Eureka, Calif., Raymond Smith
My California bungalow in the Hendersen Center area has two bedrooms and one bath in 1,450 square feet. I am only the second owner, and a lot of the original design is intact despite a ’60s update that I am slowly renovating. I’ve been told that it was built around 1925, but sat vacant for seven or eight years before I bought it. The Eureka area offers a wide variety of Victorian, Craftsman and other bungalow architecture, and I’m glad to own this little piece of the town’s past history.
Athens, Ga., Jim and Lane Norton
Our new home was finished in March 2003 on a lot adjoining the Bloomfield Historic District. We kept the exterior conforming to the area’s bungalow styles, while inside we have all the conveniences of a new home. Our interior woods are maple and mahogany rather than the oak that was the traditional finish in this area. Many refer to our new home as the “Hobbit House” or the “Storybook Home.” We love it.
Chicago, Ill., Anastasia and Frank Glapa
Our “jumbo” Chicago bungalow was built in 1924 for $10,000 and we bought it for 20 times that in 1990. The leaking tile roof was removed and a new 75-year concrete tile roof installed. We started a trend — six homes near us had their old roofs replaced with new tile instead of cheaper asphalt. Our home has beautiful crown moldings we are stripping, oak and maple floors, and leaded-glass windows. The sun rises in the dining room and sets in the solarium; we love our bungalow!
Malvern, Penn., Kurt and Isabel Leininger
After looking at about 30 houses in three days, we walked into this one and immediately said, “This is the house we want.” It is from a Sears kit, built in the early 1920s and we love it. The floors are gorgeous — warm, golden maple with very strong contrast from light to dark — and it has a few built-ins — simple bookshelves in the living room and a corner cupboard in the dining room. The kitchen was redone very poorly in the mid-’80s, so we did it over last year with a maple floor, butcher-block counters and subway tile.
Shell Beach, Calif., Charles and Evelyn Plemons
Our Greene and Greene-inspired home, built in 1998, is a testament to the Arts and Crafts philosophy of form following function. Our architect, Bruce Fraser, developed a floor plan to suit our lifestyle, then adapted it to a steep upsloping lot. Custom features include Greene and Greene-style light fixtures and doors, Honduran mahogany woodwork with finger joints and Bradbury & Bradbury wallpapers. Our home is truly a dream come true and we marvel every day at how lucky we are to live in it.
East Point, Ga., Randy Lauscher and John Carriere
This 1930 Craftsman bungalow is located in suburban Atlanta on a corner lot in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. It has unique front porch steps that we haven’t seen duplicated anywhere. It is one of just a few yellow brick homes built in this area; Georgia red clay was a plentiful source for manufacturing red brick, which was the norm for brick homes in the region during that period.
Deadwood, S.D., Roger and Sharon Crago
We are the third owners of this very original 1908 bungalow. It has a four-foot casket door, original light fixtures, hardwood floors and stained-glass French doors. The woodwork has never been redone, and the only change since 1941 is painting the walls. It is on the National Historic Registry and is quite a unique home.
Tags: Athens, Chicago, Deadwood, East Point, Eureka, Malvern, Shell Beach
