Where Bloggers Live: My Dream Home
Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Every month a group of six bloggers share their work-spaces, homes, towns, and more!
This month we’re sharing our dream homes. And homes are something I am ALWAYS dreaming about.
I don’t have dreams of grandeur. My favorite type of home is sensible and efficient with good flow, light and air. It can be small. As long as it makes sense.
A LOT of places make no sense. Especially apartments and remodeled private homes. People don’t always know what they’re doing…and yet they do it anyway, ha ha.
I can imagine the conversations of homeowners who remodel their own homes:
Him: Hey, hun.
Her: Yeah?
Him: You know those wasted 6′ next to the boiler in the basement?
Her: Yeah.
Him: Let’s put an apartment there and charge $1500/month rent!
Her: You’re brilliant! Let’s do it!
And with that, another ridiculous apartment…or den…or guest-room is built.
Sigh. It is LAUGHABLE (and sad) what is out there these days billed as “apartments.” You know, the kind that HUMANS are supposed to live in.
The homes I’ve been most drawn to over my adult life are large Victorians with wraparound porches and gingerbread trim; neat, horizontal mid-century homes with clean lines and large expanses of glass to bring the outdoors in; quirky cottages; high-ceilinged, light-filled pre-war brownstones.
But my long-time favorite style of architecture is the sensible, cozy, and charming Craftsman style bungalow, with their deep porches, built-ins, substantial columns, exposed-end rafters and multi-paned windows.
When I’m in southern California I enjoy seeing so many examples of this type of home, built in the early 1900s and often historically preserved and restored. Pasadena is practically the Craftsman Capitol and my cousin lives right next to there, so there are a LOT.
They’re built so efficiently and have no wasted space. The deep overhangs and wide porches keep the sun and out heat, the large windows let the light in. They have tons of built-ins so there’s not a need for lots of furniture and things can be stored away in a sleek, clean fashion.
Floor to ceiling bookcases, glass-front cabinets, storage benches.
Dining room buffets and servers and picture rails.
Fireplace library.
I was fortunate enough to live in a Craftsman bungalow for many years…in the pre-Brooklyn era.
It was a 1907, 5 bedroom (that sounds like it was big, it was not), 1 bath home with kitchen, dining room, and living room. A lovely, wide front porch. Built-in window seat in the dining room and several diamond-paned windows. It was quite charming.
I apologize for the pictures. For the past few months I’ve been trying to get ALL my pictures organized, from two computers, digital files, several external hard-drives and hard-copy photo albums. So at the moment I don’t know exactly where my HOUSE pictures are, so…
I’m not saying this was my Dream Home. But it did have many elements that I love. Small, efficient, cozy, charming details, big windows, etc.
Now, looking to the future, I am obsessed with looking at office-tel apartments in Korea…and in a way, they have some characteristics in common with the Craftsman style that I love. Small, VERY efficient use of space, lots of built-ins that are practical and eliminate the need to bring much furniture with you, large windows with good light.
This one girl, Micaela, I’m OBSESSED with her Seoul apartment. The window. The view. The LIGHT. She gets The Most Beautiful end of day light…turns the whole apartment warm and cozy. And then in the evening she has the twinkling lights from the city sprawled before her.
My dream home has LIGHT and AIR and long views and city and sky and mountains.
And a bathtub.
Make sure to check out the dream homes of my friends:
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Em at Dust and Doghair
Lisa
I love those icicles! I also love that house!
jodie filogomo
That’s such an amazing porch you had. I love how practical your dream house is.
I can’t wait to see the options in Korea!!
Xoxo
Jodie
Sally in St Paul
Built-ins are the best, right?? When I was about 5, we lived in a rental house for a year that had the fireplace with built-in glass enclosed bookcases and I loved that. I’d forgotten all about it until I saw that photo.
bettyewp
Yes, they’re so charming!
Iris
I, too, love the craftsman type homes – love all the built ins. They look cozy and homey. Not sure about the Korean one – depends on taste I guess. The steps do remind me of some of the pictures on tiny houses. I enjoy looking at them.
I used to love seeing pictures of your house – your front porch was wonderful.
Thanks for sharing,
Iris
bettyewp
I know the Korean apartments that I’ve been sharing are very modern, but I’ve always wanted to live in a high rise apartment building and while there are smaller apartment buildings (they call them villas when they’re just like 2-3 stories high) that have a little more…vintage charm (?), being so close to the ground you don’t get those views. This is probably the one time in my life I’ll be able to afford both an apartment building AND one with a spectacular view, so…I’ll take the modern look. And you’re right, they’re sort of tiny house-esque. They usually share the square footage of the apartments and it’s like 23m(squared) and I’m like oooh that sounds small.
