It was designed and built by its architect owner James Russell, and its three storeys house his Practice and family.
I really liked it - its institutional, no-nonsense feel - and could imagine my family living in it. Its design is certainly conducive to communicating with a busy family of many children - with open spaces and movement between floors.
There's also nothing precious about it. I can see skateboarding in the courtyard, dripping pool-water-wrinkled feet running, and footballs being kicked all within the one space.
Who's that design guru?!
The photos are pretty ordinary and for that I apologise, but there's Mr Russell telling us about how he came to find and build the house including how he located one of the previous artist residents to commission the mural in the kitchen.
What did occur to me while viewing the house, was the impossibility for older people to live here. There were lots of narrow walkways and uneven pathways.
I like the idea of living in a house forever, and at some point, you'd have to move outta here because your walker is just not gonna cut that concrete slope. Other than that, I have no other criticism.
Fin.
Looks like a great house, but I agree that anyone who wants to buy a "forever house" should think about how doable stairs and inclines are going to be in the future. One of the great houses we found several months ago had a mother-in-law's suite upstairs above the garage. The stairs were so steep that they made the house impractical to buy, even though we loved it.
ReplyDeleteI like a forever house. How are you Dana? I think you're the only old school blogger who's still blogging. I'd love to be able to put-on a granny flat to our house for my mother, but they're fraught with legal issues. I know you live with your family and it works perfectly, you guys are an inspiration!
DeleteI'm still here! Yes lots of the bloggers from a few years back seem to have slipped their perches. Agreed, houses capable of accommodating oldies are few and far between. Having the main bedroom on the ground floor is an absolute must and hard to find in this world of double story houses we increasingly live in. At least my mum is now deaf as a post so we can look for places for her and not have to worry about the noise from the highway, lol! x
ReplyDeleteHey, maybe you can give me a clue with a point i looked for quite a while. I have a modern designed kitchen (white colors and subtones) so i decided to take some time and renovate i quite a bit. I painted bottom half in dark tones, kept other as is, and i have troubles deciding can i use stained glass as a part of my project innovation. Wife says it wont fit but i have another opinion. Of course, i have thought to find stained glass making artist but so far i haven`t found one near me to try it on.
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