Big Sur beauties
At the request of a reader who is searching for a home in Big Sur, California, I am featuring three Big Sur homes today for comparison. So let’s see which one you would pick!
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House #1
image from: www.trulia.com
The first one is a Mickey Muennig designed remodel of a 1977 home.
image from: www.trulia.com
[A quick note about Big Sur: Big Sur isn't really a city or a town, it is more of a sparsely populated area that runs along the California central coast, south of San Francisco. Most of the homes there have sprawling secluded properties, great views of the Pacific Ocean, and are très expensive.]
image from: www.trulia.com
This particular home is listed for $2,995,000.
According to the Trulia.com website, the estimated monthly payment at that sales price (with 20% down) would be $13,409 a month!
image from: trulia.com
But what a wonderful contemporary home - look at those gleaming dyed concrete floors and the triangular clerestory windows!
Starry-eyed for Starry Night Cottage
image from: http://www.starrynightcottage.com/
I got downright giddy when I found Starry Night Cottage in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Owner Kaye Driscoll Gallahar gave me permission to show you around this adorable 1880′s home which is now used as a vacation rental…
image from: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Starry-Night-Cottage
Kaye and her husband searched for over two years before finding this little gem just a short stroll away from the historic downtown area of Eureka Springs.
The cottage exterior just bursts with curb appeal, but have a look at how the Gallahar’s have decorated the inside…
image from: http://www.starrynightcottage.com/
It’s a perfect dollhouse!
House of the Crazy Ruggles
image from: http://www.tradewindsrealty.com
image from: http://www.tradewindsrealty.com
historic photo courtesy of: Mark Wilson
My tour of Rosemount Manor (with kids)
In early March of this year, I toured the Rosemount Museum in Pueblo, Colorado – about 45 minutes from where I currently live.
Rosemount is a historic mansion that has been exceedingly well preserved as an old house museum.
photo credit: Sarah Felix Burns
I visited with Lupe and my two kids and we were treated to a personal tour from a very knowledgeable (and serious) tour guide.
image from: www.rosemount.org
Built in 1893, the 24,000 square foot mansion took over two years to construct. It was designed by famed New York architect Henry Hudson Holly.
This 37-room mansion was home to the John A. and Margaret Thatcher family and named for Mrs. Thatcher’s favorite flower. It remained a family residence for 75 years.
from: www.rosemount.org
The Rosemount is yet another one of those impressive Gilded Age monuments to personal wealth. But it stands apart as an old house museum because nearly ALL of the furnishings (decorative arts, custom paneling, wallpaper, window treatments, accessories and appliances) are original to the house.
The rock-in-the-house house
image from: www.cwillman.com
Wisconsin has some neat off-beat tourist attractions but this one has to be the quirkiest. Not to be confused with the House on the Rock, the Rock in The House attraction is the result of a serendipitous act of nature.
On April 24, 1995, Maxine Anderson had just finished taking photos of her newly remodeled master bedroom when she walked into the kitchen; at that moment a 55-ton boulder rolled down the hill behind her house. The huge disk-shaped rock plowed right into the master bedroom that she had just exited.
image from: www.riverroads.com
The house was knocked a few inches off its foundation from the impact. Husband Dwight Anderson was not home at the time but the couple were so shaken and discouraged, they sold the house within a few days to a local real estate investor thinking that the home would be torn down.
image from: http://lifeat55mph.blogspot.com
But this was no ordinary real estate investor. John Burt decided that he would keep the stone where it landed and simply open up the house as a tourist attraction. He did exactly that.
