We let the crazy flag fly here at House Crazy
January 16, 2015 11:22 AM   Subscribe

House Crazy is a blog about weird and/or beautiful houses, like this "bizarre house-like thing in the [California] desert", this obnoxiously opulent ski chalet or thismagical San Francisco Victorian. There are also interesting articles on crime scene houses like the the House at Hex Hollow and the house where Sharon Tate was murdered.
posted by desjardins (54 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
That crazy desert house looks like the place in Antonioni's film...Zabriski Point.
posted by Oyéah at 11:33 AM on January 16, 2015


Without question, it is stunning. Whether in a good or bad way, is in the eye of the beholder.

I think it's brilliant. It's like a Taliesin apprentice shelter with an unlimited budget.

It's not quite relevant but "house-like thing" made me think of the so-called Pumice Castle in Crater Lake. This view is from the lake surface which is really the only vantage from which it looks much like a castle. Occasionally nearsighted people ask if they can book a stay there.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:33 AM on January 16, 2015


I like the organic place a lot. I wish it were more feasible (in terms of constructability but also in terms of being able to insure and sell a place) that wasn't your standard box, which is just so boring even if there are livability advantages.

The ski chalet, however, I could do without.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:45 AM on January 16, 2015


Jesus Christ, Marie!
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:49 AM on January 16, 2015 [6 favorites]


Hmm, haven't we seen house-like thing here before? I think the verdict last time was that the occupants would be knee deep in scorpions.
posted by indubitable at 11:54 AM on January 16, 2015


I think the house-like thing was part of a previous post when it was for sale; it's a bit notable since the original owner is Bev Doolittle. I remember making a comment about Ken Kellogg.
posted by LionIndex at 12:02 PM on January 16, 2015


Purple house+Property Brothers=Win
posted by Oyéah at 12:04 PM on January 16, 2015


The desert house interior looks like one of the dungeons from EverQuest's "Ruins of Kunark" expansion pack. All it needs are bipedal lizard guards in hauberks.
posted by trunk muffins at 12:06 PM on January 16, 2015


I thought it looked like HR Giger's cottage.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:08 PM on January 16, 2015


That ski chalet. Just no. It looks like someone's great aunt left them a bunch of bad furniture.
posted by arcticseal at 12:10 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think the verdict last time was that the occupants would be knee deep in scorpions.
That was my first thought when I saw that place. Scorpions. And snakes.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:19 PM on January 16, 2015


I love the desert house so much.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:24 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tell me that thing doesn't leak.
posted by Flashman at 12:35 PM on January 16, 2015


Oh man, this is my house. Mountain views, natural wood, vaulted ceilings. Someone give me a couple million.
posted by desjardins at 12:35 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's in the desert. How often do you think it matters if it leaks?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:38 PM on January 16, 2015


fffm: you mean this place? :D (It's really worth checking out if you ever happen to be in Gruyères.)

I wonder if Notch's house has been featured on this blog yet.
posted by daisyk at 12:39 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ooh, there's a tag just for the crime scene houses.
posted by daisyk at 12:53 PM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


I have a friend in real estate who specializes in rehabbing murder houses. Good money in that, apparently. ProTip: Change the house number so it doesn't come up on teh Googles.
posted by vibrotronica at 12:55 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


They did that with the house in Port Dal where Paul Bernardo and his wife murdered those poor girls. Corner lot, so they destroyed the house entirely and built a new one fronting onto the other street.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:02 PM on January 16, 2015


Added to my RSS feed. Reminds me of as a kid thumbing through Architectural Digest and discovering Bruce Goff...
posted by jim in austin at 1:16 PM on January 16, 2015


All of the crime scene house entries.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:21 PM on January 16, 2015


All flat roofs eventually leak, and desert houses aren't immune. Rain tends to come hard and heavy when it comes at all—monsoon season, summer thunderstorms, those big winter storms that drop a lot of mushy, fast-melting snow—and that's when you very quickly find all the leaks you didn't know about. And then you realize there's probably a lot of rotting within your walls .... and that's when the scorpions and sun-spiders decide to make a cozy home within your poorly constructed and finished walls.

