Rosa Court, a seventeen home development on the 1300 block of Federal St., has always mystified us. Built about five years ago and designed by Landmark Architectural Design, these homes stick out big-time in an area that has relatively little one-off new construction activity, let alone new developments of this magnitude. The insides of the homes are pretty much standard fare for new construction these days, with hardwood floors, granite countertops, 3 beds, 2.5 baths, and about 2,200 sqft. The homes have a parking courtyard, including 1-2 car parking for each unit.

Here’s a look at what these homes looked like a couple of years ago.

Pretty good

Another look

Closeup of bays

Perusing public record, it appears that several of the homes sold for about $500K back in 2007, but many never sold and are held by the developer as rentals. It seems that many of the homes that were purchased have turned into rentals as well over the years.

Perhaps that would explain the surprising project that a reader told us about recently- the wholesale replacement of the bay windows on all of the homes at what must have been a tremendous cost. It seems that the wood composite material that was originally used as sheathing for the bays didn’t last more than a few years, and the developer was forced to act. We’re not sure how we feel about the new-look bays, but we imagine the residents are far more pleased, now that their homes aren’t (ostensibly) leaking constantly.

New bays

So many bays to replace, we can't even imagine the cost

They got all of 'em