Great Small House Plans

I got a new subscriber yesterday ( who needs to add their name to their profile so that I can thank them properly LOL). In trying to determine what kind of blog they write I ran across a link that had been shared and I found it fascinating.  I don’t normally just re-post something but it was so appropriate for the times that we live in I just had to share.

Perhaps it caught my eye because we live in a bungalow or perhaps it’s because I have been thinking so much recently about how expensive square footage is and longing to design  the ideal smaller house; whatever the reason I loved the post.

Here it is:

“Today I would like to highlight a series of projects submitted in 1911(ish) to the “Brickbuilder”, an early 20th Century trade publication.  Having sponsored a nation wide competition, the publication received over 650 submissions from around the country.  The 100 top entries were published in 1912 in a catalog distributed by the Brickbuilder, and have been republished in a book called 100 Turn of the Century Brick Bungalows with Floor Plans.  There were two requirements for entry, first the bungalow had to be built of brick, and second it had to come in at a cost of $3000 or less. ( A comment on this post said that According to Wolfram Alpha $3000 in 1911 is the equivalent of $71,995.11 in 2011.) I love these projects for their simplicity but even more so because of Brickbuilder’s attempt to make the resulting projects affordable by keeping the cost requirements low.  Why aren’t we designing and building things today with the same spirit if not the same form?

Design By Leo N. Denler, Buffalo, NY

Design by M. A. Ward; Chicago, IL.

Design By HArry F.C. Mennecke; NY, NY

Design By Wetherill P. Trout; Philadelphia, PA

Design By J.H. Taylor; Montreal, Que., Canada

Design By Harold Field Kellogg; Boston, MA

Design BY Henry W. Hall & Hugo K. Graf; St. Louis, MO.

Design By George C. Crockett; NY, NY.

Design By J. Theodore Hanemann; NY, NY.

All images in this post are from the library of CJ Builds LLC.  The following resource was used for this post:

100 Turn-Of-The-Century Brick Bungalows with Floor Plans::  Rogers & Manson; Dover Publications, INC.  1994

I hope that you found this enjoyable.

If you need help planning YOUR perfect bungalow contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.

 

Another Historic Treasure

Just days after I posted about the historic Gay House (here) a friend started talking about another amazing old house in Montgomery that hubby and I actually looked at a lifetime ago, the Winter House.

The story goes that there is a tunnel that was used to escape Wilson’s raiders that leads from the basement to the river.

 The old grainy photo is from some ancient files that I dug up but take some time to examine this glorious structure. Notice the unusual balustrade around the porch and the trim detail between the columns. It looks like a key hole. See it? I love that charming little window over the front door. Steve Mouzon you need to jump in here with some more interesting info on this house.

 And speaking of front doors does it get any better than this? I want them.

 I know. It makes me cry also. Check out those corbels. How many must there be in all????? And by the way this is how shutters are SUPPOSED to be used. Have you ever seen the vinyl version that some builder stuck on a building BACKWARDS!  Please.

Love, love, love those fish scale shingles and that awesome window.

Southern Accents you might be headed back to town.

If you want to say, That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.