room. The stainless steel surgeon-looking dining table, and the glass and mirror decorations throw a modern touch into the very fifties design of the wooden floors and brick walls. The windows add in a surprising amount of light to give this part of the house a bright and airy feel to it. The red brick is just beautiful and add a rustic, warm touch to the place.
The living room is a large open space with a floor to ceiling window covering most of the wall out to the back yard. On the opposite wall above the couch is a fish tank, currently without fish, but ready and waiting for new residents. There is a fireplace situated in the brick that separates the living room from the dining room, and on the wall closest to the front door, there is a pull-down screen for a home theater idea.
The first bedroom has been converted into a sort of game room with a bike, an old-school pack-man game, a large recliner and blue walls. The second, the master bedroom, is also large and airy (like the rest of the house) with bright wall paint, hardwood floor and geometric design decorations.
The two bathrooms are also kept as intact as possible in accordance to the original design. The master bath is pink, and has been dubbed the Malibu-Barbie bathroom. The brown and pink tiles match the pink bathtub and the pink toilet. Ironically enough, the pink toilet is, according to the owner, probably the world’s most comfortable toilet…ever. The dated bathroom has been modernized by new light and mirror fixtures and dark painted walls.
Written by BAP student