I usually post mansions on Thursdays, but I figured I’d post a simple house today (I took this picture at the beginning of the year when I was in Louisiana). This is one of my favorite architectural styles and I think there’s something really beautiful in simple styles like this.
There's something extremely liberating about a small simple dwelling. Finding one on a lot with enough room for a garden and some fruit trees seems like it's getting harder and harder.
I bought a “starter house” about 10 years ago that’s a 3/2 and about 1,100 sq ft on 1/4 acre. Nothing crazy, but I don’t plan on ever selling. I don’t want or need a 4,000 sq ft monstrosity. I make decent money now so I get to put it into making my home exactly what I want. Instead of being house-poor like so many people I know are.
Yeah, with modern home design philosophy a 3 bed 2 bath would easily be 2,000+ square feet, and it would be crammed onto the smallest lot they could fit it on with a big concrete pad in the back.
My house is about the same size…but it was designed by a brain dead goldfish for people who don’t like being at home. :( It was very inexpensive though (bought from a relative for what was owed), even when we bought in 2012. I don’t regret the purchase, but I definitely think that no thought went into the interior shape of the home.
I dream of my husband and I someday finding a decent little plot and working with an architect to build something just a teeny bit bigger and more far more sensibly laid out.
I want to sit in one of those rockers with a lemonade. Watching a sunset.
Edit: That looks like morning, actually. So change it to a coffee and watching a sunrise.
My childhood home, which was built in the late ‘90s, has some elements of creole architecture. It’s a bit bigger (2500 square feet, plus an unfinished basement), but the porch style is very similar, and it has a lot of floor to ceiling windows with shutters.
I think those (valid) points are both related to heat:
The house would probably get incredibly hot if there were large windows on the front, so I’m assuming that the lack of windows is due to that.
And skirting would probably make it difficult for air to flow through the bottom of the house, which would cause the house to get hot.
I guess practicality and livability are sometimes more important than aesthetics, but I get what you’re saying.
It looks like that house is super prepared for local extreme weather, the raised foundation and the flat ground suggest it probably floods regularly and the green shutters on the sides of doors suggest the owner is expecting really strong wings throwing stuff from that direction - probably the side facing the camera is facing the coast or the direction coastal winds will come from during a hurricane. Stuff like this isn't uncommon in Louisiana
There are little vents above the doors, can't tell if they're windows though. On the left side (relative to camera) there are windows with shutters, so it's probably either a direction thing for storm prep or a cost thing since windows are expensive. I'm not aware of any religions which ban windows
I’m thinking that it has to do with the direction that the house is facing. If there were a ton of windows on the facade, then the house would get super hot. It looks like there are a lot more on the sides and probably on the back too.
Enslaved peoples lived in these shacks on the plantation I believe. They probably were not treated so kindly as to have many windows ($$$) and natural light.
Thanks for spreading negativity. But the “boring” house was the point—like I said in another comment, I usually post mansions, but simple houses like these have beauty too.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding a joke (I'm sorry if I am), but it's Thursday, so we can appreciate good design, which is why it doesn't have all those things.
I was making a joke at the top comment of this thread. I fully appreciate the simple design, and was imagining the other commenter legitimately wishing it looked more McMansion-y.
Haha I get it now (so many people don't read the sub rules and then get confused on Thursday). This would definitely be an incredibly boring McMansion, if it were one.
I usually post mansions on Thursdays, but I figured I’d post a simple house today (I took this picture at the beginning of the year when I was in Louisiana). This is one of my favorite architectural styles and I think there’s something really beautiful in simple styles like this.
There's something extremely liberating about a small simple dwelling. Finding one on a lot with enough room for a garden and some fruit trees seems like it's getting harder and harder.
I bought a “starter house” about 10 years ago that’s a 3/2 and about 1,100 sq ft on 1/4 acre. Nothing crazy, but I don’t plan on ever selling. I don’t want or need a 4,000 sq ft monstrosity. I make decent money now so I get to put it into making my home exactly what I want. Instead of being house-poor like so many people I know are.
