The shape of Westchester
The bones are consistent: a 1940s or 1950s single-storey house of 1,100 to 1,600 square feet on a 5,500 to 7,000 square foot lot, hardwood under the carpet, a detached garage at the back, and a driveway you can actually park on. What varies is what has happened since. Kentwood and North Kentwood are full of houses that have gained a primary suite, a second storey or a rear extension, and the addition is usually where the flooring changes.
Households skew toward families and long-tenured owners, and the work reflects it: standing every-other-week visits, children’s bathrooms, a dog, a garage that has become a laundry. Near Loyola Marymount there is a band of rental houses that turn over each summer and need a proper reset between tenancies. Two rhythms inside one ZIP code.
The building stock here
Single storey is still the norm, which keeps a standard visit efficient, with no stairs, one hallway and bedrooms in a row. Original oak survives under much of the carpet and reappears in remodels. Kitchens are the most-renovated room on these streets, so stone counters and stainless turn up in a house that otherwise dates from 1949. Windows and screens on the airport side collect a persistent film that comes back within weeks of being cleaned.