Saturday, October 31, 2009

Twin horror show

This house is ugly enough without being 'decorated' for oct 31st.
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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Contrasting dormers

I've been thinking about this for awhile, doing a photo study of how people in twins maintain/renovate their homes. Living in a twin myself, and my neighbor at this moment installing a new front door, this is something I have some ideas on.
Dormers on twins are a place where people might cut corners. Like this one. the house on the left has the original ornate setup, the middle window flanked by very narrow sidelights. Stylish, but to replace today would most likely be quite pricey.

The home on the left didn't worry about that; when it got sided, the whole thing was just replaced with a stock window. On its own, it might not be noticed, but in cotrast to its mirror twin next door, well, its like gravy and ice cream.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Warren and spring garden

The picture really makes this home look better than it is. The chalky lime siding is hideous and unlike anything else this side of Spanish Harlem. Of course the porch roof is long gone, and it is generally unadorned as are so many of the houses we've exposed. To be fair, the property is kept up, though plain.
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Monday, October 19, 2009

NOT ugly, but a real nice home


In response to a post on the 'neighbors of Easton' blog, I am posting a current picture of the gorgeous home at 14th and Washington. Some might think it's overgrown, but the owner really takes pride in his home and takes care of it.
This also signals a start of something I will do from time to time: post pictures of the nicest homes of Easton, besides the major ugly.
Enjoy.

close up of 7th st saltbox


The other day I posted a picture of this ugly box on N 7th. It didn't really show off the full extent of how deteriorated it truly is.
This house is NOT abandoned; people live here.
I really am not discriminating against those of little means. The shame here is that someone is MAKING MONEY on this property! There is a RESPONSIBILITY that comes with home ownership and/or being a landlord.
Whoever owns this is on my wall of shame.

more 7th St ugly

A simple home that has seen better days. Small narrow city houses like this were never fancy, but pretty well build, and have held up well for the last 100-130 years, maybe more. This one is noteworthy becasue it's a single in a sea of ugly rowhomes. Still, it has a period incorrect front door and a 'just slap it up there' overhang. It probably used to have a full width overhang w/ carved columns.

Prime corner near Cottingham


This house is so odd, it might have ALWAYS been ugly. But the 70s reno on the 1st floor and filthy siding doesn't help, either. Prime corner by a neighborhood playground.
UPDATE: As one of my faithful followers pointed out, this is/was infact, a church of some sort on the 1st floor. It has a side entrance not visible in the photo. However, it looks to be abandoned. The front door shown here, judging by the single mailbox and single dish, seems to be a single rental(for the present at least).

Warren and Church





Being on an alleyway, this home has a few strikes against it already. This one is actually at the corner of two alleys. It's a shame, really, because the house itself is a good size and has lots of potential.
Warren St, although a park-one-side-only street, has a number of nice homes (this isn't one of them). the west side of the street has a few that have recently been painted, and one home in the middle of the block even has a spacious side yard. My feeling is that is the best way to improve a neighborhood: lead by example, and (hopefully) the rest will (eventually) follow.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

big white box on Spring Garden


This is an example of a contractor working as he goes, no plan at all. This 'house' has at least 4 apartments in it, judging from the electrical meters. It's hard to tell how it might have originally looked, but the rear addition and pop up at the rear is obviously a latecomer to the party.
Ugly.