Tag Archives: Houses

September 27, 2011 · 1:35 pm

Before Photos

By popular demand, I present to you the “Before” photos of our new home!

The wife and I have many, MANY, great projects planned for this house and property. Most of which we plan to endure ourselves.  We have been in the process of attempting to begin a joint blogging project in which we document and share our progress as we tackle the challenges of moving into our first home and maintaining a nearly 100 year old structure.  This, coupled with the enormous amount of work involved in moving into a house and settling all our belongings has been a major cause for delay with updates.  Hopefully, this new model of progress updates will encourage us to post much more frequently with greater content!

The front door.

The Front Door

Living Room on the Right, Stairs to the Left, Kitchen Straight up the middle.

Front Entrance

The Living Room

Living Room 1

Living Room 2

The Wood Stove (and Regis before we removed his radar dish)

Stove

View from the Front Porch, accessible only through the Living Room

Front Porch

The Kitchen and the largest complication with the house, this is the ONLY counter space.

Kitchen Counter

The high shelves are fairly useless, even I, at 6’2″ need a step stool to reach.

Kitchen Cabinets

The Dinning end of the combined Kitchen / Dinning Room

Dinning Room

The Basement

The Basement

The “Work bench,” obviously this is woefully insufficient for the projects we have planned, a planned expansion into the entire garage is in order.

The Work Bench

The Second Floor

Second Floor

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom Closets

Master Bedroom Windows

Second Bedroom

Second Bedroom Closet

Second Bedroom Flowers

Bathroom

Bathtub

Third Bedroom

Third Bedroom Closet

Third Bedroom Stairs

Attic

Attic Stairs

Finished Attic

Dormir

Kneewalls

Outside

Driveway

Beside Garage

Garage

Garage Doors

Garage Wall 1

Rafters

Garage Wall 2

There will be many more photos to follow, and look out for an announcement of the new blog!

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July 11, 2011 · 1:13 pm

It’s Been a Busy Summer

But I won’t waste time aplogizing for lost time. Nor will I bother to make excuses or promises going forward, only to say thank you to those who have expressed an interest in these musings.  It makes it much easier to carve out the time to write when you know there are people willing to read.

Enlarge for effect

This Monday morning felt like a good time to get back into the blogosphere as The Wife and I share a joint rejuvenation from our brief trip to the Adirondacks this weekend.  There must be something about the transition between the phases of dripping sweat while marching up and down a mountain to cooling off in a calm, cool lake that clears the mind and allows a greater sense of focus.

We have been meeting with a Realtor and searching for a house.  Despite the apparent abundance of housing stock in the city of Rochester we continue to be incapable of finding one that suite our particular requirements on our more particular budget.  A direct response to this familiar scenario is a continual change in priorities and locations.  We have widened our search so drastically that it is difficult to decipher exactly what we are looking for now.  It was perhaps a result of this bewildered mentality that caused us to begin considering the proposition of purchasing land and a cabin in the mountains of the Adirondacks and resolving ourselves as renters in Rochester for the near future.

The thought hasn’t fully permeated yet, and while there are many attractive prospects to the proposal, there are many complications as well.  But these are the sort of radical ideas that flourish between the shallow lakes and tall mountains in the great park.

As we have received a substantial amount of advice on the issue of purchasing a home to this point, we are not adverse to collecting a bit more. What do you think?

Should we get our heads out of the clouds and settle for a quaint suburban ranch and quarter acre like the vast majority of other first time home buyers?

or shoot for the stars and jump into a “vacation property” and worry about a home later?

or stick it out with the knowledge that at some point a unique home that suites our personalities will come along within reach of our grasp?

B.T.W. if you were interested in the post I did about the Mushroom House in Perinton last year, you will be interested to know that it is again on the market, currently a steal at $1.1 million. Listing Here.

Also, the photos found above are from other exploits from the beginning of the summer: Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a foggy overlook at Ohiopyle State Park, PA, and an all-time highlight for the summer season, cooking over an open fire.

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September 22, 2010 · 1:22 pm

142 Park Road – The “Mushroom House”

142 Park Road, Perinton, NY

Since I was young, I always loved the wooded entrance to Power Mill park in Perinton, NY.  We had family reunions there, scouting events, parties, hiking trips, sledding trips, all sorts of activities.  Each time we would turn off of Route 96 from Victor to Bushnell’s Basin, I would always strain to look out the windows on the left hand side of the car to catch a glimpse of the magical, “Mushroom House.”  I didn’t always know that it was a house, nor did I know it wasn’t modeled after a mushroom.  To my naive eyes, a house was a traditional wood framed structure with square corners and straight walls.  When I did learn that this unique sculpture was in-fact somebody’s home I was filled with wonder and amazement.  It was revelations such as this that led me to expand my horizons and dreaming and ultimately the catalyst for my interest in design.  But for the moment I was pleased with my brief glimpses of the magical “Mushroom House” on the edge of the park.

The house was designed by Architect James Johnson for Robert and Marguerite Antell to resemble a grouping of the Queen Anne’s Lace wildflower, not a mushroom.  Completed in 1970 the home is honored with its presence on many world’s strangest houses lists.  There are four 80-ton pods that make up the bulk of the house and one balcony, all supported 14 to 20 feet above the ground.  The “stems” vary between 5 feet thick at the base to 3 feet thick at the top and the pods are 34 feet in diameter.  The original owner of the home, Mrs. Antell, crafted and fired 9,000 earth tone ceramic tiles which now adorn the floors and the walls were covered with stucco to match the color of the sand on site.  Two of the pods are sleeping areas, the center houses the kitchen and sitting room, the fourth had the living-dinning areas with a fireplace.  The last is a full deck with expansive views of the ravine below.

House design parti

source

As we are currently on the housing market of course I looked the value of this home up and was not surprised to find that if it were for sale it would remain comfortably out of our price range.  With the last assessment coming in around half a million dollars, I am sure the family would be hard pressed to sell at all, after finally returning the home to the original family after the Antells sold it in 1996.  That’s fine with me, I am not sure I would be interested in living in the trees anyway, no room for a workshop or storage for all the items we will undoubtedly acquire.  Overall though, I am extremely grateful that the Rochester area is fortunate enough to house such an inspirational piece of organic architecture.

All photos from James H. Johnson, Architect web page unless noted otherwise.  For more information on The “Mushroom House”:  Perinton Historian Documents and Wikipedia.

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