Sign: 'It is a house.'

For all you bargain hunters out there:

A sliver of vacant land accompanied a triplex that John Johnston bought six years ago in South Land Park. Over the years, that land had been written off as useless.
Johnston didn't see it that way. He saw the long and skinny plot as the perfect spot for something unusual in Sacramento.

Today, a two-story house stands on the lot, waiting for a buyer. From the front, the home looks like something one might see in France, with narrow windows and a tiny balcony above an ornate and narrow front door. From the side, well...The two-bedroom home is 8-feet deep at the south end, but don't judge the residence by that, Johnston said. "Everyone judges the house by one side, the south side," he said. "On the north side of the house, I have a 12-by-19-foot living room that is full of light. You can put a sofa on any of the four walls. I think this house is a wonderful house..."

Johnston has received varied reactions while his South Land Park home has taken shape. "People kept asking, 'What is it? What is it? What is it?' They were going inside and stopping the workmen, and they couldn't get any work done," Johnston said. "So I finally put up a sign that said, 'It is a house.' "

Johnston said the house was initially going to be his own, but he found the stairs were too rough on his aching leg joints. The home has 1,029 square feet and has been on the market for more than four months, he said. The price has dropped from $479,000 to $399,000. Johnston blames the cooling real estate market. "If I could have had it done six months earlier, I think it would have sold right away," he said. "But, c'est la vie."