I LOVE Dwell magazine!! I can't find it in my town, though. I have to get one when I go to a bigger town 100 miles away!! This is just my own thinking, but I think a smaller home looks nicer if it is modern, because modern has cleaner, more simplified lines. It does not look so 'cluttered'. I have been doing plans for the past 3 months for a 900ft2 (about) house- modern, but not ultra modern. I have been looking at alot of cabinets/furniture/storage- I think you can get more storage with modern/cleaner/straighter lines. I so want a 'Hatbox' toilet!!! And a more modern, European fridge- taller and thinner.

"Cottage" style appeals to me. I just love the look of a trim, small cottage and they say "cozy" also. English thatched roof cottages or the honey-colored stone of the Cotswold cottages are very quaint and charming. The timeless appeal of a small bungalow or a stone cottage either old or newly built is for me.

But then, I also enjoy learning about the "Not So Big House" movement and I even like to watch "Small Space, Big Style" on HGTV and the ways owners of tiny city apartments make their space livable. I recall an interesting program on small Swedish homes that I saw some time ago. Guess I'm just a small house person.

ilmbg, no way you can find it in my town; I'm SOOOOOO rural they don't have newspapers for sale here. Whenever I get into a real city, I revel in going to a bookstore or library and literally soaking in the NYTimes, San Francisco Chronicle, and so on. Love the ink stains.

I have a subscription....because even the US Mail gets out here.

Teresa; thatching is interesting; I once was in a metal roofing class with an English-trained 'thatcher'. Fascinating stuff....but man; a LOT of work to get it right. It's an art.

Cottage or old farm house speak to me. Something quaint and homey about them.

FlowerLady

Farmhouse or saltbox beckons me.

We were sold on the timber frame look, but I'm not sure how well it translates in a smaller house. We are planning about 1200 sq ft. Lately we're really into the cottage look. We want something that's informal, and can tolerate being a little rough around the edges.

"would give your left arm for a very, very modern style home"

Not MY left arm you ain't! LOL

The modern thing doesn't do anything for me - what other people think of as "clean and simple" reads "stark and severe" to me. Amazing how differently people view the same thing, isn't it? Victorian-era cottages (especially Gothic Revivals and little Queen Annes), bungalows, Tudors, Storybooks... those are the ones that get my ball rolling. Basically if it's from 1880-1920, I'm probably going to like it! :-) I'd have given MY left arm for one of those, but we just couldn't find anything we could afford that was functional and didn't require double the purchase price in repairs. We ended up with a modest ~1350sf end-gable vernacular, locally called a "New Englander", with a big wraparound porch and a nice bay window, built in 1900 - it has some late Victorian elements (mostly the overall "bones" and layout) along with some Arts & Crafts (porch columns, interior millwork), so it fits my "stuff" very well. I would have liked more detailing like built-ins but such is life.

jasonmi7- I bet I'm more rural than you are!!! I'm out west in Wyoming. There isn't anything out here!

"The modern thing doesn't do anything for me - what other people think of as "clean and simple" reads "stark and severe" to me. Amazing how differently people view the same thing, isn't it?"

Stark and severe is an okay definition with me, too. Perhaps it's more phsychological in viewing how we percieve our surroundings as interplays with our life.

And yes, I'm sure Wyoming is more rural. Let me know if you want me to send you a newspaper!

I love the modern and severe look. It's so easy to keep clean. ;)

Funny though, a neighbor came over for some raffle about a year after I moved in. Said the house was lovely but I was sure taking my time furnishing it.

lol - I thought it was getting cluttery at that point.

I live in a 1950 rancher and I like it pretty well. We have knocked out a couple of walls to make the interior more user friendly (I like that phrase better than saying it has "flow" ;^) We have a rather large family and they all like to gather frequently, so the more open areas work better for us. We have a couple of nice built in's, and since most of our other furniture is handmade, the lack of builtin's doesn't bother us too much!

I love my mid century ranch and I will never live in a 2-story. I like low-slung horizontal houses with low pitched roofs and floor to ceiling walls of glass. Okay, I want an Eichler. With an atrium. And a cool stone fireplace.

I had always been a 1920s gal. I had a little 1,200 sq. ft. Tudor bungalow when I was single, then DH and I bought a 2,100 sq. ft. Storybook/Colonial, then a 2,600 sq. ft. Mediterranean Revival -- tile roof and all. I still love the homey, crumpled, cozy cottage look.

But the home we bought this summer is entirely different, and I adore it. MCM post-and-beam, lots of glass. It is modern, but organic with natural wood ceilings, paneling and privacy in the center of our wooded lot. Although some would find it stark, I'm sure, we find it the most relaxing home we have had so far. We plan to be here for a while.

We don't have any Eichlers in Alabama, but this is pretty close (albeit it has a brick and not a stone fireplace).

Now, outside to wash the windows . . .

jakabedy, I would LOVE to have your home! It is exactly the kind of style my DH and I want to have...except out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it would probably cost $1.2M, LOL.

My wife loves this style. What do you call it?

willie -

I'd have to see more, but to me it looks to be Acadian, or Low-country style. I think it has a nice coastal look to it.

jakabedy--I love it! Love it! What a fantastic house! The glass, the brick--I love that modern organic look. If I ever leave my little Cape I'd love to get either a 1950s ranch with huge windows and a wall of stone or a funky Lustron home with all its original built-ins. (Not organic, but lots of fun!)

Jakabedy; I like it a lot. I worked on a house once that had a huge tree in the middle up through two stories; glass all around it and on the bottom it was open. Very, very cool stuff.

Jakabedy, your house is so beautiful. I love that the boundaries between indoors and outdoors is so blurred.

Jakabedy...love your house too. Do you know who built it? Are there other's in the area similar? History?

I'd like an Arts/Crafts style, with tons of build ins. No way to afford one here in CO.

Wow!

Thanks all, for the compliments on the house. It is not a fancy architect home at all, but actually a Better Homes and Gardens plan from 1968 (probably really an older plan, but that is the date on the original plans we have). It is from the "Homes for Better Living" series. What a hoot!

It was the dream house of a realtor in our small town, about 25 miles outside of Birmingham, AL, who didn't actually build it until 1977-78. There is a lot of iffy finishing work (sheet rock, masonry) so I'm thinking he did a lot of it himself. Thankfully, later owners kept with the spirit of the house and made few changes, so we got it essentially unremuddled.

MCM was never a big thing in our area, and folks are always shocked that this house is out here among the colonials, ranches and neo-farmhouses. I know rural Alabama isn't a place a lot of people are pining for, but we did get the house and its three acres for less than $250K.

crystal -

We have some Lustron homes here in B'ham. There is a little cluster of 3 or 4 of them in what is sort of the "employee housing" area of a very nice neighborhood. I have never seen one come up for sale, so I wonder if they may be all rentals. Very cool!

emagineer -

Our little town is a college town, so there are actually some other MCMs within 3 or 4 miles. Just last week I happened across a little neighborhood with four of them -- one on the market and in need of some TLC.

Here is a link that might be useful: MCM fixer in Alabama