House Pictures

I like architecture and I think it is interesting to see the kinds of houses people have across the country and around the world. Please post a picture of your house if you would.


It's only fair that I post mine, too, so here it is. It's just a regular tract house built in 1964, but it is not a ranch style house like most of them where at that time. The upstairs porch that runs the length of the front makes it a Monterey revival style house. Sometimes this type of house, if it has a metal railing like ours does, is called Creole French. The wisteria vine is the perfect touch, don't you think? :-)

Well here's mine. Sitting about 8 feet from the fenceline on each side. Built in 1958, we are the second owners. We just put in new windows last year (was jalousies before). All the houses in this area basically have the same floorplan, ya know the basic ranch style. Our garage is an addition (we love it) and we have an addition of the family room in the back.

When giving directions we tell people, the house with the sailfish on the front. This fish is actually moulded into the stucco wall. My dh painted it when we moved here.

:^)))
Molly

wow, it does look like a cracker box. You'd be surprised we have almost 2000 sq ft of space hiding back in there, not counting the garage which is the section to the right of the front porch.

This message was edited Jun 9, 2004 11:39 AM

Here's a house plan I'm working on for my next house... it's based on a Chambered Nautilus.

That is so cool Darius!!!
I'd make the very end (inside) a hidden room with a big glass cieling and grow flowers in it!!
maybe a courtyard with a fountain.. oh wow! That's nifty!
This is a cool thread.

Then again, I'd feel a lil` slimy living there,LOL!

This message was edited Jun 9, 2004 10:16 PM

Very impressive Darius! You are an interesting person! Will you really build it or is this a creative outlet?

Gretagreta, I really plan to build it, God Willing (and the proverbial creek, etc...)

*Builds a dam for Darius*

COOL

This is truly a lovely house plan. I don't know where you plan to build, but I can see it high on a mountain with the entrance at road level. The bedroom tucked snugly against the side of the mountain and the living and dining room walls of glass looking out at a magnificent vista of those beautiful mountains. Do I sound just a LITTLE bit homesick (grin). I guess I just never got over being a tarheel hillbilly!
Pati

Pati... you pretty well describe the kind of lot I have in mind!

Nah, Pati, it's just that there are no mountains, or even hills, in Florida - heck there's a big lake under most of it isn't there?

As soon as you get started, Darius, we'll all come help you finish...LOL .. then of course, we want to be guests, cause that's a great house ya got in mind there.

Blooms... be careful, I may need to take you up on it!

D, Okay, have hammmer will travel.

LOL!

(Actually, I have had several people offer to come and stay a week at the lake house where I'm currently living, and lend a hammer... or whatever. Truthfully, I may need that help and more. Seems that because the house is so unique [read: unconventional], I may not be able to get financing.)

Why wouldn't someone want to finance that? That's just not right. I think it's wonderful - only one question. It's only got one bedroom - and perhaps that's what you want - but I wonder if you make it two story with a spiral staircase in the middle of the swirl........wow, talk about dreaming! I admire your courage and good luck!

mbock... thanks for the kind words... in fact thank ALL of you for the kind words. Everyone needs a Dream!

I deliberately made it just 1 bedroom... cost is a factor; plus, I'm retired and single. Two story would be wonderful as I could also have a library up there, but even with the plans as they are, I'll have an extremely hard time getting the money to build it. My income is only my social security... and no savings worth mentioning. (It all went into my ex-gardens, LOL.)

Any company would likely be family and they can sleep on the futon in the living room.

My DH and I looked into rebuilding a 200 year old tavern from Canada this winter. We met with the builder who dismantled it and has it stored in a container. It was 3 stories with 6 fireplaces. Built by loyalists from New Jersey who left during the revolution. We knew financing would be very hard. In the end we just couldnt afford it period. But I know what you mean Darius. I live in an antique house but its appraisal is only by square footage NOT its historical integrity or value. Creativity is not a capatalist endeavor.
Greta

The nautilus house reminds me of something Frank Lloyd Wright would have done, and he did do some smaller, one-bedroom houses.

Darius, your thought on financing is correct. Our little cabin on a small private island didn't fit the bank's idea of a "safe" investment of their money. Seems the lending agencies are more concerned about how they can reposess and sell in the event the owner defaults on payment. Good luck with your homebuilding, it is a cool design.

Kelli, FLLW is my hero. I used to have an extensive collection of his books (including a tabletop book of his Japanese Art collection) but sold them in one of my poor periods.