There are some interesting houses as you take Park Blvd. into Joshua Tree National Park from the 62. Most predate the financial collapse ... it's all but impossible to get construction financing in the California desert now. Most of the stuff you see will be the same charmless stucco "Mediterranean" exurban things, or the occasional old homesteader cabin that's been kept up or re-habbed.

I'm finally building my own desert house after owning several others—from a stark white custom house I bought out of foreclosure that reminded me of the Amargosa Hotel in Death Valley Junction to run-down "ranch houses" on scraped 2.5 acre parcels full of invasive weeds. The first building decision I made was to have a metal gable roof to keep the rain and snow out of the walls, and the second decision was to build on a narrow sliver of previously disturbed land on the property, so that I don't have to clear any native brush, cactus or trees.
posted by kenlayne at 1:23 PM on January 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


Whenever I see things like the purple house and maybe even Granny’s Empire of Art, I wonder what takes you from "I've got a bit of a wacky theme going on here" to "full on, anything and everything is part of the wackiness"; do you start out with that as the plan or does it just happen

(I feel like I need to know this because there but for the grace of God go I and/or if I'm going to start being that guy I, should I commit now?)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:28 PM on January 16, 2015


"You have to admire people who possess obscene amounts of money and are not bashful about indulging in it."

It's like someone saw Swedish Country and decided "I like it, but you know what it needs? More plaid."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 1:53 PM on January 16, 2015


(or gingham, rather. Fabric with a grid, basically.)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 1:55 PM on January 16, 2015


The CEILING GINGHAM! WTF!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:15 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


Fun to look at, but not so sure it would be practical to live in. Can't imagine cleaning some of these.

Oh, never mind. At 25000000, that's something the owner probably doesn't deal with anyway.
posted by BlueHorse at 4:55 PM on January 16, 2015


After staying up too late and reading these awful and scary murder stories on true crime websites (I don't know why because it just scares me to death and upsets me), I'd never feel right about those murder houses staying up. I'd just wonder endlessly what the victim saw and how scary it all was, and I can't think my way out of the terror or think of any of that objectively, as a house or as just a house.

Like the house of Jeffrey Dahmer wherever it was he grew up, or that Gacy house where he had all those bodies or that Jon Benet Ramsey house. It's all just too much. I don't even care if they put up a Taco Bell in its place.

But that's just me. I will always stay far from those places. If other people can stomach it, they should make all the decisions.
posted by discopolo at 5:00 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


You want crazy? Bob Hope's house.
posted by davebush at 5:00 PM on January 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


Oh God, I just know I'm going to stay up all night and scare the bejesus out of myself reading this website. I read the Sharon Tate/Manson murder link thinking, oh, I can handle it, I've read it before and they had house pictures but it's so awful to me to see the actual rooms, that table down the middle.
posted by discopolo at 5:02 PM on January 16, 2015


kenlayne: "All flat roofs eventually leak"

That's just a sub set of the general rule that all roofs eventually leak. Besides the roofs on Organic Modern Estate don't look all that flat. Even a 2/12 roof is plenty to keep water from pooling.
posted by Mitheral at 5:03 PM on January 16, 2015


Whoa that desert house! Incredible!
posted by discopolo at 5:37 PM on January 16, 2015


now if only they would all hire someone to help them pick furniture, paint colors and wood finishes.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 5:39 PM on January 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


The CEILING GINGHAM! WTF!

That house, it's like they showed the owner the pattern book and the owner said, "Okay"
posted by sidereal at 5:51 PM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


You want crazy? Bob Hope's house.

