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☆ From an Unassuming Bungalow, She Created a ‘Micro Versailles’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Bonnie McIlvaine has lived in three homes in San Diego County, all on the very same spot. The first was an unheated concrete-block house she bought in 1973 for $32,000. A newly divorced schoolteacher, Ms. McIlvaine wanted a break from urban living. She found herself in a small, hilly town with stretches of undeveloped brushland and woodland, not far from the coastal city of Carlsbad, Calif., where she worked. As she cast her eyes lovingly on the frumpy little building — or, more accurately, on the half acre it sat on — her real estate agent told her, “We can do much better; we’re going to look at tract houses.”But all Ms. McIlvaine could think of was that she had always wanted a horse, and maybe that could happen here.

Persons: Bonnie McIlvaine, McIlvaine Locations: San Diego County, Carlsbad, Calif

☆ A Compact, Eco-Friendly House and Three (Not-So-Little) Pigs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This is the story of two athletic people who formed an attachment while cycling and made a home together near the coast of Maine. They built a small, energy-efficient house northwest of Camden that is comfortable throughout the year: in frigid season, sopping season, insect season. This is also the story of three not-so-little pigs that chomp down on their field. Didier Bonner-Ganter and Nathalie Nopakun met seven years ago while participating in the Cadillac Challenge, an annual bike ride in Acadia National Park. Ms. Nopakun was living in Cambridge, Mass., and had a job as a compliance officer for a Medicaid/Medicare plan, while Mr. Bonner-Ganter was working as a forester and arborist in Midcoast Maine.

Persons: It’s, We’ll, Didier Bonner, Ganter, Nathalie Nopakun, Nopakun, Bonner Locations: Maine, Camden, Acadia, Cambridge, Midcoast Maine

☆ What Makes a Tiny Home Cool? Apartment Therapy Has Some Ideas.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Likely, when we close our eyes and think of a small space, it’s white walls, no lighting and bad storage,” said Nate Berkus. Mr. Berkus, the celebrity interior designer, was standing in a bright, cabinet-outfitted bathroom that he designed for Apartment Therapy’s “Small/Cool NYC,” a pop-up exhibition in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The event, which is running on consecutive weekends this month and will conclude on Sunday, Oct. 29, is halfway between a showhouse and a showroom. More than a dozen 10-by-12-foot room schemes — imagined by creators as fresh as Maitri Mody, a fashion influencer who posts on Instagram under the name Honey I Dressed the Pug, and as seasoned as the talk-show host and domestic strategist Drew Barrymore — offer tips for loosening up tight quarters. Visitors can steal ideas like Ms. Mody’s choice of fruit-and-vegetable-shaped hardware on sherbet-colored kitchen cabinets or they can shop the settings using QR codes.

Persons: “, ”, Nate Berkus, Berkus, Drew Barrymore Locations: Sunset Park , Brooklyn

☆ Sharing a City Apartment With a Big Dog? Good Luck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now the couple are thinking about going back on the housing market with DZA. Will the prospective buildings impose a weight limit, as they often do? Will Great Danes be on a list of forbidden breeds, as they frequently are? Painting large breeds with broad strokes reinforces erroneous beliefs, such as that greyhounds need constant exercise, when, in fact, many are couch potatoes, or that pit bulls are natural born killers. “It’s almost like you’re an outcast if you have a large dog,” said Ina Obernesser, a veterinarian in Nyack, N.Y., referring to weight limits as meager as 20 pounds.

Persons: Great Danes, Ms, Rhoten, “, ”, Ina Obernesser Organizations: ”, greyhounds Locations: Nyack, N.Y, Chihuahua

☆ Atop the State Department, Democracy’s Treasures Can Complicate or Clarify Messages
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But in the late 1960s, the architect Edward Vason Jones began to bedazzle the State Department’s eighth floor with cornices, columns, coffers and gilding. And as before, every art piece, every gold flake, every carpet thread was donated or paid for by private funders. An opulent new book called “America’s Collection: The Art & Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State” (Rizzoli/Electa) tells this story in pictures of frumpy interiors turned into glittering set pieces. The rooms, which have been closed for renovations and updating, preserving their antique character, as the State Department building itself is re-roofed, will reopen Sept. 26. Members of the public can book visits at iipstate.my.site.com and can explore the rooms online in a self-guided virtual tour.

