Intriguing Houses

March 16, 2018 3:04 PM

Just a collection of interesting houses I've seen lately: Michigan farmhouse among world's greenest - Hong Kong tiny apartment for 3 showcases art pottery - Oakland cabin covered in 3D-printed tiles - Detroit home with a unique design aesthetic, sold with all contents - A teeny English castle - Indianapolis home a modern spin on a Victorian to fit an older neighborhood - Mexico: Giant boulder for a roof, this is fine - Florida home of three pavilions connected by a lap pool - Hong Kong transforming apartment - Small Shanghai apartment given a cat-friendly makeover
posted by Eyebrows McGee (47 comments total)

How is a 5000 SQ foot house sustainable? This is fantasy.
posted by 517 at 3:09 PM on March 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

That Detroit home with the (very) unique aesthetic has really been making the rounds this week.
posted by 41swans at 3:22 PM on March 16, 2018

holy cow that detroit house. even crazier than the design is that they have two ovens mounted side-by-side over the stove. WHAT IS THAT EVEN
posted by GuyZero at 3:25 PM on March 16, 2018

51 cats in 330 sq ft without any fur-rending territorial squabbles? That is fantasy.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:26 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

The thing I find weirdly noticeable and sad about the Detroit house is that, well, look at the pictures of that versus the house in Indianapolis in this same post. Obviously, very different aesthetic. But they're around the same price point, and the photographs of the Detroit house are *terrible*. It could have been lit and photographed to look like a movie set, incredibly quirky but at the same time depicted as its best self. Instead it has low-res photos with crazy lighting and angles. I can't believe the realtor genuinely believes it's worth that kind of money unless the cars have been appraised for some crazy amount.
posted by Sequence at 3:45 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Detroit house is cursed. I have a number of questions like: what is in the third bedroom that they aren't showing? why do you need to take the 7 million cars, the haunted statues, the monogrammed towels? what happens to that house on cloudy days that they won't show it?

I have similar questions about the 51 cats in the very lovely redecorated apartment, and where the litter boxes live, and how you have time to eat or sleep for cleaning up that much litter.
posted by jeather at 3:45 PM on March 16, 2018

Yeah, it's a little unclear what's going on with the cat people, but I thought the design was really great -- great use of space, awesome cat room, really pretty -- so you guys might enjoy seeing the design.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:46 PM on March 16, 2018

I agree, the design is great for like 10 cats, or even 20 cats maybe? But 51?
posted by jeather at 3:49 PM on March 16, 2018

Also, I think the Indianapolis house looks like the zillion other modern remakes of old houses I see and is boring and will look really dated shortly.
posted by jeather at 3:51 PM on March 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Half a million for the house in Indianapolis? I had no idea that city could be so pricy.
posted by octothorpe at 4:43 PM on March 16, 2018

That Indianapolis house is the very definition of designed to death.

The house I've been jonesing over is this Pennsylvania home. That thing was available for $50K. Click through the pictures. Original fucking varnish.
posted by Stanczyk at 4:59 PM on March 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Wow, that Pennsylvania home, in it's rather dilapidated state, looks like the real-world inspiration for every horror FPS haunted house ever.
posted by treepour at 5:15 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

$50K seems like a steal for that house but it's going to take hundreds of thousands to restore and then you're stuck with a giant expensive property in Beaver Falls where the average house costs $70K. That's the curse of cheap housing in the rust-belt. What seems like a bargain costs more to fix than it'll ever be worth.
posted by octothorpe at 5:17 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Original fucking varnish.

In the summer heat that original varnish probably looks and feels like a horror movie prop too.
posted by GuyZero at 5:22 PM on March 16, 2018

There's about a billion of that Beaver Falls home in and around Pittsburgh. Crafton has a ton. But yeah, hundreds of thousands to rehab and then you have a perfectly nice house...in Beaver Falls.

That Detroit house was making the rounds on Facebook today. My husband's reaction to the sale including literally everything was, "Who would want to just take over someone's life like that?"
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:27 PM on March 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

The super duper only the second one ever team of 20 designers etc, "said it couldn't be done in the Midwest," house is complete rant bait. Especially the bit about non disclosing the costs and yet sooo worth it. My first question is "were those 1000000 dollars harvested in an ecologically sustainable manner?" Next is "is the consumption of valorizing sustainable houses and the appurtenant 15 acres of vista sustainable?"

I get that it is cool and all that, a lot of fun to figure out etc. but at the same time it feels like it is digging a hole in the ocean, but "MOONSHOT!"
posted by Pembquist at 5:35 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, that Pennsylvania home, in it's rather dilapidated state, looks like the real-world inspiration for every horror FPS haunted house ever.

The ginormous crack in the bathroom wall tells us that that was the room where they did The Summoning.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:39 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Energy efficient is good, and building for a long time horizon is good, but as others have said, 5000 sq ft isn't "sustainable" unless you are housing a lot more people in there.

