Growing up, I lived in a manufactured home. It came on a truck in two different pieces and they stuck it together to form that place that would be my home for 18 years. There were literally thousands of other homes just like it throughout the country, complete with pea green shag carpeting. UGH! 
I hate the idea of a cookie cutter home, whether it’s manufactured or built from scratch in some nameless Stepford-like subdivision, where the only thing that differentiates one home from another is the color of the lawn gnomes.
When my wife and I decided to find a a larger place to accommodate our growing family, I was immediately entranced by the house we currently call home. It’s a turn-of-the-century, two-story home that, from the outside, is as nondescript as the other houses in the neighborhood, but the inside was a different story.
While past owners did cosmetic changes to keep up with the times, it was painfully obvious that this home was built by hand. There was no cookie cutter housing here, just the architectural stylings of Joe Everyman– the average guy that did his best to provide a dream home for his family, more than a hundred years ago.
What makes this home special isn’t the hardwood floors or large, corner lot, but the character of the home…some would call them imperfections. In a world of antiseptic housing where individuality is considered a luxury of the rich, here I sit in a home unlike any other. The imperfections are not detrimental to the structure of the home and most of the time are imperceptible.
Some of the doorways are not completely straight and there is a slight upward grade in the floor of the living room. There is a very small room adjacent to the master bedroom that glows with an abundance of natural light, and was obviously built as a nursery. From the second I stepped into this house, it felt like a home. It has strong memories of its everyman architect and his family, who built this house as part of their dream.
Throughout the world, there are thousands of homes built by Joe Everyman. They may not have 90 degree right angles, but the homes have a strength of heart and soul that you can’t get from a cookie cutter.
Image Source: flickr.com/photos/rioncm/3458672932
See also:
- Deal of the Day: Cookie Cutter Sets
- In the News: Second Life Housing
- Safety Concerns: One vs. Two-Story Homes
- Architect Profile: Helmut Jahn
- Housing Matters: Types of Rentals
- Are there Secret Passages in Your Home?
- Christmas Crafts: The Gingerbread House
- Tasty Tips: Thinking Outside of the Lunch Box
- Interesting Architecture: The Love Story of the Octagon Home
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