But when it all comes together, it's really cool:
Wouldn't it be fabulous if, taking this house as the exemplar...
...the whole neighborhood could bloom with hippie aesthetic?
(I have no idea whether the people who did this to their house are actually hippies or how they would verbalize their aesthetic, but whoever they are, I salute them.)
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A hippie style? I suppose. I am not so into lables. I do like those folks who go non-conformist. Be it dozens of ceramic kittens on a facade, or strange armies of gnomes hiding in the bushes, or bits of mosaic stuck on any surface that will take it, or some hippie lollypop things in the garden.
I wouldn't want that house next door to mine, though it would make it easy to give directions.
We're next door to the purple house. Yes, that's right, purple.
There used to be a purple/lavender house on Gregory Street, near Commonwealth. It looks much better now that it's painted a different color -- although I recall it took years for them to paint the window wells.
I like this house. very nice.
have you ever seen that wild garden hippie style house in Shorewood Hills near the pool? My family loves the wild garden full of heads animals and all sorts of stuff.
(I do like the bowling balls, however).
I wouldn't want to come home to a purple house. But different strokes I suppose.
Love the shaped yew bush...if it is a yew bush.
That's pretty big for a yew, but if the house is >100y old, I can see that the yew might be that big.
Maybe it's an evergreen of some type?
Really not so different (in concept) from the old victorian houses you see in a place like Cape May, NJ.
Which is wonderful.
Wow, man.
Hey, is uh Dave home?
Dave?
Check out the San Francisco Victorian homes.
Been done. Been there. Done that.
Purple Houses are in now. We used to say that the owner must have re-painted with a paint color the stores gave away because no one would buy it. That's one easy way to give directions to your house..."Look for the Purple Victorian."
I did not know that Stevie Wonder lived in Madison.
I like it. It's not completely my style - I'm more mid-century ranch - but it's groovy. It's well-done, funky, and not "trashy" - the gazing balls/orbs/whatever they're called are all upright, they haven't thrown in a bunch of yard trash just because they can.
Does "hippie" = "Bohemian"?
If so that would be very ironic for a "Victorian" home.
Wayyyy too tidy to be hippie, but very nicely done. I salute you, purple house people.
The look is mostly drug-induced.
All that acid, man.
WV "achan" One of Charlie's kids.
Cool. Obviously someone works pretty hard to keep it up. Reminds me vaguely of some movie. "Hairspray" maybe?
Perhaps it's merely a transplanted New Orleanian.
Nicely done, I'd say. And love those bowling balls!
Having grown up in a white clapboard house, all I can think of is hours (more like weeks) being spent on ladders with a paint scraper and a hot air gun, to get the old cracked and alligatored paint off. And considering that almost all the old paint here would have lead in it, having to wear a hazmat suit, and toxic waste disposal.
Or these could be well-to-do former hippies with enough money to hire the painting out.
That only looks good in pristine condition. A few years, some wear, a little dirt on the siding, and that purple will look atrocious.
Has anyone checked to see if this is a owned by a registered sex offender operating a Willie Wonka's Chocolat factory house as a lure. At least we know it's not a safe house for spies which has to blend in and not attract attention.
Hey, I like this house. A lot! It's happy-making.
...of course, understand that I come from happy-making pastel-coloured central -- South Beach.
We don't call these colours hippie, here. They're Art Deco (the architectural style often seems secondary).
This reminds me of a documentary about craftsmanship in America. A furniture maker was reminiscing about his time making "artistic" roach clips in the late 60s. He lamented how ugly they were but noted that they sold out anyway. Money quote:
"God bless the hippies. They love anything that's ugly!"
Hippie is earth tones and natural and scuzzy. Smelly and unkempt. Their appliances are still brown, harvest gold, and avocado.
The chick is an art student.
Strangely enough, that house is nearly identical to a house right around the corner from mine- and I don't live in Wisc., either.
It doesn't have the gewgaws and stuff in the front yard, though.
It used to be a run-down mess, and we practically cheered when we saw a couple buy it and paint it a few years ago. Now it looks great.
wv: liksl. We likes the lavender.
I see there is a floodlight aimed at the bowling balls, and candles & lantern near the front door. If you get a chance, you should see how it looks at night.
WV dishalo- what they do to fallen angels.
I love it! Baltimore's Mt. Washington has, or had, at least one house similarly done. Both owners were artists, and their tenant an art therapist. The house was an Arts and Crafts bungalow, however, not Victorian.
The one accessory this house lacks:
http://www.mylifetime.com/lifestyle/home-crafts/parties-holidays/wicked-witch-fright-night-gallery-photo
A yellow brick road would be too much.
What if hippies had money and good taste?
..
Um...
...
That's like asking what if fish had legs and could walk around on land.
Near where I grew up, someone started painting individual bricks on their brick house different colors. Just a few at first, but more each year.
I think about half were done last I checked.
Looks better than you might guess.
I really like it. Where is it written houses have to be boring?
I agree with kentuckyliz, though. This isn't so much hippy as art-student-y.
He ain't Hippie, he's my brother, Duane, with creative endeavors of wife Jane, proprietor of East Side Bags.
Is that a Queen Anne?
This is a classy house with infinite expressed humor. Besides, they're my friends. Go J&D!
Reminds me of a house in Stoneham, Mass alongside Rt 93 North. The owner painted it orange, burgundy and purple.
Ann, when you're in Cincinnati again, go see the Painted Ladies.
Gay men did those.
This house could easily be gay...instead of, or in addition to, art studenty.
Does a house like this drive down property values of surrounding houses?
I love it!
I lived in Madison twice, once during my undergraduate years, when I enjoyed the houses, but was mostly too busy to appreciate them. I did always enjoy walking from my near East Side apartment to work at the the Memorial Union.
The second time I lived there, my husband was doing some graduate work and I had five kids in tow. We lived in a lower income neighborhood of the East Side, just off East Wash. but within walking distance of the Atwood neighborhood and its surrounds. dI loved to sneak out with as many kids as I could wedge into my double stroller and hit the sidewalks and just look at all the cool houses and yards and colors and shapes.
Now I live in a very, very flat area of NW Minnesota, 13 miles from the nearest very small town. When spring comes, one of my great pleasures is to find an excuse to go to one of the bigger small towns near by and just walk. I really miss all the texture of a walk through a older neighborhood. And I still wedge whichever latest child I have with me into a stroller. But at 40-something, I've given up on the double stroller loaded up with multiple little ones.
Makes me miss the Swampies' house and the "Church of Anarchy." They always had something creative.
That house is amazing! Love those wacky gazing balls in the front yard. I've seen gazing balls used as a centerpiece for garden spinner. I think they're positively dazzling!
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