Downsizing was rightsizing
Town house offers S.A. man the perfect space, a feeling of community
When Micah Harper downsized and moved from a 3,300square-foot home in Fair Oaks Ranch to a town house in the Lone Star neighborhood west of King William four years ago, he was married.
Today, there’s no wife and there is a girlfriend. But what hasn’t changed is the town house that Harper, a real estate broker, still loves and calls home. One of five single-family town houses in the Clay Street Village development, the three-bedroom, 2 ½-bathroom house has close to 2,400 square feet, plus a two-car garage, backyard and balcony.
Harper knew he didn’t want to step down to something in the 900- to 1,300-square-foot range.
“There are lots of places in the area that are that size,” he said.
“They have only two bedrooms and two baths, or even two bedrooms and one bath. That was just too small.”
But the Clay Street property fit the bill.
“I think of this as a normalsize house,” he said. “I couldn’t live in a place half the size, even after getting divorced two years ago.”
One thing that attracted him to the town house: It has only two floors.
“You’re normally looking at three floors to get this kind of square footage,” he said.
He also likes the open floor plan, with a large living area downstairs off the master and a great room upstairs with the guest rooms.
When he and his ex first looked at the town house, it was under construction, so they
were able to make changes before moving in, adding features Harper had seen and liked during his years of showing homes to clients. The final price was $580,000. When Harper recently refinanced, it was appraised at $620,000.
Entering on the ground floor, which has concrete flooring, visitors are met with a large living area taken up by a curved gray love seat facing a custommade floating TV cabinet and bookshelf.
“I sat down with (developer) David (Robertson of Build Modern) and we drew it out,” he said. “I told him I wanted a sort of floating cabinet with a quartz top surrounded by bookcases. He had some of his guys make it for me.”
He said he’s been thinking about adding some big chairs to the room and making it a reading area.
Also on the ground floor is the master bedroom, with almost two full walls of wardrobes, enough to accommodate all his and his girlfriend’s clothing.
“I decided to go with wardrobes because you get more storage space than you do with closets,” he said.
The wardrobes reach almost to the ceiling, so the upper cabinets have pull-down clothes racks to take advantage of the space.
Because Harper’s town house is at one end of the development, it also came with a relatively large backyard — vital for his and his girlfriend’s two big dogs. He added a raised deck with a seating area, fire pit and artificial grass for the dogs to romp.
Another of the custom touches Harper requested is seen in the first four steps of the stairway that leads from the ground level to the second floor. In the original plans the treads were to be a flat, white marble. Harper asked for something with more depth and movement. The stairs, which spill out into the room, are green and white marble.
Upstairs, the combination living, dining and kitchen area is awash in sunlight from standard and clerestory windows. The light wood flooring enhances the feeling of openness.
“What I really like about the upstairs is there are so many windows and so much light that there’s always this kind of positive vibe,” he said. “I spend most of my time up here when I’m home.”
That openness is enhanced by a small overlook with plexiglass halfwalls that looks down the stairs to the first floor, complete with a modern, seven-pendent chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Two additions to the kitchen that Harper requested were a waterfall countertop to the peninsula and swapping out most of the lower cabinets for drawers.
“I like to cook, and it’s a lot easier to get to the pots and pans when they’re in drawers than having to root around for them in a cabinet,” he said.
Off the kitchen is a huge pantry — bigger than ones found in many suburban homes. There’s room to store plenty of food (human and dog), small appliances, a recycling bin, a wine rack and a wine cooler with space left over.
The new town house meant lots of new furniture.
“The old furniture was bigger and heavier and just didn’t go well in an urban apartment,” Harper said. “So we got rid of almost all of it and bought almost everything new.”
He and his ex sold what they could on Facebook Marketplace, Offerup and other sites, and gave away everything else.
“One thing you learn in the real estate business is that used furniture is not worth a whole lot,” he said.
They also jettisoned several other possessions that would have seemed out of place downtown.
“I had a treadmill that I used in the old house, but here I decided I was going to run outside instead,” he said. “So I got rid of it.”
Harper said he enjoys living in a more urban environment where he can walk to restaurants and the San Antonio River to walk the dogs.
“I’m very much a foodie person,” he said. “In Fair Oaks, everything closes at, like, eight o’clock and if you want to go for brunch on the weekend, you’re going up to Boerne or down to The Rim. There’s just nothing there.”
Now he’s gotten to know the staff and owners of nearby restaurants and his neighbors. It feels like a community.
“During COVID the whole neighborhood would go to Dos Sirenos Brewing because they have this huge outdoor patio, so you could social distance while supporting them,” he said. “And during the storms when all the power and water was off, the folks at Tutti’s let the neighbors come over and wash in their bathroom. That’s just the kind of environment this is.”
An environment that more people seem to want to be a part of.