Funny, I was just in the process of writing that FLW would have a tough time getting financing for his river house. so unconventional. What's so unconventional anyway, you have all the facilities, walls, roof. It doesn't appear the big bad wolf could blow it down.

I'm going out and take a phot of my ordinary, small, shingle house to get back to the thread.

Blooms... Not sure I know his River House, although I know he did a Low Country house in either Savannah or Charleston. I saw it in the Atlanta paper when they had an open house (unusual for a private home) but had a house full of company and couldn't go. Darn.

My house started life as a miner's cabin up in the bookcliffs outof Thompson Springs in a miners settlement named Sego. During the uranium mining boom of the forty's it was hauled the forty miles to Moab and set on a cinderblock foundation.

This is the side of the house, the backmost door opens into the sunroom which was added {I think} in the seventies and I suppose the shingling went on then as it matches all around.

This is a before picture as well, as we are putting vinyl siding on the house this year. I hate to lose the shingled look, but if you look closely you can see that I'm losing them bit by bit as it is. LOL

The near door opens into the mud/washer/room an added on entry from who knows when,.

What a cute house, Blooms! I've wondered whether you lived in one of the older homes in Moab or a newer one. Now I know. The older ones have so much more character. When we were there last year I saw a few that I would love to have. Is Slickrock Cafe on Main St? Assuming it is, there's a house on the street just behind the cafe that I've pictured you living in. Older house, corner lot, pretty gardens and lots of shade.

Blooms... I'd take a house like yours with character (and hopefully history) any day! Too bad there aren't any left around here... If there ever were.

My first house plans started with just what space I thought I wanted. When I put all the pieces together, it looked like a doublewide... NOT my style... (and no offense intended for our folks who do live in them!).

Hence the re-thinking ... and into the nautilus shape.

Hey, everyone! This is a neat thread and it's great seeing folks' homes (or plans for them).

Our house was built in 1954 by the owner's brother, who was a contractor in Pennsylvania. The owner was recently widowed with two daughters and the brother brought his best crew out on the weekends and built it for her. We're the second owners (other than the lady's daughters, who maintained it after her death, but didn't live here).

It's just a small 2-br raised ranch home, but in spring 2003 we renovated the garage and most of the basement into an apartment for my MIL. Pictures are in my journal here:

April 1999 when we first looked at it: http://davesgarden.com/j/viewentry/16590/

August 2001: http://davesgarden.com/j/viewentry/5956/

Basement renovation: http://davesgarden.com/j/vbc/gardenwife/11192/

Great pix, Kim. Brought back memories. My DH and FIL did this house when the in-laws lived here back in the late '80s. They were exhausted! They jackhammered a trench all around the perimeter of the house (on the inside) and carried the concrete up the stairs in 5 gal. buckets. Then they carried down pea gravel and PVC pipe and put that in the trench, then carried down buckets of concrete and covered up the tile. They also put in 2 sump pits, one on each end. There's never been water in this basement since but I do keep a dehumidifier down there and it's been running for the past 2 months. The one pump runs quite often too but not every 2 minutes like it did a month ago, when we had so much rain! The street to the back of the house goes gradually uphill and the street to the east runs gradually uphill so we get everybody's extra water!

I just ran out and took a picture. The porch is coming off this month and being replaced with a bigger one, will match the length of the house better, I hope. Then I want to actually landscape - not just plunk in plants as I find them. lol Also want plants down both sides of the driveway and a 'Miss Kim' lilac where the sidewalk meets the driveway. Dreams, dreams!

This picture you can see where the garage is set back. There were decades old rose bushes in the corner that I took out. I saved the Peace rose and gave away or pitched the rest. Most were scraggly half dead plants. That corner of the basement had some water damage so we wanted to get flower beds away from the house. We put Holland pavers in that corner and I hope to do more with them soon. Perhaps around the flagpole...:)

This is my first home. When I first came to look at it, it was rotten mustard yellow colored, origonal windows, mostly dirt in the front yard, the previous owners lost it and took everything except the leaky water heater and the avacado green nasty dirty stove, they even took the railing in the living room.It had a huge oak tree in the front yard. I miss that tree but it was dropping huge branches left and right, one day I will replace it. We've been here for three years now and we have been doing alot of work as we can, including redoing work done by the men hired by the realtor to put the house in tip top shape. They didnt do a very good job. Im pretty sure we have a ghost here and if thats the case, after a little research I believe his name is Ian who passed away from a heart attack. He mainly just hangs around and keeps an eye on everyone but once in a while he actualy helps fix things around the house or makes a noise to warn me of something I need to be aware of. Yes I know its most likely a coincidence but If Im rigt, I hope I make him happy with what I doing to his house to make it beautiful again.