The rock house is neat; it reminds me of neolithic housing-under-rocks sites I have seen.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:33 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I agree the Indianapolis house looks like a plethora of similar homes/designs. And when did they gray slate color take over as the 'in' style color? Exteriors, counter tops, FLOORS et-cetra have the gray slate color/look. Its as if persons are trying to have their home look like the highways exits newest pear tree inn, holiday inn express.
posted by robbyrobs at 6:53 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

517: "How is a 5000 SQ foot house sustainable? This is fantasy."

By extensive use of renewable materials and generating more energy than it uses and being designed for maintenance that allows a life time of 200 years. The large size is actually a plus in a building designed for long term use as it can be more flexible than say 3 smaller buildings of the same square footage (assuming the building was designed to be sub dividable). But really it's the long life. Tearing down buildings to rebuild burn a tonne of embodied energy. And most housing built in the US/Canada is lucky to make it to it's 100th birthday.
posted by Mitheral at 7:27 PM on March 16, 2018

I need the cat apartment so badly i'm actually kind of crying right now
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:56 PM on March 16, 2018

I thought the exterior of the Indy house was interesting; the interior looks like a trap to make drunk people trip on things at parties.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:20 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Florida home with the lap pool is wonderfully impractical, bizarre, and I love it.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:23 PM on March 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Also, can we talk about how cool the Hong Kong tiny apartment/pottery showcase is? And how much they managed to fit in such a tiny space? I am obsessed with the US tiny house movement, but frankly it's got nothing on the amazing small spaces in Shanghai and Hong Kong apartments, which have a way longer tiny-building vintage and the design aesthetic is just awesome.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:26 PM on March 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Goddamn I want so bad to spend 200k to outfit my 100 year old house to survive another 100 years, through the downfall of civilization, loss of power distribution systems and waste collection, distributing power and farm fresh eggs to my neighbors, while keeping me warm and toasty and able to watch movies all through the nuclear winter.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:19 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Actual conversation I just had with my wife while clicking through the brown room in the Detroit house:

*click*

What's that ceiling made out of? It looks crocheted?

*click*

"Is that carpet? No wait, I think it's doilies."

*click*

Yeah, that makes more sense.

*click*

"Does it, though?"

*click*

It's like Michael Jackson and Liberace hooked up and gave birth to a little house.
posted by Stanczyk at 6:01 AM on March 17, 2018

The owner of the Grixdale house "realizes it will take a special buyer who wants the house as is."
posted by Preserver at 7:00 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

Eyebrows, I want you to start a blog where you post houses like this every day. I love the Florida lazy river house ... I am obsessed with interesting swimming pools and would adore living there although I can see some impracticalities. I couldn't even make it through all the pictures of the Detroit house because I was starting to hyperventilate at the sight of all those knick knacks and the dust they must attract but I did appreciate how much the homeowner must have enjoyed acquiring everything and arranging it just so. The Hong Kong apartment with the moving walls .. not for me. Again, claustrophobic. And what if you got trapped in one of those hidden rooms? Thanks for this really fun post.
posted by Kangaroo at 7:05 AM on March 17, 2018

That Detroit house was obviously the result of passion (or some would say obsession) and thought... I know it's not approved taste, and it's certainly not my taste, but somehow it has been making me feel a little sad that it's being so widely mocked.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:27 AM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Hong Kong apartment with the moving walls .. not for me. Again, claustrophobic.

It reminded me of the stacks in a university library, with the moving shelves that feel like they could pinch you like a bug.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:27 AM on March 17, 2018

That tiny castle is so cute, and the price seemed almost reasonable.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 8:04 AM on March 17, 2018

I like the Florida house, I think it'd be a great place to spend a week vacation. Long term, I'd be a bit too concerned about waking up to gators swimming through the house.
posted by florencetnoa at 9:47 AM on March 17, 2018

yes but where are the cats pooping in the Shanghai space
posted by Kitteh at 11:15 AM on March 17, 2018

The Detroit house is really impressive! it pulls off styles that McMansions regularly fail at (cf McMansion Hell), despite starting with a modest architectural space... maybe because the space is modest and can be completed. The ovens looked useful to me; one of them would be a warming-oven, most meals.

I had a brief fantasy of moving in and wearing nothing but caftans and slippers ever again and moodily playing the piano. It was pretty great.

