Yesterday a friend posted a funny Horror movie plot line in which your top 8 friends fill in for the characters and key plot points. The story begins: "You are in a Horror Movie..." The first person you have to identify is the person who "decided the creepy house was safe." And that was really all the inspiration that I needed for this. But golly! It took a lot of drafts and a little more research on Victorian houses with Mansard roofs than I am happy with. But then I set that bar for myself higher than it needs to be set.
I don't know what the fascination is with the Mansard roof. Maybe the Addams family house. Maybe one of a few Italianate homes in Traverse City. Or maybe it was the gorgeous example of an Italianate home on the Bluffs overlooking Lower Harbor in Marquette. Something about them has captured my imagination. And so, sporting 4 mansards and a flat roofed conservatory this home has a lot going on.
The front door features a webbed stained glass window while the first floor sid porch sports lots of curly wrought iron. The shadowy figure in the front parlor window is the same shadowy figure that appeared on my bedroom wall when I was a child. Trust me... he belongs here instead of in my room.
The sea monster on the roof is similar to one that graces a home on 6th street. The house once belonged to a former editor of our daily paper. And it was one of my favorite to gaze at on my route precisely because of the serpent on the ridge line. And yes, that is an eyeball in the window under him.
I have always enjoyed the eyebrow window set into the slope of a roof. They let in light without screwing up the design of a room forcing you to deal with awkward dormer areas that are never small enough to ignore or big enough to enjoy.
Most likely I will attempt a couple more designs because this was so much fun.
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