Dream Homes Archives - Page 4 of 4

Recycled Bottle Houses

October 29, 2007 RH

Oh yeah! You know I want one of these! I saw this on Treehugger originally and then found a few other fascinating sites from that post. So fascinating, in fact, that I’m inspired to work on some new projects.

Web Urbanist featured the bottle house, along with 4 other types of recycled architecture. The bottles are my favorite because they look like jewels. The oldest known bottle house was built in 1907. Since then, many bottle homes have been built around the world out of necessity where building supplies are scarce.

Agility Nut has links to many of them.

The Pumpkin House

October 24, 2007 RH 2 Comments

I discovered this holiday appropriate house while cruising around Offbeat Homes. It’s set on 15 acres in Vermont and was built in 1997. Reading about the construction, I felt a bit guilty about ever complaining about my own renovations….“We were camping with a 1 1/2 year old not yet potty trained with cold weather coming fast. There were several 28 degree nights that month.” Gosh, I’ve had it so kushy, with my heating and luxury porta potty.

Sphere Cottage

Build Your Own Sustainable Home!

October 23, 2007 RH 3 Comments

Dream Green Homes is fabulous site for anyone doing research on building their own green home. The site is laid out so even an A.D.D. person like myself can find their way around. It’s broken down into styles, materials and functions. House plans can be purchased in the store. I want the packaged earthship.

Kelly Hart, the site’s host, is also the guy behind Green Home Building. Very similar subject matter. Loads of info. Here, you can sign up for training programs and buy informative books.

Call me a cynical New Yorker, but it looks like these folks drank too much kool aid. I’m not used to seeing shiny happy people. I just wanna say….if they’re affiliated with some kind of cult, I am not aware of it.

Green Dream Home: Remainder House

October 16, 2007 RH

Saw this on Off Beat Homes, my new favorite website. She has a house called “The Poop House” on there! Oh, you can bet I’ll be covering that one.

But back to the lovely Remainder House… From Open Space Architect’s website: “The Remainder House is a celebration of old growth timbers salvaged from a New Westminster warehouse. The house was carefully sited on a tight triangular shaped lot to frame a woodland garden, maintaining the existing trees, minimizing the visual impact to neighbors and maximizing Southern views over the water. All was achieved without removing a single existing tree. “

The house is in British Columbia, but hey, just as easy to build it here in New York (Hear that, architects and builders?). I would love, love, love to have a weekend retreat in a place like this. Anything longer than that, I have to admit, would make me claustrophobic.

Treehugger

Victorians=Spooky

October 9, 2007 RH

With Halloween just around the corner, this seemed appropriate. I found a cool article on Victorian homes over at Our Strange World, a blog dealing with the paranormal.

The article starts out: “With their bay-windowed towers, widow’s walks and creaky floors, Victorian homes are the go-to image for being creepy and haunted — the place where some bogeyman-type will give chase to neighborhood children.” It sites films such as “The Amityville Horror and “Pacific Heights”.

Growing up on horror films and seances, it makes perfect sense to me why I’m in love with Victorians. I do want to decorate my home with gargoyles and dragons. And I must admit that there’s something about a decrepit old haunted looking house that makes me salivate.

My Beacon home looks spooky. But the energy is so positive that it’s the first home in 15 years that I didn’t smudge (smudge=ritual to clear house of negative energy). Just goes to show you, looks are deceiving.

Mini Dream Home: Plywood Chateau

October 8, 2007 RH 3 Comments

In the past, we’ve written up some fun dream homes, including castles and islands. Perhaps you can’t actually live in one of James Westwater’s Plywood Chateaux, but let’s file this one under dream “retreat”. You can buy one of these babies for around $15k and keep it in your rent stabilized 300 sq foot Manhattan studio and PRETEND you live in a mansion.

THE best place for a tea party. As you can see, two can comfortably fit in there. These are functional pieces of art. Best of all, the plywood is FSC certified birch. James is a fellow crunchy tree hugger.

Treehugger
Shedworking
Natva Schulz Gallery

Historic Mansions of Dutchess County

October 4, 2007 RH 1 Comment

If you’re an old home fanatic like myself, you can spend the entire weekend touring the historic mansions in Dutchess County. Wilderstein is my favorite, a dark Queen Anne style home still undergoing restoration. And if you’re in the area, Wing’s Castle is not so far and it is a must see!

Hudson River Valley National Heritage
Staatsburgh
Olana
Vanderbilt
Wilderstein
Montgomery

Recycled Home: Shipping Container

October 3, 2007 RH 2 Comments

With shipping containers piling up because we import more than we export, some architects have come up wonderful uses for them.

Adam Kalkin, who admits he has a “fascination with junk” is one artist/architect who specializes in shipping container chic. His homes start at $99,000 and are not only beautiful, but can provide extraordinary shelter for disaster relief.

Architecture and Hygiene
CNN Interview: Adam Kalkin

Dream Homes: Hobbit Dwelling in Wales

September 26, 2007 RH 1 Comment

FRODO NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD

I’ve been eying this baby on Crib Candy for awhile now. The home was built by a young family with virtually no money to spend on housing. It took 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 to get it to this point. Even better than the cost is the fact that it’s a low impact dwelling.

The Simondale Website is fascinating. These folks are involved with the Lammas project, the first of it’s kind eco village in Pembrokeshire. Do we have anything that cool in the US? Let’s start one! Ok, who’s with me?

Own An Island! $ 1.9 Mil

September 25, 2007 RH 3 Comments

Found out about this one thanks to Lower Hudson via The Real Deal.

The Plaplers, a Manhattan couple, are selling their second home on Putnam Lake. And when we say on Putnam Lake, we mean ON Putnam Lake. They paid $72,500 for it back in the 70’s. Just about what Park Slope brownstones were selling for.

The stone home was built by Bernard McEntegart and his sons 75 years ago. They hauled the material across the water.

Wonder if Fresh Direct delivers?

Video

Dream Homes: Wing’s Castle, Millbrook, NY

September 19, 2007 RH 7 Comments

I visit Wings Castle whenever I’m in the area because it’s an inspiration to any DIY fanatic. I mean, they built this themselves! With reclaimed materials! The swimming pool is a friggen moat!

When I found out Wings Castle was for sale, I started saving my pennies. Currently listed at $5,850,000, I still have a few more years to go before I can afford it. I’m taking donations if anyone wants to see me finish the ongoing 30+ year project started by Peter Wing.

Dupont Castle

Buying A Castle

September 19, 2007 RH

Dracula’s Castle is for sale.

The price of a European castle doesn’t seem as outrageous as the price of a Manhattan studio apartment. You can buy a castle for under a million. Who cares if it’s a shell in Hungary? What else are you planning to do with your retirement?

Castles For Sale
Viviun Real Estate
Mercure Real Estate
Wists Castles

reclaimedhome.com

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