How much would you pay for a home 9 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long? Well, the listing price is $2.7 million for a 990-square foot home billed as the narrowest house in New York City. We'll see if they get it. According to my rough calculation, that's over $2,700 per square foot.
The house does have some history, built in 1873, it has been the home of the anthropologist Margaret Mead and the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. The original builder obviously had a sense of humor: The address is 75 1/2 Bedford Street. Any takers?
One thing I've learned over the years is remodeling a home can put a major strain on your marriage - the bigger the project, the bigger the strain. That's why it was no surprise to read that the owner of Clingstone Mansion in Jamestown, RI burned through two marriages in the course of remodeling the unique home since purchasing it in 1961.
The home, in its finished form, is spectacular. It sits on a narrow rock in Narragansett Bay, accessible only by boat and offering panoramic views of the water from its 65 windows (see the slideshow).
However, when Henry Wood, a Boston area architect purchased the home, it was a "roofless, windowless, floorless, powerless, waterless house." Through the hard work and effort of his family, friends, and volunteers, it is now a beautiful 23-room, three story eco-mansion that collects rainwater in a 3,000 gallon cistern, heats it with solar panels, and generates electricity with a wind turbine.
Although the finished product is magnificent, the upkeep is still a tremendous task. Maybe he should have read our article on Surviving Your Remodel. What do you think, is the home worth the personal cost? What's the biggest fight you've had with your spouse over remodeling?
How would you like to live in shipping containers? Might sound crazy, but the house pictured is just that -- seven recycled steel shipping containers, recycled to create one eco-friendly home. Bernard Morin and Joyce Labelle, an architect and his wife in Ste. Adele, Quebec, built this 3,000 square foot home for only $175,000 -- saving them about $225,000. And now Morin hopes to make a business out of the design. The home, built in a Cubist style to accommodate the sloping setting, is resistant to rust, mold, termites and fire. Is this the wave of the future? Would you buy one? Check out our video series documenting the building of a home with shipping containers.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article debating the fate of McMansions in America. Once the rage, they've now fallen out of favor. A recent survey shows average square footage of American homes declined from 2,629 to 2,335 from the second quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. Many fault the recession and some predict once it has passed home sizes will "stabilize" at around 2,500 square feet over the next five years. What do you think?
There's something special about a historic building being renovated for modern use. So it was good news when a developer stepped up recently with plans to convert a shoe factory in Whitman, MA into housing. From the turn of the century until its closing in the 1960s, the mill was a significant force in shoe manufacturing. Developer Fred Kiley of Heritage Cos. bought the structure for $2 million in 2008 and now has plans for a $17 million overhaul, involving the creation of 127 apartments and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. Most importantly, his plans retain the character and integrity of the original building.
It's a house you may have seen in movies and magazines - the Stahl House by architect Pierre Koenig remains a fixture in the Hollywood Hills. And it's one of the 12 homes reviewed in this article from CA-Modern Magazine about classic California steel homes. Historically, steel construction was part of a movement to build houses that were easy to construct and maintain. Arguably not the ideal medium but the article explains how architects cleverly used the material to meet the homeowners' needs. Give it a read to gain an understanding of this uniquely American architecture.
As a writer for BobVila.com, I rarely cite articles from Scientific American but this article entitled "How Room Designs Affect Your Work and Mood" is too good to pass up. This lengthy piece documents the state of research into using room design to "promote creativity, keep students focused and alert" and increase relaxation and social intimacy. One professor has found a link between ceiling height and the way we think (taller ceilings appear to encourage more abstract thought while shorter ceilings encourage more concrete thinking). There's a slew of scientific findings in the article. Read the entire piece to get some great ideas of how to improve your surroundings.
