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The American Dream has virtually always been: more + bigger = better. The fad and trend that's predominated the last many decades has been to stretch yourself to the limit in order to acquire the most impressive home possible. This home would prove that you were successful, and obviously make you comfortable and happy. Over many decades, that's turned into crazy-big homes which required large incomes to buy and maintain, along with massive consumption of resources to build and live in.  Is it a palace or a large, single family American home? Is this the American Dream? Now-a-days, it's not surprising that the new trend is all about the teeniest tiniest home possible. The pendulum tends to swing, doesn't it? Like most things in life, we tend to learn from experience and then often run the other way. Now, the smaller, more minimal and more mobile a home, the better.
Tiny is fine if that's what you really need or want, but it's pretty extreme and unsustainable by most standards. A more manageable and still meaningful downsize might mean reclaiming older, smaller homes and shifting to a less consumerism mentality, while still participating in a mainstream community and lifestyle. ~ blog post continued below ~
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I've always been enamoured with the craftsman bungalow - but didn't even realize it at first. I remember spending time in the Pasadena California area house hunting for a possible job move decades ago and just being hypnotically drawn to the older bungalows that abound there. I didn't know then, but it was a truly American architectural style that was also common all over San Francisco where I'd lived most of my life. Looking back, the feature that always caught my eye first and drew me in, was the front porch.  Craftsman bungalow front porch And now, owning and living in a 1924 craftsman bungalow in northern Arizona, I find myself excited beyond words to be opening up the front porch which had been enclosed somewhere in the 70's. It's still a construction disaster but already it feels glorious to be in that space without the constraint of the walls and windows. Friends and neighbors come into the space and just marvel at how delicious it is. We try to imagine why anyone would have chosen to enclose this fabulous space. I find myself wondering - what is that makes front porches so alluring? ~ post continues below ~ One of our goals here at The Whiskey Porch is to provide well curated, high-quality resources to help you on your journey to creating a smaller & simpler life in your Nordic bungalow. This is my first collection in which I'm going to share some of my all-time favorites, and my focus will be books and publications here.
Let's get started:
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 | American Bungalow Magazine www.americanbungalow.com This is an extremely high quality periodical with a subscription offering (4 publications/year) and the opportunity to purchase back issues individually. It's a great source for learning about the ins and outs of this architectural style and it's history. The articles are all very well written, and in-depth. The photography is spectacular |
and the featured properties are truly inspiring.
It is definitely oriented around the purest concept of the original bungalows, but sometimes features newer builds or remodels with a more modern aesthetic twist.
~ post continues below ~
It is definitely oriented around the purest concept of the original bungalows, but sometimes features newer builds or remodels with a more modern aesthetic twist.
~ post continues below ~
Author
Hey there. I'm Miriam ~ and I've been doing this my whole life. It's my passion.
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