Here are a dozen great spots to find beautiful old homes below the Mason-Dixon line
Oh yeah! Of course Florida means beaches :-) Dogs are not allowed on many beaches on the gulf coast and not on any state park beaches (we know why). Fortunately there are a few places where dogs can be beachcombers. We especially enjoyed Henderson State Park in the panhandle of Florida - beautiful campsites, boardwalk, and beach...but no dogs on the beach so off we went sooner than we'd have liked. Apalatchicola is famous for oysters - we had to give them a try. Oysters are harvested by hand in the gulf and this view of oyster fishermen coming in with their catch was taken from the restaurant - don't get much fresher than that! Ochlockonee State Park is pine forests with saw palmetto underneath - an odd combination for northerners to see. Highway 98 from the panhandle south is gorgeous and surprising. There's lots of land set aside for for wildlife and parks and not too many people. It was great to see so much natural landscape in the 4th most populous state. This beautiful blue spring at Manatee State Park was lovely for swimming although I guess there are sometimes alligators and of course manatees. Florida does get fall color...there were two manatees in the water lounging in the water but they stayed mostly submerged and a bit camera shy. This boardwalk at Manatee Springs follows the Suwannee River - as in way down upon..... I hope your Thanksgiving was fun and tasty (I hear it was a little nimpy :-)
Learn about French creole and cajun cottages, the practical homes that French colonists built in Louisiana and other parts of the Mississippi Valley.
My friend, Julie, sent me this you tube video on a family that lives and works in a shotgun style house... ...this prompted me to figure out what is a shot gun house??? A shotgun house is a nickname for a long narrow house with sequential rooms and no hallway. The nickname comes from the idea that if you stood at the front door and fired a shotgun the buck would fly out the back door without hitting the house. These houses were commonly built in cities before cars made suburbia popular. They also took advantage of lower property taxes because many cities based the tax rate on the lot width so when your house is only 12 feet wide you saved a lot of money. Another advantage was that as families grew more rooms could be easily added. These tiny houses emerged in the south, specifically New Orleans, but you still see them today all over America from Key West to Chicago to California. In some cities these shotgun shacks are being replaced by urban renewal projects and in other cities they are being preserved. These wonderful little bits of architecture have brought interest in their history, especially after the New Orleans hurricanes... This is a video of Larry Sass and his reinvention of the Shotgun House.. And last but not least...if you want to build one...here are home plans! My favorite is the Charity... Next year, 2012, the plan is for NIADA to be held in New Orleans...my camera will be ready and I will have my walking shoes on to scout out some of these beauties!!
Garden St. Residence is a stunning barn style home that has been designed by PAVONETTI Office of Design, located in Austin, Texas.
A most precious pink cottage on the way to Jazz Fest. Perhaps the cover of my eventual “Pink Houses of NOLA” book. Look at the arch top windows and the details above them, and don’…
Set in a well-preserved 19th-century resort village, a once worn-out little house becomes a soulful second home
This lovely Greek Revival "shotgun" house in New Orleans is a beautiful example a common style of southern residential architecture.
In HGTV's series Small Town, Big Easy, New Orleans native Sarah Martzolf restores the small shotgun houses that are as much part of the city's history as the French Quarter and the mansions of the Garden District. Sarah restores these run-down old houses, turning them into updated, comfortable homes while preserving their period features and historic legacy. Get to know Sarah and check out the renovation from the pilot episode. It's more than just a flip, it's a labor of love.
As part of a unique preservation program, three siblings living in a cluster of historic houses enjoy a close connection to the 18th century—and each other
Watch episodes of This Old House and Ask This Old House.
Watch episodes of This Old House and Ask This Old House.
Above: Twenty shotgun houses in Mid-City, the Garden District, Freret, Uptown, and Central City. New Orleans shotgun houses are single or double-family residences that can be concisely described as narrow, elongated boxes with pitched roofs. The houses are numerous in the city’s older neighborhoods, particularly those that had large working-class populations in the 19th century such as Irish Channel, Marigny, Bywater, Treme, and Mid-City. Though historically built for and occupied by working-class and poor inhabitants, shotgun houses have been sought after in some areas of the city by a variety of New Orleanians. New owners often modify the structures to fit their individual needs and tastes; for example, it is common today for new buyers to add hallways, which were not included in the original designs (hence the name, as a shotgun blast fired from the front door could pass unimpeded through the entire house). Though the shotgun house is modest in comparison to other traditional urban housing types, such as the New York City brownstone or the Charleston single house, many New Orleanians cherish it for both its cultural significance and adaptability. Above: A plan to convert a 1-bedroom, 1-bath shotgun house into a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home.
Built around 1900, this Michigan handyman special is located in a small town of about 500 residents in the southern part of the state. The farmhouse style home features a front porch, metal roof and a 0.42 corner lot. The home needs work, especially interior-wise. Parts need updating and other parts have been updated in a questionable trendy style.
So-called 'shotgun houses' are said to be called such thanks to their straight nature, referencing not the long barrel, however, but the ability of shells to shoot through from front to back. In a tradition of Southern space-saving simplicity, this reinvigorated historic style skips halls to cre ...
Tiny house I saw in Eureka Springs a few years ago.
A multifarious project that has seen the makeover of a tired, generic 1920’s bungalow into a modern, contextual, architectural home and provided a journey of...
Not just a grungy basement space anymore, the cleanup center can be as handsome as any other room in the house—and even more useful
Of course I love the episodes of HGTV’s Fixer Upper that feature my funny brother Jimmy Don BUT last night’s episode has to be one of my all time faves because it features the home of my precious friends Cameron and Jessie Bell. Jessie is actually the daughter of my son’s second grade teacher and […]
Looking for charming small house plans that can fit any size of family? Consider these cottage-style homes, which are all less than 3,000 square feet.
32 p. ; ill., plans ; 26 cm. ; trade catalog
Two bedroom, one bath, 576 sf, tiny house on a pretty, 1.03 rural acre lot.
A group of four investors has been quietly working to revitalize the Limerick neighborhood adjacent to Old Louisville. Shine Properties has already finished renovating two historic shotgun houses o…
