My daily commute takes me through my wooded neighborhood of "colonial" split-levels, built in the '60s, I used to think they were tacky but now they look positively charming compared to the McMansions across from the 7-11, down to the aesthetically pleasing and compact brick 2-family homes near the metro station, I'm not sure when these were built but my mom grew up in a 2-family home in Buffalo, or if I take the George Washington parkway past the 1700s (I think) brick townhouses, and the newer look-alike brick townhouses in Old Town.
What is your favorite style of house? My sister's bungalow love has rubbed off on me: I now really like the cute bungalows in Del Ray/Arlington. So modest, but is this imconspicuous consumption? I think the people that can afford to live there most be yuppies but just not the show-offy kind. Also like the modernist 1950s houses in the Hollin Hills neighborhood just off the GW parkway, although the architecture looks a bit like shacks, a like the one level, largely glasses approach, especially when you can see through the living into the wooded backyard.
I used to really like the ramblers that were built hidden into the trees and forest, but now I am more into houses with a definitive architectural style. People apparently don't like split-levels because they are dark, I guess they are more of a '60s idea? What are your favorite housing styles? I read a great book about ranch houses, architecture books can make anything look pleasing.
― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 16 July 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)
my husband and i have been talking houses quite a bit lately. he likes spanish style whereas i prefer something with lots of levels and probably wood rather than concrete. youll never convince me voids and sunken lounges arent the greatest.
i fell in love with this house at 2am this morning on 'fine living'. it was designed/built by Bart Prince (a protege of FLW?). Its all wood and glass and stone. it has 13 levels, the bottom of which is a bitchin snake pool that runs through a jungle of sorts and ends at a bar. the kitchen has some crazy elevator fridge where if you push a button the fridge goes off into the ceiling and a microwave and other stuff come up from the ground. you can see most all of the house from any point in the house. maybe it'd be a different story to live in (though the guy who owns it thinks its pretty great) but I just love how it looks like the realisation of drawings of my dream house i did as a kid. sure, there's no waterslide or underground tunnels but its pretty damn close.
look at this video of the pool level:
(click MEDIA link) http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/rm_architecture_extreme/article/0,1797,HGTV_3662_1390903,00.html
The blurb:
The home features a variety of materials including redwood, copper, glass and indigenous stone that was excavated from the man-made lake behind the house. Several irregularly shaped decks protrude from the house, offering beautiful views of the landscape. The lower-level garage is lit with a prism-shaped skylight and is actually part of a circular drive, with doors at each end of the garage.
Inside, the 13-level home is a maze of arched wood beams, tropical plants and bridges and stairways connecting the living areas. The centerpiece of the house is the 25-yard-long pool which appears to wind through the lower level. The kitchen refrigerator is affixed to an elevator, and it can be lowered to the pool area with the push of a button.
The master suite has a large balcony with direct access to the roof, while the glass-encased "storm room" is perfect for watching approaching storms. The home also features a soundproofed home theater overlooking the pool. A mechanical room houses the various systems needed to keep this extreme home running, and includes a system to prevent the pool from overwhelming the upper levels with humidity.
http://images.scrippsweb.com/HGTV/2002/09/05/ext809_1ext_e.jpg
― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Saturday, 16 July 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)
i'm pretentious so i love all that 20th century po-mo stuff with the inverted a-frame roofing and cantilevering. also i'd kill for an eichler atrium house:
http://www.eichlernetwork.com/images/Story/Atrium1.jpg
― aqua teen hongro force (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 16 July 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)
Sunny, you and Pleasant should build a dome house like my parents did:
― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 16 July 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)
sixteen years pass...