I REALLY need to learn the metric system! PS, I looked that up and 23msquared is 240 sq/ft. Yep, that’s small 🙂 I can do small if the layout is good and I have LIGHT. I just need a bed (and I’ll go down to a twin if I have to), a desk/chair, little loveseat-sized sofa, and something to put the tv on (unless there’s already one mounted on the wall, some of the “furnished” apartments also have tvs). Most of them have a lot of good built-in storage so I won’t need dressers.
I do miss my front porch.
Jean
Bettye, you have great taste in homes. The next time you’re visiting relatives in Pasadena, I hope you get a chance to tour the Gamble House (former summer home of Proctor & Gamble relatives) if you haven’t already. The whole neighborhood is a joy to walk through.
bettyewp
I’ve been to the Gamble House! I started sharing about that in the post but then I got sidetracked with the Asian influences and WHOOSH I was off. I had to rein myself in and edit down and gitterdone.
But I have a Proctor & Gamble story. My uncle worked there for many years and there were always tons (TONS) of boxed cake mixes (Duncan Hines?) stored out in the garage…like just cases and cases. My cousin and I would sneak out there and grab a couple boxes and sit in my grandfather’s camper that he kept in the garage…and just eat til…well, til HE got sick. *I* have an iron stomach. When HE couldn’t eat any more, he’d tell ME that there were boll weevils (?) in the boxes and I was eating bugs.
I was fine with that, too. He was not gonna stop ME from that unending delight!
April
Ooo, I love these photos. This reminds me of going to Maw-Maw’s house. She had this kind of house, with a huge library built on. Her house was always my favorite place to go.
bettyewp
Was that your grandmother?? I love the names people have for their grandparents 🙂
Em
You know I was wondering!!! The Buffalo area has beaucoup craftsman homes and you’re right…the woodworking and the porches are perfection. (Those icicles! Clearly charm and energy efficiency are at odds in this gorgeous location. And who cares, it’s beautiful). I am quite fascinated by what the options will be in Korea…and can you take/have pets…and if you can, will you? And where will you put your clothes?!!
bettyewp
Yeah, there was no insulation in the roof at that time. Plus, no gutters cuz I liked the way the roof rafters (gables?) looked exposed. When I eventually redid the roof we lost the wonderful icicles 🙁
In Korea, just like here, some apartments allow pets and some do not. As much as I would love a little kitty…knowing that I DON’T know where I’ll be leaving when I leave Korea, makes it…unwise to add an animal to the mix.
Most of the officetels (which is mostly what I’m looking at and what I’ve shared here) have built-in storage. There’s not TONS, but I don’t have tons of clothes NOW…and seeing as how I have to move myself over there in 2 big suitcases, a carry-on and a big bag…and will probably bring bed linens and towels as well…I just won’t be BRINGING that many clothes. It will truly be a Korean Capsule.
I do have a fantasy that I’ll buy a sewing machine when I’m over there and finally figure out how to make some simple clothing.
HA HA HA HA HA are you buying it??
xoxo
Daenel T.
I love love love Craftsman style homes. Not the new ones, the old ones. The real old ones with the built- ins and the beautiful wood casings. The walk-in pantries {which I mentioned in my post} and the colors. To me, they just look cozy and comfortable.
bettyewp
Craftsmans are like the cushy, comfy sofas of the architecture world 🙂
Leslie Susan Clingan
I appreciate clever use of space, too. We stayed in a small vintage RV for a week and every inch was so well planned, and useful. Have thought I would like to have a tiny home someday or at least a tiny RV to getaway in.
My mom always dreamed of having a shot-gun bungalow home. She liked the efficient use of space and the big porch. Your bungalow had so much personality. In each season. When I was putting together this post and the one we did a few months ago about places we have lived, and through Zillow, I was able to see pictures from inside the house I lived in from 1962-1968. It has a lot of built-ins that I had forgotten or maybe not realized were ‘built-in.’ Hope you are able to make your dream come true and find your happily ever after in a sleek, Korean apartment with a dramatic view.
bettyewp
Yeah, campers and boats and now tiny houses do a great job of making the best use of limited space.
As a kid you were probably not paying close attention to your home’s architectural details 🙂