Lovely writing, as usual. My architectural historian wife wrote her Master’s thesis on Lustron Houses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustron_house) so your description of the house was very interesting. When we moved to a rental house in Kansas City in 2012, there was a Lustron house adjacent to the backyard. Great essay.
Our house was an Alside kit, which was kind of a successor to the Lustron houses. Alside was a joint venture, IIRC, between Reynolds Aluminum and Libby Owens Glass, each of which was trying to expand demand for its product. Aside from their style, they offered a lot of cost advantages vis-a-vis constructed-on-the-site custom houses that still dominate the market. I'm no expert, but libertarianish economists blame local restrictions on manufactured housing as one cause of today's high housing prices....I think they're not totally wrong.
It makes me very happy to read this, thanks, i needed that.
First, I love all of the different eccentric and eclectic home decor. It reminds me of our '70s Maine farmhouse. Beanbag chairs. Jodul woodstoves, after we went offline during the energy crisis, which meant that I solit 15 cords of wood every fall and brought it from the scary barn every night, and mostly furniture my dad and I made.
Your house sounds amazing. Mr. Jabbour sounds like a kind of a self-made Frank Lloyd Wright, and all round genius. Actually our house here in India is made out of prefab panels, fiberglass and glass fiber put together in Austrtralia and now here at IiT. 4 or 5 inches thick and 11 feet tall, the crane put them all in place in a few hours. But I wish we had the primary color scheme.
I love this. I love that kind of spirit, you know, just putting things together. And it was kind of a '70s thing in a way, but it also sounds like your family's kind of thing, and ours. We bought everything in secondhand stores or at yard sales, and we made most of our furniture.
Similar story with vehicles. VW bug with hole in floor that snow bounced through. A 40s Ford pickup that had to be started under the hood, then s run inside. And our last American car, a Volare, that broke down and my dad, patriotic but practical, switched to Toyotas and still drives at 95.
What a, what a great, lovely essay. I will read it many more times. Each sentence has a different flavor to it and personality. And there's just a lot of love in your family, for everything, for each other.. it seems like you had infinite care for every aspect of your lives, making them unique and interesting. And I really wish I'd met your folks. And your mom looks just lovely. Your dad too.
Woodstoves are awesome as long as the raccoons don't get in them:) Your house sounds great, too.
Zeke Jabbour was a one-of-a-kind.
Interesting about your pre-fab Indian house. My only-moderately-informed understanding of the Indian economy is that a lot of local regulations get in the way, for better or worse, of modern retailing. Good to know they allow some pre-fab housing.
Glad to hear that your family had a can-do spirit, as my dad was mechanically incompetent:).
My parents were warm and interesting people and I was lucky to choose them:).
My one demand in searching for a "permanent" house was that it have space in the driveway for a hoop........and it was a very reasonable demand:). As I heard Chris Mullin say recently, one of the great things about driveway basketball is that you can genuinely improve your full-court game by working on your shooting and dribbling by yourself in the driveway......although it must be said that the effects on my game were limited:)
Lovely writing, as usual. My architectural historian wife wrote her Master’s thesis on Lustron Houses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustron_house) so your description of the house was very interesting. When we moved to a rental house in Kansas City in 2012, there was a Lustron house adjacent to the backyard. Great essay.
Our house was an Alside kit, which was kind of a successor to the Lustron houses. Alside was a joint venture, IIRC, between Reynolds Aluminum and Libby Owens Glass, each of which was trying to expand demand for its product. Aside from their style, they offered a lot of cost advantages vis-a-vis constructed-on-the-site custom houses that still dominate the market. I'm no expert, but libertarianish economists blame local restrictions on manufactured housing as one cause of today's high housing prices....I think they're not totally wrong.
It makes me very happy to read this, thanks, i needed that.
First, I love all of the different eccentric and eclectic home decor. It reminds me of our '70s Maine farmhouse. Beanbag chairs. Jodul woodstoves, after we went offline during the energy crisis, which meant that I solit 15 cords of wood every fall and brought it from the scary barn every night, and mostly furniture my dad and I made.
Your house sounds amazing. Mr. Jabbour sounds like a kind of a self-made Frank Lloyd Wright, and all round genius. Actually our house here in India is made out of prefab panels, fiberglass and glass fiber put together in Austrtralia and now here at IiT. 4 or 5 inches thick and 11 feet tall, the crane put them all in place in a few hours. But I wish we had the primary color scheme.
I love this. I love that kind of spirit, you know, just putting things together. And it was kind of a '70s thing in a way, but it also sounds like your family's kind of thing, and ours. We bought everything in secondhand stores or at yard sales, and we made most of our furniture.
Similar story with vehicles. VW bug with hole in floor that snow bounced through. A 40s Ford pickup that had to be started under the hood, then s run inside. And our last American car, a Volare, that broke down and my dad, patriotic but practical, switched to Toyotas and still drives at 95.
What a, what a great, lovely essay. I will read it many more times. Each sentence has a different flavor to it and personality. And there's just a lot of love in your family, for everything, for each other.. it seems like you had infinite care for every aspect of your lives, making them unique and interesting. And I really wish I'd met your folks. And your mom looks just lovely. Your dad too.
Beautiful.
Woodstoves are awesome as long as the raccoons don't get in them:) Your house sounds great, too.
Zeke Jabbour was a one-of-a-kind.
Interesting about your pre-fab Indian house. My only-moderately-informed understanding of the Indian economy is that a lot of local regulations get in the way, for better or worse, of modern retailing. Good to know they allow some pre-fab housing.
Glad to hear that your family had a can-do spirit, as my dad was mechanically incompetent:).
My parents were warm and interesting people and I was lucky to choose them:).
I also remember the infamous garage crash. Part of the problem was he was driving a land yacht, I think a early 70’s Mercury Marquis
As a retired police car, that land yacht also had a searchlight that could be used to signal cars to pull over. What could go wrong:)?
I loved the not quite 10 foot basketball rim! Really good basketball setup.
My one demand in searching for a "permanent" house was that it have space in the driveway for a hoop........and it was a very reasonable demand:). As I heard Chris Mullin say recently, one of the great things about driveway basketball is that you can genuinely improve your full-court game by working on your shooting and dribbling by yourself in the driveway......although it must be said that the effects on my game were limited:)