I happen to be in one of the Eichler courtyard style houses, not the C shaped variety though. I have yet to figure how to take decent pics of it. My wife and I lived in "loft" places for years. This is the first home I have lived in that has that same feeling of openess. Much of the original idealism of our neighorhood seems to have been destroyed in the 70's, but there are still some gems. I keep stumbling athrough more Eichler developments, as I get to know California a bit better. I love the concept of design impacting lifestyle - and these little pockets of homes continue a pretty grand vision. I wish some of that still existed in current development. There are far too many OSB and cardboard McMansions being built these days. I just can't see how a vague approximation of some traditional ideal makes people comfortable. Maybe I think about things too much...
You have Heywood-Wakefield! ...Jealousy happening here... I had a neighbor with a whole house full of that furniture and she packed it all up and moved it to Mesa.
I'm going to have to join the chorus and say what an incredible house you have Larry. I just showed the pics of it to my wife and told her to take a look at my dream house. How long did it take you to acquire all of the cool stuff you have displayed? Nik
I wanted to bring this post back up. I like old houses. Larry...your place is incredible! Here's a picture of my little place I bought this last summer. Until I bought it the house had been in the same family since it was built in 1898.
You SHOULD show off, that is just an incredible place. Thanks for sharing ! I guess I have to leave the shop and join my wife to watch HGTV on Sunday
Holy CRAP Larry. that is the coolest stuff in the coolest house i've ever seen. WOW!!! i'm SOOOO JELIOUS!! do you own the entire building??? what the heck does a building like that set a person back?? i want one!!
My brother and I went in together on the building 6 years ago. He lives in about 1200 sq. ft. of the first floor (1/3). The building was so stinkin' cheap we HAD to buy it! It has a newer rubber roof, broom swept, and not a dark corner in the place/tons of lighting. The realtor told us anyone looking for industrial space wants our sq. footage on concrete and one floor, not 3 floors of wood, sooooooooo, we ponied up the huge sum of 70 grand and here we are.
My 1935 woodie lives in an old 1890s carriage house that still has the horse stalls intact. The house is circa 1833. A wooden car and a wooden house....I'm never too far away from a paint or varnish bucket!!
Old houses and old cars- both kool! My house was built in 1928 and is unchanged in appearance. The electrical wiring and plumbing has been update- all else just like it was built. It has a nice two car detached garage built like the house with the original carriage doors.
I wish to thank you for really unsettling the wife....She loves our house but has now seen yours, as everyone else has said "how fucking cool" She has already re-arranged the kitchen (but you still cant see the Kit Kat machine) and has not actually said no to the possibility of seeking out somthing similar over here (at last!!) Anyway our house was built as a blacksmiths in 1790 and became a home from some time around 1850, we have the deeds of covernant going back to 1878 when the owner died leaving the property to his children as long as his wife lived there till she died. the house went through a few owners and was used as an annex to a local hotel for a while (during which time Briggs Cunningham stayed here!!) . It was hit by a german bomb (destroying the workshop totally) during an air raid on a shadow factory a mile or so away during WW2. A real bad extension was built on the front in 1968 buy the architect who lived here at the time (nice for 68 not so nice style wize now) and the house looks like a 60's house from the front but a cottage from the back. We got it after it had been empty for 4 years and was a mess to say the least......lets just say brown gloss paint on the bedroom walls and a brown and orange bathroom....... exuse 9 year old son playing beat the flash!!!
I'd love to show you pics of the house QueenBee and I were having extended: it's a '30s house up a road so narrow you'd struggle to get a '59 Lincoln up.... However, thanks to our bloody builder (and all UK HAMBers will know what I mean) he's taken TWO - yes, TWO bloody years to complete a one bedroom extension and put the bathroom upstairs. He didn't call the building inspectors out at each stage of the work he did (foundations, walls, stircase and roof) so now we have a completed house that it would be illegal to live in..... But it does have a 30-mile view of the Welsh coastline. And yes, we've run out of money as a result!
my sympathy richydab...now you know why I did all the work my self!!! I forgot to mention DAVE....he's our ghost....he switches the TV on and off messes with the video and DVD players, stomps around up stairs, opens doors and worst of all moves my shit around the house so I can never find anything. He is an old man with a beard who laughs alot (he has been seen) We also have a boy who stands on our drive and laughs (he's been seen too).........Really this is not a joke. But it's not a bad haunting so it may be a bit annoying (Dave will put the TV back on once he has turned it off if you ask him to) but a really pleasent place to live.
had trouble sending a pic of my in laws place but if you want a look goto my webshots page and look at the castle and austin folder this is realy my in laws place near Oxford UK initialy buit around 1600 it has a moat and two draw bridges this realy is old !
Cheers Paul for yr sympathy - been on to Llanelli trading standards but you know what civil servants are like.... hopefully we'll have a result by the end of the year, if we're lucky....
Dungeons? Sub-sub-basements? Anyone bricked up in the walls? Crazy Uncles chained up in the attic? Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with a talleywacker? How then are we to know that it's really an English castle?
Here's my house - built in 1869 by my great-great-grandparents on homesteaded land. The front porch was added around 1910 when my great-grandfather married. I still have quite alot of furniture and family heirlooms. 6 generations of my family have lived here. BTW that's my '55 Victoria in the shots.
If you haven't seen it, you should check out a mag called Atomic Ranch, full of mid century American mrvels
It is a stone house, built by my Irish ancestors. Oddly enough, I've never seen a tornado my entire life here in Kansas. I saw several in Oklahoma, including the OKC F5 in 1999. I did have a tornado follow down the creek bottom about 300 yards south of the house one night in 1997, but didn't have any building damage. That one picked up a 1200 pound bull 1/2 mile away and dropped it into the hay field in front of the house. The bull didn't survive.
Is stone commonly used in your area or did your Irish forbearers bring the idea from the old country? What kind of stone? Sorry to hear about the poor bull.
Here is mine, just a crap tract home built in 1967 but it's almost paid for and it's comfortable.......just need to enlarge the garage.
On most of the homes built before 1900 they were stone. There was a lack of good local building lumber back in those days. The stone is common in ledges close to the surface. The stone is a Kansas Limestone, which is noted for its workability and durability. How do I know? Because I work here: http://www.usstoneindustries.com/ (Shameless plug)
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