Old Postcard

We found this postcard of the house in an old baseball card shop over the weekend. We assume the postcard is from around the early 1900's. I love the fence around the side of the house and the shutters on all the windows. The original door is shown in this photo. We learned that a drunk driver hit the house in the 80's and completely took out the corner of the house. Total bummer because the windows above the door look like old bull's eye windows.

House Color Inspiration

So I think we maybe homeowners in the next couple of weeks. Keep your fingers crossed and if nothing crazy happens I will have my house by mid-July. I can't sleep at night because I'm so excited for all the fun projects we get to do. One of first projects I want to get done before winter is cleaning up the outside of the house. The roof needs work, chimney is caving in, put in a brick driveway, and the house needs to be re-painted. I was thinking maybe something creamish toward brownish color? My boyfriend thinks the color is a little to blah. I think it would be amazing with big green variegated hostas and hints of pink bushes and shrubs. Here are few photos I took of cream colored houses in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Marblehead, MA over the past few weeks. What do you guys think?

Strawberry Banke

I was up Portsmouth, New Hampshire over the weekend getting inspiration at Strawberry Banke. I was there checking out 18th century architecture similar to my potential new house. Strawberry Banke has a walking museum tour that allows you to tour restored homes dating back to 1740. I was surprised how much colorful wallpaper appeared in all of the historic homes. The wallpapers are reproductions of French and English papers that were typical during the time period. To check out more of the tour click on any image to view my flickr photostream page. Enjoy!

Afternoon in Beacon Hill-Boston

After house hunting just north of the city in Marblehead I head into "town" to catch my train. (Local Twang: never say your going "to the city" in New England it's "into town.") I took a few shots in my favorite neighborhood, Beacon Hill. The brick brownstones are astonishling beautiful. The air was heaven scented with a deep purfume of sweet cherry blossoms and wisteria. Check out more photos by clicking on any image to the right.

Marblehead, MA

I was in Marblehead yesterday doing a little house hunting. I'm a first time home buyer so finding a house I can afford is quite difficult. I would be totally game for a big renovation project but I have to admit I did get a little gun shy why I saw what I could afford. I will share more shots from the 257 year old house a little later. Check out a few shots I snapped walking around Marblehead yesterday afternoon. You can see more by clicking on any image to the right on any flickr image.

High-End Houseboat Living

I think one of my boyfriend's biggest fantasy is to run away and move to some warm destination and live on a houseboat. We saw a lot floating houses on our trip to San Francisco this past fall. They were pretty cool.

I came across this super high end example of a houseboat on Seattle's Lake Union in Met Home. Houseboats are definitely not the gypsy shacks you would imagine or maybe I imagined. Seattle's houseboat culture seems to be a mix of super high end architecture and a more homey versions. I guess I always associated houseboats with more seedy types. But it seems more and more people (yuppies) are seeking an alternative lifestyle. And why not? This looks like an amazing place to wake-up every morning. Hmmm maybe Seattle is our new home?

A couple more photo blogs I found with houseboats, a Kayakers tour of Houseboats and Sausalito house boats.

David Yocum and Brian Bell's architecture office

I found this funky architecture office in the NY Times on Sunday. My boyfriend and I totally dug the rock floors (below) in the bathrooms. How does that really work? Don't the rocks shift around a lot? Cool idea nonetheless. I thought the platform bed (above) was kinda interesting and totally doable DIY. Looks like it's just 2 x 4's nailed together. They painted the end grain a bright blue. I guess they probably built a square frame underneath to elevate the frame. Good idea! To check out more of this funky interior in Atlanta, nytimes.com.

Green Roof Art Building

This building is amazing. I found this amazing building via my favorite green blog, inhabit.com. I remember first learning about green roofs back in my House & Garden days. They are so freakin amazing. I would love to have a garden on my roof. "Honey it's your turn to mow the lawn!" Check out inhabitat's post with more info and pics here.