Housing fantasies

[yerfdog]

Inspired by

Originally Posted by inq89

^That would be my dream place. In my hometown, there are a couple of downtown warehouses that used to be a tobacco company that are being revitalized into office, retail, and home space. I'd love to grab one once I'm out of school. There's something beautiful and damn sexy about the bare aesthetics...bare red brick, hard wood floors, exposed beams, etc.
in the bachelor pad decoration thread: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...=129446&page=4 I'd love to buy a small warehouse-type building for cheap in a smaller city, like a city in the midwest or south that used to be on an important rail line or a river or something, and turn it into a loft-style residence. Actually, I'd also like to buy a mansion in a smaller city that was built in like 1870-1920 by the rich guy in the small city who got rich by owning the warehouses or the shipping company or whatever. And I'm assuming a robber baron mansion in Cairo, IL would be a lot cheaper than a robber baron mansion in St. Paul or another bigger city. Well, maybe Cairo, IL is too creepy ghost-townlike. Maybe Quincy, IL. AND more ridiculously, I have been fantasizing lately about the idea of turning abandoned suburban big-box stores and strip malls into loft-style residences, hahaha. It's easy to imagine a 100-year-old warehouse being a stylish loft, since it has obvious character, but it's more of a challenge trying to figure out what would make a 1970s supermarket and attached strip mall that has been abandoned for a bigger 2000s supermarket into a stylish housing setup. What goofy housing fantasies have you entertained? (Could be building your own house in fortress-moderne style overlooking the Snake River Gorge or something, doesn't have to involve renovating existing buildings)

 

[jefe]

Maybe not 1970s, but I bet some 1960s strip centers could be turned into pretty excellent multi-family housing - but it would be ridiculously expensive to retrofit.

I want an Eichler/Cliff May original to renovate. And since it's fantasy land, I want to have sufficient funding to renovate full-time and spare no expense. We're renovating a 1950s ranch right now and cheesy as it may be, I love the aesthetic of the era.

 

[johnny_flapjack]

Originally Posted by yerfdog

Well, maybe Cairo, IL is too creepy ghost-townlike. Maybe Quincy, IL.


Quincy has some fantastic big old houses. They ran into a problem some years back when they raised taxes to the point of being painful and everyone started donating those giant old houses to the church with the stipulation that they could remain in the house until they died so that they could avoid taxes.

You can pick up some pretty neat properties in Detroit if you're adventurous right now. Driving through Detroit gives me all kinds of crazy ideas for things one could do with a cheap starting point and a giant pair of balls.

 

[Jokerman]

My dream house http://www.wral.com/news/strange/story/5869454/

 

[Hombre Secreto]

I want Tony Stark's house in Malibu that was used in "Iron Man."

 

[Casey]

I would like to have a Spanish style house with white walls and red roofs overlooking the beach in La Jolla, Del Mar, or even Santa Monica or Newport Beach... It's a very typical dream house for people in California but I'm very into Spanish architecture, I love the exposed beams and natural lighting. I don't see the point of living in California if you don't take advantage of all the sun. Unless you're in one of those random agricultural cities that nobody's ever heard of.

However, no matter how new or old the house is, I have no have modern furniture on the inside. I don't want my house to be all stiff and mahogony-y. I like simple colors and shapes that are easy to look at.

And I would have tall skinny palm trees. I hate when people don't trim their palm trees. It's ugly and also a fire hazard. I would chill in the backyard by the infinity pool listening to my ipod whenever I'm not working ****** off paying for the damn place (which is never, and that's fine since I don't do that kind of stuff).

Maybe I'll have a different point of view after living in another city but for now, this is what I'd like.

 

[Reggs]

Hogwarts Castle, where everything you see is stone, wood, or leather.

 

[skyman]

Turning a school into a home would be pretty cool, that many rooms to just go crazy.

 

[Piobaire]

I would like a shoe box, in the middle of the road.

If not that, a hole with a tarp over it. Oh, how we longed for a tarp when I was growing up.

 

[gomestar]

Easy, I'd just have my GF (and probably soon to be fiancee) build me whatever she wants. She is an architect, I am not.

 

[Stazy]

Originally Posted by skyman

Turning a school into a home would be pretty cool, that many rooms to just go crazy.

A father of an acquaintance of mine did just that. Apparently he turned the gymnasium into a theatre room.

 

[nootje]

just a small cottage with a lot of room around it, but with all shops still within driving distance.. I've dealt with living in large houses, big urban apartments and most stuff in between, a low roofed cottage with a forest nearby would be perfect...

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by gomestar

Easy, I'd just have my GF (and probably soon to be fiancee) build me whatever she wants. She is an architect, I am not.

whoa and you're not even married yet !

 

[zjpj83]

Large self-sufficient estate with giant manor/castle in the English countryside.

 

[gomestar]

Originally Posted by gdl203

whoa and you're not even married yet !

1. She knows me well, extremely well and wouldn't do things she'd know I'd hate.
2. She really is an architect.
3. My only requirement is a space for some books and an Eames lounge chair. I don't really have a desire for anything else beyond the ordinary.