This is a nice looking place.
Hey, wait a minute… is this actually a cave?
Yup, looks like a cave. Who needs windows, I guess?
At least the finishes are nice, so you have something pleasant to look at while you’re not looking out any windows.
Okay, okay, I jest.
If you want some sunlight, just look up!
Here’s how the listing agent pitches this house:
Finally, a home as unique as you are! Unique Dale Percy design, underground home on 1.3Acres. Look no further for a fabulous, energy efficient, eco-friendly home design.
Fabulous!
This is the first of this kind of underground house that I’ve seen that has a two-story front on it. It kind of reminds me of a Hobbit hole. It’s kind of plain inside. I would go all Bag End on the place.
Just a couple of things, though:
First, the fact that they had to create an artificial mound in order to make it “underground” doesn’t really work, does it? It just looks like an above-ground house with soil piled on top of it instead of a house dug into a hill. It also makes it hard to mow the roof – those are some steep sides.
Also, who is going to get up there and dust those windows on top? Not me.
@Frodo: “It kind of reminds me of a Hobbit hole. It’s kind of plain inside. I would go all Bag End on the place.”
How… appropriate.
Looks like someone had half a spare Quonset hut and an extra load of topsoil to get rid of. Now, if someone would just get rid of this monstrosity…
Badly faked “colonial” style is unpleasant enough, but mashing it up with the post-modern propensity to highlight a facade as just a facade, a cartoon independently free-floating from any underlying structure, is a hideous misuse of time, material, energy, and – worst of all – patience. The result is, simply put, dumb.
OK, enough about the outside. Actually, the inside isn’t that bad. Odd, yes, but not bad. Except for the bathtub in Pic 25. I am so glad I’m not the one who had to scrub back in those weird, and tight, corners. Even then, it’s still cool to look at, just not easy to live with. And who wants a home that’s not easy to live with? And dumb?
@Frodo: “…who is going to get up there and dust those windows on top?”
You do realize, you can walk right up to them on the outside. Granted the roof structure is strong enough. If one can clean the outside of double hung windows from inside, it’s surely possible to clean the inside of them from the outside. Backasswards, but possible. :P
@Emerald63: Yeah, I thought of that, but you still need to unlock them, and most windows tilt in for cleaning rather than out.
I noticed that weird alcoves in the bathtub. I also noticed that it was tiled. Not sure I want a tiled bathtub. I’d redo that space and turn part of the alcove into an extra towel cabinet or something. I’m not fond of those kind of cabinets over the top of the toilet.
You mentioned Quonset huts. You may be onto something. There are plenty of groups who make prefab Quonset arch structures, and some people actually turn them into homes.
@Frodo: I know personally of the Quonset arch structures. My in-laws have a large open-ended one for hay bale storage. It’s put together in sections and the final appearance is rather accordion like with dips and ridges.
That house is awful. Everything about it is just awful. I googled “Dale Percy”. First and only result that came anywhere close to being related to the design of houses was an excavating company in Stowe, Vermont. Makes sense, I guess.
Lol at the comments! This is definitely an icky house! Every room seems to have that dingy tint, glad I live in a house that has windows in each room! I looked at this house on Bing, there are some really nice houses in the area I assume this house brings down the house prices or maybe the area boosts this house price.