Category: Architecture and Interiors

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Ugly Houses

My dad worked as principal designer for Hallcraft (later NuWest) Homes from around 1972 to 1980. During that time, some of the company's most iconic developments were built in the valley.

Unfortunately, in the decade before he took over, Hallcraft had another designer who—IMHO and I'm admittedly biased—came up with some of the ugliest designs the company ever built.

These were generally homes that fell in the upper price range, which might explain their rarity In the various subdivisions. Of course, the other reason might be because they're butt-fugly.

One of the worst offenders. The rusted out car seems a perfect companion to this POS.
Same floor plan as the one above. Just as ugly. (Which is too bad, because the plan itself was interesting.)
Another ugly Mansard Roof atrocity. The French doors are not original to the house. At one time it had a proper front door.
Another interesting plan with a dreadful facade. This one had an inner courtyard that in the Phoenix climate was designed to be a cool respite from the heat.
Another interesting plan (this time a tri-level) with a horrible "Spanish" facade.
Same great plan as I spent my high school and college years in (but not with this "Spanish" abomination out front.
This was actually a really nice design when first built. It was a very unique floor plan (another tri-level; it was the 60s/70s after all), but the exterior has been destroyed by subsequent alterations.
I wish I still had the brochure for this house. I was probably 5 or 6 years old when we toured this development, so my memories are cloudy, but I do remember it was a wild tri-level design with a 2-story living room (hence those windows).
And lastly, I think this was some sort of bastard variation of the house above built on two lots, allowing for the once-upon-a-time garage to be moved off to the side and later converted to more living space. But goddamn…BUTT FUGLY.

If you're in Phoenix and would like to see these for yourself (why?!) they're in neighborhoods on the southeast and northwest corners of West Bethany Home Road and 43rd Avenue. The area, like most, has gone through ups and downs, and I think it's all in a very depressed mode at the moment.

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Sears Catalog Kit Homes

From Vintage Everyday:

Sears Catalog Homes (sold under the Sears Modern Homes name) were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Company, an American retailer. Sears reported that more than 70,000 of these homes were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. More than 370 different home designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes were offered over the program's 33-year history.

Sears homes can be found across the continental United States. While sold primarily to East Coast and Midwest states, Sears homes have been located as far south as Florida and as far west as California. Examples have also been found in Alaska. A handful of Sears homes have been identified in Canada.

Sears Modern Homes offered the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century. Central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity were all new developments in house design that "Modern Homes" incorporated, although not all of the houses were designed with these conveniences. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Once delivered, many of these houses were assembled by the new homeowner, relatives, friends and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional barn-raisings of farming families. Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. Some builders and companies purchased homes directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes or homes for customers or employees.

Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940. A few years later, all sales records were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. As only a small percentage of these homes were documented when built, finding these houses today often requires detailed research to properly identify them. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home. National and regional competitors in the catalog and kit home market included Aladdin, Bennett, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Brothers, Lewis, Pacific Ready Cut Homes, Sterling and Montgomery Ward (Wardway) Homes.



























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70s Aesthetic





My Dad knew Ms. Eichen. When he brought this book home in the early 70s I remember pouring over the pages in rapt attention. This was the future, damn it! My future! This was the aesthetic I entered my architectural career with.

It's funny how styles change. What at first seems beautiful and fresh and new looks so antiquated only a few decades later. The photos above are from the 70s, but even the big trends of the 90s (glass block, neon, Zolotone paint) now look hopelessly dated. That's why I have to laugh when I watch the current crop of home improvement shows where kitchens are all white (or grey, or, most recently blue) shaker cabinets with stainless steel appliances, granite or quartz countertops and tiled backsplashes. Hardwood floors are a requirement throughout a house, and don't even think about designing anything other than an open concept living area.

This too shall pass. By the time 2060 rolls around, all these "modern" accoutrements are going to look as dated as the photographs above. People will walk into these homes and say, "Granite!? That's so twenty-teens! It's gotta go!" In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the photos above are the look in 2060 since everything old is new again.

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I Actually Like This One

A couple years ago I wrote a post deriding Zombie House Flipping (although I can't seem to find it now).

I gave it another chance a few weeks ago because there wasn't anything else on that night worth watching and discovered that either the format or the crew—or more likely, I—had changed, and I actually didn't hate it. Yeah, there's a hell of a lot of poorly staged, obvious drama, but by and large the houses the guys flip actually look pretty good when they're finished.

I love what was done to this house. It was from an episode where the sole girl on the team was given full reign over the project. It was a sad, dreary little 60s-era box that disappeared into the vegetation. Now it stands out and screams 21st Century. I really like the colors and materials they chose for the remodel, and while I'm not as enamored with some of the design choices that were made on the interior, enclosing the open carport—turning it into a proper garage—and rotating the roof ninety degrees to its original orientation after determining the entire structure needed to be replaced was a stroke of design genius as far as I'm concerned.



After one brief visit to Florida in 1993, I've always fantasized about living there, but the politics, the hurricanes (and now the inevitable rising sea level) are what have kept that fantasy at bay. Still, I like what I saw of the lifestyle (at least on the west coast where I was staying) at the time, and if the place wasn't so sure to be underwater, it still might be something to consider.

But then there's the humidity. And the bugs. Oh lord, the bugs…

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I Could Live There


I'd make a few changes…I'd choose some other ceramic tile for the floors, I'd transform the breezeway into an enclosed living space and alter the kitchen enough to accommodate full-size appliances, but other than that I do like the aesthetic of the place—especially for the climate it's built in.

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Flip Or Flop

One of our favorite "unscripted" home renovation programs over the years has been HGTV's Flip or Flop. Unlike most of the shows of this genre—especially Flipping Vegas—the hosts, Tarek and Christina El Moussa, seemed to have the least amount of on-screen drama of any of them. (What we've subsequently learned about their off-screen drama is another matter entirely however.) They always seemed to know what they were doing, didn't act too surprised when they encountered unexpected expenses during the renovations, and generally speaking, Christina's taste wasn't half bad (the same cannot be said of the hosts of HGTV's current offshoot program, Flip or Flop Las Vegas (Maybe it's just a Las Vegas thing?) but those ruminations are better left to a subsequent post.

Anyhow…

While this house on Cerecita Drive in Whittier, California itself is architecturally butt-ugly, I do like what Tarek and Christina did with it—and I especially like the colors, finishes, and the final staging. Of all the houses they've done, I think this is actually one of my all-time favorites. I could easily see us living there.

I like the turquoise, gray and white color scheme. The only thing I would've done differently is to continue to wrap it (and the horizontal siding and molding) around the garage as well so the garage didn't look like so much of an afterthought.