I've always thought that if I hit it big one day, I'd buy a roomy but cozy and modest house, with a few luxury amenities. But this is kind of awesome. It's not a mega-mansion. It's fucking art.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:33 PM on January 16, 2015


Like the house of Jeffrey Dahmer wherever it was he grew up

I don't know about where he grew up (I think it was in Ohio), but they did actually tear down the apartment building in Milwaukee where most of the murders were committed.
posted by desjardins at 8:23 PM on January 16, 2015


I actually threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that chalet. Even the granny's empire thing with the chaos and jumble looked crisp and contemporary after that. Then I saw the desert house and thought it was awesome, but a little too weird for me. Then desjardins linked this and I fell in love.
posted by dg at 10:25 PM on January 16, 2015


I was totally down with the Organic Modern Estate, right up until the shot down the hallway where the wall kind of curves into the floor irregularly. I'm picturing a lot of tripping and falling and cursing going on in that hallway.

I guess I could live with it, though. How close to public transportation? Any cool shops in the neighborhood? ...right.

I've never understood the whole hermit-house thing. If I had a gazillion dollars, I'd be in the city, where the PEOPLE are. I guess it would be cool to visit for a month once in a while.
posted by ctmf at 10:33 PM on January 16, 2015


some of us hate people is the thing

my dream house has a moat
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:38 PM on January 16, 2015


The moat around my dream house would have sharks. With frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
posted by dg at 2:09 AM on January 17, 2015


I want to know who does the dusting in Granny's Empire of Art. And how they do the dusting.
posted by glasseyes at 6:07 AM on January 17, 2015


Oh yes, glasseyes, that's exactly what I was thinking!

I've been in places that have that kind of eclectic decor, and one of the things I notice is that they aren't real big on dusting.
posted by BlueHorse at 2:05 PM on January 17, 2015


Drat! Last year the Organic Modern Estate was on the market for $3 million, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Pottery House was up for $4 million, but they've both been sold. I knew I should have bought a lottery ticket.

Not as impressive imo, but here's another neat desert house.
posted by homunculus at 5:44 PM on January 18, 2015




The thing for me about these incredibly beautiful homes is that it seems like they would be so fucking tiring to actually live in.

Waking up every day knowing you're living in a masterpiece has to be, well, wearing.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:06 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


Waking up every day knowing you're living in a masterpiece has to be, well, wearing.

As a life problem, that ranks up there with "my investments are so complex that it is hard to calculate my income" and "coordinating the maintenance on my multiple vacation properties got too complex so I had to hire someone."
posted by Dip Flash at 6:35 PM on January 18, 2015 [2 favorites]




More crazy: Spain's "Exploding" House Inspired by the Big Bang
posted by homunculus at 9:58 AM on January 22, 2015




Behold The Remarkable Variety Of Buildings That Stand On Legs

Oh God, the OCAD building. It looks like a scout ship from the mothership that crashlanded into the ROM, hoovering up art students. I kind of admire its ridiculousness while severely disliking its actual reality.

The exploding house is very visually interesting but can you imagine even having children there? The pool is lovely but if (haha) I were to ever live there that view would need to be glassed-in because oh god vertigo.

And everything Zaha Hadid does is gorgeous. But! (Thinking on previous comments of mine about functionality first in architecture) I'm not completely sold on how usable the buildings are on a daily basis.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:47 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm not completely sold on how usable the buildings are on a daily basis.

Oh, that times a thousand. The "Exploding" house's photos show a child's bedroom. Also, a staircase with a nice climbable net instead of railings (not up to code anywhere I know), a pool without a fence, and (apparently) no curtains or even doors.

Also 2: maintenance will be a nightmare. It's made of timber and has all those gullies running between the segments, as well as the big windows without eaves to collect water.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:41 PM on January 22, 2015


None of the buildings on legs have chicken feet.
Boo.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:59 AM on January 24, 2015




Baba Yaga does not take kindly to plagiarism.
posted by homunculus at 11:43 AM on January 24, 2015


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