Recent Articles From The Craftsman Bungalow
Perhaps it was serendipitous that a internationally recognized horticulturist would end up living in a home that once belonged to a descendant of John Olmsted, the prominent landscape architect who designed countless parks and public spaces across the country. But that’s exactly what happened. First moving to the property as a renter in 1995, Sean...
Portland, Oregon is full of old homes of all shapes, sizes and styles, and the Eastside neighborhood of Laurelhurst has been considered a microcosm of such homes since its inception in the early 1900’s. One of the gems of the neighborhood – if not the entire city – is The H. Russell Albee House which...
The Architectural Heritage Center’s Portland Kitchen Revival Tour is one of my favorite days of the year, and 16th annual edition was again full of beautiful homes, whose kitchen – and in most cases much more – have been impeccably restored to reflect the home’s original period design. This is my third year covering the...
When photographer Jett Loe came to Los Angeles in 2012 in search of a home for he and his wife, he was amazed at what he found – hiding in plain sight. Almost by accident, Loe stumbled upon West Adams, a once forgotten central Los Angeles enclave located halfway between Downtown LA and Santa Monica,...
With all of the traveling I’ve been doing for work recently, I haven’t had much time to write about some of the other things we’ve done to the house since we’ve moved in. If you remember my earlier post entitled Peeling Back The Layers, you’ll recall that the whole first floor had wall-to-wall carpeting and...
This article is Part Two of a two part series highlighting the homes that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Oak Park, Illinois during the years 1900 to 1913. Part One focused on his transition to the Prairie Style and the Oak Park homes he designed from 1889-1899. During the years of 1889 to 1899, Frank Lloyd...
To understand what we were dealing with when we initially bought the house, let’s go back to late 2009… This is what the exterior looked like when we first moved in (we have since painted it). I came to find out later that the house had been for sale earlier in 2009 through a realtor,...
One of the fathers of the Arts & Crafts Movement in America, Elbert Hubbard, was once quoted as saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” For Jacquie Walton of JW Art Pottery in Portland, Oregon, her lemon was an untimely job layoff that provided an opportunity for her to make lemonade using a skill...
San Francisco is well known for its abundance of elegant Victorian architecture, but tucked away among the tens of thousands of Victorians, there exists a small enclave full of hundreds of charming bungalows. Westwood Park, located just south of Mount Davidson, was originally a grove of tall eucalyptus trees – part of an old Mexican...
My latest two articles for American Bungalow magazine are in the current Summer 2014 issue! The first article, entitled A Tale of Two Owners, chronicles the decade-long restoration by Steve and Deb Moskowitz of a grand 1909 craftsman home (below) in Portland’s historic Irvington neighborhood, and the subsequent passing of the torch to the home’s...
As you may recall, on a recent business trip to Hawaii I stayed at a lovely family-run bed & breakfast rather than one of the impersonal mega hotels in Waikiki. While staying there, I got into a routine of taking a walk around the neighborhood every day and was blown away by the concentration of...
This post is part of our “Peek Inside” series where we showcase Arts & Crafts homes from across the country that have been listed for sale, or were recently sold. Some may be fixers that are just begging to be restored, others may be fully restored and move-in ready, and still others may be somewhere...
When Phillip Myer of Ragsdale Home Furnishings built his first table lamp way back in junior high school, he never imagined that one day, he’d be doing it for a living. But in 1999, more than 25 years after building that first fateful lamp, Phil quit his job in the high-tech electronics industry and embarked...
Somewhere near the intersection of rustic charm and stately elegance is a place where natural beauty and cooperative humanity walk hand-in-hand. Nestled a few thousand feet beneath the rugged 11,249 foot peak of Oregon’s Mount Hood, the iconic Timberline Lodge has been welcoming weary hikers, giddy newly-weds – and everything in between – for over...
This past weekend was the Architectural Heritage Center’s Annual Kitchen Revival Tour. Now in its 14th year, the tour showcases the efforts of Portland homeowners who have restored their home’s kitchens to its original glory. Most of the homes featured were professional restored by local contractors who concentrate on period homes, however one home’s kitchen...