Persons: Edward Vason Jones, Francis Scott Key’s, Allan Greenberg Organizations: State, Sears, Roebuck, U.S . Department of State ”, State Department Locations: Paris, iipstate.my.site.com

☆ The Bohemian Bungalow in L.A. Was Tiny, but It Had Soul
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The City of Angels remains a city of teardowns. One house that slipped through the cracks is a 1927 Spanish Colonial-slash-Craftsman in the Fairfax neighborhood, just south of West Hollywood. In the fall of 2020, Siena Deck, currently a production assistant at HBO, won an eight-way bidding war to claim the heartbreaker, paying $1.29 million. Outside, jacaranda trees turn the grounds purple in spring. But what really impressed Ms. Deck, 25, were the decorative and frequently imperfect marks left by the former occupants, who lived there for 17 years.

Organizations: HBO, Melrose, Jewish Locations: Angels, teardowns, Spanish, Fairfax, West Hollywood, Siena

☆ ‘Mr. Blandings’ Is Now 75. What Can His Dream House Tell Us About Ours?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most hair-raising horror films ever to hit the big screen: “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.” Adapted from a popular 1946 novel, it tells the story of Jim and Muriel Blandings (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy), a couple climbing the walls in their cramped Manhattan apartment, who buy an old house in Connecticut that becomes a gateway to misery. Tempers hit the stratosphere. James Sanders, an architect and the author of “Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies,” believes the 1948 film maintains its power to trigger anyone who has set out to fix or build a home. Blandings” has earned its place in the cinematic pantheon for another reason.

Persons: Mr, Blandings, Jim, Muriel Blandings, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, James Sanders, ”, Blandings ” Locations: Manhattan, Connecticut, New York

☆ Why Buy Anything You Could Borrow (Especially If You’re Renting)?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Brooke Renteria moved to a studio in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, from California two years ago. The unit of less than 400 square feet in Caesura, an apartment building cater-corner from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, came with a Murphy bed, a built-in table/desk and a 49-inch smart TV. Ms. Renteria, who is 24 and works in tech, also had access to the building’s Common Goods room, a basement closet stocked with household items that residents could check out for free. Among the dozens of objects: a sewing machine, a Ninja professional blender and a white porcelain dinner service for 12. When the 12-story building with 123 units opened in 2018, its 34 furnished micro studios started at $2,588 a month for 314 square feet.

Persons: Brooke Renteria, unpack, Murphy, Renteria, “ Organizations: Brooklyn Academy of Music Locations: Fort Greene , Brooklyn, California, Caesura, Caesura’s

☆ Priced Out of the City, They Bought a Tiny Suburban Home. Now What?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Much has been written about “good enough” marriages, but what of “good enough” houses in “I guess we have to live somewhere” neighborhoods? This is the story of a family who began with low expectations and then fell in love. In 2016, Amanda and Alain de Beaufort were renting an apartment with a garden in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where they had access to a new school with a Spanish/English program for their two children. Then one day, their landlord sold the building for cash and gave them a month to pack up and move out. “OK, we’ll just buy something in Sunset Park,” Ms. de Beaufort, 46, recalled saying, before making the cruel discovery that no affordable properties remained in the neighborhood.

Persons: Amanda, Alain de Beaufort, de Beaufort, Ms Locations: “, Sunset Park , Brooklyn, Colombia, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge , Brooklyn, Westchester County

☆ Why You Should Forget What You Think You Know About Housing in L.A.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In “Common Ground,” Ms. Anderton, 60, makes the point that while Los Angeles may seem like a sprawling breeding ground of American dream houses set in gardens, it has an equally compelling history of shared real estate that continues to this day. Perpetual sunshine has allowed the city’s multifamily housing to be opened to courtyards and parks and festooned with exterior staircases and balconies, breaking the stolid blocks of traditional apartment houses and fostering social connections. As contemporary architects and developers work to relieve Los Angeles of its vicious housing scarcity — almost 42,000 people in the city are currently unhoused — “Common Ground” shows examples of affordable multifamily buildings that look like anything but. Real estate development is never a walk in the park, but because some relief from the city’s draconian restrictions is granted to creators of affordable housing, this area has attracted design innovators working with progressive developers who are committed to righting decades of inequities created by exclusionary housing policies. For this reason, many of the projects that “Common Ground” highlights make the most out of the least: those with oddly shaped lots, peripheral locations and components produced in factories.

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