
An 18-foot dark-grain wood beam ceiling in the living room is the kind of thing you stumble into and immediately start doing the math on. In Winchester, Illinois, that ceiling — along with stained glass inserts, a gorgeous open staircase, and custom woodwork throughout — comes with a 1900-built, 1,808-square-foot house for $129,900. That's roughly $72 a square foot.
The front of the house is lined with thermal pane windows, so the whole main floor runs on natural light. The kitchen has counter seating and flows into the living room, and the wood beam ceiling carries through into two of the three bedrooms. The primary bedroom is large enough for a sitting area, opens into an ensuite with a custom tile shower and built-in bench, and includes a walk-in closet. There's also a full-length porch with composite decking running the entire front of the house — the kind you actually use.
The listing is transparent about the condition: the price is built to account for floor coverings and general maintenance. That's honest, and it means the bones here — and these are exceptional bones — are priced accordingly.
Winchester is a small Scott County town in western Illinois, about 35 miles north of Alton. This is a house for someone who sees the woodwork and the ceiling and the stained glass and knows exactly what they're looking at.