So of course I get all obsessive (this is a slick home) and proceed to surf through tons and tons of this guy’s flickr pages – he has a lot. Why, well, I’ll get to that in a minute. In any case, I spent far too long surfing through his pictures; which are all so great. Real slices of life – not stodgy photos at all. I like reality and his photos are exactly that.

Here’s a couple more of this amazing house:

How great is this house? It’s in Michigan, which is odd because it reminds me of a house I saw in Minnesota, on one of my road trips which isn’t far off.

The fellow I mentioned above (the one with all the cool flickr pages) shot it as part of his Hometown Invasion Tour – which is pretty neat in itself. This guy, Justin (aka Bugsy) has a website called The Hometown Invasion; I think Justin sums it up better, and faster, then I would so here you go; from his homepage:

“From Sep 8, 2006 to Sep 17, 2007 my friend Rice (the first squirrel to go to all 50 states) and I (Bugsy) have traveled 29,403 miles as we made our way to all 50 states in the nation staying in over 100 U.S. households. These are the photos and stories that made an incredible year.”

Neat… I want to go on a road trip like this! Justin blogs about his adventures too. ONLY visit the blog if you have lots and lots of free time. I stayed a long time. It was really interesting. According to his blog he’s either on the road again or considering it; it was sort of hard to tell. Still, it’s a fun site, and a great read with amazing photos. Very much worth a look.

[Many hugs to Linette for the send. Jennifer of course was joking about her time being wasted - she's always got plenty of time to waste on cool houses, and adores people who send them to her]

Post from: Blisstree

Teepee House & Road Trips

Wow.

I do have to link to my friend Crabby here though. Mainly, because I can’t believe someone made a house out of her crabby form (plus her blog rocks). No, it really does; her tag line, “Because most health and fitness advice is too damn cheerful,” alone should make you want to visit.

Post from: Blisstree

The Crab House

I lived over 30 years in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. Though it’s not a place I choose to live now, Queens will always have a special place in my heart. Even now, five years after moving away from New York, I still visit often and keep up by reading Queens blogs.

When I was growing up, the trend was to buy up houses and knock them down to be replaced by apartment buildings and multiple family houses. My area of Queens was the city’s melting pot and more families moved in each month. I couldn’t believe it when developers turned the Colonial next door to my grandmother’s house into a four family home and built a three family apartment building in the driveway.

The house with the arrow is the house I grew up in, my grandmother’s house. The house with two dots was built into the driveway of the white house to the left of it. And to the left of that, with two dots on the roof, is the two family house where I rented an apartment for 15 years.

Now there’s a different trend. Charming old homes are being torn down to be replaced by McMansions. Since space is limited many of the structures are rather narrow, like this:

And this:

Here’s my problem with McMansions. I understand when homeowners want to build on or increase their curb appeal. I don’t even mind McMansions so much. They can’t hold a candle to my mother’s 119 year old Victorian but some of them have charm in a mass-produced cookie cutter sort of way.

Queens is one of “The Boroughs.” Many of us chose to live in the boroughs because it was cheaper than the Manhattan where a one room studio averages about $2500 per month and apartments sell for millions.

With developers tearing down affordable 3 and 4 bedroom homes and building huge, and I mean huge, multi-million dollar homes, only the rich will be able to afford to live in Queens anymore.

Certainly the average Joe couldn’t afford this home:

Or this one:

And especially not this one:

Goodbye Queens. I’m so glad I grew up in the 70’s when all the families on 50th Avenue knew each other and the houses warm, comfortable and quaint.

Please visit Deborah Ng’s other blogs: Freelance Writing Jobs, Simply Thrifty and Celebrity Cowboy.

[Images via Queebs Reborn: For Better or For Worse.]

Post from: Blisstree

Queens McMansions: Making Life Less Affordable in ‘The Boroughs’

Sweet.

[via Jalopnik]

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Hippie Home On the Go