Well, "
smallish" plan. This charming brick house looks pretty similar to a lot of the building stock of the 1920s and I can see why so much was built similarly-whats not to like?
I should mention that I got off on this small house kick because I spent 4 days this past weekend in Seaside, Florida.
Seaside, as many of you probably know, is the famous new urbanist town designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk in the 1980s in the Florida Panhandle. More recently, the film "the Truman Show" with Jim Carrey was filmed there and you may recognize it from that.
The houses in Seaside are small, charming and in a cohesive atmosphere that many people have called 'Disneyesque' or overly-designed but I love. I mean, how can you have TOO MUCH design or thought put into a neighborhood? Lamest arguement ever. Generally the opposite is the problem, as evidenced driving along the highway to Seaside and the other new urbanist communities that have sprung up nearby. I'll be posting more on Seaside shortly when I get my photos organized but I was not disappointed.
Getting back to the subject at hand, I don't believe this house is actually all that small but could use some updating to the plan. While one is tempted to make an addition to help create 'more space' -the entire purpose of this exercise (or at least these posts) is to try to think creatively and use what you have; Think outside of the box by staying within it! Better living through smarter planning and less waste is my goal. Clearing out the warren of pantry and small side entry in order to create a larger kitchen would help, as would creating a master suite from the 2 bedrooms on the right of the 2nd floor. Hopefully a bathroom could be added to the attic floor without too much expense, maybe in place of the storage above the master suite below. Of course, I would not be changing the numerous outdoor porches and charming exterior shown in the rendering. Stay tuned for some beautiful photos from Florida!
Well, "smallish" plan. This charming brick house looks pretty similar to a lot of the building stock of the 1920s and I can see why so much was built similarly-whats not to like?
I have loved your small house series and can't wait to see your Seaside photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Meadow! I'm glad to share these with people who also enjoy them :-)
ReplyDeleteyour small house plans posts are wonderful Stefan! I think we are overly spread out---one of my favorite client quotes is from the man of the house wondering why they needed a 4800 sft house when they were all hunkering down in their current den at the time that measured about 14 x 14. Granted the 3 children were and still are small-but families-I think are too spread out now. A current project a sprawling ranch that I mentioned to you by email makes sense to me-everything on one level for the most part--though this one does have a wealth of lower level spaces-once an indoor pool and saunas. For me in the future 1 perfect room will suffice. pgt
ReplyDeleteI just loved these charming houses, and your update ideas.
ReplyDeleteWould you consider doing the same for prewar apartments?
Thanks!
Larry
Larry- thats just as fun! Have you seen those 'old apartments from New York' books? I love those too!
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed this series, and the charming renderings especially. This house is particularly interesting in that it presents a relatively private face to the street and puts the service porch on the side to avoid conflict with the rear Dining Porch.
ReplyDeleteWhen commentors remark on the cost of renovation being unfeasible, they might not realize that some neighborhoods, in an effort to control the spread of new overpowering McMansions in established areas of classic smaller houses, do not allow demolition for such rebuilding.
While Seaside - along with Rosemary Beach, Watercolor and the neighboring planned communities - is highly restrictive in design, the results are charming. Thanks for the great posts!
Seaside is a really wonderful place. Now we almost take these new urbanist communities for granted...but 25 years ago or so when Seaside was developed, it was a completely new idea. One of my first jobs was working for the architect Robert Orr. He designed some of the original small cottages in a section called Rosewalk. Later he designed a much larger house for himself, which I worked on. I think as time went on, the houses at Seaside got bigger and fancier...but the whole idea of sidewalks and neighborhoods is still fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI've really enjoyed this series too. These houses used to make such attractive, cohesive neighborhoods, before the tear down phenomenon started wiping them out. (What do people do? Does the conversation go like this--"Honey, you know what we should do, we should go to some neighborhood, find a nice charming midsize house, something well built with good design, and tear it down and build ourselves a nice big dryvit palace in its place"?
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I thought Seaside was the best thing since sliced bread when it first came out---but, as time has gone on, houses have gotten bigger, and taller, and it has lost some of its initial point---scale and simplicity. Minor criticism---it still stands out in its category.
Loved the small house series. The last one is quite the charmer. Our house is a 1968 without a soupcon of grace as I say. I know I've been a stuck needle about replacing the living room with the kitchen. I am in the middle of doing something like that. We made the living room smaller and opened up a wall in the kitchen. Now we have a space that is 53 feet long and overlooks our garden. When my 6'5" husband retires in a few years I wanted him to be comfortable while I cook so now we will be spending most of our time in this new kitchen, morning room/pantry, library/dining room. I'm kinda excited! I didn't want to add on because I didn't want to damage my garden. This "redo" was our least expensive biggest return. Usually I'm an outside the box kind of girl. This time I'm delighted to be inside the box!
ReplyDeleteThese houses you are featuring all have a great deal of appeal. I think this is partly because they are not really small, except perhaps compared to those Long Island behemoths. More importantly, they are individually designed, seem to have some space around them, and would not look like the other houses on the block.
ReplyDeleteThis house has a well-thought-out floor plan on the second floor. None of the bedrooms are contiguous to the others, but are separated by closets, halls, and baths. Combining rooms would create a nice large space, but might not outweigh fewer bedrooms at resale time.
One problem is that large hall which eats up space on all floors. Perhaps without changing the footprint of the house, the eating porch could be turned into a study or family room, and the space above used for added baths.
Lots of fun thinking about these.
--Road to Parnassus
I saw this the other day and had to tell you about it. It looks interesting - http://www.amazon.com/Views-Seaside-Commentaries-Observations-Ideas/dp/0847831205/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330123252&sr=1-4
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Seaside, but I'll admit to some reservations about planned communities. I think they can be done right. My ex's parents live next to the I'On Village development in SC, so I saw some of it during the early days and it seemed cozy, and I really like the idea of necessities like markets being accessible. Several years ago, though, I stumbled into Celebration, FL, very near Disney World. I think they were going for Disneyesque in that case, but it felt uncomfortably Twilight Zone-ish to me - maybe Stepfordesque would be a better descriptive.
ReplyDelete