Category Archives: Unusual homes

American Architecture


OK, i’m going to toot my own horn here. (if my blog’s title homevoyeurs didn’t get flagged as spam, that will). 

On a recent trip to California, I got camera high from all the remarkable and photogenic places, buildings, people and scenery. I must have shot about a 1000 pictures. I couldn’t turn a corner without going ooh or aah and clicking away at the sight of another ‘typical American street’ or ‘great example of a 60’s ratpack bungalow’. But it would not stop there. I photographed my lunches, my feet poolside, humming birds, Yosemite’s bridal falls from all angles possible and legal and don’t forget neon lights or street ads. And seals, or were they sea lions? Or both? 

A few of these pictures, I would like to share here.  As this is a blog about homes, architecture and design I’m going to keep it to that. So no worries, I won’t be sharing pictures of supersized pizza’s or feet with flip flop tan lines. 

Mojave Liquor store

 

San Diego liquor store

 

San Francisco motel

 

Calistoga Spa

 

Disney Opera Los Angeles

 

Bombay Beach trailer

 

More small spaces, but this is too great not to share! A rooftop cottage in NYC!


The New York Times regularly features a segment called ‘Who lives there’. It’s about unusual property in Manhattan and the people who live in it.

One of the properties featured is a quaint rooftop studio in the West Village. It sits atop a popular tea room and most people walking by will likely miss it. For the few that notice it, like the article mentions, it looks like a small cottage or artists studio dropped on top of the original building. Mary Biosic is lucky enough to have snapped up this place and calls it her first NYC home.

Piotr Rodinski for the New York Times

Read the story here.

Woman content living in 84-sq. ft. dream home


An American woman from Olympia in the North-Western state of Oregon sold her regular home to downsize is life, and in space. A Lot! She built herself a 84-sq. ft./7,8m2 home that she shares with her black Lab. Check her unusual home here.

Dee's small home built from scrap materials

The last farm-house of Gouda


My cousin Berend sent me through photographs of his old farm house in Gouda (that’s right, the same Gouda as the cheese). Here is what he wrote:  

What a great thing to show your home to others. Here is my home. It’s totally opposite of what most people would expect. Nothing fancy, no decorations but just sturdy simplicity. It was built around the year 1500 as a farmhouse, just outside Gouda. As the town grew larger, the farm got surrounded. In the late nineteenth century the cows were sold and the barn torn down. Only the front living quarters were kept and restored about twenty years ago by an artistically well raised porcelain manufacturer who kicked the bucket right in the living room some years ago. That’s the way things go in an old farmhouse.  I bought it after my divorce to get my life back on the track again. I never refurnished it, I just put my stuff in there. Period. The pictures demonstrate it all. I must say I’ve never lived in a house that is so rigidly built. There a no construction failures as in many other old houses. It rest on concrete foundation, with big beams to support the rather high ceiling. The bathroom, toilet and attic are downright ugly but strong as hell.  

 

High ceilings with exposed beams and great light!

 

This house is for sale, I’m moving in with my new partner. The next owner will have a solid space to decorate according to his own believes. I never did and liked it that way.  

Large French windows with original shutters

 

Well Berend, it sure is a great house!  According to the realtor selling it, it is Gouda’s last remaining farm-house. However, to be honest, your realtor can do with a bit of styling advice because the pictures he took are not very appealing and don’t do the house and your furniture any justice. I love how you kept it rustic by not cluttering it too much. 

For folk able to see through the photographs and recognize the massive potential; check the house here. It is on the market for a very affordable €189.000. Try buying anything for that in Amsterdam!