For Sale By Owner: A secluded hand-built house with a spring-fed pool. Will trade.
My friend Rachel spends a lot of time fantasizing about houses. And stalking houses. She sent me this week’s Offbeat Real Estate dreamboat: an “artistic” house in Idaho, now up for sale or trade. It’s off the grid, a 1/2 mile from the road, and three floors on 12 acres — with the middle floor set up as a tile cutting/stained glass studio, it’s perfect for someone who needs to get away and work for a while.
Imagining yourself in this home takes some work — the owner has a love of using flash and therefore, taking really unappealing photos. It’s okay. I’ll help you fantasize.
I grew up in a log cabin my parents built: Log cabin contemplations
It was 1975 and my parents’ “back to the land” impulses were in full swing. Although they had an infant (me) and were a geography professor and a nursing student (him, her) with no experience in construction or building (any of us), they decided to build a log cabin on Bainbridge Island, WA. My father, ever the researcher, read a bunch of books about the subject, and March of 1976 they broke ground on the 1000 square foot cabin I grew up in.
In 2011, I temporarily moved back in.
Dee and Nathan’s very orange mod collection in a warm industrial loft
Hardwood factory floors, hugely-high ceilings and 18-foot windows set the stage for Dee and Nathan’s home/pop-up vintage shop. Come in a take a tour of their loft, covet their art and scope Dee’s lunchbox collection/filing system.
The HippieShack2000™: the most amazing place I ever lived
Six months of living in an industrial loft in 1999 soured me so deeply on everything urban, I fled the city completely and moved an hour south of Seattle to Olympia, WA. This is in commemoration of the amazing house we rented.
Using Permaculture to utilize vertical space in a straw bale cabin’s small kitchen
Sarah and Tyler built a teeny tiny straw bale cabin — only 450 square feet. By working with intent in mind, the space looks big, airy, and very utilitarian. What can we learn from their kitchen’s vertical planning?
A Polaroid-themed Seattle artist’s loft with an altar in every room
This loft is New York-style in Seattle. Between the altars and the archways and the hardwood, it smacks of monastery life — so the dachsund, fantasy chandelier and huuuuuge landcamera prints all over are even better.
Ellen and Jake’s spacious, colorful apartment FULL of art
We’re not JUST looking at art here, kids — we’re looking at lots of sexy art. Sexy art in a beautiful, light-filled space with eclectic furniture and two artists.
Carrie Anne’s thrifted paradise in cookie-cutter suburbia
Carrie Anne’s family found themselves deep in suburbia trackland, but her thrifting skills have netted them a super-stylish, sometimes viking-inspired, art-filled kitty cat haven that looks completely unsuburban and didn’t cost a boatload.