One imaginative seller chose to follow the trend of "Barbie" movies and give her historic holiday home in Hudson, Wisconsin, a drastic makeover. The home is now a vibrant rose colour and is on the market for $1.1 million.
"When the Barbie trend took off, [the homeowner] said, 'I need to paint the 2nd Street house Barbie pink, and I need to make it Barbie-themed,'" explains Jenni Martin, a listing agent with Edina Realty - Woodbury Division. And that's exactly what she did.
Another house and several buildings owned by the seller are also pink.
"It's her signature colour," Martin said.
The Victorian-style house has been listed for sale since last summer for $1.1 million.
If you think you've seen this house before, you're probably right. The pink palace was once a spooky Gothic-themed castle.
Now, a year later, the house has gone from haunted to beautiful.
Martin says, "It's just something she always wanted to do." She really likes the colour pink, so it made more sense to do it this way."
Over the past few weeks, the remodelling has proceeded quickly.
"I was surprised," Martin says with a laugh, admitting she didn't know about the pink paint." For this homeowner, anything is possible."
The 5,611-square-foot home was built in 1900 and has seven bedrooms and three full baths.
The house has two full kitchens, one of which is Barbie-themed.
Martin says, "Most of the main floor is pink, and the upper level is pink." The other rooms are darker or more masculine in colour."
The house, which is still rented as a holiday home, has a hot tub and pool in the backyard. There's also a family room, a cinema room and a master suite with its own bathroom, walk-in wardrobe and laundry.
Martin says, "I think it's a better value as a theme (rental) now than it was before." The perfect buyer would be an investor who wants to continue the [rental] business. I really, really believe that she did a great job staging the house.
Martin assures me that the flexible space could easily be turned into a reversionary or single-family home.
"If it's a single-family home, it would probably only take a week to paint and be ready to use," she estimates, adding that one contractor told her the interior painting job would cost about $5,000." I think buyers of single-family homes will want to paint."