exterior house
Kit houses were America's first mass-produced, prefab homes, sold by Sears, Montgomery Ward, Gordon Van Tine, Aladdin and a few others. The materials for these homes, ordered straight from a catalog, was delivered to the building site by rail and truck. Remarkably, all of the parts, from lumber to windows to the kitchen sink, were delivered ready for assembly by a local contractor or even the owner. As the popularity of the kit house grew, so did the available styles and sizes. Sears and others were able to produce homes that catered to every pocketbook and every taste. More than 70,000 were sold throughout America, and many of these homes are still standing. In fact, there are several communities from Maine to Illinois to California that boast a large, intact collection of kit homes. Like the bungalow, the kit home started with the dawn of the Auto Age and the ensuing growth of inner-ing suburbs. More: The Bungalow: Domestic Design at the Dawn of the Auto Age Kit houses came in many different sizes, styles and types. All of the material for this Craftsman kit house would have been ordered through the retailer's catalog and delivered to site by rail and truck by Winn Design & R...
When entering the compound, a single path diverges to create two parallel paths: A direct route leads you straight to the front door of the home — or you can choose the secondary path that meanders along the lake and ends at this mudroom entrance. Once inside the house, the two paths converge once again.
If you can build an energy-efficient home that's cost-effective too, why would you not do it?" asks Austin architect Stuart Sampley. When he started his practice five years ago, he saw a gap in the market for young, creative professionals who want to own smart, energy-efficient homes without spending a fortune. "I don't [design this way] because it's green — I do it because it's the right thing to do," he says. The Austin Design Build Alliance, a nonprofit develop/design/build lab that looks for alternative means of providing sustainable, affordable housing, contracted Sampley to build this residence in the city's Bouldin neighborhood. In return they ended up with a home that received a 5-star rating from Austin Energy's Green Building Program, earned an EPA WaterSense label for efficient water use, and was featured on the 2011 AIA Homes Tour. The home's 1,900 square feet include four bedrooms, three full baths, a powder room and an outbuilding with a flex space that can be used as a guest bedroom, office or play space. The building materials are simple but hardworking: a corrugated Galvalume roof, which reflects light and resists rust; HardiePlank lap siding, a fiber-cement mate...
The home is near one of Austin's historic Moonlight Towers — or Moontowers — 165-foot light towers erected around 1895 to illuminate unpaved and underdeveloped areas of the growing city. They were common all over the country at that time, and Austin's remaining 17, of an original 31, are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The window shown here is 11 feet off the floor of the master bathroom and is situated so that in darkness, the glow from the neighborhood's Moontower provides a nightlight in the bathroom. Sampley notes that the window is east-facing, so it also lets in the glow of the sunrise. To subtly differentiate the property's two structures, he used board-and-batten siding on the outbuilding (at left), in contrast to the lap siding of the main home. Next: More inspiring Austin homes Regional Modern: Austin Architecture
pillars, colors, piece over windows
colors
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