Posted on 02/04/2008 11:22:29 PM PST by Lorianne
Cute house. When I was a kid we would spend the entire summer at our cabin on the lake that looks about that size. One half was the “bedroom” that had double beds on the front and back with a bunk bed placed sideways as the divider.
The other half of the cabin was the “kitchen, dining room and living room” (in that order from back to front - stove, table, two small couches and a rocking chair”.
So all summer I would be up there with my three older siblings, my mom, and my grandma and grandpa. Friday-Monday my dad would come up (for a total of eight people!) and haul us around on water skis in his homemade wooden boat.
When the relatives came up for the Fourth of July or other special occasions us kids would put canvas tarps and blankets down on the dirt floor in the boat house.
Ah - those were the days!!
Oh - the bathroom was outside of course, as was the “running” water from the hand pump.
Nuttin’ like maximizing ones returns on insanity via sub-prime investing...”Ahhh, go flip yourself!” /s
Most of the real Ranches I've been to originally had a two story farm house.
I designed my "plantation style" dream home and had it blueprinted with the help of a $12 per hour retired architect, and had it built cost-plus for 10% over my contractor's actual labor and material costs. The workmanship was great and, even though I am "anal" about quality, the answer to every improvement suggestion I had was "your the boss!" After having such a wonderful experience and being treated with so much respect I am glad I didn't try to go fixed-bid with my builder and fight over every cent of extra labor and material upgrades. I also got a steal of a Jumbo mortgage the likes of which I'll never know how I got approved for and is now most likely going to be against the law. Even though I was broke and had poor credit I ended up in my personal mansion with no money in it and no PIP to pay and just teaser rates on my first and second mortgages. I had even been offered the opportunity to go to 125% of the value of my home on my second mortgage which I should have done, but I only went to 100%.
God must have wanted me in my dream home, because the banks papered over all my lack of resources in a frenzy to get my jumbo note on their books. Even I thought it was fishy that a zero net worth guy who could barely pay his minimum credit card payments could have a mansion built with no PIP, a temporary down payment, and get hints on where and how to borrow his earnest money for a couple of months and where to get a no questions asked interest only second mortgage. It is funny that at the time I thought I was one of a very few people getting away with this kind of a deal, and now it turns out it was happening all over the nation like an algae bloom. Anyhow, the good news is I love my opulent abode and take great pleasure living in its classical grandeur while I remain here by the skin of my teeth working towards the day when my money tree will bear its first crop. I'd love to post a picture of my home, but I try to remain somewhat anonymous in hopes the things I post here won't as easily find their way back to me and make me rue the day I ever shared the 'bile' that is my Right Wing Extremist opinion.
I live relatively close to Fallingwater. I’ve been through it once. It’s a masterpiece, but lacks that ‘cozy’ feel. Sure is in a lovely setting though!
Anyone visiting Pittsburg or western PA should go out of their way to see it. Watching the house come into view as you approach it is truly amazing.
Wright was an arrogant, womanizing and mean SOB, but was a genius too with a 70+ year history of brilliance. Perhaps the greatest American artist ever.
Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. and his parents did a great thing as patrons of the wicked Wright and in deeding the property to the Western PA Conservancy.
The Clinton birthplace?
Good God, is that meant to be a McMansion? It looks like a tenement. At least when someone builds a McMansion you expect it to display some barbaric, ostentatious fake grandeur.
Sounds like the cabin my grandparents built in Maine! We still spend summers there, log cabin probably 14x21. One room, except for a little tiny bedroom big enough for a bunk bed and dresser. Still no running water, we (hand)pump up from the lake for dishes and have a composting toilet in the shed. It’s amazing what you can do without. Last summer we had 6 adults, 2 teens and a child, plus 4 dogs. Talk about family togetherness!
Too many of those McMansions going up around here. You know, like McD’s hamburgers, all the same, bland thing wrapped up in the same boring wrapper. It seems like they copy the same three houses in the same ol’ beige, tan or sand siding. All cut out of the same cloth, and that’s just the outside!
My 1903 Gothic farmhouse is more interesting than those cookie cutters any day. Plus the construction is better and this house will probably be standing long after those other ones have started crumbling.
We can put some paint on it, add a door and window, put a few foundation plants on the outside, get some smuck to buy it for $30K more than it’s worth with a 11.5% sub-prime loan and you’ve flipped your investment profits to Société Générale who in turn have ‘instruments of conversions’ (a.k.a fraudulent debt laundering) to get US municipalities to think they can get an 8% return on their bonds for infrastructure improvements and civil workers’ retirements’.
The idea of mass produced, affordable private homes for ordinary people has always filled the Intelligencia with anger and disgust. I don’t know why.
Not a McMansion...that’s a TRIPLE DECKAH! (Dirty Water 4Evah!)
This one is called FallingWater, and is owned by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It is open for tours and private functions. The stream (w/the freeze thaw cycle of W. PA) has done some damage to the structure, and the Conservancy, thru funds generated by the tours, etc., maintains the property. It is trully stunning. It was built by the Kaufmann family (they owned a major Pittsburgh department store chain) and I believe bequeathed to the Conservancy.
......i’ve always wanted a house with a stream that runs through it. ;) .....
The Falling Waters house is no longer possible because it is built in a Flood Plain.
FEMA prohibits and most counties support the prohabition of residences within the 50 year flood plain.
Just as an aside, alot of celebrity types fly in and 'rent' the space for a dinner party, etc. They fly into Labtrobe (private jets) and get chauffeured out there (to Mill Run...very beautiful rural area). One of the most recent was Angelina Jolie arranging for a small birthday dinner for Brad Pitt.
That started my thinking about cars in the 1980s. The Accord was available in six flavors. Buick had a model that had 32,768 available variations.
For manufacturing and inventory purposes, what would you rather have to deal with? Take a look at the stock prices.
Not that I'm saying a homebuilder should only offer kitchen counter tops and cabinets in Harvest Gold or Avocado...
It would be a great house until you can’t stand the sound of constant running water.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.