View full sizeThis unassuming small house is a popular backdrop for people taking photographs."American Gothic" house:
Writer Beth Howard, who visited Portland in April promoting her book
A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie," lives in the famous "American Gothic" house in Iowa. The farmhouse immortalized by
is all of 700 square feet, was built in 1881, and is a popular site for people to pose for pictures. In fact, a clause in Howard's lease (she pays $250-a-month rent) requires her to be nice to them.
Eldon, population 900, number of restaurants zero, was a big change for Howard.
of how she came to live there and why she stays:
The house, which has appeared in countless parodies, including those featuring Klingons and Miss Piggy, has captivated Howard. She misses it when she's away and said that when she went to see Wood's painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, she wanted to jump into the painting and go home (a security guard had to ask her to step away from the artwork).
"You can smell the history," she said of her adopted home. "It's very soothing -- I feel connected to my ancestors."
And that famous fancy Gothic window on the front of the plain-and-simple house? It was ordered from a Sears catalog.
For more about Howard, check out The Oregonian's interview with her about her book:
For more "American Gothic" parodies, consider
Would you believe, there are even
for art teachers.
Small Cool winners and tips:
Apartment Therapy has announced
A 614-square-foot Brooklyn apartment in New York City and a 390-square-foot apartment in Vancouver, B.C., are the U.S. and international winners, respectively. Both show design ingenuity and a gift for turning awkward spaces into something useful.
More
Apartment Therapy also offers some
that are good general principles, though a bit light on details.
Walmart sells cubes:
Walmart carries a wide range of goods, but the Williston, N.D., Walmart is going further than all the rest of the chain's stores by
The 80-square-foot, very basic units are sold in the parking lot, where Walmart since February has cracked down on RVs staying there. The lure of oil industry jobs has brought a rush of job seekers without housing. The Williston Herald reports:
The units, in the shape of a cube, are made by Vec Technology, LLC. There are two bunks inside, a flat-screen TV, a heating and air-conditioning unit, a refrigerator, a fold-out table, a desk and a small closet -- all enclosed in an 8-foot wide by 8-foot tall by 10-foot long structure. ...
The units weigh 2,500 pounds and can be moved with a forklift.
Garage conversion:
These photos chart the conversion of a
The ugliness of the original structure makes the transformation impressive. The original structure was raised 4 feet, with a bump-out for a bathroom that includes a skylight over the bathtub.
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