Saturday, October 2, 2010

Been Doing Research... Lost in Antiquity

I've been kind of obsessed lately doing research on houses like this...


The thought of totally replacing our little hovel of a shack is fabulous. (We have lived in an 800 square foot house for seven years now.) I've been combing the internet and getting all the information I can find on Craftsman style architecture. I even got one of Gustav Stickley's books to find prospective floor plans. Ha! I laugh out loud since they are not available in this world any longer. I guess I will be enlarging his four by five inch drawings. Yeah, that ought to work...

We are setting a goal of next summer for attaining this monumental feat. I just want to get up to the 1000 square foot range in house size. (The County we live in restricts the size of secondary dwellings on our property.) Thus, I will settle for the 200 square foot upgrade in the new house.

But with a certain style.

A style of simplicity and function beyond all else.

And well, of course, beauty. And yes beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.


This original Craftsman (circa 1909) pictured above is 1000 square feet - on a gnats ass!

And we plan on including a 200-300 square foot garage that can be converted to a play room for the kids. You see we can have any sized garage we want by County rules. Like that makes any sense at all.

So you see I have been away from the blog with good reason. For happy reasons!

18 comments:

Julie Harward said...

That sounds wonderful...it will be hard but so great when completed..good luck :D

theUngourmet said...

Wow, 800. I thought we were crammed it at 1,000. Best of luck with the add on. How exciting! ;)

Aunt Spicy said...

Yahoo! So exciting! And a craftsman is perfect!

(funny about the county restrictions...I say, make the garage 1000 sq feet and the house 1000 sq feet!)

brokenteepee said...

Yurt, yurt, yurt!!!!!

IanH said...

Have you tried e-bay for that publication?

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

That will be wonderful! But 1000 sq ft? That is really small. What is your county thinking?

Doris Sturm said...

That is soooo exciting Julia - and I'm glad you are smart so you can find a way to have your house and square footage too :-)

With love,
Doris and Gizzy

The Silver Age Sara said...

I love Craftsman houses. The originals are beautiful in their simplicity of design and have really withstood the test of time.

Funny how life stages are so different. We've been ripping off parts of our house the past couple of years because it is way too big for us but when you have children, you need the space.

Enjoy the process. It's exciting.

Sara said...

Don't you wish you could order a house and have it delivered? Good luck with the planning! 800 sq ft is tight. Craftsman has stood the test of time.

Kristine Mullen said...

Found you from Doris @ Crocheing ini Georgia.

I love the house. 200 square feet will probably seem like a lot more space. Especially if it's a good floor plan. Hopefully it goes by quicker than you think.

Anonymous said...

are you allowed a basement? I know all of our houses in New England did not consider the basement in the square footage- but when it was finished offered a huge amount of space.
Dig down!
:)

theUngourmet said...

I love Craftsman style homes. I will be so excited to see the progression of things as well as the final results. How fun!

theUngourmet said...

Hey, I thought this post looked familiar and then I just noticed that I already commented. Duh! I'm such a nut! :D Hope things are going well!

Grand Pooba said...

That is awesome! How exciting! You deserve more breathing room!

I've missed you!

Frogs in my formula said...

Nice! I've heard great things about Craftsman homes. I hope you chronicle your plans--we were thinking about taking that route down the road a bit. Good luck.

Unknown said...

The Craftsman photo is beautiful. It is the first time I have seen one and I just love it. Good luck in your house building/expanding.

Sharkbytes said...

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Elizabeth Leigh said...

So you will keep your current home and build a second? or when you say secondary dwelling, are you talking about your sisters house? That extra space will be very welcomed I'm sure. It's only three of us and two dogs in about 1100 sq ft. Its just right I feel like. Not too big. Not too small. and we have an unfinished basement. Can you have basements there? I grew up down south, where hardly anyone has a basement. But since moving north, all homes have basements - and i'm hooked. A place to store things, pile up junk we don't need, let the kid ride his tricycle in cold weather, etc. Going back to no basement well - i just can't;) Anyway, I adore the pictures of the craftsman style homes you posted!! Hope you'll blog about the process:)

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