What a cool story, Dcat. Your house looks like what we used to call a "Fred Split"... for Fred Pritt who built split levels all over that area, LOL.

Oh darius you just gave me a thought, how would I go about finding the origonal plans of my house/property? Any idea? Im really wondering about the workings of the outside drain at the basement stairs, no pipe just a big hole under the concrete and no sump pump either, ever. There is no place in this house where a sump pump would go but but when my basement flooded a couple of weeks ago that was the first time it ever did that. Everyone else around me seems to have a sump pump if they have a basement.
I will also never complain about Ian, I was painting Isabelle's room and the a/c would not come on, and it was hot. A few hours later, when I got to painting above the vent I all of a sudden noticed a burst of hot air, then it got cold. I couldnt believe it, Id left the a/c on even tho "nothing" was happening at all and just went on painting. I was so happy when it came on. Could never figure out what was wrong in the first place.

This is so fun to look at your homes. When I get more time I will post ours. Right now . . . back to pulling weeds!

Thank-you . . . . everyone!

Darius, yeah I fell in love with its 'character' and found it has plenty of that and not a level floor in the place... and they don't all slope in the same direction either. After ten years here it suddenly decided to sink in the middle - had it jacked up and a new beam and supports the length of the place and at least it doesn't dance up and down when you walk thru anymore.

Still, had a chance to upgrade to a newer more update house two yrs ago and turned it down to stay in my little house with it's little rooms and weirdly deep closets (what were they going to do in there?).

Besides I've been hauling stuff into this place for fifteen years and couldn't face the thought of hauling it out. Would be nice to be able to display some of my wonderous finds in a less crowded manner. Besides then I'd have room for more - LOL

Ever see Harold and Maude? First time I saw it I said I want a place like that ... Guess what I got it. heeheehee

Blooms, "Harold and Maude" is one of my three all-time favorite movies... and Yes, I loved her place! (The other 2 movies are "Babette's Feast" and "King of Hearts")

Dcat... call, or better yet, go to the Anne Arundel courthouse in Annapolis, off the circle... There are all sorts of things there. I'd check Planning and Zoning, or whomever issues Building Permits. Lots of that stuff is all digital now so it's easily accessible. Be sure also to ask someone in the Land Records office, where they have all the plats/maps, etc.

Also, do you have a copy of the chain of titlle? That would tell you who actually built the house and they might still have the plans. If you don't have a copy, you could research it yourself at the courthouse.

Im not sure if I have the chain of title or not, Ill have to go look. The info you gave me about the courthouse and Land Records is the info I needed, I had no idea of where to start.
Thank you Thank you Thank you (((((darius)))))

Dcat - we lived in a house just about identical to yours for 7 years in the 80's. My 2 yr. old tried to ride his tractor down the foyer steps once! #@X%!

LOL, I didnt have a screen door for the first 2 years an Isabelle knew how to open the locked door. I put a chain high up on the door after she decided to visit the next door nieghbor without telling me, I was freaking out yelling for her, I looked at the deck next door and there she was in all of her naked 2 year old body painting with thier sons outside paints. She had more on her than the paper and I had to carry her down the stairs, across the yard, thru the gate, into my yard thru the front door and into the bathtub all at arms length. She was covered and so happy she was painting pretty pictures. And shes not light.

Didn't need weight training that day!

Darius, the North Carolina mountains are at the top of my list to visit, so Darius, I can come help you build your house. How far are you from Lake Toxaway? That is where my boss's million dollar summer/retirement house is and I have threatened to come stay in it for a week with him. :) Your home will surely be a sight to behold.

Dravencat, I love your little split-level. It's cute. That is one thing you never see around here.

My house will be in two sections, because the only one I took of the whole house, the sun is too glaring. To tell you the truth, I hate the brick with a passion. When we went from having 1 kid in the house to 4, we had to find a much bigger house, in the same town, for a good deal. It was much more important to get 5 bedrooms (rare these days) than to get a pretty house.

Edited because I left off a word.



This message was edited Jul 8, 2004 3:33 PM