Is next to Chaldean Town. Huh, what late-nineteenth Biblical reference is this? thought I. Nope! Chaldeans starting moving there in the 1920s and it's been Chaldean ever since.
posted by clew at 12:22 PM on March 17, 2018

I have heard about that award winning sustainable house near Ann Arbor, a number of times now. But no one ever gives the address and I have been too lazy to hunt it down. It must be somewhere near me. Looking at the photographs I suppose I can't go drive by it anyways.
posted by elizilla at 1:38 PM on March 17, 2018

Everything seems to be quite public, so it doesn't seem like doxxing to say that it's on google maps as Beacon Springs Farm.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:32 PM on March 17, 2018

Here's another interesting house in Michigan.
posted by vespabelle at 3:28 PM on March 17, 2018

Another knock against the Indianapolis house (yeah, is there a *reason* for all those mini flights of stairs? I loves me spiral staircases but that one'll kill me sooner rather than later) - it doesn't look like there's an exhaust fan for the nice gas burners in the kitchen.

Is it just for show, or is there a new "hidden exhaust" technology for fancy open-kitchens (that is completely open to the rest of the house here) that are actually effective?

Even in my crusty "all drunks and druggies welcome to party" basement rental in college in a two stoplight town, I separated out my kitchen from the rest of it.

In retrospect, that might more have been protecting the kitchen from the rest of the place (and visitors).

Man, I still kinda miss that kitchen. The rest of the suite was either 1/2 or fully below ground but that kitchen was fully ground-floor with lots of big windows.
posted by porpoise at 6:13 PM on March 17, 2018

The Detroit house's decor is mostly pretty normal? I mean, the parts of it that are actually the house, and not the scary statues everywhere. I was more puzzled by the uneven updating, as parts of the house are stuck in the 1970s (the wood paneling, help).

I'm a fan of Victorian houses that still look Victorian, although the interior layouts can be inconvenient for modern buyers. (Yes, it makes sense that the kitchen is the biggest room when it's 1850 and that's where the warmth is. No, it's not helpful if you need space for your bookcases.) Fortunately, my neck of the woods not only has a lot of Victorians, but also people who modernize them without turning them into twenty-first century condo lookalikes. This cobblestone mansion from 1845, in a neighboring village, needs a lot of interior work, but would still be cool to own.

Also, the "all-grey color palette" thing seems to be transatlantic, if what I've seen of English interior decorating is any sign.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:29 PM on March 17, 2018

Because I'm currently working on designing a btw kitchen for us, I can tell you that there are new exhaust systems that don't require a vent hood. The exhaust is embedded right in the ceiling over the range. I don't know how well they work but they're expensive.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:31 PM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

There is also down draft venting. Either as stand alone pop up or built right into the unit. Hard to tell from the pictures but it looks like this kitchen has the latter.
posted by Mitheral at 6:44 PM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Detroit house's decor is mostly pretty normal?


Um, sure, if you think crotcheted ceilings are normal?
posted by Preserver at 9:21 PM on March 17, 2018

I actually don't think there are a lot of houses like that one in Beaver Falls. My father-in-law is from there and I typically go there once a year to visit with his side of the family.

What makes that house unique is its construction. It has a steel frame, and it's all mahogany and cherry. And it's never been remodeled and carved up. It has a ton of the original fixtures. And there's a fireplace in almost every room. The floors look great, the craftsmanship is astounding. This house was built to last for much more than 100 years and it has. It also lucked out with never having been remodeled and went for long periods unoccupied.

Here are the downsides. Those rain gutters have to go. The cracks in the bathroom tile will be hard to address. Perhaps you could keep the border tiles and replaces the rest. I think it's limited to the one wall be we can't see the whole bathroom. The kitchen needs a lot of work but I could build the kitchen of my dreams. The house was retrofitted with steam heat, and I hate the cabinets and radiators. I'm not sure if the steam heat would need to be replaced or updated.

If I could rationalize living in Beaver Falls I would buy that house in a minute. I think I could reahab that property for around another $50K, maybe more depending on the furnace replacement and maybe air conditioning part of the house. I could do a bit of the work myself, which would help. In the end, I'd be living in a beautiful piece of 1910 craftsmanship, and I'd feel like a 20th-century millionaire, all for $100,000. Oh, the pride and tranquility I'd feel. That would be a house I'd be perfectly comfortable dying in and leaving to my wife and children.

Or it might just be a giant, ravenous money pit, but it's fun to fantasize about.
posted by Stanczyk at 6:57 AM on March 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Detroit home? Pffft. "Houston-area artist home" Includes everything. Warning: mannequins.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:20 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

That Indy house is fanTAStic. My wife and I have started the process of finding a slightly bigger home, and while Houston is cheaper than some places, it is CLEARY not cheaper than Indy. Holy crap, that's a lot of house for the money vs. interior Houston!
posted by uberchet at 2:25 PM on March 19, 2018

The Detroit house... Every photo I opened I thought, wow, that's just ridiculous. But it Just. Keeps. Getting. Better. with every photo...
posted by Snowflake at 6:58 AM on March 20, 2018

This Narrow House In Japan Only Looks Tiny Until You Look Inside
posted by salix at 10:35 PM on April 9, 2018