Chris and Carolyn's house

• All rooms have rectangular floor plans and range between 120-300 square feet
• All walls are straight and vertical
• All ceilings are horizontal
• Floors are wood or covered with carpet
• Navigation through the house is obvious
• Doors and doorways are rectangular
• There is a heavy dependency on artificial lighting
• The size and placement of windows is not surprising
• The view through all windows is away from the house
• Stairways are 4-5' across and straight or have one turn.

• Round rooms
• A stone spiral, staircase
• "Secret" passages that provide shortcuts between rooms
• Three heating/air conditioning units to enable greater temperature control in each portion of the house
• Lots of windows and skylights, including internal windows and windows with views looking back on the house
• Large open rooms
• Arched and five-sided doorways and doors
• Stone and heavy wooden floors
• Stone and steel construction (enabling large rooms and windows)
• Deep kitchen sinks so dirty or drying dishes are not prominently displayed
• An eating area open to the kitchen and no separate dining room
• Walk-in, lighted kitchen pantries
• A large amount of counter space in the kitchen
• An easily accessible, flat roof (which opens many possibilities for using the roof)
• Externally, the house has different and uncommon personalities depending on one's approach to it

The view from just inside the main entranceway of Chris and Carolyn's house. The visitor is greeted by an arched stairway down, a hexagonal room (off photo to the right), and a stone floor inviting entrance to a grand main room.

Though Missy had been skeptical about some of the design points of a nonstandard house, this house convinced her of their attractiveness. I was so excited about the house the first night in it I kept waking up, thinking about it. I woke before sunrise and took many photos of and from it and share some of them here with you. Chris and Carolyn's house makes my desire to build our own nonstandard house less strong. One of my motivations for building was to demonstrate that a house doesn't have to be standard. Indeed, a house is more personalized and can be more beautiful if it is not. That point has been made and thinking "out of the box" architecture can be shared through this website. This house, largely because of its size and placement, is expensive. I claim, though I admit it remains to be shown, that a house can be nonstandard and not expensive. Evidence for my claim is this; I have been in more expensive houses, including many palaces and castles I visited in Europe, but I have never been in a more beautiful house.

The balcony from which this photo was taken could comfortably sit six dining people. The smaller balcony in the background hangs off the master bedroom.	View from the balcony of a sunrise over the river. In this photo you can see the top of two sailboats at the small dock below the house.
The green cliff with Chris and Carolyn's house perched on top. This is the view from the port. The photo on top of this webpage is a zoomed in view of the house from the port.	The castle-like main entrance. The hexagonal room and adjacent tower at the right can also be viewed through windows from within the house.
This well-water pool is low-maintenance. The sliding glass doors in the center of the picture are from a car dealership (a second set of them is off the left edge of the photo; there are also sliding screen doors which are not shown). Built-in cushioned benches line the east wall and a large fireplace sits at the head of the pool.	The cover for the pool is opened and closed mechanically. Note the wet bar in the center of the photo, the semi-circle window with a house view, and the pedestals and openings to support artwork. The door near the center leads to a full bathroom and sauna, the arched door on the right leads upstairs and to a workshop, small wine cellar, and den.

  Detailed ironwork above the large pool fireplace.



  A view from the pool through a horizontal, indoor window on which the potted plants seem to be floating, to the skylight in the roof. The pool is well-lit with natural light though it also has artifical lighting above and within the water.

To see more indoor photos of this incredible house, click here.

© 1999 frantzml@juno.com