The last time I was talking about the dining room doors here on the blog they were leaning against the dining room wall. We had brought the doors in from the rafters above the garage and cleaned them of the layers and layers of dust and bird’s nests but I wanted more seasoned hands than my own to help install them. Fortunately, just a week later, my parents came to the Dream House with a wood router in tow and, working together like a happy DIY family, we got the doors re-installed!
On our very first visit to the Dream House, we tried to look over every last inch of the it – from the house to the garage to the old carriage house and even the yard. Having endured the five hour drive from our city apartment to the house, we wanted to make sure we were thorough in our inspection of the space. We saw two small doors stashed over the rafters in the garage way back then but it took us six months until we were finally able to get a closer look. And now that we have gotten to inspect the doors more closely, we’re beyond thrilled with them!
Maybe it’s because neither of us were particularly popular back in our high school days that The Mister and I are always flattered to be considered part of a club. When we returned to the Dream House after an extended absence last week, we were delighted to find a big envelope from The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in the mail. Opening it, we were even more pleased to see a copy of Save Wright Magazine with a cover story titled “So You Bought a Wright House.” Welcome to the club, boys!
The issue of Save Wright that we received is from Fall 2010 and includes a number of helpful articles, including one titled Valuing and Pricing Wright Houses: General Principles. We won’t be selling the Dream House anytime in the near future, but we still enjoy reading pieces like this in the meantime.
I imagine this issue of the magazine is sent to all new Wright house owners. (Of course, it also includes a pitch to join the Conservancy with a donation.) This issue is a perfect introduction to the world of Wright house ownership. We’re sure to rely on the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy, as well as other American System-Built home owners, as we make changes and updates to the house. Our goal is to honor the house’s heritage in all of our updates. At the same time, we want to bring the house into the 21st century. After all, this is a house that’s meant to be inhabited, not a museum.
Although our house is not a pure Wright house, like Falling Water or one of his other custom designs, it is still an important part of the famed architect’s heritage. While Wright didn’t design the ASB homes for individual clients as he did with his more famous houses, the designs did come out of his office. According to Wikipedia, Wright’s firm “produced over 960 drawings for the project, the largest number of drawings for any project in the Wright archives.” Considering the fact that of the roughly 30 American System-Built Homes that were built between 1914 and 1917, only about a dozen remain standing underscores the importance of maintaining these houses. As Wright’s first foray into pre-fab housing, ASB homes were an early precursor to the Usonian homes that would come later in his career.
We’re excited to be a part of the Wright club and hope we can do the architect and his designs justice.
— J. Blandings
Image: Mr. and Mr. Blandings
We spent most of our weekend doing two things: cleaning up the yard and exploring the contents of the garage. In doing so, we not only learned what it takes to maintain our big yard, we also turned up some new discoveries for the house. I’ve gathered up five things we learned this weekend: two are practical tips that came up when we were raking leaves and the other three are fun finds related to the house and its history.
One of the exciting extras that came with the Dream House was the original blueprint. The framed blueprint has been hanging on a wall near the front door when we first viewed the house and we (quite wisely, I think) stipulated that it had to stay with the house as a condition of the sale. I mean, if you’re going to buy a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home, you sure as hell want the blueprint for it! We recently decided to have the blueprint re-framed, affording us the opportunity to photograph it while it was out from under the glass.