A couple weeks ago my wife and I traveled down to attend a friend’s wedding in Cayucos, California – a quaint little beach town about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. When we started looking at flights a few months back, we realized that in order to get to Cayucos from Portland, we’d have...
Frank Lloyd Wright designed well over 1,000 homes and buildings throughout his illustrious career, but only one of those structures was built in the State of Oregon: The Gordon House. Commissioned by Conrad and Evelyn Gordon, the 88-year-old Wright designed the home in his Usonian style in 1957 for the couple’s sprawling farmland acreage that...
In light of the two recent great deals I’ve found on Craigslist (the oak desk and the Stickley nightstand), I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you some of the other Arts & Crafts items I’ve acquired through the site. It’s no secret that it can be very expensive to furnish your bungalow home...
I just got the latest issue of American Bungalow this week. Each issue this year includes an 8×10 full-color lithograph art print of the four seasons called “The Wisdom of the Trees” by Yoshiko Yamamoto. In 2010, American Bungalow featured four beautiful prints by Roycroft Renaissance artisan, Laura Wilder. Here’s what I did with those...
On a recent business trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I opted to stay at a hotel that’s steeped in history and in a little less than two years will celebrate its 100th year in operation. The Claremont Hotel, located on the border of Berkeley and Oakland, is one of the most picturesque hotels...
This year the Architectural Heritage Center expanded their Annual Kitchen Revival Tour beyond just kitchens to showcase entire homes, and re-named the tour the Portland Old House Revival Tour. I’ve covered this tour for the past three years, and now in its 16th year overall, the tour never disappoints. In case you missed it, here...
In the Spring 2017 Issue #94 of American Bungalow magazine, I contributed an article about a Greene & Greene home that was designed in 1906, but for reasons still not known today, was ultimately never built by the Greenes. Almost 100 years later, an ambitious builder, fueled by his love for authentic craftsman architecture, acquired...
When I packed up my car and headed West to Portland, Oregon in November of 2000, I had no idea how that decision would impact the rest of my life. Like our pioneering forefathers who took a similar leap of faith – I didn’t know what I’d encounter, who I’d meet, or if I’d ever...
I’m very excited that an article I wrote for American Bungalow magazine made the cover of the Winter 2013 Issue #80! The article is about an amazing home on the Oregon Coast that sits on a secluded cove with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the rugged Oregon coastline and a 1920s-era bridge that was...
Boise, Idaho is tucked away in plain sight in America’s Inland Northwest, and although it’s often overlooked due to its relative isolation, Boise is a lovely town with a rich history of pioneers, agriculture, and of course, bungalows. Boise’s bungalows run the gamut of all shapes, sizes, colors and styles, and were built from the...
In my previous post, The Ugly Hutch and The Beautiful Stairway That Hid Behind It: Part I, I told you how we removed the existing big ugly hutch and cut part of the wall to expose the staircase behind it. With the hutch and wall now gone, a new mystery emerged. On the floor underneath...
Sometimes the hardest part about purchasing furniture, lighting, metalwork or other decor for your home isn’t figuring out what you want, but rather, how and where to get it. Finding quality, handmade items has become more difficult with each passing year, as “big box” retail chains across the country continue to run smaller “Mom &...
When Frederick Robie commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for him and his growing family in 1908, neither man knew that the home’s iconic design would become the celebrated jewel that it is today. Considered by many architectural scholars to be one of the most influential and important residential designs of the 20th...
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see an authentic Greene & Greene-designed home up close, then a visit to The Lodge at Torrey Pines might be the next best thing. Taking its design cues from two of the Greenes’ most iconic “ultimate bungalows,” The Blacker House (1907) and The Gamble House (1908), both in Pasadena, the...
I was fortunate to recently travel to Hawaii for business and while looking for a place to stay – away from the hustle and bustle of tourist-packed Waikiki – I was thrilled when I came across the beautiful Manoa Valley Inn. Originally built in 1915 by an Iowa lumber baron named Milton Moore, the house...