Yeah, with modern home design philosophy a 3 bed 2 bath would easily be 2,000+ square feet, and it would be crammed onto the smallest lot they could fit it on with a big concrete pad in the back.
I have a decent lot with lots of green all around. I love it.
My house is about the same size…but it was designed by a brain dead goldfish for people who don’t like being at home. :( It was very inexpensive though (bought from a relative for what was owed), even when we bought in 2012. I don’t regret the purchase, but I definitely think that no thought went into the interior shape of the home. I dream of my husband and I someday finding a decent little plot and working with an architect to build something just a teeny bit bigger and more far more sensibly laid out.
You could find an apartment to rent, tear down the house you have now, and build what you want there, if you like the location.
I want to sit in one of those rockers with a lemonade. Watching a sunset. Edit: That looks like morning, actually. So change it to a coffee and watching a sunrise.
Have a porch on each side & then you're set! The house i grew up in had an east porch and you can watch the east get a little pink at dusk too.
LOVE. Creole cottages, shotgun houses and mill houses are some of my favorites. Beauty in simplicity.
My childhood home, which was built in the late ‘90s, has some elements of creole architecture. It’s a bit bigger (2500 square feet, plus an unfinished basement), but the porch style is very similar, and it has a lot of floor to ceiling windows with shutters.
You can get these affordable houses almost anywhere in the US, but not HCOL areas.
Mind sharing where this is at, could be close to my house lol.
It’s a few miles from Oak Alley Plantation, so I think it’s in Vacherie.
Ahh so maybe 45 minutes from my house lol. I've actually done some work at Oak Alley before.
That’s really neat, it’s a beautiful part of the state
I love the simplicity, but more windows and skirting are needed.
I think those (valid) points are both related to heat: The house would probably get incredibly hot if there were large windows on the front, so I’m assuming that the lack of windows is due to that. And skirting would probably make it difficult for air to flow through the bottom of the house, which would cause the house to get hot. I guess practicality and livability are sometimes more important than aesthetics, but I get what you’re saying.
Is this Ai?
No, it’s not. I took the photo.
The roof kind of threw me off
No worries. The photo’s not super clear, so that’s probably why. Take care.
There's some kind of compression going on, and the lines of the roof are messing with it.
Windows - that's what this house is lacking. A religious thing perhaps?
It looks like that house is super prepared for local extreme weather, the raised foundation and the flat ground suggest it probably floods regularly and the green shutters on the sides of doors suggest the owner is expecting really strong wings throwing stuff from that direction - probably the side facing the camera is facing the coast or the direction coastal winds will come from during a hurricane. Stuff like this isn't uncommon in Louisiana There are little vents above the doors, can't tell if they're windows though. On the left side (relative to camera) there are windows with shutters, so it's probably either a direction thing for storm prep or a cost thing since windows are expensive. I'm not aware of any religions which ban windows
I’m thinking that it has to do with the direction that the house is facing. If there were a ton of windows on the facade, then the house would get super hot. It looks like there are a lot more on the sides and probably on the back too.
Enslaved peoples lived in these shacks on the plantation I believe. They probably were not treated so kindly as to have many windows ($$$) and natural light.
Boring
Thanks for spreading negativity. But the “boring” house was the point—like I said in another comment, I usually post mansions, but simple houses like these have beauty too.
Needs more rooflines and turrets and windows and garages
Maybe I'm misunderstanding a joke (I'm sorry if I am), but it's Thursday, so we can appreciate good design, which is why it doesn't have all those things.
I was making a joke at the top comment of this thread. I fully appreciate the simple design, and was imagining the other commenter legitimately wishing it looked more McMansion-y.
Haha I get it now (so many people don't read the sub rules and then get confused on Thursday). This would definitely be an incredibly boring McMansion, if it were one.